Recent Gas News/GasBuddy Blog

The National -- Iran has warned of a worsening oil glut and predicts OPEC will urge its members to comply with their production quotas when its ministers meet on Wednesday.

The second-biggest OPEC producer also said there was no need for the group to revise output targets that had remained unchanged since December 2008.

“If the current oil production continues, the oil market will face an oversupply in the second half of 2010,” Mohammed Ali Khatibi, the country’s OPEC governor, said in remarks reported yesterday on the Iranian oil ministry website SHANA. “OPEC will ask its members to comply with their quotas until the economic crisis is over.”  (go to article)

The Wall Street Journal -- NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude oil and gold futures turned lower in morning trade Friday after a survey showed U.S. consumers were less optimistic in March. Crude oil for April delivery was down 2 cents at $82.09 a barrel in electronic trade. It earlier rose to a high of $83.20 a barrel, lifted by the International Energy Agency's forecast for higher global oil demand. Gold for April was down 1.10, or 0.1%, at $1,107.10 an ounce, off a morning high of $1,119.50 an ounce.  (go to article)

The Economist -- Transport: Manufacturers are using a variety of chemical additives and new materials to reduce the environmental impact of tyres...  (go to article)

The Economist -- Natural gas is becoming less like oil and more like coal, which is a good thing...  (go to article)

Detnews.com -- Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News

Ford Motor Co.'s latest internal employee survey shows morale is up sharply and employees' confidence in the company's future has reached an all-time high.

That is according to Ford's latest quarterly report card, a copy of which was obtained by The Detroit News.

It shows that 89 percent of employees have a positive outlook, compared to less than 55 percent in the middle of 2008. The survey was conducted in December.

"It's a very positive reflection of employee confidence in Ford," said spokeswoman Marcey Evans, who confirmed the authenticity of the report. "It reflects their confidence in our company and their confidence in our products."

The December results were 2 percentage points higher than the previous survey, conducted last June.

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Automotive News -- WASHINGTON - During Congressional testimony Wednesday, Feb. 24, Toyota President Akio Toyoda apologized to the U.S. and American Toyota vehicle owners for any company safety lapses and vowed to change the way the company responds to customer complaints about vehicle safety in the future. The hearing was called to address public concerns about sudden unintended acceleration of certain Toyota vehicles and the company's response to the problem.

"I am deeply sorry for any accident that Toyota drivers have experienced," Toyoda told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He suggested that Toyota's quick expansion in the past several years may have led Toyota to focus too much on company growth and not enough on safety as the leading priority.
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Businessweek.com -- By Leigh Phillips

The European Union is to surpass its target of 20 percent consumption of energy from renewable sources by 2020, according to national forecasts submitted to the European Commission.

The EU executive found that overall, the bloc will achieve a 20.3 percent share of renewables in its energy mix.

According to a summary published on Thursday, 10 out of the EU's 27 member states are on track to exceed their national targets for renewable energy, with a further 12 set to meet their goals using domestic sources of renewable energy.

Excerpts

Europe's renewable energy directive sets an overall EU target of 20 percent and individual binding national targets. The bloc defines biofuels, biomass, wind, solar energy as well as hydro power as being renewable.

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Bloomberg.com -- Cnooc Ltd., China’s biggest offshore oil explorer, said it will invest $3.1 billion for a 50 percent share of Bridas Corporation, giving it a stake in Argentina’s largest oil exporter.

Excerpts

Bridas, controlled by the Bulgheroni family, has exploration and production operations in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.

“Given China’s increasing reliance on imported crude oil and the nation’s robust demand in fuel driven by the rapid growth in automobile sales, it is a priority for the Chinese government and its companies to secure resources globally,”

PetroChina Co. in December won approval from the Canadian government to buy a stake in two Alberta oil-sands projects for C$1.9 billion ($1.86 billion  (go to article)

WIRED.COM -- By Keith Barry

When product designers at Seymourpowell sought to design a new luxury aircraft, they didn’t have a need for speed in mind. In fact, the Aircruise concept takes design cues from a high-end hotel, inviting guests to stay awhile.

