Recent Gas News/GasBuddy Blog

Technology Review -- Weimer, a former Dow Chemical engineer, says the system is "agnostic" to the types of biomass it can process. "It's like a sledgehammer because of the (1,200 to 1,300 ºC) temperatures it operates at," he says, explaining that conventional gasification uses lower temperatures to try to minimize the volume of biomass used to fuel the process. But keeping the temperature lower poses another problem. Gasification at temperatures below 1,000 ºC leaves behind tar. "And that tar is expensive to get rid of," says Weimer. "If you leave it in there, it will end up killing your catalysts downstream when you try to reform your product into (liquid) fuel."  (go to article)

examiner.com -- The attraction for many of hybrid vehicles is higher fuel efficiency. High fuel efficiency means making the same travel with less energy expended.

In general efficiency is recognized as one of the ways to reduce the environmental impact made by our society. A 50 miles/gallon car on a 200 mile trip burns 4 gallons of gas while a 25 miles/gallon car requires 8 gallons of gas for the same trip. That effect of fuel efficiency means half the cost, half the harmful emissions, and half the oil used, to take the same trip.

According to fueleconomy.gov: "On the EPA highway cycle with an average speed of 48 mph, 54% of the energy required to move a car goes to aerodynamic drag. Because drag increases with the square of speed, more than twice as much energy would be required to overcome
 (go to article)

NY Times Editorial -- THE Obama administration has said that it may require automakers to install “smart pedals” on all new cars. This kind of system — already used in BMWs, Chryslers, Volkswagens and some of the newest Toyotas — deactivates the car’s accelerator when the brake pedal is pressed so that the car can stop safely even if its throttle sticks open.

...

But based on my experience in the 1980s helping investigate unintended acceleration in the Audi 5000, I suspect that smart pedals cannot solve the problem. The trouble, unbelievable as it may seem, is that sudden acceleration is very often caused by drivers who press the gas pedal when they intend to press the brake.

From the mid-1980s until 2000, thousands of incidents of sudden acceleration were reported in all makes and models of cars ...  (go to article)

Globeandmail.com -- By Jeff Rubin

Excerpts

Between explosive growth in oil-thirsty economies like China and India, and OPEC’s voracious appetite for its own fuel, OECD fuel markets are becoming increasingly marginal. That’s why Saudi Aramco is far more interested in securing long-term supply contracts with rapidly expanding domestic oil markets in countries such as China and India than in supplying shrinking oil markets like those in the US.

As China moves from consuming 8 million barrels a day to 10 million barrels, and OPEC ramps up its own daily consumption from 10.5 million to 12 million barrels,

So instead of thinking that a decline in U.S. oil consumption means a build-up in global oil inventories, just think of it as freeing up another barrel to be guzzled in China or the Middle East.
 (go to article)

Bloomberg.com -- By Jordan Burke

TransCanada Corp., owner of Canada’s largest pipeline system, received approval to expand the Canadian portion of its Keystone pipeline to bring crude from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Canada’s National Energy Board announced the approval with 22 conditions in a statement today. The 1,980-mile (3,185- kilometer) Keystone XL project extends the Calgary-based company’s existing Keystone pipeline, which runs through Canada to the central U.S. and will begin operating this year.

Excerpts

“Keystone will be the first pipeline to directly connect a growing and reliable supply of Canadian crude oil to the largest refining market in North America,”

TransCanada became the sole owner of Keystone in August, buying ConocoPhillips’s 20.1 percent stake  (go to article)

FORBES.COM -- By CHARMAINE NORONHA

TORONTO -- Canadian politicians on Thursday accused the nation's transportation agency of failing to take swift action after receiving acceleration-related complaints in Toyota vehicles three years before the company began a series of safety recalls.

Excerpts

The Parliamentary committee probe is part of a larger investigation by the government into the recall of 270,000 Toyota vehicles in Canada.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has tied 52 deaths to crashes allegedly caused by the accelerator problems, and the agency has received new complaints from owners who had their cars fixed and said their vehicles suddenly accelerated afterward.

Toyota Canada president Yoichi Tomihara and managing director Stephen Beatty are scheduled to testify  (go to article)

Minneapolis StarTribune -- Stillwater Motors was down to the last few Buicks on the lot.

