News

With the Obama Admin studying and restudying and restudying whether a plain and simple pipeline to bring the world’s most important substance…oil….to the U.S., the Chinese are circling, circling, circling Anchorage Daily News (6/27/11) reports: In the northern reaches of Alberta lies a vast reserve of oil that the U.S. views as a pillar of its future energy needs.. China, with a growing appetite for oil that may one day surpass that of the U.S., is ready to spend the money for a big piece of it…The oil sands of this Canadian province are so big that they will be able to serve both of the world’s largest economies as production expands in the coming years. But that will mean building at least two pipelines, one south to the Texas Gulf Coast and another west toward the Pacific, and that in turn means fresh environmental battles on top of those already raging over the costly and energy-intensive method of extracting oil from sand…Most believe that both pipelines will eventually be built. But if the U.S. doesn’t approve its pipeline promptly, Canada might increasingly look to China, thinking America doesn’t want a big-stake share in what environmentalists call “dirty oil,” which they say increases greenhouse gas emissions.

I can’t tell if this article is satire or blind love. The Chevy Volt only gets 30 MPG and takes 10 hours to charge, which is apparently just fine if you only need to run to the Hamptons from Manhattan. Also, the car runs on electricity from coal or natural gas and gasoline New York Times (6/25/11) reports: The moment I realized that driving the new Chevrolet Volt was fundamentally a new experience was not when I first turned it on and went around the block. Yes, it was whisper-quiet, powered by its 16 kilowatt-hour, 400-pound battery, but it still felt like a “normal” automobile. And it wasn’t when I drove the 100 or so miles from Manhattan to Southampton, N.Y., either. Although the battery’s range is only about 40 miles, the car kept going even after the battery was drained; it just switched to its gasoline engine, in a transition so seamless I barely noticed it. It wasn’t even when I arrived in Southampton that evening and plugged a special cord into an electrical outlet in the garage, to recharge the battery overnight…No, what made the experience truly different — and what got me thinking about the Volt’s potential to change the way we think about gas consumption — was what happened after that…You know the story of the Volt, don’t you? As the General Motors entry in the race to build a viable electric car — a race that includes the all-electric Nissan Leaf, a raft of Fords in various stages of development and an electric sedan that Tesla will soon begin selling — it may well be the most hyped American automobile since Lee Iacocca rolled out the Chrysler minivan. Begun four years ago, and championed by the legendary auto executive Bob Lutz, the Volt project managed to survive G.M.’s descent into bankruptcy, and emerge as the company’s great, shining hope, a symbol of what American car manufacturers could accomplish. Or so it’s been claimed.

If you want to see Obama’s transportation policy in action, look to Europe New York Times (6/27/11) reports: While American cities are synchronizing green lights to improve traffic flow and offering apps to help drivers find parking, many European cities are doing the opposite: creating environments openly hostile to cars. The methods vary, but the mission is clear — to make car use expensive and just plain miserable enough to tilt drivers toward more environmentally friendly modes of transportation…Cities including Vienna to Munich and Copenhagen have closed vast swaths of streets to car traffic. Barcelona and Paris have had car lanes eroded by popular bike-sharing programs. Drivers in London and Stockholm pay hefty congestion charges just for entering the heart of the city. And over the past two years, dozens of German cities have joined a national network of “environmental zones” where only cars with low carbon dioxide emissions may enter.

Crony Capitalism: you make a donation to a politician and then the politician gives you taxpayer money Washington Post (6/26/11) reports: A few months later, Celgard won more praise. In July, Obama lauded its technology in a Kansas City speech, and days later, Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis showed up at Celgard to signal more good news: Since Obama’s visit, the company had added 40 workers…Amid this flurry of White House interest, some competitors questioned why Celgard warranted so much attention…During the official visits, federal regulators were pursuing a case against Celgard’s parent company, Polypore. The Federal Trade Commission had charged the company with trying to monopolize several battery markets and control prices by buying one of its few U.S. competitors. Obama’s visit came a month after an administrative judge agreed that Polypore’s purchase created an illegal monopoly and that it must sell the competitor. The case is under appeal…“Generally, we’re concerned with what kind of due diligence the administration did before throwing out that kind of money and attention,” said Bryan Godber, vice president of Trojan Battery, which faced the prospect of higher prices for Polypore products. “They are giving some companies massive advantages over others.”

In case you needed more reasons to dislike the Obama Administration’s energy policy Human Events (6/26/11) reports: You may have noticed that gas prices are sky-high as Recovery Summer II begins, and wondered why the cost for a fill-up has more than doubled since President Obama took office, even as the economy remains in the tank.  It shouldn’t be a surprise, as Obama has made it clear all along that higher gas prices can help usher in his green utopia of windmills, solar panels and unicorns—all for the sake of his environmental backers.  Here are the Top 10 Examples Proving Obama Wants High Energy Prices: 1.  Energy dollars wasted on pricey green jobs:  During his acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama promised that if elected President, he would “invest $150 billion over the next decade in renewable energy—an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs.”  Nearly a quarter of the way into that dream, Obama’s own Council of Economic Advisers says that only 225,000 green energy jobs were created or “saved” after an $80 billion down payment from the stimulus package—an astounding $335,000 per job.  The President has consistently called for funding his green job plans with measures that would increase the cost of using fossil-fuel energy for everyone.

Definition of insanity: doing the same thing again and again, but expecting different results. The Obama Administration doubles down on planning the economy from the White House with the release of oil from SPR National Journal (6/27/11) reports: Market manipulation for political purposes is never a good thing and in this case is likely to have unintended consequences greater than the intended ones. If this sounds cynical, the Obama Administration has provided reasons for cynicism…So, let’s get this straight. The conflict in Libya has been underway since February and the Obama Administration is just deciding that the loss of 1.5 million barrels a day is a problem. Why wasn’t it a problem sooner. The Secretary of Energy claims that the release is to “relieve pressure on oil markets”. Since prices were declining before the announcement, you have to ask, what pressure? And, to make matters worse, this decision came shortly after the Saudi’s pledged to increase their production. Strained relations won’t get any better from this decision…Libyan oil is sweet–low sulfur– crude that is used primarily by european refineries. Nigeria is also a source of sweet crude and the problems there could exacerbate the loss of Libyan crude but all of that is primarily a european problem; not a US or global one. Is the oil being dumped on the market low sulfur sweet crude? If it isn’t, how does it compensate for the loss of Libyan crude?

After working for two years to drive up the price oil, the administration tries to temporarily lower the price in an effort to drive up the President’s approval numbers. Also, the editorial notes the fun fact that we can get ONE MILLION barrels a day if we are allowed to drill more in Alaska WSJ (6/24/11) reports: It wasn’t long ago that the Obama Administration was trying to drive up the price of fossil fuels to reduce carbon emissions, promote “green jobs” and save the planet from global warming. Gasoline at $3.50 or $4 a gallon has ended that. And yesterday the White House went so far as to join a global effort to release 60 million barrels from oil stockpiles to further reduce prices…The U.S. will release one million barrels a day for 30 days from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve—the nation’s 727 million barrel oil stockpile located in salt domes in Texas and Louisiana. The spot price of oil dropped about $5 a barrel on the news, and if that decrease holds it could be the equivalent of a 10 cent a gallon reduction in gas prices. One irony is that a million barrels a day is about how much oil experts believe we could be producing from the vast oil fields in Alaska’s wildlife reserve. President Obama has said that tapping Alaska wouldn’t affect oil prices but now says a temporary spurt will do so. How about opening up Alaska, and dropping the de facto Gulf moratorium too?