Excerpts

Seymourpowell calls the ship a “clipper in the clouds,” and it’s certainly reminiscent of the golden age of flying on Pan Am’s Stratocruisers — but a lot more environmentally friendly.

Hydrogen provides lift while solar panels cover the top of the ship to augment the fuel cells powering on-board systems.

Though it’s strictly a design concept, Seymourpowell created a detailed list of tech specs and Samsung says the concept could be realized by 2015.
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WIRED.COM -- By Jason Paur

As stories of Toyotas suddenly accelerating as if possessed continue making the news, many are starting to wonder if it’s really anything to be worried about. History shows most cases of unintended acceleration are more often than not a problem with the driver, not the equipment. And it appears to be a problem most often found in North America.

Excerpts

The National Transportation Safety Board has received 12,700 such complaints in the past decade, according to Der Spiegel.

In a New York Times op-ed piece, Robert Wright calculates the chance of being involved in a fatal car accident in the United States during the next two years is 0.01907 percent. If you drive one of the suspected Toyotas, your chances increase to .01935 percent.
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Associated Press -- SAN DIEGO – A memo drafted for a congressional panel says that investigators with Toyota Motor Corp. and the federal government were unable to make a Prius speed out of control as its owner said it did on a California freeway, casting doubt on the driver's story.

The draft memo, obtained Saturday by The Associated Press, said the experts who examined and test drove the car could not replicate the problems James Sikes said he encountered.

Sikes, 61, called 911 on Monday to report losing control of his Prius as the hybrid reached speeds of 94 mph. A California Highway Patrol officer helped Sikes bring the vehicle to a safe stop on Interstate 8 near San Diego.  (go to article)

CNN -- Los Angeles, California (CNN ) -- When former in-house defense attorney Dimitrios Biller resigned from his top post at Toyota, he walked out with something potentially more valuable than his nearly $4 million severance package.
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He took some 6,000 internal documents, including memos and e-mails potentially damaging to his former employer.
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"Not potentially, they are. They are very damaging," Biller said.
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Biller, now entangled in litigation with the auto giant, defended the company in product liability and negligence cases from 2003 to 2007. He says he quit because of what he alleges were "criminal acts" by Toyota -- specifically, withholding information the company was legally required to turn over to plaintiffs' lawyers during litigation.

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Detroit Free Press -- General Motors and Chrysler aren't the only ones trying to bounce back from their bankruptcies last year.

The UAW also faces a historic challenge of rebuilding not just its membership -- which has fallen from a high of 1.5 million in 1980 to a historic low below 470,000 -- but also its image.

How low the union's image has sunk became apparent during congressional hearings in late 2008, when GM and Chrysler sought federal aid. Politicians, bondholders and others over the next several months lashed out at the union and blamed it for the automakers' woes.

"The vast majority of my constituents are not making anywhere near what GM, Chrysler and Ford pay their employees," U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., said at the time....

[ed - and who's fault is that, Senator?]  (go to article)

Detroit Free Press -- Fiat, the Italian carmaker that helped Chrysler emerge from bankruptcy, may wait to turn around the U.S. business before deciding on a share sale or spin-off for its automotive division.

The Italian company's stock has risen 21% this month on speculation that CEO Sergio Marchionne may carve out Fiat's biggest unit as a new company. Fiat executives have so far sent mixed signals about whether an initial public offering of the division will take place.

A separation of the auto manufacturing operations, which generated 56% of Fiat's revenue last year, would give Marchionne an entity to facilitate future alliances, and a share sale would generate cash for international expansion.

The maker of Puntos and Ferraris must show progress at Chrysler, which it owns 20%, before convincing ....  (go to article)

Mucrury News -- Marin County energy officials have filed a complaint with the California Public Utilities Commission over what they claim are attempts by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to quash their plans to offer an alternative, cleaner energy source to county residents.
The Marin Energy Authority announced the complaint Friday, claiming that PG&E was violating state law by seeking to kill the Marin Clean Energy initiative.

The initiative, a program of the authority, is intended to increase the use of renewable energy in Marin County. It would also place the authority in the position of a competitor with PG&E as a provider of electricity in the area.

