Free Republic

The performance and strategy of Exxon Mobil Corp. is a good place to start in grasping the twilight years of the investor-owned oil sector that has dominated the extraction of petroleum resources since the industry began in the 1850s. Putting aside the Valdez debacle of 1989, Exxon has been the best-managed of the oil majors. Exxon has avoided the faked-reserve scandals that have plagued rival Royal Dutch/Shell PLC, the Alaskan pipeline ruptures and fatal refinery explosions that forced out the CEO of BP PLC, and thoughtmore than twice before committing to its multibillion-dollar bets on gargantuan offshore oil-production platforms, heavy-oil...

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Is Russia -- the world's leading producer of natural gas -- preparing to create a gas equivalent of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)? The possibility of such a cartel has been discussed by Russian policymakers for years. But a "memorandum of understanding" signed between Russia and Algeria on August 4, which significantly calls for coordinated gas prices, could perhaps be a move in this direction. PRAGUE, August 14, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The idea of a gas OPEC was first floated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2002. The idea was supported by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, but was...

In this article, the ITSSD examines whether the Western Governors' Clean Energy Plan, which is intended to terminate the phantom menace known as global warming, is actually another back-door’ environmental regulatory ‘takings’ regime that will benefit some at the expense of others.