We have a theme: President Obama is using his executive powers to increase his poll numbers — this time to waive the Jones Act Washington Examiner (6/24/11) reports: Soon after the Deepwater Horizon disaster began, with raw crude pumping out of the seabed into the Gulf of Mexico in the worst oil spill in American history, foreign nations began offering help with the clean up…Especially notable was the Belgian firm DEME, which specializes in ocean-going clean-up work and which offered to bring the best equipment in the world for the operation to the Gulf. But it didn’t happen because President Obama refused to waive the Jones Act, a protectionist law sought by the maritime unions to keep foreign-crewed vessels out of U.S. waters…The Jones Act has a national emergency provision that allows the president to waive its requirement of American crews, as President George W. Bush did during the Hurricane Katrina disaster that nearly destroyed New Orleans. But Obama resolutely refused last year to waive the Jones Act in order to allow the DEME and other equipment to be employed in the Deepwater Horizon cleanup. An operation that could have been completed in four months instead stretched into nearly a year…But this week we have learned that under certain well-defined conditions Obama is more than willing to set aside his reservations about waiving the Jones Act. And those conditions have mainly to do with the fact Obama wants to be re-elected in 2012…Among the biggest obstacles to Obama’s re-election effort is the prospect that gas will still be around $4 a gallon next year. So what does Obama do? Not only does he authorize using 60 million gallons of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, he waives the Jones Act to allow foreign crewed ships to deliver the SPR oil to U.S. ports.

The NYT might not realize it, but they just got a lesson in economics: when you increase supply to meet growing demand, the price drops New York Times (6/24/11) reports: The United States and its allies will release 60 million barrels of emergency oil reserves to replace lost Libyan oil production and assure adequate supplies for the summer, officials announced on Thursday… The action accelerated the drop in oil prices that began in late April, taking them to levels not seen since Libyan oil exports were virtually halted by political turmoil four months ago…Italy in particular was dependent on Libyan crude, taking nearly a third of the 1.3 million barrels a day that Libya was exporting before hostilities began. Other European nations like France, Germany and Spain were also large buyers of oil from Libya…Of the total amount of oil to be released, about half would come from reserves in the United States, with the rest to be provided by the other 27 industrialized nations who belong to the International Energy Agency. Negotiations for the coordinated response have been going on in secret for weeks, American officials said. Similar unified action was taken in 1991 at the outbreak of the first Persian Gulf War.

What’s going to happen after 60 days of tapping the SPR? Something tells me speculators think long term… WSJ (6/24/11) reports: Just as the Federal Reserve prepares to turn off one spigot, members of the International Energy Agency turned on another, catching investors off guard and upending financial markets…The decision on Thursday to release more oil into the market drove crude prices to their lowest settle in four months, sent stocks down sharply, and gave the dollar a lift…While the move was intended to ease pressure on the global economy, many investors saw it as yet another sign that policy makers are particularly worried about recent signs of a slowdown…But late-day headlines indicating that Greece had reached a breakthrough on a five-year austerity plan with the European Union and International Monetary Fund pushed stocks, the euro and oil back off their lows…The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 59.67 points, or 0.49%, to 12050.00, with energy stocks among the biggest losers.

This isn’t news, but it’s worth mentioning that Google and Soros are still up to no good Bloomberg (6/24/11) reports: Transphorm Inc. closed a $25 million round of financing from an investment fund managed by Soros Fund Management LLC and existing investors such as Google Inc. (GOOG) to fund its power waste reduction technology…Quantum Strategic Partners Ltd. joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Google Ventures, Foundation Capital and Lux Capital in the Series D round of financing to bring the total raised by the Goleta, California-based company to $63 million since its founding in 2007, Transphorm said in a statement..The company will use the funding announced today to speed development of its technology to reduce electricity waste on industrial equipment, Primit Parikh, president of Transphorm, said in the statement…Transphorm says its products reduce power waste by 90 percent and simplify the design and manufacturing of electrical devices such as motor drives, power supplies and inverters for solar panels and electric vehicles.

Employment Prevention Agency gets spanked by House Members for 6 year delay in issuing permit to allow drilling in Rich Alaskan Waters. Senators, rumored to never buy their own gas, now on the Hot Seat, as Americans ask, “Hey Senate….are YOU the holdup on getting more jobs and cheaper gas?” Fuel Fix (6/22/11) reports: The House today passed legislation that would accelerate offshore drilling in the Arctic by curtailing environmental reviews of coastal oil exploration projects…The measure, sponsored by Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, aims to remove legal and regulatory barriers that have stalled Shell Oil Co.’s bid to drill in Arctic waters near Alaska. But the bill’s reach extends beyond the Arctic, and Democrats said the legislation could chip away at the power of California and other states to regulate air pollution…Bill backers said the legislation would fix  “a broken bureaucracy” that has mired critical Clean Air Act permits in tussles between the Environmental Protection Agency and its administrative review panel, the Environmental Appeals Board…“The EPA needs to have a permit approval system in place that is predictable (and) workable,” Green said. Instead, “we continue to see air permits for offshore exploration wells go back between the EPA, the producer and the Environmental Appeals Board with no movement to a solution.”…Although Shell hoped to launch work on its first exploratory well in the Beaufort Sea near Alaska after ice cleared this summer, the company scrapped those plans in February, after the appeals board revoked two EPA-issued air quality permits. The panel faulted the EPA for not fully reviewing potential emissions from a drill ship and support vessels.

Give ‘em hell Senator Murkowski! New bill echoes the House call for more drilling in Alaska E&E News (6/18/11) reports: Following the lead of House Republicans, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is pushing to tweak the Clean Air Act and clear permitting hurdles blocking Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s plan to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean…Murkowski introduced a bill (S. 1226) yesterday as a companion to a measure that easily cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this month…House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has said the bill from Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) will head to the House floor before the July 4th recess. It is one of a series of bills aimed at a “tangle of red tape” that is stopping the United States from developing its own energy supplies, he wrote in a letter to the Republican conference last week (E&ENews PM, May 10)…Murkowski said it is unreasonable that Shell and its partners have “spent more than five years and billions of dollars attempting to conduct offshore exploration and production in Alaska, but have been unable to secure the necessary permits from EPA.”…”It’s clear that this process is not just overly costly and time-consuming, but simply does not work,” she said in a statement today…Her bill, like its House equivalent, would spare offshore drilling permits from being challenged to the Environmental Appeals Board, an administrative law panel that EPA created to review its own decisions. The bills would also answer some of the questions raised by the EAB in December when it told EPA to do a better job of showing that Shell’s drilling rig would comply with federal air pollution rules…Shell responded by pushing back its plan to start drilling exploratory wells in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas until next summer. It was a blow for the company, which has pumped more than $3 billion into a region of the Arctic Ocean that may hold the nation’s second-largest oil and gas reserves after the Gulf of Mexico.

