Recent Gas News/GasBuddy Blog

Market Watch -- SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has lowered its price target for crude-oil futures, saying the recent bounce is likely temporary and forecasting prices around $65 a barrel by October.

The firm has tweaked its third-quarter price forecast to $75 a barrel, from $77 a barrel.

Investors should view the recovery in prices in the coming week as "a selling opportunity," analysts at Morgan wrote in a note to clients.

Prices are likely to "move into the mid $60s before (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) meets in October," they said.  (go to article)

Associated Press -- There is good news at the gas pump, as Americans get ready to fill their cars, RVs and boats for the Labor Day weekend.

The national average price for gasoline has been falling steadily this month, reaching $2.678 for a gallon of unleaded on Monday, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. That's about 6 cents a gallon less than a month ago and 7 cents less than it was on the Friday before the July Fourth weekend.

West Coast drivers pay the most for gas -- between $2.792 a gallon and $3.539 a gallon. The cheapest gas is in Texas, the Gulf Coast states and parts of the Midwest, where prices range from $2.431 to $2.523 a gallon.

A plunge in wholesale gasoline prices earlier this month is pushing down prices at the pump, PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn said.

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Downstream Today -- Life Technologies Corp., a provider of innovative life science solutions and SG Biofuels, Inc., a bioenergy crop company, on Tuesday announced they have completed sequencing the Jatropha curcas genome to 100x coverage, using the SOLiD 4.0 System by Life Technologies. The sequence significantly accelerates the identification of key traits for the oilseed-producing crop and advances its development as a high yielding, low-cost source for next generation biofuel.  (go to article)

Sympatico -- Gtrblog.com has leaked images and information on the 2012 Nissan GT-R.
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The revised GT-R will reportedly feature LED accent lights and newly shaped bumpers. The new styling make the car more aerodynamic. Two new colours, Aurora Flare Blue Pearl and Nebular Opal Black, will also available.
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The 2012's models new wheels will cut 12 kg off the car's weight and will be offered in two colours, Hyper Blue Black and Hyper Titanium.
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The 2011 GT-R features a 3.8-litre engine making 485 horsepower and 434 lb-ft of torque, a six-speed dual-clutch transmission, three driver-selectable modes and lightweight aluminium-forged wheels.
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Reuters -- (Reuters) - Biofuel demand is driving a new "land grab" in Africa, with at least 5 million hectares (19,300 sq miles) acquired by foreign firms to grow crops in 11 countries, a study by an environmental group said on Monday.

The contracts by European and Asian companies for land to grow sugar cane, jatropha and palm oil to be turned into fuel will involve clearing forests and vegetation, taking land that could be used for food and creating conflicts with local communities, Friends of the Earth said in the study.

Proponents of biofuels argue they are renewable and can help fight climate change because the growing plants ingest as much carbon dioxide from the air as the fuels made from them emit when burned.

Critics say there is a risk of the crops infringing on land that could be u  (go to article)

CNN -- U.S. gasoline prices have decreased a little more than 7 cents per gallon in the past two weeks, and lower demand in September is expected to keep prices steady, according to a new nationwide survey.

The latest Lundberg Survey, conducted on August 27, found the average price of self-serve regular at $2.70 per gallon -- down 7.54 cents since the last survey, conducted two weeks before.

Survey publisher Trilby Lundberg said gas prices were catching up to a decrease in crude prices.

"Absent any upset in the price of crude, (gasoline) prices should see little change or even a small drop," Lundberg told CNN.

There is a plentiful supply of gas, and September marks the beginning of a traditional period of lower gas consumption that should keep prices steady,  (go to article)

USA Today -- Volvo has long been known for Swedish quality and class-leading safety. So now that it's owned by China's Geely Holding Group, will the brand still be considered premium if Volvos are made in China?

Geely is considering converting a new plant in southwest China to make Volvos, the Wall Street Journal reports. It also may construct another Volvo plant, possibly near Shanghai. That didn't take long. Geely recently closed the deal to buy Volvo from Ford Motor.

Geely management has made it clear that it has to find ways to slash Volvo's costs. And it unclear whether any of a Chinese plant's output would make their way to the U.S., much less out of China.  (go to article)

Financial Times (FT.com) -- Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, on Sunday opened a new pipeline to export east Siberian oil to China that will help Russia reorientate its oil trade towards the east.

