Free Republic

Rick Kitchings has been a small-engine mechanic for about 30 years, and he’s been busier than ever lately. Recently, a customer came into his shop in Savannah, Ga., with a string trimmer that had barely been used. “It looked like it just came off the showroom floor, but the motor was absolutely shot, absolutely worn out,” Kitchings said. The owner had fueled the trimmer with an gasoline-ethanol blend, which is becoming increasingly common thanks to a federal mandate to convert to biofuels.

In the unfortunate argument about peak oil supply, what constitutes "oil" is usually poorly defined. Canada's vast bitumen deposits, mostly located in northern Alberta, offer insight into the difficulty of determining what oil is, defining proved reserves, and peak production. There is little agreement on how this bitumen should be classified. Many folks do it the way World Oil does: with explanations and footnotes. One of our reasons for not classifying bitumen the same as conventional proved reserves is the fact that it presently relies on large amounts of natural gas and water for extraction and processing, as well as...

FORTUNA -- Patrick Moore spent 15 years being arrested for causes he felt strongly about, doing things he now labels environmental extremism. Moore, founding member of Greenpeace, spoke at the annual dinner Saturday of The Buckeye Conservancy, a nonprofit organization made up of more than 200 family, individual and commercial memberships representing more than 300,000 acres of forests and ranch land in Humboldt County. "There's a lot of opinion in the environmental movement," Moore told the crowd of about 180 people packed into the River Lodge. "I support 100 percent any group that comes together and brings people from all...