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Charlotte Observer -- Siemens Energy's 825-job announcement this week gave a big bounce to Charlotte's growing energy hub, which promises to help refocus the city's banker-intensive image.

Far fewer so far are the jobs in green energy, such as solar power and energy efficiency, that Gov. Bev Perdue and President Obama have touted. All but four of the 15 energy-jobs announcements the Charlotte Chamber has made in the past two years focused on nuclear or fossil-fueled power.
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The Miami Herald -- One piece of the American effort to find a way to make solar energy cheap enough that everyone will want it is unfolding in a modest redbrick building in this Midwestern city once known as one of the nation's top makers of glass.

Xunming Deng, a physicist, started a solar company in Ohio eight years ago as a spinoff from his research at the University of Toledo. He's attracted $40 million in venture capital, and designed and purchased manufacturing equipment. He now thinks that his Xunlight Corp. is on the brink of profitability and fast growth. It expects certification this spring and is getting ready to ramp up production.

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The Detroit Bureau -- A high price up front can save you money at the back end.

You can do the math the same way for any battery vehicle. Take the 2010 Prius. In real-world conditions, most motorists are getting around 45 mpg, which works out to (where’s my calcuator, ah…) 333 gallons annually. At $2.50 a gallon, that’s about $833 annually. A sedan averaging 28 mpg would use 536 gallons, at a cost of $1340. The annual savings? About $507. And during a 7-year ownership? A little more than $3500.

Now, there are plenty of other factors we could work in, such as maintenance, resale, and so on, but this is a good start for making a comparison. You’ll have to figure out the numbers for factors like helping the environment – never mind getting access to the car pool lane on your local freeway.  (go to article)

Chicago Tribune -- Months have passed since anyone has waved hello to one another in Waterman or Shabbona in rural DeKalb County. Some people claim they've even stopped going to church to avoid having to talk to former friends.
"It's gone. The country way of living is gone," declares Susan Flex, who lives in Waterman with her husband and their nine children.
The animosity stems from the greenest of energy sources: a wind farm.

The turbines started arriving last summer, at a rate of two a day, their parts trucked in on flatbeds. Today 126 turbines dot the county, with another 19 just over the border in Lee County. They have been making enough electricity since December to power 55,000 homes, roughly twice the needs of Oak Park.

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The Detroit News -- A California prosecutor filed suit against Toyota Motor Corp. on Friday, claiming the Japanese automaker knowingly sold millions of defective vehicles.

The first civil lawsuit of its kind in the United States came as Toyota told Congress that it has never turned over highly confidential internal company documents dubbed "Books of Knowledge."

The lawsuit also named Toyota Motor Sales USA and the automaker's Japanese and U.S. lending arms.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas' action deals a fresh blow to Toyota, which is struggling to recover after recalling more than 8.5 million vehicles for sudden acceleration concerns worldwide.
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St. Petersburg Times -- Sheriff's deputies arrested three people who they say staged an auto crash on Sheldon Road on Friday night.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is reporting that Amauri Perez Delgado, 40, Zoraida Domitila Zayas Padilla, 41, and Frank Lopez Masso, 30, met before the crash to plan how they'd carry it out. About 10 p.m., they staged a crash at Sheldon Road and Hamilton Avenue, according to the Sheriff's Office.

They were planning to get money from their insurance companies by filing an insurance claim with an unknown pain management clinic, their arrest reports say.

They were charged with participation in a staged crash and taken to the Orient Road Jail. Bail was set at $7,500 each.

The arrests come amid news that the number of staged auto crashes appears to be increasing.  (go to article)

SeekingAlpha.com -- Carl T. Delfeld

Excerpts

Developing countries, particularly China and India, are building fast and furiously.

"Environmental concerns are always an issue, but spent uranium fuel can be recycled safely, as is now done in France. Plans to use thorium as a fuel ...lessen the need for recycling since it burns much more efficiently than uranium.

One other benefit is that the by-product of thorium-fueled reaction is contaminated plutonium, which is unsuitable for use in making nuclear weapons.

"Thorium is also plentiful: the U.S. and Canada each have more than 100,000 tons of reserves...transition to thorium would also be relatively easy since it can be used in existing reactors..."