Do you Bing? Google has ‘invested’ almost $1 billion in renewable energy and most of it has been guaranteed by taxpayers Reuters (6/22/11) reports: Google has already put $55 million into that 1.5 GW wind farm, dubbed the Alta Wind Energy Center, which is being built by Terra-Gen Power. Google is structuring the deal in the same way as its previous investment in Alta Wind, and is again working with Citibank to create a leveraged lease, where Google and Citibank purchase part of the project, then lease it back to Terra-Gen, who will manage and operate it. Google now has invested $157 million into 270 MW of wind generation at Alta Wind…Google says it’s not buying the electricity directly from the project, and says the returns are reason enough for the investment. The wind power will be sold to utility Southern California Edison under a power purchase agreement that was signed in 2006. But as I’ve written before (GigaOM Pro subscription required), giving Google more control over the energy it needs for its data centers could be a smart investment in the long run…However, the amount of money that Google is investing in clean power is truly awe-inspiring (or maybe terribly shocking if you are a Google shareholder). Just earlier this month Google created a $280 million fund for solar installer SolarCity, its largest clean power investment to date, and its first in residential solar rooftops. Here’s a run down of what Google has backed in the clean power space.

This is going to be a fun election cycle: Huntsman (and T-paw and Gingrich) have a lot of explaining to do for their support of cap-and-trade The Hill (6/22/11) reports: Republican White House hopeful Jon Huntsman has found a way to explain his embrace of cap-and-trade when he was governor of Utah: Everyone was doing it…Huntsman backed cap-and-trade last decade as a way to curb greenhouse gas emissions, but distanced himself from it in an interview Wednesday, casting it as a policy solution from another era…“Every governor was talking about dealing with emissions back many, many years ago only to find that with the economic implosion, we can’t afford anything that is going to put any kind of hamper on economic growth. So cap-and-trade is not something that is viable today,” Huntsman told Fox News…“Everybody talked about it. At least a lot of people did, consulting with CEOs, consulting with all the experts. Everyone took it seriously,” he said…As governor, Huntsman signed on in 2007 to a program among Western states and Canadian provinces called the Western Climate Initiative aimed at cutting regional greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent by 2020.

This green project was a fluke, but it will work out next time — green technology company is now defunct, leaving taxpayers on the hook for over a million dollars Michigan Capital (6/22/11) reports: In September of 2009, Fisher Coachworks was mentioned in a press release from Gov. Jennifer Granholm as a “green technology” company that was part of the “new energy economy for Michigan.” Two years later, the state says Fisher Coachworks is out of business and the state has to write off $1.6 million it loaned the electric bus manufacturing company…Edgar Benning, general manager of Flint’s Mass Transportation Authority, said in an email that Fisher Coachworks went out of business in the development phase of making two $1.1 million electric buses that Flint was going to purchase with grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly referred to as the “stimulus plan.”…Fischer Coachworks officials could not be reached for comment…Michael Psarouthakis, vice president of business acceleration for the Michigan Economic Development Corp., said Fisher Coachworks would not repay $1.6 million in loans it had received from the state. The MEDC had approved Fisher Coachworks for a $2.6 million loan, but never gave out the final $1 million because the company was struggling, Psarouthakis said…“It was clear that they were going to have some serious financial difficulties even with our funding,” Psarouthakis said. “They needed significant funding above and beyond that.

When Congress’s Two Top Chemists – posing as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid — mandated 500 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol be created out of thin gruel to power our 250 million vehicles by next year, they figured willing it was enough E&E News (6/21/11) reports: U.S. EPA today released proposed requirements for 2012 biofuels use under the federal renewable fuel standard (RFS), keeping levels for conventional ethanol and advanced biodiesel in line with the gradually increasing utilization called for by law while acknowledging the failure of cellulosic ethanol to appear in the marketplace….EPA expects to require that between 3.45 million and 12.9 million gallons of cellulosic biofuels be blended into the domestic fuel supply in 2012, representing between 0.002 and 0.010 percent of total fuel usage…That range falls far short of the 500 million gallons called for under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act and takes advantage of flexibility in that law for EPA to adjust the required volumes based on market availability of the advanced fuels…”EPA will continue to evaluate the market as it works to finalize the cellulosic standard in the coming months,” officials said. “The agency remains optimistic that the commercial availability of cellulosic biofuel will continue to grow in the years ahead.”

It’s not about Energy or the Environment — It’s about Power. The EPA finally admits what is behind its quest for regulation E&E News (6/21/11) reports: U.S. EPA stepped closer yesterday to updating air pollution rules for the oil and gas industry, sending draft rules to the White House Office of Management and Budget as it prepares to come out with a proposal later this summer…The agency is reviewing the New Source Performance Standards for oil and gas producers, which set limits on emissions that lead to soot and smog, as well as the rules for toxic emissions such as benzene. Both sets of rules cover facilities, such as storage tanks, processing plants and compressor stations — but not refineries — that handle the oil and gas between the wellhead and the pump…Under existing EPA rules that date back to 1985, gas processors must fix leaks that allow volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to escape and prevent the sulfur in their gas from being released into the air. Some facilities and pieces of equipment have no federal standards, though they can also be regulated at the state level…In reviewing the rules, which were last updated in 1999, EPA is looking broadly across the industry to find air pollution sources and ways to address them, top officials said last year when they held public meetings in Dallas and Denver.

Denise Bode, eat your heart out. Oklahoma tribe says no to wind, yes to oil and gas Newsok (6/21/11) reports: It comes in the form of a challenge this week by the Osage Nation, which says the proposed farms could interfere with the extraction of oil and gas in the county. The tribe owns all mineral rights in the county, with royalties from oil and gas drilling disbursed to tribal members.
Principal Chief John D. Red Eagle also cited ecological and cultural concerns, although he said the tribe isn’t opposed to alternative energy development in general…This is common refrain where alternative energy is concerned. Going green is a big deal for many, but when doing so affects people individually — by altering the scenic view, or by running transmission lines across their property — it doesn’t seem like such a good idea…The Osage complaint isn’t the first about this particular plan. Environmentalists previously said the huge windmills could damage the habitat of the greater prairie chicken. But the tribe’s involvement, and its ability to spend large sums to fight the plan, is sure to give the two companies second thoughts.

I love when Obama is between a rock and a legislative hard place – White House comes out against House plan that would make energy cheaper for Americans The Hill (6/21/11) reports: The White House on Tuesday attacked a GOP-led bill to speed up oil drilling off Alaska’s coast, but continued a recent trend by declining to threaten a veto…The House is slated to debate a bill Wednesday aimed at speeding up EPA air pollution permits for Royal Dutch Shell and other companies that want to drill in Arctic waters off Alaska’s coast…The formal “statement of administration policy” issued Tuesday touts the White House commitment boosting oil production, but cautions that the bill would “curtail” EPA’s power to ensure it “proceeds safely, responsibly, and with opportunities for efficient stakeholder input.”…The GOP-led bill, which won five Democratic votes in the Energy and Commerce Committee, would set new deadlines for EPA action on offshore air permit applications, limit challenges and ease air pollution standards for offshore projects. (We’ve got more on the legislation here.)

