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YOKOTA AFB, Japan — The Air Force has ordered its pilots to fly higher and slower in an effort to slash fuel use while still performing the same missions. The rise in oil prices has added $1 billion to the cost of fueling the Air Force fleet in 2012, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for energy Kevin Geiss said last month. “We use the most energy of all the services in the Department of Defense, and we are the largest energy user in the federal government,” Geiss said. “Every day, we fly 900 mobility aircraft flights around the...

Timing is everything, as the old saying goes, and no political issue depends on timing as much as that of energy. When prices for gasoline at the pump are high, energy climbs to the top of the electorate's list of concerns, but when prices are low, people tend not to think about it. If the price at the pump continues to climb and stays high through the summer, it will be very much on the minds of voters. And that will play to the strength of Sarah Palin's hand, as Scott Conroy recently observed at RealClearPolitics: It would be difficult...

Sarah Palin is not backing down on drill, baby, drill. From her latest Facebook entry, Sarah Palin: “Am I the only one who wonders what could possibly be the agenda of any politician who would thwart our drive toward energy independence? Continuing to lock up America’s domestic energy reserves, including the energy-rich Last Frontier of Alaska, only equips dangerous foreign regimes as they fund terrorist organizations to harm us and our allies. I’m going to keep speaking and writing about this in the simplest of terms until someone can provide a simple answer as to why liberal Democrats don’t understand...

A spokesman for the Export-Import Bank has reacted via Politico to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's Facebook op-ed which was critical of the bank's $2 billion loan to Brazilian oil company Petrobras. Phil Cogan's arguments strike us nothing more than some fancy footwork intended to divert attention away from the fact that neither he nor anyone representing President Obama has answered Palin's question: "So why is it that during these tough times, when we have great needs at home, the Obama White House is prepared to send more than two billion of your hard-earned tax dollars to Brazil...?" Petrobras, which...

Venezuela Impasse by: Alana Goodman, August 04, 2009 As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s popularity plummets alongside oil prices, analysts warn that the socialist state could be veering toward disaster. A recent poll by the Venezuelan Institute for Data Analysis found that “43.6 per cent of respondents would vote for the current president in the 2010 ballot, while 40.1 per cent would not” but two-thirds of Venezuelans would want Chavez out of office by 2012, according to the Angus Reid Global Monitor. “This is a regime that is characterized by simultaneously putting all of its force [on] the accelerator and...

President Obama has called for a determined effort to free America from the hold of the international oil cartel. As his prime measure to achieve this, he has advanced a proposal to create a “cap-and -trade” system to limit carbon emissions. While the president’s stated objective is indeed worthy and in fact critical to the future of the nation, unfortunately, as a means to achieve it, a carbon cap-and-trade system is a complete non sequitur. The cap-and-trade mechanism is primarily a method of constricting electricity production. The United States only gets 3% of its electricity from oil. Thus taxing...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/foreign_policy/ THE AGENDA • FOREIGN POLICY THE AGENDA FOREIGN POLICY President Obama and Vice President Biden will renew America’s security and standing in the world through a new era of American leadership. The Obama-Biden foreign policy will end the war in Iraq responsibly, finish the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan, secure nuclear weapons and loose nuclear materials from terrorists, and renew American diplomacy to support strong alliances and to seek a lasting peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Afghanistan and Pakistan Afghanistan: Obama and Biden will refocus American resources on...

News item: Russia announced plans on Sunday to revive its once-mighty navy by building several aircraft carriers and upgrading its fleet of nuclear submarines in the coming years. Russia's power at sea is a shadow of the formidable Soviet navy which challenged U.S. military dominance in the Cold War. But, with a strong economy now from booming oil exports, it is seeking to raise its profile on the world stage by modernizing the armed forces. Russia will build five or six aircraft carrier battle groups in the near future, RIA news agency quoted Navy Commander Vladimir Vysotsky as telling Navy...

Oil for the Tanks of America by: Ben Giles, June 27, 2008 Witnesses at Tuesday’s Joint Economic Committee hearing stressed the need for a multifaceted, bipartisan approach to solve escalating gas prices. Senators on both sides of the aisle used the hearing to place blame for America’s gas woes on the opposite party. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), committee chairman, set the tone of the hearing with his opening statement. “With seven years under their belt, this White House has taken zero proactive steps to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” said Schumer. Schumer, who presented plans to lower the...

