Free Republic

Whenever the subject of drilling comes up, President Obama consistently discounts it as a way to lower oil prices...Instead, Obama has been touting an "all of the above" policy, which focuses less on what he calls the "fuel of the past" and more on things like alternative energy and improved efficiency. He will tout this approach again on Thursday at stops in Oklahoma and Ohio. But will those other efforts work any better than would aggressively pursuing more oil production?

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Livestock farmers are demanding a change in the nation's ethanol policy, claiming current rules could lead to spikes in meat prices and even shortages at supermarkets if corn growers have a bad year. The amount of corn consumed by the ethanol industry combined with continued demand from overseas has cattle and hog farmers worried that if corn production drops due to drought or another natural disaster, the cost of feed could skyrocket, leaving them little choice but to reduce the size of their herds. A smaller supply could, in turn, mean higher meat prices and...

We learned again in the president’s speech on the BP disaster this week that all of our interests in the energy sphere are aligned: Move from carbon-based fuel to renewables and we’ll create American jobs, heal the climate, put more distance between us and geopolitically unstable regions and punish those nasty oil companies while saving our shrimp and seagulls. Win-win-win-win-win. Except the president’s beloved (if doomed) cap-and-trade legislation would: do little or nothing to alter global climate trends, reward oil companies like BP that backed the bill from the start, destroy jobs by increasing the cost gap with coal-powered China...

Not everyone likes seeing oil prices plunge. This decade's historic high prices for oil and natural gas have stoked the rise of renewable power and alternative fuels. As fossil fuel prices smashed record after record, options like ethanol, hybrid electric cars, solar power and wind looked better and better. Now oil costs less than half what it did this summer. Ditto natural gas. If prices keep dropping and stay down, future fuels like cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel will have a harder time competing. So will solar and wind power projects, which compete against power plants that burn natural gas. Public...

It's like another gold rush, but is the race to grow crops for bio fuels such a field of dreams? In the flatlands of the American interior, grain is flying off the fields. Corn, wheat and barley are thrashing through combines. And to watch the farmers behind the harvest, you would think you were on Wall Street instead of Green Acres. Members of the boots-and-baseball hat crowd sound more like tassel-loafed brokers on a binge, spinning straw into gold. And in a sense, they are. Welcome to the latest field of dreams. Farm prices have not been so high in...

September 13, 2007 Renewable Energy: Not Just Another Investment Bubble by Mark Braly, Contributing Writer Davis, California [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] Renewable energies and demand-side technologies have become the third largest investment class for venture capitalists (VC) in the U.S. This was just one of the messages heard by the more than 700 investors and entrepreneurs who convened on the campus of the University of California Davis this week for a three-day conference that showcased the newest in clean energy technologies. The event, which ran Sept. 10-12, kicked off with a panel of Silicon Valley venture capitalists in a session entitled "The Green...

Minnesota put its faith in a future fueled by renewable energy yesterday as the governor signed a new law requiring utilities to generate a quarter of their power from renewable sources such as wind, water and solar energy by 2025. Considering where Minnesota stands now — about half the power produced in the state is from coal, and only 8 percent from renewable sources — the move is the most aggressive in the country, analysts say. "We have to break our addiction to fossil fuels," Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, said in signing the legislation. The new law, which sailed...

WASHINGTON -- A new Rand Corp. study showing the falling costs of ethanol, wind power and other forms of renewable energy predicts such sources could furnish as much as 25% of the U.S.'s conventional energy by 2025 at little or no additional expense. A second renewable-energy report soon to be released by the National Academy of Sciences suggests wood chips may become a plentiful source of ethanol and electricity for industrial nations because their forested areas are expanding, led by the U.S. and China. Because use of renewable fuels to replace oil and cut emissions of carbon dioxide is an...

<p>In mid-March, the Senate narrowly voted down an amendment that would have opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil exploration. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., voted against the amendment, citing his campaign pledge not to open up ANWR to oil drilling. But in his campaign, Coleman also pledged to do everything possible to advance the production and use of domestic, renewable fuels -- for the betterment of the environment, the economy and U.S. energy needs.</p>

WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) - The Bush administration has urged U.S. Senate and House lawmakers negotiating an energy bill to include language that would triple the amount of ethanol-blended gasoline and biodiesel used each year in American cars, trucks and sport-utility vehicles. Farm state lawmakers support more use of corn-based ethanol and soybean-made biodiesel because it benefits their constituents and makes gasoline produce less pollution, but California and New York lawmakers fear the fuel additive is difficult to ship and would result in higher gasoline prices. A renewable fuels requirement will be one of the more contentious issues that members...