We can file this story under the “stating the obvious” category Politico (6/22/11) reports: A few months back, the specter of $5-per-gallon gasoline this summer spread panic through the country…Record prices at the pump would rip into already tight household budgets. A fragile economy appeared teetering as hiring slowed in May. Approval ratings tumbled for President Barack Obama, who pledged to investigate price manipulation…Well, the country can relax a bit. Summer arrived Tuesday with gas averaging $3.64 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association…And fuel prices are now expected to drop further, with several analysts predicting crude oil will fall to $85 per barrel. Based on recent history, that might cut another 50 cents off a gallon of gas…It’s essentially a stimulus package at the height of vacation season, when families are more likely to splurge…How did we avert the nightmare scenario? Certainly, there’s lower demand coupled with higher supplies. But Phil Flynn, an analyst for the Chicago brokerage PFGBEST, said it’s also because a Federal Reserve program to buy $600 billion of U.S. Treasury bonds is about to end.

When in doubt, go with what works. House Republicans are cutting renewable funding and greenies are crying foul Reuters (6/21/11) reports: Even though Republicans have vowed an “all-of-the-above” approach to America’s energy future, Democrats are accusing them of clinging to a narrow, antiquated, hydrocarbon-heavy past…Members of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition are furious about a 2012 energy and water appropriations bill that they claim shortchanges President Obama’s efforts at innovation and competition in favor of an addiction to oil, coal and natural gas…”Now is the worst possible moment to slash funding for the research and development of sustainable energy technologies,” coalition member Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) said about the $30.6 billion bill that advanced out of the House Appropriations Committee last Wednesday…”At a time when our economy is already fragile, abandoning scientific research would cause the United States to lose even more high-tech jobs to our foreign competitors.”

America’s business is business and we need affordable energy CNN Money (6/21/11) reports: Jack Gerard has pretty much been in crisis mode since taking over as president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute in November 2008. Shortly after he arrived at the powerful oil-industry lobbying group, President Obama and a wave of Democrats swept into office, promising to fund alternative energy sources and take action on climate change. Last year the BP disaster poured more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and Gerard spent the summer prepping his members for more than 50 congressional hearings and eight separate investigations related to the spill and its aftermath. Then, in mid-May, executives from five oil companies appeared before a committee of the U.S. Senate and defended their earnings, which could hit record highs in 2011. “Don’t punish our industry for doing its job well,” Chevron CEO John Watson said. The performance was, by all accounts, a public relations disaster…Indeed, Big Oil could scarcely be less popular than it is now: Gasoline prices on average are hovering around $4 a gallon, up more than a dollar from a year ago; turmoil in the Middle East and strong global demand contribute to high prices, but try telling that to the guy spending $75 to fill his tank at an Exxon station. President Obama, on the hunt for ways to cut debt, has targeted oil companies’ tax breaks, and an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll in February found 74% of all respondents favor such a move. “Emotionally, no one is on their side,” Robert Passikoff, president of the brand-loyalty consultancy Brand Keys, says of the industry. “No one feels bad for the oil companies.”

Vrmmm, Vrmmm….Chevy sold 481 Volts last month Green Auto Blog (6/21/11) reports: Once again, General Motors is burying the monthly sales totals for the Chevy Volt. In a press release headlined “May U.S. Retail Sales Rise 9 Percent on Demand for Fuel-Efficient Vehicles,” the Volt’s sales numbers are not disclosed. Instead, the total – 481 – is in the detailed PDF of the Chevrolet brand sales totals and shows the car is suffering from another month-to-month drop; GM sold 493 in April. Last month, GM told us that drop in Volt sales compared to March’s 608 units was due, in part, to the company sending 300 Volts to dealers to use as demo vehicles. We await word on what the reason for the drop is this time…On the other hand, Nissan is proudly proclaiming that it sold 1,142 units of the Nissan Leaf in May, a huge increase over the 573 sold in April. Overall, Leaf sales have now totaled 2,167 deliveries this year. For comparison, GM has sold 2,184 Volts in 2011. If this trend continues, it won’t be long before we hear Nissan touting a new tagline for the Leaf: the best-selling plug-in car in America. You can see the press releases from both companies after the jump.

How do you like your Bryson? Well done or medium rare? Either way, the Senate will be turning up the heat today…we hope Los Angeles Times (6/20/11) reports: Tapping a respected Southern California businessman as the next Commerce secretary seemed an astute move by President Obama to mend fences with corporate America, but former Edison International Chief Executive John Bryson still faces a rocky road for confirmation. Heading into a Senate hearing Tuesday, Bryson, 67, has become a pawn in a hyper-partisan Washington political chess match that has left dozens of nominees on hold…Nearly all Senate Republicans have vowed to block his confirmation unless the White House advances three pending free trade deals…Another Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, has promised to hold up the nomination until Obama speaks out against a National Labor Relations Board complaint that accuses Boeing Co. of building a non-union assembly plant in his state in retaliation for union strikes. Bryson had served on Boeing’s board before recently stepping down because of his nomination.

A man can dream of a future of solar energy, but just don’t tax me for it Huffington Post (6/20/11) reports: If we think about the energy future and imagine the energy that will someday power the homes of our children and of their children, we know it will not be fossil fuels. Maybe it will be some high tech variant of nuclear power, but my view is that it will be some form of solar power. Here in New York, our city government is considering placing solar cells over our now closed garbage dumps. Last week, Mireya Navarro reported in the New York Times on a new City University of New York study of the potential for using New York’s rooftops for solar collectors. According to that report.

We are looking forward to the results from the FTC probe into the price of crude oil because I have a hunch they are going to name Bromwich and Salazar Wall Street Journal (6/20/11) reports: Regulators are examining whether oil companies, refiners or traders have manipulated crude-oil markets, the latest government action spurred by the rise in fuel prices this year. The Federal Trade Commission on Monday said in a letter to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) that it has launched an investigation to determine whether oil-market participants engaged in anticompetitive practices or manipulation, or provided false information to federal agencies about the price of crude oil. Sen. Cantwell has been a proponent of further regulatory scrutiny of the energy markets…The agency plans to review how refinery operators decided to shut some equipment for maintenance, which sometimes leads to higher gasoline and diesel prices, among other matters. The FTC also is looking at the practices of firms owning pipelines and other transportation and storage infrastructure. The FTC declined to comment…The investigation by the FTC underscores the renewed drive by regulators to demonstrate they are serving as watchdogs in the crude-oil market…In April, the Obama administration launched a joint task force, which includes the FTC and is led by the Justice Department, to investigate the oil and gas markets. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission last month brought charges against two oil traders at Arcadia Petroleum Ltd., alleging they manipulated the physical and financial oil markets in 2008. Arcadia said it plans to fight the charges.