But the third-generation General Motors dealership is looking to the future and ready to order -- and hire -- again after GM included it among the 661 dealerships nationwide that it has saved from the chopping block.

The dealership, which has been selling Buicks since 1922, was among the more than 2,000 across the country that GM had said would close as part of its government-backed bankruptcy restructuring to pare down stores and return to profitability.

"It's good news and a victory and we are excited," said general manager Michael Kahn. "It's good for the community, and a lot of customers were happy. Now I can see the glimmer in the employees' eyes. Everybody is excited."  (go to article)

The Vancouver Sun -- CALGARY — The Canadian oilsands suffered another public relations blow after two major U.S. retailers announced they were shunning fuel from there in favour of greener gasoline for their fleets.

Organic foods grocery chain Whole Foods Market and household accessories chain Bed Bath & Beyond said Wednesday they were actively seeking alternatives to oil-sands fuels to reduce their carbon footprints.

Wednesday’s announcements underscored the need for Alberta’s oil patch to step up their communications campaign and dispel misconceptions around their operations, said federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice.

“The oilsands, at the end of the day, are an essential part of the overall supply-demand balance in North America,” Mr. Prentice told the Calgary Herald.  (go to article)

Comtex News Network -- Petroleos de Venezuela SA is suing ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) over Conoco's attempt to buy PDVSA's interest in their jointly-owned Merey Sweeney LP unit.

Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez announced the lawsuit last week.

A spokesman for Conoco declined to provide the location for the arbitration hearings and said the company wouldn't give any more details on the case.
 (go to article)

Professional Pensions (UK) -- A cross-party group of politicians will today urge the MPs’ pension fund to vote in favour of resolutions questioning BP and Shell’s controversial tar sands proposals.

Six MPs from the three major political parties have tabled an Early Day Motion highlighting concerns over the financial, environmental and social risks associated with the projects.

Liberal Democrat spokesman for energy and climate change Simon Hughes will also grill the leader of the house about the fund's exercise of its voting rights at annual general meetings.

Hughes called on government to "lead by example" by voting in favour of the resolution.

He added: "Tar sands are a very risky investment - financially, environmentally and socially."
 (go to article)

FORTUNE/CNN -- The honeymoon is officially over.

Three months after he replaced Fritz Henderson as CEO of General Motors, Ed Whitacre is getting a rude introduction to life in a single-industry town.

Following the reorganization of sales and marketing in North America last week, the latest in a series of management changes that saw some veteran executives relieved of their jobs, the Detroit media unleashed a torrent of criticism.

It didn't matter that Whitacre, according to an insider, wasn't even responsible for the North America changes. Those decisions were delegated to North American chief Mark Reuss.

Or that GM had gone bankrupt under an earlier administration, so presumably some shifts in personnel were due.
 (go to article)

GasBuddy Blog -- So how much impact did the recession make on oil demand? Looking at the figures, the recession that began in late 2008 easily dwarfed the economic slowdown after September 11, 2001. In fact, I had to go back to 1999 to find the last month that saw lower demand numbers than what we saw at the start of the 2008 recession, and demand still has not recovered.

September 2008 is when banks went into crisis, Wall Street panicked, and the recession really began. Oil demand (and thus supply) plummeted in September 2008, dropping to 535.16 million barrels, a number not seen since February 1999. It's important to note that February is routinely a month of poor demand, so if we exclude that month, one must go back to July 1995 to see a comparable...  (go to article)

Associated Press - Found on Google News -- Oil prices drifted below $82 on Thursday, as investors mulled demand uncertainties and a government report that showed the country's huge natural gas reserves shrank a little last week.

Benchmark crude for April delivery fell 26 cents to $81.83 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, prices slid as low as $81.33 after the Labor Department said workers filing for jobless benefits for the first time fell slightly less than expected. The news raised concerns that continuing high unemployment will crimp oil and gas demand with fewer commuters on the road

Retail gasoline prices continued to rise on Thursday. The nationwide average rose 0.8 cents to $2.776 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.