The pipeline, running 67km from Skovorodino in east Siberia to China’s north-eastern frontier, is an offshoot of a new oil export route Russia is building to the Pacific Ocean, providing a strategic window on the fast-growing energy markets of Asia.  (go to article)

London Free Press -- The door has opened a crack on a stay of execution for workers at Ford of Canada’s St. Thomas assembly plant.

While workers have received a layoff notice effective Aug. 31, 2011 — when the plant on Hwy. 4 south of Hwy. 401 is poised to close — included in the letter was a statement from Ford saying that if demand continues for the plant’s vehicles, the deadline could be extended.

“I will take whatever they give us,” said Scott Smith, chairperson of CAW Local 1520, representing Ford workers. “They had to give us one-year notice and they have now done that, but let’s hope there is more than that.”

As for whether there will be more time on the job for the 1,200 unionized workers, it all depends on what happens the next 12 months, he said.

The plant is still on pace to assemble abo  (go to article)

ALL247NEWS.COM -- In August 28, MSNBC ran a feature on fuel cells. It had a thing or two to say about the Bloom Box and Bloom Energy. The product, it said, has generated "excitement" among experts of the energy industry. MSNBC reported, "It's generated electricity as well, in pilot projects at places ranging from eBay to Safeway.  (go to article)

CNN -- An historic journey is happening now...and no surprise, it's to feed China's appetite for energy.

The SCF Baltica is a large tanker that has just made it safely through the Arctic Circle to deliver 70,000 tons of gas condensate (a natural gas extract) from Russia to China. This is the first time a tanker of this size has been able to make the journey through the Northern Sea Route. It's now headed for its final port destination just south of Shanghai.

There are two interesting angles to this story:

1) This route through the Arctic cuts down the distance traveled by almost a half. The route from Murmansk, Russia to Ningbo, China covers 7,000 nautical miles. This is down from the 12,000 nautical miles it takes on the traditional route through the Suez Canal.

Sergey Frank, CEO o  (go to article)

CNN -- (CNN) -- More than three weeks after plugging its ruptured oil well with cement and mud from above, BP plans to start a procedure Monday that will pave the way for a permanent fix for the well.

Crews will start work Monday removing the capping stack that began trapping oil in the well last month, retired Adm. Thad Allen told reporters.

That will allow them to detach the blowout preventer and replace it with a new one -- key steps before engineers use a relief well to permanently kill the well 18,000 feet below the Gulf's surface.

"We will attempt to pull it free, and we are prepared to apply up to 80,000 [pounds] of force in addition to the weight of the blowout preventer to lift it," said Allen, the man charged with the government response to the oil disaster. "We call this the g  (go to article)

autoblog.com -- One of the regular questions relating to the Chevrolet Volt is: what happens to the fuel in the tank if it's not used for extended periods of time and the car is only run on plug power? General Motors officials have said that the engine might periodically run just for the purpose of using up some gas as well as circulating the oil and making sure that all the systems are working properly.

While perusing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office application database, we stumbled across a filing from General Motors for a system to automatically deliver additives to the fuel tank of a plug-in hybrid vehicle. While the application mentions engines with a variety of fuels and several possible additives, this clearly seems like something applicable to the Volt. The system would have a controller  (go to article)

physorg.com -- Stanford engineers have figured out how to simultaneously use the light and heat of the sun to generate electricity in a way that could make solar power production more than twice as efficient as existing methods and potentially cheap enough to compete with oil.

Unlike photovoltaic technology currently used in solar panels - which becomes less efficient as the temperature rises - the new process excels at higher temperatures.

Called 'photon enhanced thermionic emission,' or PETE, the process promises to surpass the efficiency of existing photovoltaic and thermal conversion technologies.

...a new energy conversion process..

And the materials needed to build a device to make the process work are cheap and easily available, meaning the power that comes from it will be affordable.  (go to article)

New York Times -- In a remote reach of the Gulf of Mexico, nearly 200 miles from shore, a floating oil platform thrusts its tentacles deep into the ocean like a giant steel octopus.

The $3 billion rig, called Perdido, can pump oil from dozens of wells nearly two miles under the sea while simultaneously drilling new ones. It is part of a wave of ultra-deep platforms — all far more sophisticated than the rig that was used to drill the ill-fated BP well that blew up in April. These platforms have sprung up far from shore and have pushed the frontiers of technology in the gulf, a region that now accounts for a quarter of the nation’s oil output.

