Recent Gas News/GasBuddy Blog

NY Times -- Mercedes-Benz, as part of its collaboration with Tesla Motors, will produce 500 battery-powered “E-Cell” versions of its small A-Class, introducing the car at the Paris auto show in October.

According to Shirin Emeera, a Daimler spokeswoman, details of the electric car will be announced on Sept. 15. She said the car would be produced at the Mercedes Rastatt plant, near Stuttgart, Germany, where the A-Class (which is not sold in the United States) is produced. Delivery of the cars will begin early next year.

Tesla’s components, which include the battery pack and controller, will be shipped there to be integrated into the car.........  (go to article)

NY Times -- In a plume of salt crystals, students from Ohio State University’s Center for Auto Research witnessed their electric-powered racer make history on Tuesday. The Buckeye Bullet 2.5 averaged 307.7 miles per hour in back-to-back runs on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, obliterating the previous record of 245.5 m.p.h., set in 1999............  (go to article)

Herald Democrat -- Texas-based KiOR, a company with plans to produce a crude oil substitute from wood chips and other biomass, will locate its first three facilities in Mississippi.

Gov. Haley Barbour and KiOR CEO Fred Cannon announced details of the venture Thursday, a day before lawmakers were set to return to the Capitol to approve incentives for the company.

Cannon said KiOR will become the first ever to use the catalytic conversion technology to produce the biofuel and sell it commercially. The process allows biomass, such as wood products and agricultural waste, to be converted to a high-quality renewable crude oil that can be used by refineries and to power vehicles, Cannon said.  (go to article)

Sympatico -- Ever wonder what royalty drives around in?
Or, at least in some cases, presidents with a lot of cash to burn?
Let's take a journey, from Brunei to Russia, to see what some of the world's most powerful people drive around in.
 (go to article)

CBS Money Watch -- Buyers of luxury cars crave their style, power and prestige. Paying luxury prices also typically gets you an additional perk: top-of-the-line safety equipment. And for 2011 models, that means new signals beeping warning of an impending rear-end crash or that you are drifting out of your lane. The new Mercedes-Benz E-class vehicles even sense if you are getting drowsy and caution that you need a break by watching your steering patterns and turning on a dashboard light.

From a style standpoint, the 2011 luxury roster features redesigned versions of the top-end Audi A8, the BMW 5-series, the Infiniti M sedan, and the Volvo S60. The Cadillac CTS adds a new coupe while Mercedes-Benz E-class is offering coupe, wagon and convertible variations. And Hyundai introduces its brand-new Equus, whi  (go to article)

The Globe and Mail -- While much attention has been given to the deep oil well being drilled by Chevron hundreds of kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland, the Save Our Seas and Shores Coalition has been trying to stop similar exploration in shallower water much closer to the mainland.

Corridor Resources Inc. has been given the license to explore oil and gas resources in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in what is known as the Old Harry prospect, located midway between the Magdalen Islands and Cape Anguille in western Newfoundland.

And the folks who depend on fishing and tourism in the Gulf are not happy – especially as they watch the United States cope with the aftermath of the biggest oil spill in its history.

When federal Liberal MPs arrive in Badeck, N.S., next week for their annual summer caucus meet  (go to article)

Financial Times -- Major ship deliveries over the next two years could threaten the balance of the market for crude oil tankers, the sector’s biggest operator has warned as the earning power of tankers slumps.

Frontline, whose largest shareholder is John Fredriksen, the Norwegian-born tycoon, also warned in a results statement on Friday that third-quarter earnings would be “materially below” the $81.3m net income on $356m revenue achieved between April and June this year.

The daily rates earned by crude oil tankers have collapsed since the end of June, forcing many operators to lay ships up out of use, as the segment has become the latest area of shipping to be hit by a combination of weak demand and excess ships.

