Free Republic

Is $26 million worth the reputation of a venerable, 1.4 million member environmental group ? The Sierra Club may be about to find out. the 120-year-old organization’s hushed financial marriage to the natural gas industry — and its just-as-secretive divorce — have left some long-time supporters feeling angry, betrayed or misled. The news cut especially deep for activists who have spent years fighting the spread of shale gas drilling in states like New York and Pennsylvania. The Sierra Club quietly accepted $26 million in donations from gas industry interests from 2007 to 2010 — years when the group’s national leaders...

Michigan could potentially have the nation’s highest gas tax if Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposal to replace the state motor fuel tax with a higher wholesale tax becomes law. As of Jan. 1, motorists here pay 57.8 cents per gallon worth of state and federal taxes, according to the American Petroleum Institute. This includes the 6 percent Michigan sales tax imposed on fuel sales, from which not a dime goes to roads (a small amount goes to subsidize public transportation). Michigan is one of only eight states that impose sales tax on fuel. The new tax would replace the current 19-cent...

Gas Prices Expected To Soar 60 Cents: How That Impacts Your BudgetBy: Diane Lee | News Channel 7 Updated: February 06, 2012 - 4:32 PM GREENVILLE, S.C. - For 16 years John and Clare Coulis have driven the 1200 mile journey to Ontario and back every May. When they started, gas was under a dollar. Now... "I think I want to occupy BP," he said with a laugh. In all seriousness, it is slated to get worse. Analysts predict prices will sour 60 cents from now until May. The main reasons: Oil refiners have cut back on production because of...

For good or bad, from 1980-2010, North America lost some of its oil production edge. .....North America was the only region in the world that had a net production decrease over these three decades.

I’m asked this question a lot. And I know a lot of drivers ask themselves this question when they pull up to the pump. The answer is based on the economics of supply and demand and how products are manufactured and sold – along with what the government takes in taxes. Let’s take a look, based on the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s breakdown of the estimated average price of a gallon of gas in December 2011, which was $3.27.

According to a recent NY Times article, gasoline refineries will pay a $6.8 million penalty for failing to meet the fuel blending requirements under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. There is only one problem: the quantity of commercial biofuel needed to meet the blending requirements does not exist. In a press release issued by the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association on this issue, Association President Charles T. Drevna stated: “Once again, [the Environmental Protection Agency] has acted unwisely to make a bad law worse with regulations not based on reality and science. Once again, refiners are being ordered...

Paying $4 per gallon at the gas station is painful, and analyst Patrick DeHaan has some bad news: Get used to it. "People have this expectation that they will be paying $1 or $2 per gallon again," said Mr. DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com, a fuel-price tracking website based in Minnesota. "And that's unrealistic." Mr. DeHaan's outlook for 2012 gas prices is enough to send anyone to the nearest bus stop (or even shoe store). A combination of international tensions and state regulations have analysts expecting Pennsylvania gas prices to peak this year at $4.15 per gallon by...

Table of gas prices since 1990 shows prices at the pump have soared since Hussein seized power. Funny how the media ignores the pain suffered by American motorists due to the failure of Hussein to encourage our energy independence. Did you hear the Keystone pipeline was killed?

In his announcement rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline today, President Obama boasted that under his administration, “domestic oil and natural gas production is up.” Obama, of course, failed to mention that his administration can’t actually take any credit for the increase. The vast majority of America’s oil and gas production is happening on private lands in states like North Dakota, Alaska and Texas. It’s not that Obama is devoid of responsibility. His administration oversees oil and gas production on federal lands by issuing leases. But when measuring oil and gas production in areas under Obama’s jurisdiction, the numbers tell a...

Key US oil supplier may cut off spigot SundayCHRIS KAHN, AP Energy Writer Saturday, January 14, 2012 NEW YORK (AP) — One of the biggest suppliers of oil to the United States may shut off the spigot this weekend, pushing crude and gasoline prices higher for Americans. Nigeria, which supplies 8 percent of U.S. oil imports, could see production halted if striking workers walk off the job Sunday. Workers are demanding the return of a vital government fuel subsidy that has kept gasoline prices low in that impoverished and restive nation of 160 million people. It’s unclear how much of...

