Archive for the 'Energy' Category
OIL UP AND OUT OF PREVIOUS RANGE; NEW RECORD HIGH
June 27th, 2008Dollar tanking again. Via: Reuters / Guardian: Oil cracked the $140 record high that market bulls had been eyeing for weeks, and grains and metals rallied as well, as supply issues and inflation from a weak dollar dominated commodity markets on Thursday. The Reuters-Jefferies CRB Index, one of the broadest indicators of commodities demand, rose […]
Supreme Court Cuts Exxon Punitive Damages for Valdez Oil Spill by 80%
June 26th, 2008Via: San Francisco Chronicle: The Supreme Court, winding up a term of victories for businesses, cut punitive damages for Alaskans harmed by the Exxon Valdez oil spill by 80 percent today in a ruling that may signal new limits on damage awards for victims of corporate wrongdoing. In a 5-3 decision, the justices reduced punitive […]
House Energy and Commerce Committee Testemony: Gas Could Fall to $2 if Congress Imposed Limits on Speculators; Speculation Now Accounts for About 70% of All Benchmark Crude Trading on NYMEX
June 24th, 2008It is absolute madness that commodities are bought and sold using leveraged vehicles in markets that allow participation by speculators; individuals and organizations who have no interest or connection to the underlying physical commodity. —Cryptogon, March 21, 2008 You know, I wrote something that turned out to be wrong in that piece above: Pigs (Pork […]
America’s Military Spending and Clean Energy
June 24th, 2008I wonder how many Cryptogon posts there are on this exact topic… Dozens? Hmm. I’ll have to create a master list of all of them to go along with stories like this. But, just off the top of my head: Chart: The Cost of the War in Iraq vs. Spending on Solar Energy Research: Clean […]
MIT Group Makes Low-Cost Solar Concentrator
June 24th, 2008There are lots of solar concentrators out there, but this one from MIT is remarkable because of the low cost. In the NOT low-cost category, check out the utility grade concentrators that are being deployed in California by Stirling Energy Systems. UPDATE: High School Students Building Solar Concentrators with Stirling Engines Via: Boston Herald: Spencer […]
New Zealand Hitting the Wall
June 22nd, 2008No surprises here. I can’t be arsed to find the story, but years ago, I wrote that I’d pick New Zealand in a state of collapse over Southern California any day. The theory could be put to a test here soon enough, the way things are going. It’s funny, up here in the Far North, […]
Freight Traffic on Upper Mississippi Halted
June 22nd, 2008Monitoring… Via: AP: The flooding in the Midwest has brought freight traffic on the upper Mississippi to a standstill, stranding more than 100 barges loaded with grain, cement, scrap metal, fertilizer and other products while shippers wait for the water to drop on the Big Muddy. “We’re basically experiencing total shutdown,” said Larry Daily, president […]
Security Fears Over Food and Fuel Crisis
June 22nd, 2008“In 2008, food could become an out front national security issue in the developed world.” —Cryptogon, January 2, 2008 Via: Financial Times: Western countries have upgraded the food and fuel crisis into a national security concern as they fear record high energy and agriculture commodity costs are destabilising key developing regions of the world. The […]
Giant Oil Companies to Return to Iraq Under No Bid Contracts
June 19th, 2008Imagine my complete and total shock. Via: IHT: Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power. Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in […]
Flooded Corn Fields = Higher Gasoline Prices
June 19th, 2008This situation represents a massive, slow moving disaster and few people (outside of commodity trading circles) even realize it yet. The criminal corn lobby, and the whores in Congress who service it, are the ones to thank for this. Via: Reuters: U.S. gasoline prices, which have already jumped to a nationwide average over $4 per […]