Frontline is particularly exposed to movements in rates because, like other companies  (go to article)

theautochannel -- CHICAGO--Intertek (LSE: ITRK), a global leader in testing, inspection and certification, announces that it has made significant investments in new battery/energy storage test equipment throughout Europe, North America, and Asia. Recently the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) indicated a move toward "next generation" batteries which allow longer and faster run times, reduce dependence on other sources of energy, lessen the environmental impact of modern technologies, and lead to smaller and lighter electronics. Next generation batteries are predicted to impact nearly every industry, including solar energy, electric vehicles, wind energy,  (go to article)

theautochannel -- SHANGHAI--2010 Shanghai International Alternative Fuels & Vehicles Summit will be held at Shanghai New Energy Automobiles and Key Parts Industrial Base on October 19-22. This event is cordially supported by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), National Energy Administration, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Shanghai Municipal Government.  (go to article)

AFP -- NEW YORK (AFP) - Japanese automaker Toyota announced Thursday the recall of 1.13 million of its popular Corolla vehicles in North America due to an engine fault.

Toyota, the world's largest car manufacturer, said the recall was issued for Corolla and Corolla Matrix vehicles built between 2005 and 2008 "to address some engine control modules (ECM) that may have been improperly manufactured."

It said in a statement that there was a possibility that "a crack may develop at certain solder points or on the electronic component used to protect circuits against excessive voltage" on the ECM?s circuit board.

The crack can result in the engine not starting or, in some cases, stopping while the vehicle is being driven, it said.

There were three "unconfirmed" accidents allegedly linked to  (go to article)

this was on Yahoo news yesterday, it's been on the news this past July also. -- "It's the next 'wow' vehicle," said Terrafugia vice president Richard Gersh. "Anybody can buy a Ferrari, but as we say, Ferraris don't fly."

The plane is designed to fly primarily under 10,000 feet. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 1,430 pounds, including fuel and passengers. Gas mileage on the road is about 30 mpg.

Terrafugia says the Transition reduces the potential for an accident by allowing pilots to drive under bad weather instead of flying into marginal conditions.
 (go to article)

American Spectator -- Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency issued another one of those announcements read exclusively by government bureaucrats and green policy wonks. The EPA decided to delay a decision to increase the concentration of ethanol legal in gasoline from 10% to 15%. So-called E15 fuel would have to wait for approval until November.

It was a little-read regulatory decision that barely made a splash in the media. But it was also a rock thrown at Washington's hornets' nest of food and agricultural lobbyists. "We are disappointed," warned food giant Archer Daniels Midland. "We find this further delay unacceptable" and a "dereliction of duty," harrumphed ethanol lobbying group Growth Energy.

 (go to article)

Marketplace -- A Beijing suburb has announced it will soon begin testing out a new futuristic bus that would be built on tall legs -- allowing passengers to drive above the cars on the highway. No, this is not a joke. China bureau chief Rob Schmitz reports.

A nearly two week-long traffic jam in Beijing, China, is starting to ease up. Drivers can now get through in a few hours -- as opposed to a few days.

In the midst of that, a Beijing suburb has announced it will soon begin testing out a new futuristic bus that would be built on tall legs -- allowing bus passengers to travel above all the cars on the highway. No, this is not a joke.

The vehicle travels on rails and straddles two lanes of traffic, allowing passengers to drive 15 feet above the cars.  (go to article)

CLICK ON DETROIT -- If you're in the hunt for a new car, stay away from these lemons. It takes a lot to be named one of the World's Ugliest Cars... but these vehicles make it look so,  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Panasonic Corp. and Samsung SDI Co., the world’s two largest makers of rechargeable batteries, may deepen price cuts this year as overproduction worsens a glut in the industry, analysts said.

Lithium-ion battery prices may tumble 19 percent in 2010, the biggest drop in five years, said Hideo Takeshita, an analyst at the Institute of Information Technology Ltd. in Tokyo. Shiro Mikoshiba, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc., said the worsening oversupply may push prices down as much as 25 percent.  (go to article)

AP -- (Additional Information on the recall mentioned in a previous post)

"...Toyota said Corollas and Matrixes equipped with 1ZZ-FE engines may contain a defective engine control module, the computer that regulates the performance of the engine. In some cases, a crack may develop on the module's circuit board, which could prevent the engine from starting or could cause harsh shifting or an engine stall.