Contact: Press Office, 703-650-5550; www.JohnMcCain.com ARLINGTON, Va., June 17 /Standard Newswire/ -- U.S. Senator John McCain will deliver the following remarks as prepared for delivery in Houston, TX, today at 4:00 p.m. CDT (5:00 p.m. EDT): Thank you all very much. Governor Perry, Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst, and other distinguished guests, I appreciate your joining us today. And thank you all for the warm welcome to Houston. Among its other distinctions, this great city is known as the oil capital of America. But people in Houston and all of Texas understand as well as anyone that the high price of oil...

Considering how much untapped oil is known to exist, not just in the United States, but worldwide, one would think that its current price was some kind of anomaly and it is. It is more the result of speculation than anything else. The most fundamental fact about oil worldwide is that there is lots of it. Though frequently overlooked, the ability to refine crude oil plays an essential role in the supply and demand equation. More refining capacity is needed worldwide. Finally, there’s the fact that, in general, oil is very expensive to get at and often found in the...

The Italian government said Thursday it would begin building nuclear power stations, reversing a 20-year ban in an initiative likely to spark strong resistance and take a long time to come to fruition. "During the term of this parliament, we will lay the first stone for the construction in our country of a group of new-generation nuclear power stations," Economic Development Minister Claudio Scajola told the Italian employers' federation Confindustria. "We can no longer avoid an action plan for a return to nuclear power," he said, recalling a campaign pledge by Italy's newly named right-wing prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, to...

Energy Security: With the prospect of an oil shortage and $12 gas, the energy crisis is turning into a national emergency. One solution: Give states the option to develop offshore tracts. Uncle Sam bans states from drilling in the Atlantic, Pacific and eastern Gulf mainly to protect the environment. Some 85% of the U.S. coastline is off-limits to energy production - including huge reserves off Florida's coast, which China is exploiting in Cuban waters. To change that, a lawmaker is offering a novel idea. Rep. Sue Myrick of the House Energy and Commerce panel wants to let coastal states decide...

NMCEP will lead an event in early 2008 that will define the expectations of Americans that they be provided with reliable and competitively priced energy. This will be the first attempt to inject rural viewpoint into energy policy. Senator Pete V. Domenici is expected to deliver a major address at the event. Additional event details will be up soon.

The following is a summary of Thompson’s views on the issues of National Security, Federal Budget and Spending/Budgetary Reform, Tax Reform, Healthcare, Government Effectiveness, Building Strong Families, Immigration, Education, Appointment of Judges, Energy Security, and the Second Amendment. National Security In a post 9/11 world, Thompson recognizes the need for America to increase its ability to defeat its terrorist enemies. Therefore, his plans include upscaling the military, improving the missile defense system, enhancing the intelligence community, making homeland security robust enough to protect America from terrorists worldwide, giving backbone the judicial system so it will face the reality of terrorism...

The Plan to Disappear Canada 'Deep integration' comes out of the shadows. By Murray Dobbin, Vancouver If the machinations going on in this country regarding so-called "deep integration" were instead a communist conspiracy to take over the country (you will, of course, have to try hard to imagine this) the news media would be blaring the story. Pundits would pontificate, editorialists would erupt, security forces would be unleashed. Instead, a virtual conspiracy to make the country disappear through assimilation into the U.S. gets barely a mention.But news of the scheme -- formally called the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North...

Russia is a market economy, and even its state sector is highly commercialized. In the last few years, the Kremlin has successfully focused on boosting the price of Gazprom stocks, rendering it the third most valuable publicly traded company in the world. Part of this endeavor has been to abolish political subsidies to friendly former Soviet republics and let gas and oil prices approach market prices. Belarus was the last country to enjoy oil subsidies from Russia, and now they are gone. ... But Russia is no longer the Soviet Union. It would be wrong to accuse the Kremlin of...

Ukraine will be paying Russia $130 per 1,000 cu. meters of gas in 2007, Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said in Kiev on Tuesday. The parties did not comment reports that Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich managed to secure moderate gas prices for his country in exchange for political trade-offs. In any case, successful talks with the Russian premier helped Viktor Yanukovich show his abilities in putting relations with Russia back on track.

