Update Four essays, plus this one, finished off today: The Problem With Biobutanol This Week in Petroleum 6-13-07 Letter to CNN on Inaccuracies in “We Were Warned” The Problem with CAFE With that, I am […]
Author: Robert Rapier
The Problem With Biobutanol
The Essay I Didn’t Want to Finish This is an essay that I have been promising for some time. I have had to start it from scratch a couple of times, and I am starting […]
This Week in Petroleum 6-13-07
Update: Very brief update. First, I just came back from the hospital, where they extracted a small boulder from my kidney. With that, I put this horrible episode behind me. On the inventory report, I […]
Letter to CNN on Inaccuracies
Dear CNN, Over the weekend, I watched your special report We Were Warned: Out of Gas. I had previously seen the original version, “Out of Oil”, and wrote to CNN at that time pointing out […]
The Problem with CAFE
As I have been reading reports of the current debate over the pending energy legislation, it occurred to me that there is a fundamental problem with the approach to CAFE standards. The Washington Post reported […]
Ethanol Roundup
A couple of interesting ethanol articles that were recently brought to my attention. First off, we have Iowa State saying something I have been saying for a while: Corn ethanol unprofitable by 2008, says Iowa […]
Gasoline Prices Part II: Long-Term Factors
Introduction In Part I, I discussed the short term factors that have resulted in the recent, rapid increase in the price of gasoline. But there are a number of underlying, long-term issues that have been […]
Why I Sat Out the Feeding Frenzy
I have gotten several e-mails about Cyclone Gonu in which I was asked to comment. Some asked why I haven’t written about it, or why I haven’t participated in the discussions about it. I was […]
This Week in Petroleum 6-6-07
Update: The numbers are out. Gasoline made a strong gain this week, as imports remained high. Demand remains well above last year’s numbers. Given that imports were down slightly over the previous week (but still […]
Chuck Schumer’s Fabrications
I have never cared for Chuck Schumer. In my opinion he is a classic example of a demagogue. He tells half-truths, or sometimes untruths, in order to push his agenda. And he did so again […]