Separately, General Motors Co. is recalling 200,000 Pontiac Vibes in North America due to the same problem, GM spokesman Alan Adler said. The Vibe is similar to the Matrix and was built under a joint venture between Toyota and GM at a now-closed factory in Fremont, Calif.  (go to article)

EarthTechling -- Leave it to the good folk at MIT to come up with this - researchers at this institution for higher learning have developed a robotic prototype that can autonomously navigate the surface of the ocean to collect surface oil and process it on site. This robot, called Seaswarm, could come in quite useful in oil spill situations, especially should we ever see another one on the magnitude of the BP spill this past summer.

MIT said said this fleet of robotic vehicles make use of a conveyor belt covered with a thin nanowire mesh to absorb oil. The mesh, developed by associate professor Francesco Stellacci, "can absorb up to twenty times its own weight in oil while repelling water. By heating up the material, the oil can be removed and burnt locally and the nanofabric can be reused." One robot alo  (go to article)

green.autoblog.com -- Not so long ago, it was common for automatic transmissions to be referred to as slushboxes, since that's how they often behaved. Rather than use a mechanical clutch, traditional automatic transmissions use a fluid coupling between the engine and the gear-sets to transmit drive torque. This provides some benefits, but isn't a perfect system.

Unless a mechanical clutch is worn out and slipping, it transfers nearly 100 percent of the torque that goes in. Automatics use a torque converter that consists of three main components: the pump, turbine and stator all within a cavity filled with hydraulic fluid. The pump is connected to the engine and, at lower speeds, it spins within the fluid without driving the turbine. As the engine speeds up, the slippage within the fluid increases and the tur  (go to article)

autoblog.com -- The idea of a carbon tax has been floated for over a decade now as a way to more accurately represent the true environmental cost of energy. Many automakers have advocated switching from the current tax on each gallon of gasoline and diesel to a carbon-based tax on all energy sources as a way to help incentivize consumers to buy the cleaner, more efficient vehicles that automakers will be forced to build under new CAFE rules. The biggest advantage of a tax based on the carbon content of a fuel is that it is, at least theoretically, technology neutral. For example, diesel fuel would carry a higher carbon tax than gasoline because it contains 15 percent more carbon while the total cost of using diesel should be about 25 percent less because of its inherent efficiency advantage.

However, t  (go to article)

Fast Company -- Add Shell to the growing list of oil companies investing in alternative fuels. The oil company announced this week that it finalized a massive deal with Cosan SA Industria & Comercio, the world's biggest sugarcane producer, for a biofuel venture in Brazil.

Shell is expected to contribute $1.95 billion, along with 2,740 service stations. Cosan will throw in 23 sugar mills, power plants that produce energy from sugarcane waste, and 1,730 service stations. When all assets involved are taken into account, the venture is worth approximately $12 billion.

It's a fairly safe bet--Brazil's ethanol fuel program is 30 years old, and sugarcane ethanol represented 17.6% of the country's total energy consumption in the transport sector in 2008...  (go to article)

Daily Sun -- Fifty years ago, five countries initiated bold discussions on ways to increase the price of crude oil produced by their respective countries. The talks that followed lasted four days, from September 10 - 14, 1960.

They culminated in the establishment of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). At that time, few could imagine the profound impact the cartel would play in the international oil market and world geo-politics. Today, membership of the organisation, which began with five countries, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, has increased to twelve, with Nigeria as the 11th member state.
 (go to article)

MSNBC -- A highly-promoted feature in the 2011 Ford Explorer are its new inflatable rear seat belts. The not-so-highly-promoted working stiffs that helped make it happen? Human cadavers. Here's how automakers still quietly use dead people to make your car safer.

When automakers and safety advocates show off the results of crash tests, they inevitably run video showing empty vehicles or crash test dummies; back in the 1980s, they even turned the dummies into lovable cartoon characters. What the industry doesn't like talking about is how much of the safety innovation in vehicles was built around testing cadavers.
 (go to article)

AOL Autos -- You’d think a guy with almost 2.8 million miles on his car would want to stay put for a minute. But Guinness Book of World Records holder Irv Gordon, a 70-year-old retired science teacher who bought his 1966 Volvo P1800 new, is aiming to roll his speedometer over to 3 million miles in the next three years. “I got a full tank,” he says, as I climb into the passenger seat of the small red coupe outside a diner in Medford, NY, “And we can go anywhere you want.”
Not Ready For A Museum

I settle into a well-worn seat groove and acclimate myself to the rolling museum surrounding me, including the dash-mounted pushbutton radio, a Smith magnetic gas gauge that waggles wildly back and forth, and an assortment of toggle switches and knobs.  (go to article)

Detroit News --
By NICK BUNKLEY
Published: August 26, 2010

DETROIT — Toyota Motor, the Japanese automaker, said Thursday that it would recall 1.13 million compact cars, days after federal safety regulators upgraded an investigation into numerous complaints about the cars stalling.
 (go to article)

GasBuddy Blog -- I'll delay our last part of our series on car insurance- we'll cover that tomorrow. Back to the topic!

