I have a few essays in the queue (including a nifty biodiesel story), but I thought I would comment on an article in today’s Deseret News out of Salt Lake City. The article was entitled “Will U.S. Slap Tax on Big Oil Profits?”. (1) A few excerpts from the article, followed by my comments: Republican Sen. Arlen Specter said Sunday that the U.S. Congress should consider taxing the “windfall profits” reaped by oil companies as a result of surging crude oil prices. I understand the frustration with high gas prices even as oil companies rake in record profits. But what is Specter trying to accomplish? Does the good senator believe this will magically bring the price of oil down? Will… Continue»

Is Peak Oil upon us? This opinion seem to be gaining in popularity due to the recent price spikes in crude oil and gasoline. Many feel that the markets are signaling that the peak is here. I have previously written several articles about the rise in gasoline prices. Gasoline prices are increasing due to a number of factors, including rising oil prices. However, the principal reason for rising gasoline prices is falling gasoline inventories, which have been exacerbated this year by some refineries still being off line due to damage from Hurricane Katrina. Oil prices are a different matter. There are certainly some supply/demand issues, in that there is less excess capacity than there used to be. Geopolitical events have… Continue»

It seems like a lot longer than a month ago that I started this, but my first substantive post was on March 23rd – just one month ago. I had put off starting a blog for a long time, because there are just so many out there, and I didn’t want to end up talking to myself. I wondered if I could say anything that someone else, somewhere, hadn’t already covered in detail. I happened upon The Ergosphere one day while doing some research, and I thought “This guy is really doing something important here. He is educating people on a very important issue.” I contacted him and we had a bit of an e-mail exchange, and he encouraged me… Continue»

I read a nice opinion piece a few days ago in the Buffalo News (1). It was written by John Paul Rossi, a history professor at Penn State Erie. The essay addressed the need for increasing the fuel efficiency standards in the U.S. Professor Rossi writes: One of the reasons the United States is so dependent on foreign oil today is that Americans have replaced reasonably fuel-efficient cars with vans, pickups and SUVs, which average 21 mpg. This trend can be reversed by providing motor vehicle manufacturers and American consumers with incentives to purchase more fuel-efficient vehicles and discourage purchase of gas guzzlers. A study by the Consumer Federation of America points out that “an increase of 5 miles per… Continue»

I have an essay on conservation ready to go, with some discussion of how Europe deals with high gas prices. However, a couple of newsworthy items are worth commenting on. The Oil Drum beat me to the punch on Chuck Schumer’s grandstanding, but another article caught my eye yesterday. I read a news release from published a study (if you can call it that) by Tim Hamilton, in which he concluded that “corporate markups and profiteering are responsible for spring price spikes” (2). Hamilton claims that the oil industry has blamed 3 factors for rising gasoline prices. They are: 1. Higher oil prices.2. Higher costs for reformulated gasoline.3. The switch from MTBE to ethanol. He then goes on to attack… Continue»

I received a story today from U. S. Newswire that goes to show that some Democrats also don’t “get it”. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on news reports that the price of oil has skyrocketed to more than $70 a barrel: “The Republican Rubber Stamp Congress has passed two energy bills, costing taxpayers $12 billion for giveaways to big oil companies. But the Republican bills clearly have done nothing to lower gas prices, as the price of a barrel of oil has settled above $70 a barrel – the highest price in our history. Even the Chairman of the Federal Reserve agrees that gas prices are decreasing the purchasing power of American families and depressing… Continue»

The federal subsidy for ethanol production – currently $0.51 per gallon – is set to expire at the end of 2007 (1). Unless congress extends the credit (again), consumers may finally get to pay market price for ethanol. Prior to the recent passage of the energy bill, it was widely assumed that the credit would be extended, because ethanol is still not competitive with gasoline without the credit. In fact, the recently released Hirsch report (2) on Peak Oil stated: The market for ethanol derived from biomass is influenced by federal requirements and facilitated by generous federal and state tax subsidies. And: Ethanol from biomass is currently utilized in the transportation market, not because it is competitive, but because it… Continue»

I just ran across this article yesterday at CNNMoney.com. The original article can be found here: Who’s to blame for high gas prices? There are a number of statements that the article makes that touch on some important issues. Specifically, the article highlights the irresponsibility of some politicians when it comes to energy issues. It is an election year, and instead of discussing ideas that could actually help us deal with the difficult energy issues in front of us, we get a bunch of finger-pointing and posturing. Below I will quote various portions of the article, and comment: Last week, Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl and Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter proposed legislation that would increase regulatory scrutiny of Big… Continue»

Disclaimer First, I want to make a little disclaimer. In this essay, I will again be discussing the energy balance of gasoline versus ethanol. I am not doing this to suggest that gasoline is a great fuel of choice, but merely to show that grain ethanol is not. Gasoline has its own set of baggage, most notably that it is not sustainable. But the purpose of this essay is merely to examine claims from ethanol advocates who would have us believe that ethanol is actually more energy efficient to produce than gasoline. Correspondence With Minnesota Dept. of Agriculture Following my last posting on the energy balance of corn ethanol versus gasoline, I got into an e-mail exchange with an official… Continue»

Surely you have heard the claim. Proponents of ethanol will claim that it takes less fossil fuels to produce a BTU of ethanol than to produce a BTU of gasoline. Here is the claim from a Minnesota Department of Agriculture site (1): A United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Economic Research Service Report number 814 titled “Estimating The Net Energy Balance Of Corn Ethanol: An Update” was published in July of 2002. The Conclusion states in part: “Corn ethanol is energy efficient, as indicated by an energy ratio of 1.34; that is, for every Btu dedicated to producing ethanol, there is a 34-percent energy gain.” A similar study done in 1995 indicated only a 1.24 energy ratio. The concept of… Continue»