America is a significant player and Westinghouse Electric is building four nuclear reactors in China.

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SeekingAlpha.com -- by Eamon Keane

It's difficult to read an article on natural gas without the mention of the US' 100 years of natural gas supply. It forms the basis of suggestions for a scaling up of the natural gas intensity of transport and power generation. I'll look at the evidence here.

Excerpts

The Potential Gas Committee (PGC) arrived at similar figures. The 100 year figure originates from their latest report. The PGC figures say nothing about when and at what cost natural gas resources will be produced.

"I think it might not be a bad idea to examine the faith-based assumption that the US has a virtually unlimited supply of natural gas from shale formations that can be extracted at a low price for the indefinite future."

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The Daily Reporter -- A manufacturer and union predict more construction work from a state renewable energy bill, while business groups argue the measure would drive jobs out of Wisconsin.

The bill would support energy-conservation projects by increasing the amount the state charges ratepayers. It also would set a 2025 deadline for 25 percent of state electricity to come from renewable sources, such as wind or solar.

Supporters of the bill, such as solar panel manufacturer Helios USA LLC and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Wisconsin local unions, are rallying for the bill.

The proposed changes, especially the conservation mandate, mean jobs for electricians, construction laborers and pipe fitters, said Dave Boetcher, government affairs coordinator for the local unions.

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National Public Radio -- How do you double the value of a Yugo? Fill the gas tank.

What do you call a Yugo that breaks down after 100 miles? An overachiever.

Remember the Yugo? Jason Vuic would like to remind you of its not-so-illustrious story. The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History is Vuic's book on the tiny, no-frills, breakdown-prone automobile imported from communist Yugoslavia in the 1980s that is better known today as a punchline than a piece of machinery that might (or might not) take you from point A to point Y.

Despite his book's title, Vuic says that the Yugo is far from the worst car in history. There was even a time when the car ignited a sort of Yugo-mania in America. Between 1984 and 1992, Americans bought 150,000 Yugos.
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Physorg.com -- Part of the headache of having to constantly recharge batteries is not just how often they need to be charged, but also the time it takes to charge them. In a new study, researchers have proposed a charging method that could greatly reduce the charging time of lithium-ion batteries, which are used in everything from electronic devices to electric vehicles. The new method uses an additional oscillating electric field (besides the charging field) that should be capable of charging a lithium-ion battery in a fraction of the time compared with traditional methods......  (go to article)

reuters.com -- (Reuters) - British Columbia has given the green light to 19 private-sector clean energy projects that will generate enough power to supply nearly 218,000 homes in Canada's Pacific Coast province.

Green Business

The approvals, announced late on Thursday by BC Hydro, the government-owned electricity utility, mark the first phase in the provincial government's long-delayed push to generate more green power.

Fourteen of the 19 proposals are 14 run-of-river hydroelectric projects, in which river water is diverted through turbines to produce power without the use of dams. The remainder are wind power projects.

Combined, the projects will generate more than 2,400 gigawatt hours of electricity annually.

Another 28 projects remain under consideration, said BC Hydro, which will

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MSN autos -- Hybrids and electric cars are increasingly being called silent road hazards. So what should they sound like?  (go to article)

SeekingAlpha.com -- By Wayne A. Corbitt

There is an intense debate raging surrounding the future direction of crude oil prices. The bulls say the upcoming driving season will spur demand once again to give crude a push higher. They also argue that demand from China and other countries with healthier economies than our own will continue to soak up supply.

The bears argue that China is in the process of draining excess liquidity to dampen speculation and apply the brakes on an overheating economy. The bears also contend that with our "mirage" economy is so weak (just watch the employment numbers) that demand in this country will tail off.

In cases such as these, the proper thing to do is to not get caught up in these fundamental debates but to look at what the market tells us.  (go to article)

Physorg.com -- Excerpts

"Methane hydrate is an ice-like substance that is sometimes called “combustible ice”...
Methane hydrate is an attractive energy source due to its high energy density: one cubic meter of combustible ice contains about 164 cubic meters of regular natural gas. This high energy density is due to the fact that methane is trapped within the hydrate crystal structure and greatly compressed."