Supply? High. Economy? Lousy. Demand? Virtually flat. So what's driving the increase in wholesale prices today? One little report... about jobless numbers.

Jobless claims dropped more than expected and apparently that means that demand will increase, supply will somehow drop even while driving season is nearing its conclusion, and that the economy will grow at double digit rates. Oh wait- but its highly unlikely that any of that will even happen. We're in the midst of another knee jerk reaction by traders- buying at the first sign of promise... only to be let down later by another bad economic report.

Wholesale...  (go to article)

Port Huron Times Herald -- The company that owns the crude oil pipeline that burst last month in mid-Michigan has no timeline for repairing a dented section of pipe beneath the St. Clair River at Marysville.

That's despite a congresswoman's concerns that any spill there could be "simply catastrophic" to the region's drinking-water supply and the environment.

U.S. Rep. Candice Miller is asking that a Sept. 15 congressional hearing -- regarding the spill on Enbridge Energy Partners' line 6B near Marshall, which sent 820,000 gallons of oil into a Kalamazoo River tributary -- be expanded to examine other problems along the line.

Among those problems is a foot-long dent that was detected a year ago in the riverbed.

Miller, a Harrison Township Republican, told the Free Press on Wednesday she didn't want to be  (go to article)

Gas 2.0 -- In preparation for its official debut at the 2010 Paris Motor Show next month, Honda released some pics and a few details for the much anticipated Honda Fit Hybrid today (called the Jazz in Europe and Japan). The car will be the first modern subcompact parallel hybrid to reach consumers since the release of the original Honda Insight back in 1999—and it is rumored to cost between $16,500 and $18,600 when it goes on sale in Japan next year. At that price it would be the cheapest hybrid available on the market.

Yet, as the news fans out on the internet today, one bit of info buried rather vaguely in the press release that hasn’t been picked up elsewhere piqued my curiosity. Up till now, speculation about the expected fuel economy of the Fit Hybrid ranged anywhere from 60-70 mpg, but accordi  (go to article)

MSN Money -- You know what it costs to buy the car you want, but do you know what it would cost for repairs and insurance? Some 'inexpensive' cars don't stay that way.  (go to article)

Salt Lake Tribune -- The Uinta Basin is suddenly on the map of destinations for drivers of compressed natural gas vehicles, now that Questar Gas and partners have opened a first Utah fueling station well away from the Interstate 15 corridor.

Motorists who use the clean-air alternative to gasoline previously were confined to the state’s main north-south transportation artery, able to range from the Wasatch Front all the way to Southern California but not into Utah’s eastern hinterlands and beyond. That changes with the Western Petroleum station in Naples, just south of Vernal, which celebrated its grand opening Wednesday.

“You’ll be able to get into Colorado, which you never could before,” said Carrie Giles, northern coordinator for the Utah Clean Cities Coalition, a partner in the project. “This absolutely  (go to article)

Road & Track -- Porsche pulled out all of the stops for its 60th birthday party in the U.S. As part of the Monterey Weekend, this fabled German sports car maker fired up/hummed up its 918 hybrid supercar—for the first time in media sight and hearing; it brought over for display several historically significant cars from the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart—one of which I actually got to drive; and it has also posed a contest for its North American owners.

Which is the oldest Porsche in the U.S.? Also, who owns the oldest 911?, 914?, 924?, 928?—a series of 12 different categories. To learn more, gather up your Porsche’s paperwork and check out My Classic Porsche Search at www.Porsche60Years.com. The contest ends October 1, 2010.
 (go to article)

Associated Press -- Oil prices extended gains above $73 a barrel Thursday as regional stock markets advanced, the U.S. dollar softened and recent sharp losses in crude attracted more buyers.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for October delivery was up 85 cents at $73.37 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 89 cents to settle at $72.52 on Wednesday.