Prices have risen 13.2 cents in the last m  (go to article)

Wall Street Journal, Page C7, Thursday March 11, 2010 -- Gasoline prices are throttling toward $3 a gallon for the first time since the recession hit.

Underlying benchmark gasoline futures have rallied 21% since hitting a low in February to close Wednesday at $2.2851 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

This portends further increases to retail gasoline prices, which have risen 5.5% over the past three weeks and are 42% higher than a year ago. A gallon of regular conventional gasoline in the U.S. cost an average of $2.75 as of Monday, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. In an official forecast released this week, the EIA said pump prices "will likely exceed $3 a gallon at times" this spring and summer.

People respond emotionally to rising gasoline prices and typically "will drive a mile out of the way for ever  (go to article)

Globe and Mail -- Senior Transport Canada bureaucrats found themselves on the hot seat today on Parliament Hill, forced to defend their actions in the massive recall of Toyotas over acceleration problems.

As a storm of negative publicity and lawsuits batters the auto maker, the Commons committee hearings Thursday and next Tuesday gives Canadian politicians their first chance to grill Transport Canada and Toyota Canada Inc. officials about the recalls and the issue of sudden acceleration.

Bloc MP Mario Laframboise told the committee he's worried Canada is failing to protect consumers as quickly as the U.S.

“What really bothers me ... is we look like we're lagging behind the U.S,” Mr. Laframboise said.

NDP MP Brian Masse raised concerns about how cozy a relationship Transport Canada regulators  (go to article)

Motor Trend -- Although it's scheduled to close at the end of the month, the NUMMI assembly plant -- previously home to a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors -- may be revived by Aurica Motors, a start-up firm looking for a production base to build electric vehicles.

"We want to keep the plant open, and we believe we have a very viable plan to do so by manufacturing electric cars," Aurica's general manager Matt Pitagora told Automotive News. "It's all about keeping the lights on.

 (go to article)

MSNBC.com -- The so-called "RV Capital of the World" may soon be able to bill itself the "EV Capital of the World." What a difference a letter makes.

Elkhart, Ind., about 155 miles southwest of Detroit, will soon be the new U.S. production center for Think, the Norwegian-based manufacturer that hopes to charge into the emerging market for battery-electric vehicles. The first of the maker’s two-seat City, an urban commuter car, will begin rolling off the new assembly line a year from now. If demand meets Think’s expectation, the company hopes to be turning out as many as 20,000 battery-electric vehicles, or BEVs, annually by 2013.  (go to article)

REUTERS -- * Fears China may tighten money policies affect oil

* Dollar movement vs euro makes oil traders cautious

* Coming up: IEA monthly oil market report due Friday

NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures fell
on Thursday, as high inflation in China raised fears it may
tighten monetary policy soon and as traders tracked the
dollar's movements.

Also affecting oil markets, Wall Street dipped on data
showing U.S. weekly jobless benefit claims fell less than
expected and the money policy worries about China. [.N]

Post-inventory data reevaluation may also be affecting the
day's trade, some analysts said.  (go to article)

CBC News -- The Alberta government was poised to announce changes to its controversial oil and gas royalty rules Thursday in what was widely expected to be a major backtracking from its decision to boost its take from the industry in October 2007.

Premier Ed Stelmach and Energy Minister Ron Liepert have scheduled a news conference in Calgary at 3 p.m. local time.

Stelmach won re-election in 2008 with the largest majority in the province's history while promising the royalty increases. His stand was popular with some voters who felt the industry should do more to share the costs of coping with soaring growth, inflation, and labour shortages brought on by rising prices for oil and gas.  (go to article)

LiveScience -- Researchers have found a way to produce large amounts of electricity from tiny cylinders made from carbon atoms.

The achievement could replace decades-old methods of generating electricity, such as combustion engines and turbines, the researchers say.  (go to article)

BBC News -- Carmaker Daihatsu is recalling 274,551 vehicles in Japan because of a number of possible defects.
-----
The company, a subsidiary of Toyota, said the recall affected its Hijet and Atrai mini-van models.
-----
Daihatsu said the recall centred on a missing or loose suspension bolt, while other issues included the risk of loose fuel hoses or defective brake lights.