Major offshore accidents are not common. But whether through equipment failure or human error, the risks increase as the rigs get larger and more complicated.
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IndustryWeek -- Toyota Motor Corp. said Aug. 23 it will continue hiring for positions at its Blue Springs, Miss., plant after delaying its plan to start production at the facility amid weak market conditions.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi, Inc. (TMMMS) is hiring for hourly production and skilled maintenance positions through the Mississippi Department of Employment Security and the Workforce Investment Network Job Centers.

Toyota plans to eventually hire 2,000 employees at the plant.

Individuals interested in employment opportunities at Toyota's Blue Springs plant may apply online at www.mdes.ms.gov.
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ROAD&TRACK --

2011 Ford FiestaHenry Ford certainly made things easy when he stipulated that customers for his rugged Model T could have any color they wanted, so long as it was black. Today’s car buyer faces a vastly more complicated decision-making process when choosing the paintjob for his or her new vehicle.
There’s no way of knowing whether Mr. Ford would have approved of the eight colors currently available with the 2011 Fiesta SE subcompact sedan. Our guess is “Tuxedo Black” might have won his approval—although “Lime Squeeze Metallic” would probably have cost someone  (go to article)

Financial Times -- By Gregory Meyer in New York , Financial Times, 26 Aug 2010

Los Angeles traffic: Americans are driving less

Evidence of a slowdown in the US economy is turning up in oil markets as demand stagnates in the world's most voracious petroleum consuming nation.

US petroleum stockpiles are at their highest levels since the early 1980s, the energy department revealed this week, and the rapid rebound in demand from the recessionary lows of a year ago has begun to decelerate.

Americans are consuming less oil than they did in 2008 – or most of the previous decade, for that matter.

Demand for petrol, crucial to a car-dependent US, has gained a meagre 0.5 per cent year to date, according to energy department data.

US refiners are, meanwhile, exporting hundreds of thousands of barrels of ...  (go to article)

Clean Technica -- "...This new form appears to be a kind of “scavenger” that harvests part of the light spectrum that other forms of chlorophyll don’t absorb.

The discovery is significant because it could help push forward the development of new strains of algae that can use a larger part of the light spectrum to produce biofuel oils, which in turn would help to make renewable biofuel production cheaper and more competitive with fossil fuels....

there is still some homework to be done before a definitive connection can be made, but the future looks promising for applying the mechanisms of photosynthesis not only to improve the efficiency of biofuel production. The implications for renewable energy also go beyond biofuels.... '  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s Mini, known for its retro-chic appeal, is targeting an unhip crowd with the Countryman crossover: families. The not-so-mini Mini will have four doors and be the brand’s biggest ever model.

“Our main aim is to unlock a wholly new target audience,” Mini product manager Hans-Joachim Leonhardt said in an interview in Munich. “Young families with kids, sporty youngsters, folks from modern milieus -- everyone can now drive a Mini.”

The new Countryman is part of a revamp of the entire portfolio of the Mini brand, which BMW restarted in 2001 after selling the unprofitable MG Rover Group. The company has sold 1.7 million Minis since then, helping the Munich-based carmaker attract customers who may later buy more expensive  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- BP Plc’s internal investigation of the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster found company engineers misinterpreted pressure data that indicated a blowout was imminent, according to a person familiar with the report.

BP managers aboard the Transocean Ltd.-owned rig misread a test of the Macondo well’s stability on April 20 and began replacing drilling fluid, which is heavier than oil and natural gas, with seawater, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report’s findings haven’t been publicly released.

The seawater was too light to prevent natural gas that had begun leaking into the well from shooting up the pipe to the rig, where it exploded and killed 11 workers. The damaged well eventually spewed more than 4 million barrels of crude into the sea, enough to fil  (go to article)

Truthout.org -- The State of Mississippi's Department of Marine Resources opened all of its territorial waters to fishing on August 6. This was done in coordination with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Food and Drug Administration, despite concerns from commercial fishermen in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida about the presence of oil and toxic dispersants from the BP oil disaster. On August 19, Truthout accompanied two commercial fishermen from Mississippi on a trip into the Mississippi Sound in order to test for the presence of submerged oil. Laboratory test results from samples taken on that trip show extremely high concentrations of oil in the Mississippi Sound.  (go to article)

Sympatico -- The Oakville, Ontario Ford assembly plant, which produces the Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX, will be the first plant in the world to install software via WiFi as vehicles move down the assembly line.
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Using Wi-Fi, "we can stock just one type of SYNC module powering MyFord Touch and loaded with a basic software package,” says Sukhwinder Wadhwa, SYNC global platform manager. “We eliminate around 90 unique part numbers, each of which would have to be updated every time a change is made."
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Yahoo News -- This could literally be called pee power to the people-researchers have figured out a way to make the world's first urine-powered fuel cells.
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Halifax Chronicle Herald -- When Cairn Energy, a British petrochemicals company, this week announced the first firm indication of worthwhile oil deposits off Greenland’s coast, inhabitants of Nuuk, the island’s gritty capital, greeted the news with their customary equanimity.