Crude has fallen about 11.5 percent from around $82 a barrel early this month as more evidence of a slowing U.S. economy suggested that demand for oil and gas would remain sluggish.

However, traders ignored weak U.S. reports released Wednesday on new home sales and durable goods orders to buy crude based on expectations of growing demand in the medium-term, said Victor Shum, an energy analyst at  (go to article)

Reuters -- By Christopher Johnson Christopher Johnson – Thu Aug 26, 6:39 am ET
LONDON (Reuters) –

Oil rose for a second day on Thursday as investors bought back into the market after it hit 11-week lows, but analysts said the fundamental outlook was still bearish with ample stocks to cover any rebound in demand.

The rally was supported by a 0.5 percent fall in the value of the dollar against a basket of currencies and some technical signs that the market was oversold. A weaker dollar often supports commodities because many of them are priced in the U.S. currency.  (go to article)

Wall Street Jounal -- Crude futures rose Thursday as a large drop in new U.S. jobless claims provided a counter to the negative economic indicators that had earlier sent oil prices toward a two-month low.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery traded 28 cents, or 0.4%, higher at $72.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange traded $1.05, or 1.4%, higher at $74.53 a barrel.

The U.S. Labor Department reported that new jobless claims dropped 31,000 to 473,000 in the week ended Aug. 21, far exceeding the average forecast for a 10,000 decline predicted by economists.
 (go to article)

Reuters - -- By Michael Smith and Alison Leung Michael Smith And Alison Leung – Thu Aug 26, 6:09 am ET

SYDNEY/HONG KONG (Reuters) – BHP Billiton's chief executive flies to North America this week to crank up the charm offensive with Potash Corp shareholders, as a potential Chinese rival bidder reiterated it was "closely watching" the $39 billion deal.

After dousing expectations he would sweeten his hostile bid for the fertilizer giant, BHP Chief Executive Marius Kloppers and his other executives were also preparing  (go to article)

Center for Disease Control and Prevention - Newsroom -- Cost amounts to nearly $500 for each U.S. licensed driver in one year
In a one-year period, the cost of medical care and productivity losses associated with injuries from motor vehicle crashes exceeded $99 billion – with the cost of direct medical care accounting for $17 billion, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The total annual cost amounts to nearly $500 for each licensed driver in the United States, said the study in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention.

The one-year costs of fatal and non-fatal crash-related injuries totaled $70 billion (71 percent of total costs) for people riding in motor vehicles, such as cars and light trucks, $12 billion for motorcyclists, $10 billion for pedestrians, and $5 billion for bicyclists, ...
(continued..)  (go to article)

The Detroit Free Press -- Ford is planning to launch eight new vehicles in India by the middle of the decade as it tries to gain market share in the rapidly growing automotive market.
It also plans to export its recently launched Ford Figo from India to 50 countries.

Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of Ford Asia Pacific and Africa, is expected to make the announcement today at the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers Conference in New Delhi.

Growth in India is critical for Ford. Industry sales in the region are expected to increase from 16 million units in 2009 to an estimated 35 million units by 2018, and Ford expects the region will account for nearly 70% of Ford’s worldwide growth in the next decade.

But in 2009, Ford sold 29,574 vehicles in India or about 1% of industry sales, according to  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- The combination of slowing Chinese economic growth and expanding refineries means this year’s 51 percent decline in profit margins from turning crude into gasoline, diesel and kerosene is poised to worsen.

China National Petroleum Corp. says the amount of oil the nation can process will rise to 490 million metric tons this year from 429 million in 2009. The world’s biggest energy consumer is likely to generate a surplus as much as 15 million metric tons (110 million barrels) this year, possibly boosting second-half net exports by 68 percent to 9.4 million tons from the first six months, Gong Manying, a market-research director at PetroChina Co., said in an Aug. 16 interview from Beijing.

Asian refining profits fell the most in nine months since reaching the 2010 high in March  (go to article)

USA Today -- Electric power steering systems that are making inroads in the U.S., can let even the most manly men opt to drive like "girly girls."