Green power companies and trade groups are uniting against poor people to increase the cost of electricity The Hill (6/21/11) reports: Green power companies and trade groups are uniting in an effort to shape and advance legislation that would require a steep increase in generation of U.S. electricity from low-carbon sources…Last month they formed the Coalition for Clean and Renewable Energy to advocate for a “clean energy standard,” an idea President Obama pushed in his State of the Union address that faces considerable resistance on Capitol Hill…Members of the new coalition include the American Wind Energy Association, the Biomass Power Association, the Energy Recovery Council (which represents waste-to-energy companies), and several individual companies such as Iberdrola Renewables, enXco, and Covanta Energy…Two well-connected Beltway firms are representing the new coalition: ML Strategies is taking the lead on lobbying while the Glover Park Group is handling communications…“We applaud the efforts that have been made to advance a Clean Energy Standard and urge that any final policy establish both a strong, long-term goal and aggressive near-term targets to accelerate deployment of clean, renewable energy beyond business as usual, while recognizing the role of existing clean and renewable energy technologies,” the group’s principles state.

So it’s going to be that kind of fight? Greenies in New Jersey are huffing and puffing to keep the windmills going E&E News (6/21/11) reports: Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey moved legislation yesterday that would block Gov. Chris Christie (R) from pulling the Garden State out of the nation’s only operating cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases…The state Senate Environment and Energy Committee approved a bill that would prohibit Christie directly from exiting the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, which caps carbon dioxide emissions in 10 states in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. The committee also backed a resolution that declares that the governor’s decision was inconsistent with the original “legislative intent” of an old state law governing state participation in the regional carbon trading plan…Last month, Christie announced plans to depart the initiative by the end of the year (ClimateWire, May 27). At the time, Christie said that the program was doing little on its own to curb emissions and that other state policies would go a longer way in preventing climate change.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while – LA Times Editorial Board comes out hard against ethanol Los Angeles Times (6/15/11) reports: It isn’t too often that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a pro-environment Democrat from California, and Sen. Tom Coburn, a “drill, baby, drill” Republican from Oklahoma, agree on energy issues. Yet when it comes to the ethanol tax credit, an egregious form of corporate welfare that unites liberals and conservatives in opposition nationwide, they are of one mind. That’s why it was disheartening Tuesday when an attempt to end the subsidy and save taxpayers nearly $6 billion a year went down in flames in the Senate…Opinions vary about whether corn-based ethanol is a worthwhile alternative fuel. Backers, including President Obama, say it reduces reliance on foreign oil and cuts greenhouse gas emissions. Yet it has a host of negative consequences. The U.S. diverts about 38% of its corn crop to make biofuels, raising food prices around the world and encouraging overuse of environmentally destructive fertilizers. Cellulosic ethanol, made from plant waste or non-food plants such as switchgrass, is a far better alternative, but the technology to produce it inexpensively isn’t ready.

Greenies want to switch out OPEC for Red China — Mr. President, those shovel-ready green jobs will have to wait…your green friends won’t let us mine in the U.S. Recharge News (6/15/11) reports: Ming Yang says the agreement with Ganzhou, the second-largest city in China’s Jiangxi province, makes it the first Chinese wind group to gain such access to the key raw materials used in permanent-magnet generators (PMGs) for turbines…Ganzhou has granted Ming Yang the right to be its leading partner in Ganzhou Rare Earth Mineral Industry Group, a state-owned company formed by the municipal government that enjoys rare-earth resources development rights in eight counties…Ming Yang says it will invest in rare-earth research and development projects, and the production of core components such as PMGs…The framework agreement also gives Ming Yang exclusive rights to operate wind farms in the area and grants priority status to the manufacturer’s turbines in Jiangxi province, according to the company… “Building a wind-power upstream supply chain is a core part of Ming Yang’s strategic development,” says chairman and chief executive Zhang Chuanwei.

Washington Times calls out T. Boondoggle Pickens for wanting to pass gas in public with no shame Washington Times (6/15/11) reports: Congress is considering the NAT GAS Act (H.R. 1380), which would provide very generous tax credits – as much as $64,000 per vehicle – to those who retrofit trucks to run on natural gas. This legislation, the brainchild of hedge fund-operator and sometimes oil- and gasman T. Boone Pickens, is deeply flawed and would damage consumers, farmers and manufacturers…How would it do this damage? The legislation is specifically designed to increase demand for natural gas in the transportation sector. This artificially enhanced and government-driven demand will, in turn, increase the cost of natural gas for those who use it to heat their homes, use electricity generated from natural gas or use natural gas for chemicals and fertilizers…Worse, the effects of H.R. 1380 will be magnified because they will appear at the same time as the unprecedented, cumulative effect of the ongoing coal-to-natural-gas fuel switch in the power-generation sector, driven mostly by environmental regulations. They also will coincide with similar fuel-switching by the industrial sector, driven primarily by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently issued regulations on maximum achievable control technology for industrial boilers. The cost effects will even be magnified by Department of Energy-approved exports of liquefied natural gas from Louisiana and Texas to China and the European Union…Taken together, these policy actions will significantly drive up demand and price for both natural gas and electricity for the entire country – hardly a prescription our ailing economy needs.

With friends like these… Obama praises Romney on health care. Al Gore praises him on his global warming stance. What’s next, an endorsement from Bill Clinton for his family values?National Journal (6/16/11) reports: Gore praises Romney on Climate. First Obama praised Mitt Romney on health care. Now, in another turn that’s sure to chagrin the Republican front-runner, the Goracle is praising him for sticking to his principles (aka, science) on climate change. On his blog, the former vice president and Nobel Peace Prize winner writes, “Good for Mitt Romney — though we’ve long passed the point where weak lip-service is enough on the Climate Crisis. While other Republicans are running from the truth, he is sticking to his guns in the face of the anti-science wing of the Republican Party.”

From time to time, the obvious needs to be said — IEA says high energy costs will lead to economic hardship Wall Street Journal (6/16/11) reports: The continuing high price of crude oil risks creating a hard landing for the world economy, the International Energy Agency’s Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said Thursday…Addressing a briefing at the start of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Mr. Tanaka said: “If the current oil price continues it will be to the detriment of the global economic recovery.” The current situation “is starting to resemble 2008, and we know that 2008 was a very hard landing for the world economy. We’d prefer a soft landing,” he said…The IEA is still monitoring the global oil-supply situation in the wake of this month’s fractious meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Mr. Tanaka said, against a background of evidence showing that the world needs more oil from OPEC, which controls around a third of the globe’s production and is home to almost all of the world’s spare production capacity…OPEC’s ministers last week refused to endorse a group-wide increase in output to take the edge off crude prices, to the frustration of its largest producer, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia also has the bulk of OPEC’s spare capacity…Earlier in the briefing, David Fyfe, head of the IEA’s oil-markets division, said that current prices for crude oil don’t reflect any degree of “excessive speculation,” but rather reflected a genuine tightening in the world market.

The line in the sand has been drawn — 40 Senators took a stand against ethanol subsidiesThe Hill (6/14/11) reports: Thirty-four Senate Republicans voted Tuesday to advance a proposal eliminating a $6 billion ethanol tax break, which one GOP leader said struck a blow against the Taxpayer Protection Pledge…But the measure fell 20 votes short, 40-59, as most Democrats voted against proceeding… The vote came on an amendment sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to eliminate a 45-cent tax break given to refiners for every gallon of ethanol they blend with gasoline…The proposal did not offset the cost of the increase, an apparent violation of Americans for Tax Reform’s (ATR) tax pledge requiring signatories to oppose “any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.”… The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated Tuesday that Coburn’s amendment would raise $2.4 billion in tax revenue over the rest of this year.