Besides China, countries including the US, Japan, and the Republic of Korea have plans to tap the natural gas hydrate buried in their territories.

Last summer, US scientists on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico discovered pockets of highly concentrated methane hydrate estimated to contain 6,700 trillion cubic feet of gas.  (go to article)

inhabitat.com -- by Ariel Schwartz

Eventually, we’d like to think that everyone will be driving around in all-electric cars. But in the meantime, it’s important to develop efficient gas engine technology. That’s where a new system from Transonic Combustion comes in. The California-based startup has developed a fuel-injection system that can improve the efficiency of gasoline engines by 50%.

A standard engine using Transonic Combustion’s system gets 64 miles per gallon in highway driving–even more impressive than hybrids like the Prius, which gets only 48 miles per gallon. So why is the system so effective? According to MIT Technology Review, “Transonic’s injection system varies from direct injection in two ways: it uses supercritical fluids and doesn’t require a spark to ignite the fuel.  (go to article)

MSNBC.COM -- by Bob Sullivan

We may never know why runaway Toyotas suddenly seem to be everywhere. The scariest possibility, however, is that faulty computers are driving some victims to their deaths with frightening randomness. Suspicions that an elusive software glitch in computer-controlled throttles is to blame, combined with powerful images and harrowing tales, has tapped into our primal, science-fiction fueled fear of killer computers.

Excerpts

Concerns about random computer errors are justified, Fisher said, but it's important to know that mechanical linkages also fail at random intervals.

"A cable could get kinked, the springs could get stuck, the springs could break. A stuck-open throttle could happen with a mechanical failure, and did happen," he said.  (go to article)

BBC News -- Prosecutors in California are suing Toyota, claiming the Japanese carmaker sold hundreds of thousands of vehicles that it knew had defects.
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The world's largest carmaker has recalled millions of vehicles because of problems accelerating and braking.
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Regulators have linked five deaths to crashes allegedly caused by accelerator problems and are investigating dozens of others.

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FORBES.COM -- By Christopher Helman

Occidental Petroleum is the untrendiest of the big oil companies. Unlike its bigger rivals, Oxy has no refineries and no interest in Canadian oil sands, liquefied natural gas or deepwater prospects. The Los Angeles company is unabashedly partial to oil, with 73% of its reserves in crude; most operators are more than half natural gas.

Now Occidental ( OXY - news - people ) is breaking ranks in another way, by upsetting the commonplace view that the days of "easy oil" in the U.S. are over. Last year Oxy announced a new find outside Bakersfield, in Kern County, Calif., which is shaping up to be the biggest onshore oil discovery the U.S. has seen in three decades. It likely holds more than 1 billion barrels of oil (and natural gas equivalents) that will be easy and  (go to article)

FORBES.COM -- By Hannah Elliott

Of the top 10 industries that received the most consumer complaints last year, three were auto related.

New-car dealers, used-car dealers and auto service and repair shops registered almost 54,000 complaints in North America, according to the Better Business Bureau. They were the No. 4, 7 and 10th-most complaint-ridden industries of 2009. It's enough to make anyone blanch at the thought of buying a new car.

"Difficult times lead to creativity," says Bill Gerhard, AAA's director of financial services. "People come up with sensational hooks to try and get you to the dealerships, and once they lure you in, the goal is to sell you something and generate as much profit for the dealership as they can."

It helps to know what you may face before hitting the showroom.  (go to article)

Investors Business Daily -- Research director Gabriel Calzada Alvarez didn't object to wind power itself, but found that when a government artificially props up this industry with subsidies, higher electrical costs (31%), tax hikes (5%) and government debt follow. Fact is, these subsidies have the same "Cuisinart" effect on jobs as wind-generating propeller blades have on birds. Every green job costs $800,000 to create and 90% of them are temporary, he found.