Already in full swing in Europe, electric power steering systems could grow by 38% in the next few years, according to auto supplier Nexteer, which, not coincidentally, makes electric power steering systems.

The systems can be configured to give drivers a range of steering feels. Some cars, such as the Fiat 500, which will come to U.S. Chrylser dealers soon, gives drivers the option to change from a sporty feel -- where drivers have to pull harder on the steering wheel and maintain pressure throughout the turn -- to a looser feel, making it easier to turn.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- General Motors Co. gave Kevin Dorey’s father a paycheck for 34 years, kept him working near home and let him out in time for his kids’ football games.

“‘It’s steady’ -- that’s what my dad always told me about General Motors,” Dorey, 44, said over chicken wings and beer at the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s sports bar in his hometown of Saginaw Township, Michigan. “For me, it’s been anything but steady.”

Kevin Dorey worked at three plants in three years until his most recent location in Orion Township, Michigan, which required a 90-minute commute, closed in November. Previously, he would have received full pay during the layoff while GM revamped the factory for a new car. The United Auto Workers agreed last year to give up that benefit, known as the jobs bank, and the paychecks stopped coming in  (go to article)

AP -- TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - A dent in a pipeline that runs beneath the St. Clair River is not a big safety concern and should have no bearing on how soon the flow of oil can resume following a spill of up to 1 million gallons, company officials said Wednesday.

Pressure in the section extending beneath the riverbed was cut in half and other safety measures were taken after the dent was discovered during a routine inspection a year ago, said Patrick Daniel, president of Enbridge Inc., the Canadian company that owns the pipe.
 (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Gasoline futures may drop below $1.34 a gallon by year-end after confirming a bearish “head-and- shoulders” trading pattern, according to technical analysis by United-ICAP.

A head-and-shoulders pattern occurs when prices form three consecutive peaks, with the middle being the highest. The pattern, with “shoulders” on Jan. 11 and Aug. 3 and the “head” on May 3, signals futures will tumble after exhausting a rally from December 2008 to May that saw prices triple, according to Walter J. Zimmerman Jr., vice president of market analysis at United-ICAP in Jersey City, New Jersey.  (go to article)

ecofriend.org -- Peugeot has announced the technical details of its upcoming hybrid, which is scheduled to hit the market next spring. The 3008 Hybrid4 will be the world’s first diesel “through-the-road” (TtR) hybrid which will be powered by a conventional 163hp 2.0-liter inline-four diesel engine and a 37hp electric motor that propels the rear wheels.

The diesel drives through an electronically controlled and mechanized six-speed manual gearbox that can be shifted either manually or left in the full automatic mode. The vehicle also includes a powerful 8KW high-voltage integrated starter-generator that provides automatic start-stop capability, while charging the onboard nickel-metal hydride battery.

The company claims that this new diesel hybrid will be able to offer 61.9mpg while emitting just 99 gr  (go to article)

AP -- A team of Ohio State University students that set out to build the fastest electric car on the planet is heading home with a broken clutch and a big grin.

The Buckeye Bullet was clocked on Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats at speeds averaging 307 mph, which could set a new record if it is verified by the governing body of motorsports. The old record for an electric car was 246 mph.
 (go to article)

Solveclimate.com -- By Stacy Feldman

Excerpts

"Cellulosic biofuel was once widely heralded as the key to cutting United States' dependence on foreign oil, without the adverse environmental effects of corn ethanol."

"The U.S. has set itself a goal of getting one billion gallons of home-grown fuel from corn stalks, wood chips and other non-edible waste by 2013 and 16 billion gallons by 2022, under the 2007 renewable fuels standard (RFS)."

"Cellulosic ethanol is seen as a promising alternative fuel because feedstock does not compete with food and can be grown on marginal lands that don't require much water. It is also perceived as a low-emissions substitute to corn-based fuels."

"Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS),...the U.S. can bring the first 10 to 20 commercial facilities online..."
 (go to article)

inhabitat.com -- Although net-zero projects have been creating a lot of buzz lately in the field of green building, the Sonnenschiff solar city in Freiburg, Germany is very much net positive.

The self-sustaining city accomplishes this feat through smart solar design and lots and lots of photovoltaic panels pointed in the right direction. It seems like a simple strategy -- but designers often incorporate solar installations as an afterthought, or worse, as a label.