 (go to article)

Autoweek Magazine -- Whatever sliver of respect you had left for our nation's television media has likely been crushed in the last few days. Surely you've heard about David W. Gilbert, an automotive technology professor at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Gilbert said he could recreate unintended acceleration in a Toyota by short-circuiting the electronics. Trouble is, the way Gilbert created the "problem" included shaving insulation from wires and touching together wires that would never get close to each other in the real world.  (go to article)

Associated Press -- NEW YORK – For the want of a better two-second picture of a tachometer, ABC News has called into question its reporting on acceleration problems with Toyota vehicles.

The network's handling of a Feb. 22 "World News" story about potential problems with computer systems in Toyotas has created ethical questions and intensified bitter feelings the besieged automaker already had toward ABC.

ABC has admitted to a misjudgment and swapped out the brief dashboard video in its report, which continues to be available online. Its story illustrated a report by David Gilbert, a Southern Illinois University professor who suggested that a design flaw in Toyotas might leave a short-circuit that could cause sudden acceleration undetected by the car's computer system.  (go to article)

Reuters -- * China inflation sparks concern about monetary tightening * Dollar edges up vs euro, usually bearish for crude NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures
seesawed on Thursday after being weighed down early by fears
monetary tightening in China will slow growth there and a
stronger dollar. "I think the China news is weighing on the market because
the high CPI is stoking fears of tightening," said Stephen
Schork, president at the Schork Group in Villanova,
Pennsylvania.  (go to article)

Oil and Gas Journal -- HOUSTON, Mar. 5 -- US drilling activity continued to increase with 1,396 rotary rigs working in the week ended Mar. 5, 23 more than the previous week and up from 1,170 a year ago, Baker Hughes Inc. reported.

Land operations provided the gain, up by 26 rigs to 1,339 drilling. Inland waters activity declined by 1 rig to 13 working units. US offshore fell by 2 rigs to 42 in the Gulf of Mexico and a total of 44 rigs in US waters.

Of the US rigs working, 926 were drilling for natural gas, up 21 from the previous week. The number drilling for oil was unchanged at 456. There were 14 rotary rigs unclassified. Horizontal drilling increased by 16 units to 695. Directional drilling was down 5 to 230.

Texas registered the biggest gain among the major producing states, up 23 rotary rigs to  (go to article)

The BBC -- Plans for a new high-speed rail network, featuring 250mph trains, have been announced by Transport Secretary Lord Adonis.

A White Paper is recommending a route for a new line between London and Birmingham with a future extension to northern England and Scotland.

The public will be consulted on the proposed route, with work unlikely to start until 2017 at the earliest.  (go to article)

Los Angeles Times -- Some of the nation's biggest oil companies are looking at permanently reducing how much gasoline and diesel fuel they make, a move that analysts say would almost certainly trigger higher prices for drivers.

"We know from internal documents from the last time we had a situation like this, in the 1990s, that there was an intentional strategy on the part of some companies to drive up profit margins by shuttering or closing refineries," said Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen's energy program.

Refiners say they're merely trying to improve profits so they can keep making gasoline.
 (go to article)

Reuters -- Oil has rallied to within sight of its 2010 high this week, but the physical crude markets in Asia and Europe are telling a more bearish story about oversupply and sluggish demand.

The contrast between the oil price, which topped $83 a barrel on Wednesday, and signs of weak physical markets might preoccupy OPEC when it meets on March 17 and raise the issue of whether markets have too much oil.

"If you get on the ground and look at the fundamentals, you see too much crude oil production by OPEC," said Paul Tossetti, senior energy adviser at PFC Energy.

Russian crude prices have weakened and top oil exporter Saudi Arabia cut Asian oil prices to 14-month lows for April, while the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries pumped the most oil in over a year in February.  (go to article)

NY Times -- ..Based on my experience in the 1980s helping investigate unintended acceleration in the Audi 5000, I suspect that smart pedals cannot solve the problem. The trouble, unbelievable as it may seem, is that sudden acceleration is very often caused by drivers who press the gas pedal when they intend to press the brake.  (go to article)

The Houston Chronicle -- With no technology offering the perfect solution, automakers are pursuing a multipronged strategy to reduce greenhouse gases by improving fuel efficiency and developing cars that run longer and better from an array of energy options.