"That’s nice," said a housewife less interested in the implications of a possible oil bonanza than in negotiating her country’s sole pedestrian crossing in the sleeting rain.

Several hundred miles north in Baffin Bay, Greenpeace eco-warriors seeking to halt offshore oil exploration in the Arctic faced down a Danish warship. The government hotly contests Greenpeace’s claim that, because oil degrades far more slowly in freezing waters, a Mexican Gulf-style oil spill would mean calamity for the fragile environment.

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Zanesviille Time Recorder -- State officials are considering an idea to replace the gas tax with a user fee tied to how many miles you put on your vehicle.

At first glance, it might seem like a way to ensure all people pay their fair share, but it might have unforeseen consequences.

First, it won't decrease our dependency on foreign oil any time soon. Second, at a time when people are clamoring for smaller government, it could increase the amount of government needed to operate the program.

The concept is attractive to people, including county engineers like our Doug Davis, because it could provide more money to repair our roads. The state's gas tax revenue saw a decline of 1.5 percent during the past few years despite a rise in the gas tax from 22 cents per gallon to 28 cents per gallon. Th  (go to article)

Reuters -- ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote) asked the Idaho Supreme Court for an expedited hearing on a lower court ruling that prevents the company from moving giant refinery units on a rural highway through the state.

Conoco said further delay could prevent its Billings, Montana, refinery from completing an overhaul this year and cost the Houston-based company $9 million.

"If this window (for the move) is missed, ConocoPhillips likely will be forced to delay shipment until spring 2011, causing the needed repairs to be postponed until late summer 2011," attorney Scott Randolph wrote in a brief filed on Conoco's behalf with the Idaho Supreme Court.

An attorney for those opposed to the move said Conoco's deadline keeps changing.  (go to article)

The Grand Rapids Press Editorial Board -- The inspection of oil and gas pipelines in Michigan remains too much underground for the public good.

The late-July spill of more than 1 million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River highlighted that hidden problem. There are 67,615 miles of transmission and distribution lines crisscrossing Michigan, ferrying liquids such as oil as well as gas. Some of those lines are regularly inspected. Some are not. Companies are not required to tell the public which are which, and finding the results of inspections isn’t as easy as it should be.

That calls for greater disclosure and accountability from oil and gas companies. If added accountability doesn’t occur, the state or federal government should step in to perform the inspections. Right now, that job is left exclusively to private compani  (go to article)

USA TODAY -- PHOENIX (AP) — A surprise downpour sparked collisions involving 69 vehicles on an interstate near Phoenix's downtown area Saturday evening, closing the westbound roadway for hours and sending seven people to hospitals.
The crashes — described by authorities as the most in a single Phoenix area in recent memory — began about 6:30 p.m. with many drivers going too fast or not leaving enough distance between cars for the slippery conditions, Department of Public Safety spokesman Bob Bailey said.

"The storm hit hard, hit fast, and caught a lot of drivers by surprise," he said. "The collisions began in the far right side of the roadway near the 7th Street exit ramp and this thing kind of perpetuated itself, enveloping the whole roadway."

None of the injuries was life threatening and most  (go to article)

Detroit Free Press --
Dan Akerson, General Motors' new CEO, showed Thursday night that he's willing to fight for Detroit.

In Washington, a powerful group gathered for a send-off dinner for Akerson and his wife, Karin Akerson. AOL co-founder Steve Case hosted. Guests included retired Gen. Colin Powell and Ted Leonsis, AOL co-founder and Washington Capitals and Wizards owner.
The evening was awash in good cheer. Then someone mentioned that he hadn't bought a domestic car or truck in 20 years, all within Akerson's earshot.

To Akerson, it was as if someone had said the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was better than the U.S. Naval Academy, from which he graduated.