Gasoline prices could approach $5 a gallon by Memorial Day and stay a record levels for much of the summer, according to a forecast by GasBuddy.com. Gas prices always spike in the summer, but the 2012 Gasbuddy.com Price Outlook predicts this summer will break records. "It looks like it might be the most painful year at the pump that we have ever seen," senior analyst Patrick DeHaan said. By Memorial Day, gasoline in the Chicago area could rise to between $4.60 and $4.95 a gallon–more than a dollar above the current average. DeHaan says there are several factors that will...

Snips from Excerpt Only Website: Senators from both sides of the aisle are warning that looming EPA regulations on gasoline could impose billions of dollars in additional costs on the industry and end up adding up to 25 cents to every gallon of gas.  Citing the nearly $3.40-a-gallon average price of gas and the state of the economy, the senators said "now is not the time for new regulations that will raise the price of fuel even further." 

Norway’s Statoil has made a second big oil discovery in the Barents Sea in less than a year and predicted more discoveries to come in the region. The new oil find, called Havis, may hold between 200 million and 300 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE). The new find combined with the previous and nearby discovery, Skrugard, could provide between 400 million and 600 million BOE, Statoil said yesterday (9 January). "This is extremely positive," said John Olaisen, an analyst at the Carnegie investment banking firm in Oslo. "This is an important strategic asset in a new oil region, so...

Since the government takeover of General Motors, the Obama Administration has pumped billions of taxpayer dollars into the failed auto company, in hopes that it will revitalize its green initiatives. Recently, they have doubled down on their efforts to interfere with free market economics by subsidizing the research, design, and sales of Chevrolet’s new electric car, affectionately known as the Volt. President Obama testing out a new Chevy Volt The Chevrolet Volt carries a sticker price in excess of $40,000. However, with some nifty Obama subsidies, the price has been brought down into the low $30,000′s. With these tax credits,...

Gas prices are continuing to move upward with a gallon of regular at $3.38, up 8 cents from a week ago, the Energy Department’s U.S. Energy Information Administration said today. The weekly national average increased almost 30 cents from a year ago, and rose for the third consecutive week, adding to predictions that 2012 might be an uncomfortably expensive year for drivers across the country. Last year was a record year for gas prices but 2012 is forecasted to surpass its annual average. The real annual average for a gallon of regular gas last year hit $3.56, up from $2.90...

WASHINGTON — When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law. But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist. In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required...

A Republican state senator from Meriden says he plans to introduce legislation next month that caps one of Connecticut's two taxes on gasoline sales. Sen. Leonard Suzio said Thursday that his bill would cap the gross receipts tax whenever the price of gas hits $3 a gallon. The gross receipts tax fluctuates when the wholesale price of gasoline fluctuates. There is a fixed 25-cent-per-gallon state tax. The gross receipts tax adds about another 25 cents per gallon. Suzio and the Stamford-based Gasoline and Automotive Service Dealers of America are circulating a citizens' petition, urging Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to back...

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. (AP) — The rolling hills and scenic bluffs of western Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota hide a valuable resource that has sparked what's been called a modern-day gold rush. The object of desire is not gold but a soft sandstone needed by drilling companies to unlock underground natural gas and oil supplies in a controversial practice called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Largely overlooked in the national debate over fracking is the emerging fight in the U.S. heartland over mining "frac sand," which has grains of ideal size, shape, strength and purity. Mining companies say the work provides good...

James Woolsey is one of the green movement's more intriguing leaders. Since leaving public service - his career includes being head of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1993-1995 - he has become an energy expert and Clean Tech Investor for VantagePoint Venture Partners and Lux Capital. Behind his clean technology focus lies a desire to reduce the United States' dependence on fossil fuels imported from the Middle East. He is one of the driving forces behind the Open Fuel Standard Act. The Open Fuel Standard Act, if enacted as law, would require auto manufacturers to ensure that an increasing percentage...

Where I live outside of Lansing, there are new bike paths sporting shiny asphalt, but the roads are crumbling. Motorists might be surprised to learn that of the 18.4 cents per gallon of federal gas tax they pay at the pump, only about 11 cents goes to maintain highways and bridges. According to federal law, about 10 percent of federal highway funds must be used for projects such as highway beautification and transportation museums. According to a new National Center for Policy Analysis report, “Paying for Pet Projects at the Pump,” the Federal Highway Administration also allocates gas tax revenues...