Designed by Rolf Disch, the Sonnenschiff (Solar Ship) and Solarsiedlung (Solar Village) emphasize power production from the start by smartly incorporating a series of large rooftop solar arrays that double as sun shades...produce four times the amount of energy it consumes.

..52 homes make up a neighborhood anchored to Sonnenschiff, a mi  (go to article)

Energy Matters -- Burnt-out power lines and other expensive pieces of electricity grid infrastructure destroyed in the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires could be replaced with stand-alone renewable energy sources like solar panels or wind turbines, according to a report by the Alternative Energy Association.

"The program would be a win for all," said Mr Craig Memery, ATA’s Energy Policy Advocate. "The homeowner gets cheaper, more reliable power; the public spends much less on infrastructure; and the climate benefits from less use of coal-fired power. A well-designed SAPS (Stand Alone Power Supply) will harness 90% or more of its energy from renewable sources. Compare this with energy from the electricity grid in Victoria, where 90% comes from brown coal."
 (go to article)

Business Week -- The government is expected to report Wednesday a 1.1 million barrel increase in commercial crude oil supplies for the week ended Aug. 20, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

The Energy Information Administration releases its weekly report at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

Platts said analysts predicted gasoline stockpiles will shrink by 875,000 barrels, distillate stocks -- including diesel and heating oil -- will increase by 950,000 barrels and refinery utilization will dip by 0.5 percentage point to 89.5 percent.

A reading above or below estimates can influence market trading.

For the week that ended Aug. 13, the department said crude supplies shrank by 800,000 barrels to 354.2 million barrels; gasoline inventories were nearly unchanged at 223.3 million b  (go to article)

NY Times -- HOUSTON — Even after dozens of witnesses, a hundred hours of testimony and three months of investigation, a chairman of a federal panel exploring the Deepwater Horizon disaster admitted Wednesday that he still lacked a simple fact: Who was the top authority on the oil rig when it exploded?

But the hearings have been dominated by disagreements among lawyers for the companies involved: BP, which owned the well and leased the rig; Transocean, the rig’s owner; and Halliburton, which poured cement around the well.  (go to article)

LA Times -- As efforts continue to clean the oil that gushed from the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico, a team of scientists has found that nature's microbial helpers are hard at work too — and doing a better job than researchers had expected.

Data collected in May and June showed populations of carbon-eating bacteria were increasing in parts of a plume of oil drifting in deep water in the gulf, said lead author Terry Hazen, head of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's ecology departmen  (go to article)

AP -By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer Ramit Plushnick-masti, Associated Press Writer -- HOUSTON – A critical device at the center of an investigation into the Gulf oil rig explosion didn't undergo a rigorous recertification process in 2005 as required by federal regulators, a worker responsible for maintaining the equipment told investigators Wednesday.

Mark Hay of rig-owner Transocean said the blowout preventer — designed to prevent a spill in the case of an explosion — was not recertified because it was being constantly maintained. Recertifying the five-story device requires completely disassembling it out of the water and can take as long as three months to complete.

---MORE---  (go to article)

AFP - Wed Aug 25, 7:38 pm ET -- BP has scrapped plans to drill in the Arctic, where a new oil rush is expected, amid fears such a move would be "political madness" after the Gulf oil spill, Britain's Guardian daily said Thursday.

The energy giant said it was no longer planning to try and win an exploration licence in Greenland, it said.

"We are not participating in the bid round," a spokesman for the British firm told the paper without giving details on why the decision was taken.

BP's decision came after Scottish exploration group Cairn Energy revealed Tuesday it had discovered gas off Greenland's coast and said there may be other hydrocarbon resources in the region.

The news fuelled expectations of a new oil rush, but also sparked concerns among environmental campaigners over the effect of energy firms tar  (go to article)

USAToday.com -- One in 12 drivers admitted driving drunk at least once over the course of a year, a government survey released Wednesday found.
Twenty percent of the 6,999 people surveyed said they had driven in the past year within two hours of drinking an alcoholic beverage, yet an overwhelming majority — four out of five people — consider drinking and driving a major threat to their safety, according to the 2008 survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

 (go to article)