But most motorists still can expect regular trips to the gas pump for quite a while, industry representatives said Wednesday at the IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates CERAWeek energy conference.

“The future has to be a very diverse portfolio of answers,” said Britta Gross, who works on energy systems and infrastructure with General Motors Co., part of a panel that discussed the future of transportation.  (go to article)

The Christian Science Monitor -- Q: Since nitrogen oxide compounds are components of smog and are common water pollutants, does nitrogen-enriched gasoline create additional pollution?

– Rick Oestrike, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

A: It might seem as if adding nitrogen to gasoline is all the rage among oil companies today, but the idea has been around for years. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires that automotive fuels sold in the United States contain detergents to help scrub away pollution before it goes out the vehicle’s tailpipe. Some manufacturers have found that adding nitrogen to the detergent helps keep an engine cleaner by reducing the carbon buildup in the gas tank that can in turn “gunk up” the engine and lower performance.  (go to article)

The New York Times -- Station wagons have been passe in the United States for years, but this didn't stop Cadillac from launching its first U.S.-built wagon.

The 2010 CTS Wagon is a nicely sized, comfortable, five-passenger car with cargo space that's easier to reach than that of a sport utility vehicle.

The CTS Wagon also is arguably the most striking station wagon on the market, with sharp creases in its sheet metal, stylized, eye-catching vertical tail-lamps, and a recognizable Cadillac look.

But no one seems to notice this wagon when it passes by on the street. Not a single person took a second glance at the test car or asked about it -- perhaps because from the front, it looks so similar to the CTS sedan that has been on the market for years.  (go to article)

Detroit News -- I've gotten tired of writing about the next good Hyundai.

And according to the late night profanity-laced messages left on my voice mail, so have Detroit readers.

So let's just stop acting surprised every time Hyundai rolls out an impressive car or crossover. This is a quality operation and its lineup is going to continue to improve. (For those keeping score, I also say the same thing about Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co.)

The next piece of evidence: the 2011 Hyundai Sonata.

In the past, Hyundai was seen as the lower-priced alternative. Many consumers never considered it because they would drone methodically, "must buy another Camry" with the same appreciation for their car as their washing machine.
 (go to article)

Houston Chronicle -- With no technology offering the perfect solution, automakers are pursuing a multipronged strategy to reduce greenhouse gases by improving fuel efficiency and developing cars that run longer and better from an array of energy options.

But most motorists still can expect regular trips to the gas pump for quite a while, industry representatives said Wednesday at the IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates CERAWeek energy conference.

“The future has to be a very diverse portfolio of answers,” said Britta Gross, who works on energy systems and infrastructure with General Motors Co., part of a panel that discussed the future of transportation.

If they don't take the broad approach, panelists said, automakers risk being caught flat-footed when market and consumer trends abruptly change,  (go to article)

Montgomery Advertiser -- NEW YORK -- Reports of sudden acceleration in the Toyota Prius have spiked across the country. But that doesn't mean there's an epidemic of bad gas pedals in the popular hybrid.

Experts on consumer psychology said the relentless negative media attention Toyota has received since the fall makes it much more likely that drivers will mistake anything unexpected -- or even a misplaced foot -- for actual danger.

"When people expect problems, they're more likely to find them," said Lars Perner, a professor of clinical marketing at Marshall School of Business at University of Southern California.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- The U.S. Senate approved a bill that extends the $1-a-gallon tax credit for biodiesel, which expired Dec. 31.

The credit was included in a $138 billion measure that would extend unemployment benefits and provide more aid to states in an effort to boost the economy. The biodiesel industry says the tax credit is needed to revive production.

Output has almost stopped since the tax credit expired more than two months ago, according to the National Biodiesel Board, the industry’s primary trade organization. The credit is for blending biodiesel into conventional fuel.

“When businesses know they can count on the tax cuts in this bill, they know they can add an extra shift or hire a new worker,” Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat and co-author of the legislation, said in an e-mail.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Energy companies owe Pakistan State Oil, the biggest fuel retailer, 105 billion rupees ($1.24 billion) for purchases of furnace oil and diesel, Chief Executive Officer Irfan Qureshi said.