Expiring Ethanol Credit to Add to Gas Price JumpBy WRAL POSTED: 9:04 am EST December 28, 2011 RALEIGH -- Lack of action by state lawmakers and Congress is expected to raise gas prices in North Carolina by more than 8 cents a gallon, starting Sunday. Half of the increase comes from the state. North Carolina's gas tax is linked to the price of gas and is adjusted every six months. Because gas prices have gone up since July, the state tax, which is already one of the highest in the country, is going up by 3.9 cents a gallon on...

...this years average cost of fuel sets a new record. For 2011, the national average price for fuel is about $3.50 a gallon. That accounts for about 8.4% of the average American family’s income, the highest percentage in 30 years. The average American household will have spent, a record, $4,155 filling up this year. Though it’s not what some Eastern Iowans wanted to hear, for many it wasn’t a surprise.

Oil giant BP is preparing to exit the solar industry entirely. BP is preparing to wind down its BP Solar unit and sell-off the stakes it has in various projects around the world. A document announcing the decision to the 100 employees who will be affected says changes in the solar industry have left BP unable to achieve sufficient margins in the sector. It says the decision is made with regret after a “near 40-year commitment to solar energy”. A BP spokesman confirms the move and says that over the last six months "regrettably we have come to the decision...

It's been 30 years since gasoline took such a big bite out of the family budget. When the gifts from Grandma are unloaded and holiday travel is over, the typical American household will have spent $4,155 filling up this year, a record. That is 8.4 percent of what the median family takes in, the highest share since 1981. Gas averaged more than $3.50 a gallon this year, another unfortunate record. And next year isn't likely to bring relief. In the past, high gas prices in the United States have gone hand-in-hand with economic good times, making them less damaging to...

BRITISH oil explorer ROCKHOPPER yesterday scored a hat-trick of strikes off the Falkland Islands — leaving Argentina fuming. The firm said a new well proved its Sea Lion field 80 miles off the Falklands coast is BIGGER than expected. And two further big oil hits were made on the way down — as well as a discovery of gas. The strikes will infuriate Argentina's Prime Minister Cristina Kirchner — who slammed Britain last year for trying to exhaust "Argentinian natural resources".

Dr. Ann Maest is a managing scientist at Straus Consulting, and she’s the go to expert on all things groundwater. In the press release announcing her reappointment to the National Academy of Sciences, they mention that she is focused on the environmental effects of mining and petroleum extraction and production, and, more recently, on the effects of climate change on water quality. Maest is in high demand as an expert for those looking to stop oil and mineral exploration. She’s also heavily used by the federal government, even though after new details about her past work are coming to light...

Iran discovers gas field in Caspian SeaAP – Sun, Dec 11, 2011 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's oil minister says the country has discovered a huge gas field containing an estimated 50 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Caspian Sea. **SNIP** Iran sits atop the world's second largest proven reserves of natural gas and is the second largest OPEC oil producer.

One year ago, on the Tuesday before Christmas 2010, the EPA leveled mind-boggling regulations and we learned that the regime had made a land-grab for millions of oil and gas rich "Wild Lands." This year, Tyranny Tuesday falls on December 22nd, and just in time, we find that the EPA was before "Fracking" before they were against it. The EPA cleared Fracking "on all levels" before they declared war on it - which began after the The Won's not-so-immaculate immaculation. Today the EPA says Fracking "may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution." Since I have to be out-the-door in...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is pressuring Congress to ease the potential impact of crippling sanctions on Iran's Central Bank, arguing that the restrictions will drive up oil prices and wind up being a boon for Tehran and its pursuit of a nuclear weapon. In a plea to House and Senate negotiators writing a broad defense bill, the administration has asked for substantive changes to a provision that would target foreign financial institutions that do business with the Central Bank of Iran, including a six-month delay for all the penalties. But the chief sponsors of the sanctions, which the...

Energy companies plan to spend a record $598 billion on exploration and production of oil and natural gas worldwide in 2012, growing 10 percent over this year, according to a forecast released Monday by Barclays Capital analysts. In a survey of about 350 energy companies, the investment bank found that oil and gas exploration and production will continue to expand rapidly in 2012. At nearly $600 billion, the energy industry’s global E&P spending is about equal to the annual gross domestic product of crude oil powerhouse Saudi Arabia. ExxonMobil remains the biggest spender at more than $30 billion, expanding 5...