Whoops! Turns out greenies haven’t done the math on electric cars and as it turns out, those battery powered vehicles are horrible for the environment The Australian (6/14/11) reports: An electric car owner would have to drive at least 129,000km before producing a net saving in CO2. Many electric cars will not travel that far in their lifetime because they typically have a range of less than 145km on a single charge and are unsuitable for long trips. Even those driven 160,000km would save only about a tonne of CO2 over their lifetimes…The British study, which is the first analysis of the full lifetime emissions of electric cars covering manufacturing, driving and disposal, undermines the case for tackling climate change by the rapid introduction of electric cars…The Committee on Climate Change, the UK government watchdog, has called for the number of electric cars on Britain’s roads to increase from a few hundred now to 1.7 million by 2020.

Oh yeah, and people don’t have the proper outlets at home to charge electric vehicles eitherCNBC (6/15/11) reports: Few U.S. homeowners who are interested in owning electrical vehicles live in houses equipped to charge them quickly, a survey found Tuesday… More than three-quarters, 78 percent, of potential buyers of electric cars like the Chevy Volt do not have the high-voltage electrical outlets in their garages that can quickly charge such vehicles, according to a survey by diversified U.S. manufacturer SPX Corp, which makes equipment to charge electric vehicles…However, 99 percent of respondents lived in homes that could have the necessary 240-volt outlets — also commonly used for heavy appliances like electric dryers — installed…The survey highlights an obstacle to wider adoption of electric cars, which are gaining in popularity but still account for a small portion of overall U.S. car sales.

Time to come clean you anti-coal folks and just admit you hate human progress and the poorNew York Times (6/14/11) reports: The six massive silos standing beside this industrial port in northeastern China hold seemingly contradictory promises: They could help improve the quality of China’s polluted air, but they might also contribute to faster global warming… The silos, which are scheduled to start operation in July, are designed to blend cleaner-burning imported coal with China’s own high-polluting domestic coal, which is contaminated with sulfur and dust…Coal blending will produce a mixture that will help electric utilities meet China’s steadily tightening environmental regulations. It will also increase the efficiency of coal-fired plants by slightly reducing the quantity of coal needed. Burning less coal means less greenhouse gases emitted…But critics argue there is a darker side to cleaner coal…“Anything that makes coal more cost effective, like blending, which is only enabling China to burn more coal, is bad news for the global struggle against carbon emissions,” said Orville Schell, the Arthur Ross director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York.

Hey greenies, stop recording Rachael Maddow every night — your DVR is destroying the world CNET News (6/15/11) reports: The Natural Resources Defense Council has ranked the biggest energy hogs in the home, and the thing that’s gobbling up the most is probably not what you think: the pairing of your digital video recorder and set-top box…The environmental monitoring group released a study today that says that a high-definition cable or satellite set-top box when combined with a high-definition DVR uses up 446 kilowatt hours per year. That’s more than a new Energy Star rated 21 cubic-foot refrigerator, which uses 415 kWh per year, according to the NRDC’s data…The combination of an HD DVR and an HD cable or satellite box in a house wastes many hours of energy even when not in use, the group found. The study reports that it costs American consumers more in electricity bills per year when they’re not using their DVR and set-top box than when they are: $2 billion a year versus $1 billion a year collectively…The group estimates that there are 160 million set top boxes currently installed in U.S. homes, and together they emit 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year…Among the different types of set-tops the NRDC tested, streaming only devices (Roku, Apple TV), and standard-definition receivers consumed much less power than HD receivers and HD DVRs.

New game we like to play, what will Mitt Romney say to get elected? Politico (6/3/11) reports: Despite the libertarian, small-government rhetoric from conservative candidates and voters, Republican presidential hopefuls aren’t ready to quit energy subsidies just yet…It sure sounds like GOP contenders are talking tough: Tim Pawlenty has turned on his old buddy, ethanol, and Sarah Palin called this week for cutting all energy subsidies, setting a tea-party-like marker that others may feel pressured to emulate…But in fact, the declared and potential presidential candidates are all over the map — and by no means fleeing en masse from their traditional support for subsidies…Mitt Romney still supports ethanol subsidies. So do Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, sort of. And the Republicans still oppose President Barack Obama’s idea of getting rid of subsidies for the oil industry…The focus on the campaign trail thus far has been on continued federal help for corn-based ethanol — understandable as it remains an important commodity in Iowa, home to the first caucus and official test at the ballot box in the Republican primary

Maybe Laura Bush doesn’t understand that her husband offered fewer lands onshore and offshore for lease during his 8 years than President Bill Clinton did, despite much higher prices.  And she probably doesn’t know that it wasn’t until prices reached $147 per barrel, with all the ensuing economic pain on Americans that contributed to the financial collapse, that Mr. Big Oil finally lifted the moratorium.  Or maybe she does Wall Street Journal (6/6/11) reports: Our first national park was named not after a mountain or forest but for a mighty river: Yellowstone. For centuries the world’s waters have connected us. Explorers, traders, scientists and fishermen have traveled our oceans and rivers in search of new resources and a greater understanding of the world. This Wednesday, as we mark World Oceans Day, we must intensify our efforts to better understand, manage and conserve our waters and marine habitats if they are to remain a vibrant source of life for future generations…Great progress has been made in protecting our environment over the past several decades, but too little of that progress addresses 70% of the world’s surface—our oceans. Less than one-half of 1% of the world’s oceans are protected in ways that will ensure they stay wild. Too often overharvesting depletes what should be a lasting bounty of fish. In some parts of the oceans today up to 90% of large fish are gone from natural ecosystems.

The Obama administration’s Navy claims that using liquid fuel from coal is too expensive while promoting using $65 per gallon biofuel E&E News (6/5/11) reports: Using “liquid coal” in U.S. military aircraft and vessels as an alternative to gasoline tied to world oil prices would come at an enormous cost and impact on carbon emissions, said a Navy official Friday…Tom Hicks, deputy assistant Navy secretary for energy, said in testimony to Congress that the rising price of oil “dramatically impacts the military.” For every $1 a barrel increase in oil, the Navy and Marine Corps pay more than $30 million. “We don’t have that money to spare.”…Yet investment in technology to convert coal into liquid transportation fuel isn’t a clear alternative. Huge amounts of water and new coal resources would be needed, Hicks said, and capital costs could reach $10 billion per plant. That would result in a coal-to-liquids product that has more than double the carbon emissions of conventional petroleum…The United States has the largest coal reserves in the world. Boosters of expanding coal’s role in meeting U.S. energy demand have long pushed the idea of converting coal to liquid fuels. As growth in domestic demand slows, coal-state members of Congress are considering policy options to bolster the domestic market.