Russia is correct to argue that energy security is a two-way street, former U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania Keith Smith told the Prague Energy Forum today. However, he noted, many in the Kremlin seek not merely security, but control. Below, RFE/RL presents the complete text of Smith's remarks to the forum.Keith Smith: The prominent attention given energy issues at the EU-Russia "summit" in Lehti, Finland, on October 20 was quite illustrative. The summit demonstrated that there is a converging perception in Western and Central Europe regarding the risks of energy dependency on Russia. This may or may not be fair,...

Kazakh Foreign Minister Qasymzhomart Toqaev called for closer energy links between Kazakhstan and the EU in an address to the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee on October 3. Toqaev is on a two-day visit to EU and NATO headquarters in Brussels. Toqaev also lobbied for EU support to Kazakhstan's bid to chair the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE) in 2009, promising democratic reforms and arguing that the OSCE -- which he described as a "Eurasian" body -- could benefit from some Central Asian leadership. Brussels, October 4, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Kazakh Foreign Minister Toqaev's visit to Brussels...

A report provided to former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in May from the Japan Forum on International Relations, an independent think-tank, highlighted the country’s ongoing struggles concerning the implementation of a comprehensive energy strategy. “Japan’s overall energy approach lags behind the changes occurring in the world. The strategic importance of energy has a far greater importance than is appreciated in Japan,” the report noted. The report went on to say that the country’s very “existence as a state” could be jeopardized if it does not develop a more strategic approach to energy security. Japan, the world’s third largest energy consumer,...

LONDON, October 4, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Companies from all over the world head to the London Stock Exchange when they need to attract international investment and raise development capital. Firms from Russia and elsewhere in the CIS are among the latest to head to London to launch initial public offerings (IPOs) -- their first sale of stock to the public.

On Friday, President Bush will welcome Nursultan Nazarbaev, the leader of Kazakhstan, to the White House. Kazakhstan is the pivotal country in the heart of Eurasia, due to its vast mineral resources, a solid track record of economic growth, and geopolitical location between China and Russia. These days, Washington is short of friends, especially Islamic and oil-rich ones, so every such country counts. Kazakhstan has the largest oil and gas reserves in the Caspian Sea basin, and is producing 1.5 million barrels of oil a day today. It is projected to produce 2.5-3.5 million barrels of oil a day by...

President Vladimir Putin will face tough questions over Russia's review of foreign energy contracts and attempt to acquire a bigger stake in EADS when he meets with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a summit in France this weekend. The three leaders are also due to discuss Russia's evolving relationship with the European Union and to try and hammer out a common approach toward Iran's nuclear program. Putin will kick off his visit Friday by meeting Chirac in Paris, where the two leaders are expected to discuss a wide range of issues, including transportation and trade,...

MOSCOW, August 14 (RIA Novosti) - International rating agency Fitch said Monday that Russia's move to cut oil supplies to a major Lithuanian refinery could be political. After an accident on the Druzhba pipeline in western Russia in July, crude supplies to Mazeikiu Nafta were interrupted, and have not been fully resumed. "If supplies of Russian crude oil by pipeline to MN are not resumed within the next few weeks, this could lead one to conclude that political rather than technical reasons are to blame for the supply disruption, as the Lithuanian refinery was recently acquired by Polish PKN and...

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...

The governor of Alaska has questioned whether BP misled it over the condition of its pipelines, given the recent leak from the Prudhoe Bay oilfield. The shutdown at the site is expected to cost Alaska $6.4m (£3.4m) a day in tax revenues and this has prompted a government state-wide hiring freeze. The closure followed "numerous" satisfactory maintenance reports from BP, governor Frank Murkowski said. He said BP would be "held responsible" for its earlier management of the site. "BP must get the entire Prudhoe Bay field back up and running as soon as is safely possible," he said.

There is a growing consensus America must end its addiction to oil. Yet there is despair we can actually do so, short of draconian cuts in energy use that would leave Americans sweltering -- or shivering -- in the dark and trudging to work for miles on foot. Such defeatism is unworthy and unwarranted. America can end its addiction. Thanks to technology and the new economics of energy, the time is ripe to launch an energy revolution and shift toward ethanol as a major transportation fuel. Unlike exotic alternatives such as hydrogen, with ethanol we don't need new engines, or...