Alvarez made no bones about the lessons of Spain for the Obama administration, which has big plans for "green jobs." His report warned of "considerable employment consequences" from "self-inflicted economic wounds."  (go to article)

Detroit Free Press -- Ford has long dominated the police car market, but will face more competition as it tries to hold onto that market share, even with the all-new Ford Police Interceptor that it is introducing today.
The Crown Victoria, introduced in the early 1980s, has long dominated police car sales and accounts for about 75% of the police car market with annual sales that exceed 45,000, Ford officials said in November.Ford confirmed last year that the new Interceptor will be based on the company’s Ford Taurus full-size sedan and will replace Ford’s Crown Victoria-based Police Interceptor in 2011.“The bottom line is they have a police car that defines the American police car,” said Jim Hall, managing director of 2953 Analytics in Birmingham. “Police departments love it for a million rea  (go to article)

Houston Chronicle -- From enthusiasm for cleaner-burning natural gas and energy efficiency, to big-spending plans for carbon capture projects and renewable power, talk at the CERA-Week conference suggests the energy business is thinking greener.

“If you read the popular press, one would think maybe there's a pause button on climate change,” Patricia DiOrio, a director for IHS Cambridge Energy Associates, said during a panel discussion on Friday, the closing day of the conference hosted by IHS CERA.

“But I didn't see that here. The energy industry is very committed to moving forward on reducing carbon.”

A number of events have sidetracked efforts to pass sweeping laws that would put a price on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the United States.
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Morning Times -- February was the busiest month yet for the natural gas industry in Bradford County, with 26 wells drilled over the month’s 28 days, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).  (go to article)

Detroit Free Press -- Korean battery maker LG Chem and its U.S. subsidiary Compact Power on Friday confirmed their plans to build a $303-million plant to make lithium-ion battery cells for electric vehicles, including the Chevrolet Volt.

The plant, which is to break ground this summer, is to be running in 2012. By 2013, LG Chem expects to have hired 400 people for the plant.

"LG Chem's selection of Holland to house the company's battery cell facility was a balanced decision based on the city's excellent infrastructure and proven, quality workforce," said Jae Ham, senior vice president of LG Chem, in a statement Friday.

The factory is to be able to make enough lithium-ion battery cells for 50,000 to 200,000 vehicle battery packs a year.

LG Chem's new 650,000-square-foot lithium-ion battery plant ....  (go to article)

Detroit Free Press -- General Motors wants to pay factory workers making advanced technology items for electric cars less than $14 per hour - lower than a controversial second-tier wage reached in the 2007 national contract.

GM and the UAW have reached the understanding on pay as part of a framework for a future contract, the Free Press has learned.

"This should set a standard for other companies" as automakers do in-house parts manufacturing for next-generation vehicles, said Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

The new framework - which also includes fewer job classifications and new work rules - was hashed out late last summer with the intention of being applied to new hourly workers at GM's Brownstown Township battery pack and Baltimore electric-  (go to article)

Miami Herald -- ALLAHASSEE -- A Nike swoosh or the Golden Arches might one day call to consumers from the back of your car.

The legislation that could allow some companies to stamp their corporate logo on Florida license plates as a way to bring in some cash for the state -- and save drivers some money -- is likely to get a vote in a Senate committee next week.

The vote is likely this coming week after the Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee adds the language to a shell bill that will be before the committee, said its chairman, Sen. Mike Fasano, who floated the idea a few weeks ago.

``We're going to have to approve them,'' likely on a case-by-case basis, Fasano said. ``We certainly don't want the Pussycat Lounge on somebody's tag.''  (go to article)

Wall Street Journal -- Caterpillar Inc. is considering relocating some heavy-equipment overseas production to a new U.S. plant, part of a growing movement among manufacturers to bring more operations back home—a shift that will likely spark fierce competition among states for new manufacturing jobs.
The trend, known as onshoring or reshoring, is gaining momentum as a weak U.S. dollar makes it costlier to import products from overseas. Manufacturers are also counting on White House jobs incentives, as well as their ability to negotiate lower prices from U.S. suppliers who were hurt by the downturn and willing to bargain.
After a decade of rapid globalization, economists say companies are seeing disadvantages of offshore production, including shipping costs, complicated logistics, and quality issues.  (go to article)

Detroit News -- General Motors Co. will keep making big trucks and SUVs because U.S. buyers demand them, but a major portion of them will be gas-electric hybrids in the near future, retiring Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said.

