Introduction It succors and drowns human life. And for the last eight years, oil — and the people and places that make it — was my obsession. – Peter Maass Today a new book by […]
Book Review: Crude World
Tag: oil companies
About That $72 Billion Subsidy
I am going to be pretty busy for the next few days, and probably won’t be able to put anything new up until at least mid-week. Until then, over the past few days there have […]
Our Ironic Energy Policy
Energy policies in the U.S. often seek to punish our domestic oil and gas producers, while at the same time we work hard with foreign producers to ensure that the oil continues to flow. I […]
King Corn and Big Oil
Over the weekend, I watched the documentary King Corn. It was released in October 2007, but I just now got around to watching it online at Netflix. The premise is that a pair of college […]
Oil Companies Acquire More Ethanol Plants
As I noted in my essay Big Oil Buys Big Ethanol, I expected that we would see more oil companies buying up troubled ethanol assets. Per the Houston Chronicle, Sunoco has become the latest: Oil […]
The Art of Spinning
As the previous post indicated, we in the U.S. have a pretty low energy IQ. One of the reasons is that energy stories are often reported in a very biased or uninformed manner, which tends […]
Valero Now in the Ethanol Business
In an update to Big Oil Buys Big Ethanol, it is official: Valero Energy, the Oil Refiner, Wins an Auction for 7 Ethanol Plants Valero Energy, the country’s largest independent refiner, said on Wednesday that […]
The Oil Industry Helps Bail Out AIG
OK, maybe that’s an exaggeration. But they did just chip in close a billion dollars to the government coffers that are propping up AIG:US Central Gulf Lease Sale Bids Total $703 Million HOUSTON -(Dow Jones)- […]
Big Oil Buys Big Ethanol
Some people think that the oil industry is hostile toward the ethanol industry because they consider them a real threat. But I always point out that the oil industry dwarfs the ethanol industry by such […]
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 […]