"Dan started lecturing ... about the quality and reliability of the new Buick Regal and the styling elements of the Cadillac CTS coupe,"  (go to article)

CNN --
We all know Japan is second only to Singapore when it comes to keeping things clean, so it’s little surprise to see the country’s captains of industry come up with a futuristic vehicle called the Solarve Bus (a contraction of "Solar Vehicle") that’s sparkly both inside and out.

Sanyo and Ryobi teamed up to outfit (Japanese) the standard road-going bus with solar panels on the outside to generate power and some nifty air scrubbers in the cabin for the passengers to enjoy cleaner air.

While the solar cells currently only power the Solarve Bus's interior lighting, Sanyo’s prowess in the field of photovoltaics is such that it probably won't be long before some of that solar energy is used as a driving force for the whole bus. Aspirations aside, the Solarve Bus is the world’s first to u  (go to article)

autoblog.com -- That long-running joke about men being unwilling to stop for directions? Well, it's no joke, at least not according to British insurance firm Sheilas' Wheels. In fact, the average male motorist in Britain travels some 276 extra miles per year simply because he refuses to ask for directions. Worse yet, that amounts to £2,000 ($3,100) worth of wasted fuel over the stubborn man's lifetime.

In the UK, 25 percent of all men would rather wander aimlessly for up to a half hour before stopping to ask for directions, and one in 10 simply refuse to ask altogether. On the flip side, three quarters of women polled have zero qualms about asking for help. And here's our favorite stat: 41 percent of men admitted to telling their passengers that they knew where they were going... even though they didn'  (go to article)

mnn.com -- At General Motors, it’s all hands on deck to make half of its manufacturing plants “nil to landfill” by the end of the year...69 of the company’s plants worldwide are now landfill-free

But that’s just part of the story: To reduce landfill waste, the company is also using as much recycled materials in its cars as is humanly possible. GM’s plants globally now average a 90 percent recycling rate.

.. some of the recycling programs..

•Old bumpers: ground up and form new air inlet panels
•Worn carpets: takes the nylon and remakes it into mirror frames, fascia brackets and door handle parts
•Used water bottles: as air conditioning and heating vent covers
•Paint sludge: one of the biggest pollutants auto plants produce, GM is using as filler in reusable shipping containers
•Cardboard  (go to article)

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_15917969 -- As the final days of the 2010 legislative session wind down in Sacramento, a Silicon Valley lawmaker is pushing to give California the most far-reaching mandate for renewable energy in the United States.
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The showdown over Simitian's bill, SB 722, could come to a vote early next week. The bill would require California's utilities to produce 33 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
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Three years ago, Simitian wrote a law, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, that required a 20 percent renewable electricity standard by Dec. 31, 2010. That target is close to being met. The state's utilities are on pace to hit 18 percent this year and 21 percent by the end of next year.

But getting to 33 percent is a much steeper climb.  (go to article)

Washington Post -- A BP drilling engineer involved in the planning of the Macondo well declined to testify before a federal investigative panel Friday, invoking through his lawyer his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Mark Hafle, who was involved in some of the most heavily scrutinized decisions about the well, became the third BP employee to invoke his constitutional right not to answer questions from the panel. Hafle had testified in an earlier round of hearings.

As Friday's hearing proceeded, another BP employee who wrote one of the most widely derided e-mails to surface in investigations of the Deepwater Horizon disaster testified under oath and gave a more benign explanation of the document.

In an e-mail four days before the April 20 blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, drilling engineer Br  (go to article)

Yahoo! Finance -- Used car shopping used to be a scary maze of breakdown-prone models, but reliability has gained sharply. Auto manufacturing quality and dependability studies have shown steady gains this decade. But exceptions do exist and if you're in the market for a used car, you want to steer clear of them.  (go to article)

MNN -- Senate Republicans recently blocked a bill that would give the presidential commission investigating the BP oil spill full subpoena powers in order to protect their pals in the oil industry.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 420-1 to give the presidential commission investigating the BP oil spill full subpoena power. In the Senate the move was blocked by Republicans. I wouldn't be surprised if the Republicans colluded behind the scenes with the Senators agreeing to block the measure to give their House colleagues political cover to vote for it (Senators, serving six year terms, have much less to worry about when it comes to re-election).  (go to article)

the auto blog -- Hydrogen faces a number of challenges when it comes to supplanting gasoline as the world's transportation fuel of choice, one of the largest of which was underscored by two small explosions at a Rochester, New York refueling station yesterday. According to reports, two people were injured when a spark ignited the fuel during a tank exchange. Praxair driver Robert Scruggs was transported to Strong Hospital with second-degree burns to his hands and face as a result of the incident, and a female Burger King employee was treated for ear pain in connection with the explosions.
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Medill Reports -- Drivers pay extra to pump midgrade or premium gas into their tanks nearly 15 percent of the time, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

No figures track the exact number of people who fill regular tanks with premium gas for a perceived performance bump. But as the country increasingly looks for big ways to conserve energy, smaller targets also beckon. Shifting gears away from premium gasoline is an obvious move.