“We are getting financing from 19 banks every month and can’t see any way of resolving this problem,” Qureshi told a government panel in Islamabad today. The finance ministry agreed to release 5 billion rupees to the company, he said.

State Oil has to pay 57 billion rupees toward the import of furnace oil, diesel and crude oil by April 28, Qureshi said.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- BP Plc will pay Devon Energy Corp. $7 billion for assets in Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico and Azerbaijan, adding fields that may extend its production lead over Exxon Mobil Corp.

“This is one of the best deals BP has ever made,” Jason Kenney, head of oil and gas research at ING Commercial Banking in Edinburgh, said in a telephone interview. “Brazil was missing from BP’s portfolio, and the assets are all high-margin barrels.”

BP, which overtook Exxon for the first time last year with 4 million barrels a day of production, will enter deepwater exploration off Brazil. With his biggest purchase since becoming chief executive officer in 2007, Tony Hayward may add more than 100,000 barrels a day of oil by 2015, according to Kenney.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Valero Energy Corp. will flare gases at its Corpus Christi West refinery after planned maintenance that starts today, the company said in a filing to Texas state regulators. The maintenance at Complexes 1, 3 and 6 will be from 7 a.m. local time through March 20, it said.  (go to article)

bloomberg,com -- China is idling as much as 40 percent of its wind-turbine factories following a surge in investment driven by the government’s renewable energy goals, the vice president of Shanghai Electric Group Corp. said.

Prices of turbines have tumbled more than 30 percent from 2004 levels in the world’s third-biggest windpower market by generating capacity because there are “too many” plants, Lu Yachen said in an interview in Beijing today.

China aims to increase its capacity to produce power from the wind fivefold by 2020, spurring investment in turbine factories. Zhang Guobao, who helms the National Energy Administration, said in September without giving figures that there was a surplus of such plants.

“The overcapacity in manufacturing is caused by slower growth in wind-farm constru

 (go to article)

BT -- North Dakota topped the century mark in the number of active oil rigs this week for the first time since February 1982.

There were 102 active rigs as of Wednesday. The state is still below the all-time high of 146 rigs that came in October 1981, said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council. Ness said the numbers are a positive for the future of the North Dakota oil industry.

Ness said improvements in technology have allowed rigs to be more productive and efficient with the advent of horizontal drilling. “That’s the real story,” he said. Ness said that one of today’s rigs is able to do the same amount of drilling as eight older rigs in about one-third of the time.

Ness said there are roughly 4,500 producing oil wells in the state with about 1,000 new wells that ca  (go to article)

forbes.com -- RICHMOND, Va. -- Gov. Bob McDonnell signed into law Wednesday offshore drilling legislation intended to realize his goal of making Virginia the East Coast's energy superpower.

The bills supporting offshore oil and gas exploration and directing royalties from drilling back to Virginia each hinge on actions by the federal government and Congress.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is expected to announce his decision soon whether the government will move forward with the sale of oil and gas leases in a triangular tract 50 miles off of the Virginia coast. The 2.9 million acres has an estimated 130 million barrels of oil and 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

McDonnell said the bill backing offshore exploration is intended to signal to Salazar the state's official endorsement of

 (go to article)

Star Tribune -- Toyota's massive recalls are bringing new scrutiny to the government's auto safety agency, prompting Congress to look at how federal safety officials have lived up to their mission of protecting motorists.

A House panel on Thursday planned to examine the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's oversight of the auto industry in the latest congressional hearing linked to Toyota's recall of more than 8 million vehicles worldwide. Safety groups have accused NHTSA of being too cozy with the Japanese automaker while lacking the resources to test for vehicle problems that could be electronic, not mechanical.

"NHTSA has been viewed by the motor vehicle industry for years as a lapdog, not a watchdog," Joan Claybrook, a former NHTSA administrator under President Jimmy Carter.  (go to article)

New York Times - Green Inc. -- HOUSTON -- Renewable energy is being praised in Washington, but it is generating snickers here in the nation's traditional energy capital, where oil, gas and utility leaders are gathered for a major industry conference.