Link only - Federal government pulls plug on failed cellulosic ethanol factory

Throughout our history, Americans have benefited from the extraordinary riches and resources of the wealthy land in which we live. Compared to any other country on earth, Americans enjoy more fertile farmland, better internal communications by water, rich and diverse mineral resources, a more favorable climate, a more favorable position in the world’s commerce, and friendlier neighbors: our home truly flows with milk and honey. On this Thanksgiving Day we should reflect in gratitude for the abundance that shaped us as a people and still flows for us today, and see how yet again we are poised to enjoy new...

The boom in shale gas & oil is spreading to other sectors of industry, despite the effort of Luddite greens inside and outside the Obama administration. ...a huge, 100-year source of cheap gas will make plenty of winners... Chemical and fertilizer manufacturers like Dow and Potash, for example, use gas as a fuel and a feedstock. And pipeline companies—when they’re run right—make money by moving molecules from place to place. As gas prices fall electric utilities will start burning more of it and the commodity will find its way into new uses like truck fleets. “The guys who win when...

NEW ALBANY, Ind. -- A New Albany family and a utility worker are recovering after an explosion blew a house apart. Six people were sent to the hospital, including two young children. It happened Tuesday afternoon in the 300 block of Woodrow Avenue. Hours after an explosion rocked the home, sending pieces of the walls out into the street, the home took another hit from bulldozers. Deemed unsafe after the blast, crews get to work, tearing the home down. The six people who lived there for the past year are now homeless. They had no idea until pulling up Wednesday...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Pushing for everything from natural gas vehicles in state automobile fleets and increased energy production and research to expanding the state’s smart grid and embracing the planned Keystone XL pipeline, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin laid out her broad “Oklahoma First Energy Plan” at Wednesday’s day-long Governor’s Energy Conference. The Meinders School of Business at Oklahoma City University, along with the Karl F. and June S. Martin Family Foundation and others was joined by corprorate sponsors like BP to support and present this energy conference. Fallin, joined by State Sec. of Energy C. Michael Ming, addressed a large...

Utility company PROHIBITING illegal immigrants from obtaining electric, gas, water or sewer service in Alabama... A major utilities company in Alabama is now prohibiting illegal immigrants from receiving electricity, gas, water or wastewater services to heated reactions on both sides, but they're just following the law. The Decatur Utilities company is now one of many in the state that follows the newly signed immigration law which prohibits business with illegal immigrants in the state or its subdivisions. 'We did not [originally] document or confirm whether or not they were citizens or aliens here legally,' Stephen Pirkle, Decatur business manager and...

Two state lawmakers say new laws are needed after last weekend's rare autumn snow storm that would require electric generators at gas stations and senior housing. State Rep. Zeke Zalaski, a Democrat from Southington, said Thursday that many of his constituents in need of gas for vehicles and generators were unable to find stations with the power to sell fuel. He said the few that were open had long lines and created traffic jams. Zalaski's bill would also require generators at senior housing complexes. Rep. Matthew Lesser, a Democrat from Middletown, is suggesting a new system in which the state...

The IDF says it does not have enough ships to protect future gas rigs for new gas finds in the Mediterranean, but who will foot the bill? Israel’s discovery of large natural gas fields off its coast has raised tensions with Lebanon, which claims that some of the fields are in its sovereign waters. The Hizbullah terror organization, which dominates Lebanon's present government, and controls the southern reaches of the country, has threatened to attack Israeli natural gas interests. Turkey, amid the downturn in relations between Jerusalem and Anarka, has also taken an aggressive posture and started staking claims in...

While doing business in North Dakota this summer, I noticed something that you don’t often see in America these days: “help wanted” signs. There everywhere. The service industry in the state is paying top-dollar. Even fast food restaurants are hiring at outrageous rates. The unemployment rate in North Dakota hovers around three and a half per cent, meaning, as one local laconically observed: “the only people not working are them that don’t want to work”. So what’s responsible for creating this island of prosperity in the sea of privation that America has become? The answer can be summed up in...

Gasoline price in Jasper County, Indiana jumped 26 cents a gallon between 8am and 1pm on Thursday, 13 Oct 2011

The recent sharp increase in retail gas prices has once again caused some members of Congress to blame President Bush and criticize oil companies for gouging and profiteering. The politicians are revealing their own economic illiteracy, and they are deliberately attempting to confuse their constituents with misleading and untruthful information on the causes of fluctuations in oil and gas prices. Political hot air will not bring down gas prices. Last week Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) claimed that gas prices are rising because too many oil companies have been allowed to merge in the last decade. If one could identify 100...