Georgia stopped Thursday the electric energy import from Russia and will need no our energy even in the abstract starting from March 2007. As to the gas dependency, it will end even sooner, in late 2006. It was Georgian Deputy Energy Minister Achil Nikolaishvili that told Interfax about stopping import deliveries of electric energy via Kavkasioni power line August 2. Kavkasioni delivers no more than 100MW to Georgia in summer. After rebuilding Ingur Hydroelectric Power Station and putting in operation its three units, the power grid of the country got additional 600 MW in generating capacity, said officials of Georgian...

A court decision declaring Yukos -- once Russia’s largest oil company -- bankrupt has finally brought to an end the sad story of confrontation between private business and a powerful state. But the ruling also highlighted the unhealthy nature of the country’s raw-materials-based socio-economic system. On August 1, the Moscow Arbitration Court ordered the bankruptcy and liquidation of Yukos, a decision that various commentators gloomily described as either a “death sentence” for the company or as its “funeral.” As was widely expected, the court upheld a vote one week earlier by Yukos’s creditors. The latter, led by Russia’s Federal Tax...

When Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev visited Riga on July 18, the overriding topic of discussion was how best to send Kazakh oil to energy-hungry markets in Europe and Scandinavian via Latvia. Nazarbayev did his best to give the impression of a pragmatic leader unburdened by the political strains caused by the long-standing disputes between his closest ally -- Moscow -- and West European powers over energy issues. His time in Riga provided an impressive display of his multi-vector approach to interstate relations. Answering questions from Latvian journalists, Nazarbayev stressed that Kazakhstan has no intention of constructing a transportation route to...

PRAGUE, July 28, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- A Gazprom subsidiary recently issued a report recommending a dramatic change of strategy for the Russian gas industry. It determined that Russia should decrease exports of natural gas to European markets and concentrate instead on developing new gas fields to keep up with domestic demand. The Research Institute for the Economics of the Gas Industry, NIIGazekonomika, determined in its late 2005 report that domestic consumption of natural gas is increasing at a faster pace than projected in Russia's two-year-old Energy Strategy The company, a fully owned subsidiary of Gazprom responsible for researching economic and...

Relations between Gazprom and Turkmenistan have come to an open conflict over natural gas. Yesterday they annulled their agreements on gas supplies to Russia for this year and next. Gazprom's monopoly on Central Asian gas is thus broken. The conflict is to the advantage of Ukraine, which can now obtain 17 billion cubic meters of gas, more than half of its import needs for the second half of the year. It also strengthens Ukraine's position in negotiations with Gazprom that are to take place on July 1.

In the wake of the "gas war" between Russia and Ukraine in early 2006, and the brief interruption it caused in supplies to Europe, the world awoke to the increasing importance of Central Asian natural gas for European energy security. After all, the bulk of the natural gas that Ukraine imports through Russia comes from Turkmenistan. Now, with international ratings agency Fitch warning that the elements are in place for a "perfect storm" of an energy crisis, news comes on July 30 that talks between Turkmenistan and Ukraine over an independent agreement for gas supplies in the fourth quarter of...

PRAGUE, June 29, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Turkmenistan's Foreign Ministry warned in a statement today after a suspension of talks on gas deliveries to Russia that supplies will be cut off in September if Moscow and Ashgabat fail to reach a new import deal. Russian gas giant Gazprom said today that it has been unable to reach agreement on price in a new import deal with Turkmenistan and that negotiations have been suspended. The announcement of the negotiations' collapse came after a meeting between Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov and Gazprom chief Aleksei Miller. Turkmenistan wants to raise the price of its...

The West’s need for Russia’s energy and cooperation regarding Iran, Iraq, China, and the “War on Terrorism” will likely lower the standard demanded for a full membership in the G8 group, to allow Moscow’s ascendance to the rich nations’ club, at the St. Petersburg meeting in July. “In the six years since he pledged to uphold democracy as a 'dictatorship of law,' President Vladimir Putin has increased the role of the police and security services in governing Russia and wielded the power of the courts for political ends,” says the Director of the London based Foreign Policy Centre, Stephen Twig....

While she is not yet Ukraine's prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko on Thursday began outlining what she wanted to do once in office, beginning with revisiting a Russian gas deal forged after supplies were halted in January. "I think all issues on gas supplies to Ukraine now require further deep revision and review," Tymoshenko told the parliament in Kiev. Tymoshenko stressed that "all new relations with Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan should be built on a friendly basis." But sources close to the Kremlin immediately homed in on Tymoshenko's remarks, warning of a wider energy conflict. "It is another wake-up call...