Leaders of two of the world's largest oil and gas companies used their addresses at CERAWeek, a sprawling conference sponsored by energy analysis firm IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, to warn against unbridled optimism about wind and solar energy. Khalid Al-Falih, president and CEO of Saudi Aramco, deemed overreliance on renewable power dangerous, while ConocoPhillips Chairman James Mulva employed sarcasm to compare renewable boosters to those who won't acknowledge climate change.

"We must overcome the opposition of the 'hydrocarbon deniers,'"  (go to article)

Bloomberg.com -- Crude oil fell for the second time in three days on a stronger dollar and concern that recent price gains outpaced demand growth in the U.S., the world’s largest energy consumer.

Oil declined from an eight-week high as the dollar climbed against the euro, reducing the appeal of commodities as an alternative investment. U.S. refinery utilization fell last week for the first time in five weeks to 80.7 percent of capacity, an Energy Department report said yesterday.

“We are at the high end of the recent trading range, which is one of the reasons why oil ducked lower,” said David Moore, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd. in Sydney. “Demand in the U.S. is still weak, there is no doubt about that. It looks to be in the slow recovery mode.”

 (go to article)

Reuters -- (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury's decision against a bankruptcy restructuring for GMAC may have increased taxpayer bailout costs for the auto finance company and made it less viable, an oversight group said on Thursday.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, in a new monthly report, said despite three separate bailouts totaling $17.2 billion, GMAC Financial Services continues to struggle with its troubled mortgage liabilities.  (go to article)

CNN -- Los Angeles, California (CNN ) -- When former in-house defense attorney Dimitrios Biller resigned from his top post at Toyota, he walked out with something potentially more valuable than his nearly $4 million severance package.

He took some 6,000 internal documents, including memos and e-mails potentially damaging to his former employer.  (go to article)

Associated Press -- NEW YORK – Reports of sudden acceleration in the Toyota Prius have spiked across the country. But that doesn't mean there's an epidemic of bad gas pedals in the popular hybrid.

Experts on consumer psychology say the relentless negative media attention Toyota has received since the fall makes it much more likely that drivers will mistake anything unexpected — or even a misplaced foot — for actual danger.

"When people expect problems, they're more likely to find them," said Lars Perner, a professor of clinical marketing at Marshall School of Business at University of Southern California.

 (go to article)

Reuters -- A Michigan appeals court on Wednesday granted a stay requested by Toyota Motor Corp that delays testimony by two top U.S. company executives in a case about a crash that killed a woman driving a Camry in 2008.

The Michigan Court of Appeals will hold a hearing to determine if the executives can be deposed, said plaintiff's attorney Eric Snyder. The hearing date has not been set, Snyder said.

Toyota Motor North America President Yoshi Inaba and Jim Lentz, head of U.S. sales for Toyota, had been ordered by a lower court to be deposed this Thursday and Friday.

The appeals court on Wednesday stayed that lower court's ruling.

Toyota's attorneys say that neither of the top executives can offer unique testimony in the matter, papers filed with the appeals court show.  (go to article)

Reuters -- As oil and natural gas prices settle into an equilibrium for now, a new variable is emerging as the most worrisome for Big Oil: the cost of carbon.

Major international oil companies say they are factoring carbon prices into their long-term planning calculations, but assessing that cost is a challenge as U.S. policymakers struggle to come together on how to combat climate change.

The legislation could recast the playing field for energy producers and place a premium on low-carbon energy sources like wind and solar.

"Climate change regulations must be treated like business risk on par with other risks in this business," said Helge Lund, chief executive of Norway's Statoil (STL.OL), speaking at the CERA Week conference. "The pressure in this industry only will increase."  (go to article)

Cattle Network -- NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Crude futures ended at an eight-week high Wednesday, boosted by data showing tightening U.S. fuel supplies and rising demand.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery settled 60 cents, or 0.7%, higher at $82.09 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since Jan. 11. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange was recently up 41 cents, or 0.5%, at $80.32 a barrel.

Oil rose quickly after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported larger-than-expected drops in fuel inventories, along with a slight increase in demand for oil products.

The data offered early confirmation that the economic recovery is beginning to result in a move away from the massive surplus inventories built up during the recession. Total oil and fuel inventories are at the  (go to article)