You can’t always get what you want (cap and trade), but if you try sometimes, you might  find, you get what you need (high gas prices) Politico (6/6/11) reports: President Barack Obama is deliberately trying to raise gas prices to cut pollution and make clean energy alternatives more attractive, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour charged on Sunday…“This administration’s policy has clearly been to drive up the cost of energy so Americans will use less of it,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “That’s environmental policy, that’s not energy policy. But that’s their policy. They think it will give you less pollution, make alternative energy solutions more competitive.”…Barbour, a Republican who has just opted against a 2012 presidential run, said gas prices were about $1.80 per gallon when Obama took office in early 2009. Now, they’re about $4 a gallon…That’s not surprising, Barbour said, given remarks in 2008 by Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a former professor at the University of California-Berkeley, that the United States needs to boost its gas prices to levels in Europe to ween the country off of petroleum.

Go figure: as it turns out, figures 2 and 3 demonstrate the energy boondoggle our elected officials created by waging war on affordable energy and allying with renewable energy Congressional Research Service (6/6/11) reports:  Current U.S. energy tax policy appears to be aimed at stemming growth in U.S. dependence on imported oil, especially from volatile regions of the world. This reflects the belief that national security is linked to energy security…Recently, policies have been adopted that support the transportation sector, with tax incentives for hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles and alternative fuels. Table 1 contains a current list of energy related tax expenditures and other energy tax provisions – click above link tor here to see PDF.

You smell that?  Oil son, nothing else in the world smells like that.  The smell, you know that gasoline smell.  Smells like…victory.  Someday this war (on affordable energy) is gonna end Anchorage Daily News (5/29/11) reports: Robert Duvall won’t be on board the ship that offloads Escopeta Oil’s jack-up rig this week but he will be making a trip north once the company starts drilling for oil and natural gas in Alaska’s Cook Inlet… A long-time friend of Houston-based Escopeta President Danny Davis, the well-known actor and director is a staunch supporter of domestic oil and gas drilling…”Alaska’s got plenty of oil and gas that we need down here,” Duvall said in an interview Thursday with Petroleum News. “It’s preferable to importing energy from foreign sources, such as the Middle East.”…Duvall would have been on board the vessel that is bringing the Spartan 151 jack-up rig into Cook Inlet, but he’s about to start work on an independent film, “Jayne Mansfield’s Car,” directed by Billy Bob Thornton…However, Duvall plans to visit the offshore rig once it starts drilling.

Game changer: new oil shale deposit in Texas could be large enough to power Al Gore’s homes, jets, and the rest of America for over 100 years New York Times (5/27/11) reports: Until last year, the 17-mile stretch of road between this forsaken South Texas village and the county seat of Carrizo Springs was a patchwork of derelict gasoline stations and rusting warehouses… Now the region is in the hottest new oil play in the country, with giant oil terminals and sprawling RV parks replacing fields of mesquite. More than a dozen companies plan to drill up to 3,000 wells around here in the next 12 months…The Texas field, known as the Eagle Ford, is just one of about 20 new onshore oil fields that advocates say could collectively increase the nation’s oil output by 25 percent within a decade — without the dangers of drilling in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico or the delicate coastal areas off Alaska… There is only one catch: the oil from the Eagle Ford and similar fields of tightly packed rock can be extracted only by using hydraulic fracturing, a method that uses a high-pressure mix of water, sand and hazardous chemicals to blast through the rocks to release the oil inside.

Can’t stop, won’t stop — Gov. Chris Christie continues to save his state by removing taxpayer funded green energy rabbit holes New York Times (5/30/11) reports: Running for governor in 2009, Chris Christie vowed to become “New Jersey’s No. 1 clean-energy advocate.” That was a hollow promise. As governor, Mr. Christie proceeded to cut all the money for the Office of Climate and Energy. He raided $158 million from the clean energy fund, meant for alternative energy investments, and spent it on general programs. He withdrew the state from an important lawsuit against electric utilities to reduce emissions… On Thursday, he took the worst step of all: He abandoned the 10-state initiative in the Northeast that uses a cap-and-trade system to lower carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants. The program has been remarkably successful, a model of vision and fortitude. Lacking that, Mr. Christie has given in to the corporate and Tea Party interests that revile all forms of cap and trade, letting down the other nine states trying to fight climate change…The system works by requiring utilities to either lower their emissions or buy allowances to pollute. Money from the allowances goes to states for clean-energy programs. Since it began in 2008, the system has created more than $700 million for these programs; New Jersey has spent some of its share on helping cities become more energy-efficient. Greenhouse emissions from power plants in the region went down about 12 percent from 2008 to 2010 for many reasons, including lower natural gas prices. Programs like the regional initiative are estimated to have produced more than 10 percent of that decline.

Sooner or later these cities are going to run out of other peoples money for their green dreams Bloomberg (5/31/11) reports: Cities from Los Angeles to Johannesburg are changing street lights, insulating buildings and promoting cycling to slash carbon emissions as envoys at United Nations talks bicker about binding greenhouse-gas goals…“While national governments continue their excruciatingly frustrating dialog on climate change, we in the cities are acting,” Portland Mayor Sam Adams said in an interview. “It’s sheer common sense. Becoming more efficient with your city’s energy needs means you’re also more economically secure.”…Wracked with budget deficits and economies recovering from recession, municipal leaders are looking for cheap ways to curb energy consumption and help governments meet pollution targets. General Electric Co. (GE) and Siemens AG (SIE), which make power generation equipment, and energy management tool-makers Johnson Controls Inc. and Honeywell International Inc. (HON) are winning contracts from cities to work on efficiency projects.

One two punch: first, Chrysler makes a come back with SUV’s and now a revolutionary gas powered engine with better gas mileage than Chevy Volt at a third of the price Forbes (5/27/11) reports: Everybody wants to talk about what kind of alternative vehicle we’ll be driving next, but I’ve got news for you: the traditional internal combustion gasoline engine isn’t going anywhere. In fact, this 125-year-old invention is getting more efficient all the time, which means we might not have to seriously contemplate those other possibilities any time soon…Automakers have been achieving incremental improvements in the efficiency of their conventional engines with new technologies like direct-injection, six-speed transmissions, turbo-chargers and start-stop systems. With the government breathing down their neck, you can bet they’ll continue to do so. As the U.S. Department of Energy’s fuel economy website shows, each one of these technologies can improve your fuel economy by 5% to 13%. Put them together in a vehicle like the 2011 Ford Explorer and you’re talking about some meaningful improvements…And then there are promising innovations like the gasoline-powered Scuderi engine, whose developer is reporting some massive leaps in fuel economy, at least in laboratory tests. A recent computer simulation conducted by the Southwest Research Institute found that a turbocharged version of the Scuderi split-cycle, air hybrid engine boosted the fuel economy of a 2011 Nissan Sentra by 54%, to about 50 miles per gallon.