December 2009: After weeks of rioting in Turkmenistan, President Saparmurat Niyazov flees. Moscow accuses Washington of fomenting a coup, and Russian and Iranian troops seize control of the capital, Ashgabat, to secure the country's gas supplies. The U.S. president, furious that U.S. protests have been ignored, mobilizes troops based in nearby Azerbaijan. At a crisis meeting in Moscow, Gas OPEC member nations Russia, Iran, Algeria, Libya, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan agree to cut all gas supplies to Western Europe in response. On Jan. 1, 2010, the lights go out. However unlikely such a nightmare scenario may seem, it's precisely the sort...

ST. PETERSBURG -- Using natural resources for geopolitical gain may upset the West, but for the man who was helping shape President Vladimir Putin's energy strategy years before he took office, it's merely common sense. "There was a time when salt was the most important resource in the world. Then it was metal of any kind, then later it became gold," said Vladimir Litvinenko, rector of the St. Petersburg State Mining Institute, in an interview last week in his luxuriously appointed office. "In the specific circumstances the world finds itself in today, the most important resources are hydrocarbons," he said....

9:00 P.M. EST!!! It's a great day to be a Republican!!!!

3 January 2006 -- Russian authorities say gas supplies to European countries have been fully restored after a disruption caused by a row with Ukraine over gas prices, while representatives of the Russian and Ukrainian monopoly gas monopolies are scheduled to meet today to discuss the standoff. Russia's state-run natural-gas monopoly Gazprom announced earlier today that it was increasing the amount of gas shipped through pipelines in Ukraine to assure full deliveries to customers in European countries. Gazprom has since said that supplies to European customers were back to normal. Austria and Hungary, which had suffered supply cuts of up...

LAGOS, Dec. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Royal Dutch Shell has been forced to halt oil exports in Nigeria following a pipeline fire that is still blazing in the country's oil-producing Niger Delta region, a company spokesman said on Thursday. "We have declared a force majeure. That means we could not load crude oil from the Bonny Terminal until we restart operation again," a Shell spokesman told Xinhua by telephone. "Today, we will try to fight the fire and commence repairs of the pipeline to see what production we can restore," he said. Shell had closed two oilfields and a flow station...

excerpt "... We live at the edge of oil shortages and in perpetual vulnerability to oil blackmail. We have solderiers dying in the oil fields of the Middle East, yet we leave untouced the largest untapped oil field in North America so that Lower-48ers can enjoy an image of pristine Arctic purity. This is an indulgence bordering on decadence."

Tomorrow, President Bush could make the following speech: "We are all concerned that the industrialized world, and increasingly the developing world, draw too much of their energy from one product, petroleum, which comes disproportionately from one volatile region, the Middle East. This dependence has significant political and environmental dangers for all of us. But there is now a solution, one that the United States will pursue actively. "It is now possible to build cars that are powered by a combination of electricity and alcohol-based fuels, with petroleum as only one element among many. My administration is going to put in...

Date: 11/22/2004 16:31:35 China Economic Net China and India wrestling for Iran's oil Iran Expert As the fight between China and Japan and that between China and Vietnam for petroleum is still pending, India, a future big oil consumer, is competing with China for oil supply from the Middle East, especially Iran, which is beyond the control of the U.S. Once India, a major Asian country, gets into the period of fast growth in investment as China did, the world's oil sector will face the most formidable test in the next stage. As a future big oil consumer, India clearly...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 3, 2003—Last year was the fourth straight year that nuclear energy was the low-cost leader for baseload production of electricity. Production costs—which encompass fuel plus operations and maintenance at a plant—averaged 1.71 cents/per kilowatt-hour (kwh) at nuclear power plants in 31 states. Nuclear power production costs were lower than coal-fired power plants, 1.85 cents/kwh; natural gas plants, 4.06 cents/kwh; and oil-fired plants, 4.41 cents/kwh. Stable and competitive supplies of low-cost nuclear fuel and efficient power generation at nuclear power plants—a record 780 billion kilowatt-hours—resulted in low production costs in 2002. The average fuel cost for nuclear plants...