Every time gas prices start to go up, my essay “Why Are Gas Prices Rising?” gets a lot of hits from Google searches by people looking for an explanation. Because the supply/demand dynamics have changed, […]
What Manpower Shortage?
Much has been made of the manpower shortage in the oil industry. I have been interviewed about it, I have written about it, and I saw it first hand when I was working for ConocoPhillips […]
Amazing Ethanol Lawsuit Against Oil Companies
I did a double-take when I saw this headline: Ethanol Lawsuit Proceeds against Oil Companies It turns out that oil companies – forced to use ethanol in gasoline despite many protests – are now being […]
All BTUs Are Not Created Equally
I sometimes have to pause and remind people that I am not anti-ethanol. As I have said numerous times, I am opposed to recycling fossil fuel into ethanol, and paying massive subsidies to do it. […]
Renewable Diesel Primer
Given the recent news that biodiesel has caused buses in Minnesota to malfunction in cold weather, I thought this would be a good time to review the differences between diesel, biodiesel, and green diesel. In […]
Chavez Back Pedals
Now this is pretty funny: Chávez Lets West Make Oil Bids as Prices Plunge CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez, buffeted by falling oil prices that threaten to damage his efforts to establish a Socialist-inspired […]
Nobody Wants Small Cars
I reported on it last week in How Quickly We Forget, but the Houston Chronicle yesterday reiterated the point the people are reverting to bad habits: GM exec complains ‘nobody wants’ small cars now General […]
Detroit Gearing Up for Electric Cars
The Dodge Circuit Electric Vehicle Regular readers know that I am hopeful that electric cars can start to become one of our transportation options in the next few years. There are several reasons for this. […]
Setting the Stage for 2009
I wanted to just have one housekeeping post here at the beginning of the year covering a wide range of topics: From posting etiquette to themes to my internal debate over whether to proceed with […]
More Ethanol Plants Going Down
I won’t say I told you so, but I will make a prediction here: VeraSun Suspends Production at Three Distilleries Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) — VeraSun Energy Corp., the second- largest U.S. ethanol producer, has idled […]