Now let’s see if we can use the tax code to remove Secretary Salazar’s tax deductions and revoke his license to drive The Hill (5/23/11) reports: “Every day, Interior’s policies are costing more Gulf energy workers their jobs. But the Interior secretary needs a raise? That’s ridiculous – it’s offensive,” Mr. Vitter said in a statement to The Washington Times. “I’ll do everything I can to block his raise until Gulf energy workers are at least where they were in terms of work and job security pre-BP. I really want to see new deepwater exploratory permits being issued at pre-BP levels over a three-month period.”… hanks to a constitutional quirk, Interior Secretary Kenneth L. Salazar makes less than most of his colleagues in President Obama’s Cabinet, and a Republican senator says he’ll keep it that way, blocking a nearly $20,000 raise for the high-level appointee until the administration approves more deep-water oil drilling…Mr. Salazar’s salary is set at $180,100, which is $19,600 less than most other Cabinet secretaries. The Constitution prohibits legislators from taking positions in the executive branch for which they voted to raise the salaries, and since Mr. Salazar approved secretaries’ pay levels when he was in the Senate, he would have been barred from taking the Interior job unless the salary was reduced to its earlier level…His Senate term would have expired in January, though which means he’s once again eligible for the higher pay rate…Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, tried to get consent this week to pass the change in the Senate but was blocked by Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican who said he won’t yield until Mr. Salazar approves more oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.

You know your state has problems when a San Francisco judge is the voice of economic reason Bloomberg (5/23/11) reports: A California judge’s ruling is unlikely to mean a long delay in starting the state’s cap-and- trade program for greenhouse gases next year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance…The decision will require California’s Air Resources Board to resubmit its analysis of alternative policies, which will take “a couple of months,” Tom Marcello, an analyst for New Energy Finance in New York, said yesterday by e-mail. Another ruling might have slowed the launch of what is forecast to be the largest U.S. carbon market by six months, he said…Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith in San Francisco ordered the board on May 20 to stop making rules for cap and trade until the state reviews other ways to limit greenhouse gases, such as a carbon tax. While President Barack Obama failed to win Congressional approval for a national emissions trading program, California is pressing ahead with plans to issue pollution allowances that may be valued at $19 billion by 2020, according to New Energy Finance…The board in California will appeal the ruling today, said Stanley Young, a spokesman for the agency.

The NYT editorial board doesn’t understand economics or history. Oil prices fell $9 as President Bush announced the end of the moratorium on the OCS New York Times (5/20/11) reports: The closer one looks at what passes for serious debate in Washington over energy, the more depressing it gets. The Republicans have nothing to offer but drill, baby, drill. The Democrats are rightly trying to end industry’s cushy tax breaks, but that’s not an energy strategy… And everyone, including President Obama, seems more interested in scoring political points over rising gas prices than in confronting complex matters like energy security and climate change…In the Senate, the two parties spent this week beating each other up without advancing the discussion. The Republicans and three oil-state Democrats blocked a worthy Democratic attempt to strip the five biggest oil companies of $2 billion in tax breaks they do not need. The Democrats then crushed an effort by Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, to match two outrageous measures passed by the House that would expedite lease sales in protected coastal waters while undermining safety reforms adopted after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico…Mr. McConnell said his bill would bring relief at the pump by raising domestic output. That is fiction. Production will take years to come online and even then would have a tiny impact on prices set on the world market.

The next time someone says that central banking and inflation do not impact the price of crude oil, send them this article Reuters (5/23/11) reports: North Sea Brent crude futures led the oil complex lower, trading down $2.91 at $109.48 a barrel by 1029 GMT, having dropped by $3.26 earlier…U.S. crude was trading $2.63 lower at $97.46…”The ratings cut for Italy and concern over Greek restructuring and the subsequent euro weakness appear to have prompted the price fall in crude this morning,” Mark Thomas, head of energy Europe with brokerage Marex Financial, said…The dollar rose against the euro as a block of bad news about the euro zone crisis hit the single currency…Fitch Ratings cut Greece’s debt rating by three notches on Friday, pushing the country’s debt deeper into junk status, and rival Standard & Poor’s cut its outlook for Italy to “negative” from “stable” on Saturday….The euro fell below $1.40 briefly, the level which had been seen as an important support…Olivier Jakob with Petromatrix said the euro would remain the key focus for global investors…”Crude oil has not been able to find any follow-through buying over the last ten days and without new fundamental developments it is likely to be harder to find strong fresh buying into crude oil if the Euro weakens further,” Jakob said.

And next time President Obama tells you that increasing supply does not affect prices, send him this article Wall Street Journal (5/23/11) reports: The natural-gas industry touts its fuel as an attractive alternative to coal and oil, saying it’s comparably clean, domestically abundant and cheap…But that final selling point might not last if the industry succeeds in stirring demand even as it cuts back on drilling…In the past few years, a glut of natural gas has driven down the price to half the 2008 average—a level where it costs a U.S. consumer $2.75 a day to meet a home’s natural-gas needs, according to the American Gas Association. That’s good news for consumers, but a recent study by consultancy Wood Mackenzie found that 40% of U.S. natural gas produced last year didn’t meet break-even prices for producers…Natural gas now costs roughly the same as its energy equivalent in coal and a quarter of its energy equivalent in oil. The gas industry is making some headway in capitalizing on its relative cheapness: President Barack Obama has endorsed incentives for trucks powered by natural gas, and power companies are considering replacing coal-fired plants with gas-burning ones…Those steps would increase natural-gas consumption just as production growth is likely to slow. That’s because companies now can make more money drilling for oil, whose price has soared last year and in recent months on unrest in Northern Africa and the Middle East.

Too little too late Senator Hutchison, but I guess I do appreciate the tough talk as you head for the exit The Hill (5/23/11) reports: A week after President Obama laid out a plan designed to show his administration is serious about expanding domestic drilling, a top Senate Republican said the administration is not doing enough to encourage production…“It is not enough for the president to talk about producing energy in America,” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas) said in the Republican weekly address. “We call on him to put policies in place that cut the bureaucratic red tape and put Americans to work doing it.”…Hutchison’s comments underscore the bitter partisan divides between Democrats and Republicans on drilling and the major hurdles policymakers face in coming to a compromise on the issue.

We will remind people that, as Hunter Thompson once wrote, only the doomed argue with Chris Tucker E&E News (5/20/11) reports: “If the story here is that EPA didn’t like that decision, that it wasn’t supportive of Congress clearly delineating where its authority ended and the states’ authority began, then here’s another story for you: The sun rose today,” said Chris Tucker, spokesman for Energy in Depth, which was created by the Independent Petroleum…Association of America to fend off federal regulation of fracturing. The U.S. EPA official who oversaw the George W. Bush administration’s 2004 study of hydraulic fracturing says its conclusions about safety have been exaggerated for years….The study found that in certain circumstances, fracturing presented “little or no threat” to drinking water. But Ben Grumbles, who ran EPA’s Office of Water, says the study didn’t deem all “fracking” to be safe, and it didn’t justify exempting all forms of it from drinking water protections….”EPA, however never intended for the report to be interpreted as a perpetual clean bill of health for fracking or to justify a broad statutory exemption from any future regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act,” Grumbles wrote in an article this week for the nonprofit he now runs, the Clean Water America Alliance…The former assistant EPA administrator also says that after five years and a nationwide surge in drilling, it might be time to take another look at the exemption, which was included in a 2005 energy bill…”A lot has happened since 2005 and, in my view, it makes sense to review the Safe Drinking Water Act landscape as well as the relevance of Clean Water Act programs,” he said