Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures dropped as much as 3% to fall below $59 a barrel Tuesday, pulling the benchmark contract to its lowest level in 10 months, with pressure coming from swelling U.S. inventories, a lack of risks to output and doubts that key oil producers will take formal action to reduce supplies and stem the drop in prices. Crude for November delivery was trading down $1.93 at $59.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after reaching a low of $58.90 -- a level the contract hasn't seen since November 2005. The contract fell 3% Monday...

President Bush said he would speed up his alternative-energy push during the remainder of his term with new spending focused on easing bottlenecks that are slowing the spread of ethanol in the market. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on a swing through Alabama, Mr. Bush said he is seeking ways to overcome difficulties in transporting the fuel, and to increase the number of stations selling it.

Under the hood, Europe and America take different roads. Half of Europe’s 15 million new car sales a year are for models with diesel engines. In the U.S., manufacturers sell fewer than 50,000 diesel cars a year. Once again, diesels have a chance--but only a chance--at gaining ground in America. Rising fuel prices work in their favor, as does the advent of cleaner diesel fuel in the U.S., which will help open the door for the importation of Europe’s high-technology diesel engines. The problem is that while cleaner diesel fuel is coming to market here, federal emission standards are climbing,...

Anything Into Oil Turkey guts, junked car parts, and even raw sewage go in one end of this plant, and black gold comes out the other endBy Brad Lemley Photography by Dean Kaufman DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 04 | April 2006 The thermal conversion plant turns turkey offal into low-sulfur oil that is carted off by three tanker trucks daily. The smell is a mélange of midsummer corpse with fried-liver overtones and a distinct fecal note. It comes from the worst stuff in the world—turkey slaughterhouse waste. Rotting heads, gnarled feet, slimy intestines, and lungs swollen with putrid gases...

CARTHAGE, Mo. -- A Long Island entrepeneur's dream of building hundreds of garbage- to-oil factories is inching closer to reality, as a prototype plant in this rural town has begun selling more than 100 gallons of fuel oil per day made from scraps of slaughtered turkeys.