Lutz didn't give details, but said GM must apply hybrid technology to more vehicles in order to meet fuel-economy standards that will rise 40 percent to an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. The cost will likely be spread across GM's lineup, since charging individual buyers for a hybrid system would make vehicles too expensive. GM has seven hybrids in its lineup now.

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Boston Globe -- PORTLAND, Maine — The state’s highest court yesterday upheld a law that aims to hasten the permit process for wind farms in the state.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court unanimously rejected arguments from the Friends of Lincoln Lakes nonprofit group, which challenged the Department of Environmental Protection’s approval of a 40-turbine wind power project on Rollins Mountain in Penobscot County.  (go to article)

FORBES.COM -- IRVING, Texas -- Exxon Mobil Corp. said Friday it is has finalized financing and sales agreements so it can begin developing a liquefied natural gas project in Papua New Guinea.

The company said the development positions it and its partners to meet growing energy demand in developing Asian countries.

The project includes gas production and processing facilities, onshore and offshore pipelines with capacity of 6.6 million tons per year.

Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said its affiliate, Esso Highlands Ltd., will begin work on the project now that the agreements are complete.

The initial phase is estimated to cost $15 billion and deliveries are to begin in 2014. Funding will come from co-venturers and market-rate loans.

The project is expected to produce more  (go to article)

FORBES.COM -- By JAMES MacPHERSON

BISMARCK, N.D. -- Oil companies will be able to tap more than 5 million gallons of Missouri River water daily for drilling operations under a pair of projects announced Friday by North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven.

The state and a water district in McKenzie County will share the cost of a $7 million project that will pipe about 4 million gallons of Missouri River water daily from Williston to a water depot some seven miles away, where it would be sold to oil companies.

A second project, pegged at $150,000, will tap into an existing pipeline near Dodge in Dunn County to provide up to 1.4 million gallons of water daily to the oil industry. The pipeline brings water to Dickinson from Lake Sakakawea, a 180-mile-long reservoir on the Missouri River.
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WCCO -- The rites of spring: the snow melts, the trees bud, and gasoline prices go up. But this year, gas prices are rising while people are cutting back on driving.

So what's the real story behind the jump at the pump?

According to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report, the average gallon of regular unleaded cost $2.75 on the morning of March 11.

Over the past month, gasoline has gone up about 25 cents. But compared to last year at this time, we're paying almost a dollar more. The average  (go to article)

Reuters -- Coming not so soon and probably not to a house near you is the home solar hydrogen refueling station -- Honda Motor Co's latest idea in its drive to make hydrogen the fuel of choice for zero emission cars.

The Japanese auto giant believes hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles offer the best long-term alternative to fossil fuels and the company showed on Friday a refueling breakthrough that it says points to a home version down the road.

Most major automakers have spent billions of dollars in researching hydrogen-powered fuel cells, tempted by the idea of a car that uses no gasoline and emits only water vapor. But Honda is widely seen as the hydrogen leader, while others like General Motors put more effort into battery-powered electric vehicles like the upcoming Volt.  (go to article)

Reuters -- LIBREVILLE, March 12 - Gabon, Africa's seventh largest oil producer, is offering 42 additional offshore deepwater and ultra-deepwater oil blocks for exploration, the government said on Friday.

The West African nation, which currently produces roughly 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day and relies on energy for about half of its gross domestic product, is seeking bids from international firms by May 5, it said.  (go to article)

Technology Review -- Transonic Combustion, a startup based in Camarillo, CA, has developed a fuel-injection system it says can improve the efficiency of gasoline engines by more than 50 percent. A test vehicle equipped with the technology gets 64 miles per gallon in highway driving, which is far better than more costly gas-electric hybrids, such as the Prius, which gets 48 miles per gallon on the highway.
The key is heating and pressurizing gasoline before injecting it into the combustion chamber, says Mike Rocke, Transonic's vice president of business development. This puts it into a supercritical state that allows for very fast and clean combustion, which in turn decreases the amount of fuel needed to propel a vehicle. The company also treats the gasoline with a catalyst that "activates" it, partially oxidiz  (go to article)