As gasoline prices keep falling at the pump, analysts are wondering how low they can go. Crude prices could continue to drop, in part because of lingering economic woes seem likely to keep demand down. The national average is down to $3.54 for a gallon of regular, and in the city with the cheapest gas, St. Louis, the going rate was $3.08 a gallon as of Friday, according to the Lundberg Survey released Sunday. Some Central Jersey stations are also in that ballpark. Two stations in Old Bridge, Middlesex County, and one in Marlboro, Monmouth County, have pegged regular at...

For anyone who's played the game "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral," it might seem obvious that the Marcellus shale isn't alive and doesn't grow -- it's a rock layer in the ground, so it's a mineral. In the Pennsylvania courts, the answer is not so clear. A Susquehanna County Common Pleas court is headed for a hearing to determine whether the gas-rich Marcellus shale is a mineral, and therefore, included in mineral rights. The state Superior Court ruled this month that case law is unclear, leaving big questions over who legitimately controls drilling rights and the valuable natural gas in the mile-deep...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described offshore gas drilling by estranged ally Israel and Cyprus as "madness" on Wednesday, raising the stakes in a confrontation over potentially huge deposits in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The quarrel over gas has escalated in recent weeks, just as relations between Israel and Turkey abruptly broke down over Israel's refusal to apologize for its raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last year in which nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists died. (snip) "The Greek Cypriot administration and Israel are engaging in oil exploration madness in the Mediterranean," Turkish state news agency Anatolian quoted Erdogan as telling...

You really have to wonder why the New York Times is campaigning against cleaner-burning, domestically produced natural gas. In the latest installment (stories published yesterday and today), the Times questions the value of our  country’s vast shale gas resources with little more than anonymous sourcing, two-year-old emails and analysis unsupported by fact. Ironically, author Ian Urbina did not call ExxonMobil, the largest natural gas producer in the United States, for comment. You would think an investigative journalist for one of the world’s great newspapers would have been curious to know why the world’s largest publicly traded energy company has invested...

President Obama is reviving his battle to kill oil-and-gas industry tax breaks and seeking billions of dollars in other energy-related revenues as part of his wider deficit-cutting and jobs proposals . The White House on Monday sent Congress a plan to pay for Obama’s $447 billion “American Jobs Act” and also cut the deficit by over $3 trillion in 10 years. Several of Obama’s energy tax proposals have sputtered in the past amid resistance from Republicans and oil-state Democrats. But they are part of a White House effort to sharpen the contrast between the president and Republicans over raising...

A new report that predictably found huge potential natural gas supplies in the U.S. also contained news its own writers found surprising - that oil is more abundant than they thought. "Contrary to conventional wisdom the North American oil resource base also could provide substantial supply for decades ahead," the report said.

On Valentine's Day 2011, we explored the correlation that appears to exist between what motor gasoline prices are today and what the unemployment rate will be two years from now. At the time, we found that: While the correlation is far from a perfect match, what we do see suggests that Americans can indeed use the real price of gas at the pump to reasonably anticipate how the unemployment rate will change two years down the road. We then went on to create a tool where anybody can plug in the average price of gasoline today to forecast the U.S....

Indians and Europeans are a tolerant bunch, at least when it comes to milk, and it could all stem back to the same person who lived as long ago as 10,000 years, according to a Cambridge University study. While 68% of the world’s population suffers from lactose intolerance, many in India and Europe – as well as the Middle East and parts of Africa – have a genetic mutation that makes them lactase persistent, allowing them to digest lactose, the sugar in milk.All babies produce the gut enzyme lactase, but production usually shuts down before adulthood. For the intolerant majority,...

Tanker carrying more than 3,000 gallons of gas stolen on Maryland's Eastern ShoreArticle by: Associated Press Updated: September 13, 2011 - 6:47 PM WORTON, Md. - Authorities in Maryland say a tanker truck carrying more than 3,000 gallons of gasoline has been stolen. **SNIP** The truck has an Alger Oil logo on the tank. It was stolen in northeast Maryland Monday or early Tuesday.