Patrick Kelly — a policy adviser at the American Petroleum Group, the country’s largest trade association for producers of oil and natural gas — offers a crash course in “Gasoline 101,” explaining what gasoline octane means, what makes premium gas “premium,” and whether overusing it takes an added toll on the environment.  (go to article)

Calgary Herald -- A campaign to boycott Alberta-sourced gasoline has gained momentum after trendy clothing manufacturers and a major U.S. drugstore chain announced they would be avoiding oilsands-related fuels.

Clothiers The Gap, Timberland and Levi Strauss, as well as Walgreens, have joined a growing list of corporations choosing to avoid using gasoline refined from Canadian bitumen, according to reports Friday.

The move to less carbon-intensive fuels was sparked by an ongoing campaign by San Fransisco-based environmental group Forest Ethics, said Walgreens spokeswoman Tiff ani Washington.

"We have had very little exposure to tarsands fuels to start with, so it was a simple process," Washington told the Herald.

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Sympatico -- The green vehicle revolution is well and truly underway. There's just one problem: it means a whole new category of vehicles with a new set of technologies and terminologies (what the heck is an E-REV anyway?) for Canadians to get their collective noggins around.
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To help out, we've created this short guide to sussing out the differences between three of segments all-star vehicle: the Toyota Prius (a Full-Hybrid; FH) on sale now, and the coming Chevrolet Volt (an Extended-Range Electric Vehicle; E-REV) and Nissan Leaf (a purely Electric Vehicle; EV). Surprisingly, they're all compact-to-midsize hatchback, but take their own green-hued road from there.
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Reuters -- (Reuters) - Canadian developers are plotting a small revolution in the still-tiny market for electric cars, with a concept vehicle made from hemp set to debut at a specialized auto show next month.

The four-seat car, called the Kestrel, has an outer shell of a hemp-based composite, which developers say is lighter than glass fiber and more resilient than steel. It will debut at the EV (Electric Vehicles) tradeshow in Vancouver.

"The first vehicle comes out next year, and it will take four to five years for it to take off, but we hope that by that point electric vehicles will no longer be an 'alternative option'," said Nathan Armstrong, director of development firm Motive Industries, a small Calgary-based company that's looking at new options for the automotive sector.

The global el  (go to article)

Reuters -- (Reuters) - BP Plc aims to retrieve a failed blowout preventer from its ruptured Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday or Wednesday next week, the top U.S. official overseeing the spill response said on Friday.

The failure of the blowout preventer set off the world's worst offshore oil spill and it will be critical evidence in criminal and civil investigations into the cause of the April 20 explosion that killed 11 men on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

Efforts to remove pieces of a drill pipe inside the blowout preventer -- a giant stack of pipes and valves -- have failed this week so the company will move on to recovering the blowout preventer whether or not pipe remnants remain stuck inside, retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said at a briefing in Washington.

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CNN -- London, England (CNN) -- The oceans have become so depleted by over-fishing, pollution and climate change that they can only be saved by a large global network of reserves, according to a growing consensus among marine scientists.

Campaigners say that sea life -- particularly at the top of the food chain -- is suffering to such an extent that there will eventually be no fish left if action drastic action is not taken to protect the oceans.

More than 70 percent of the world is covered by oceans. There are currently more than 4,000 marine protected areas covering just over 1 percent of the oceans, but the vast majority of reserves have only limited protection.
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CNN -- (CNN) -- In rural communities of Africa -- where more than 95 percent of homes have no access to electricity -- solar energy has the power to transform lives.

Globally, 1.5 billion people, one quarter of the world's population, live without electricity, according to a United Nations report.

Those who can afford any power at all spend large proportions of their income on kerosene for lamps or travel to larger towns to charge their batteries several times a week.

Burning kerosene contributes to indoor air pollution, which is estimated to kill 1.6 million people each year. Kerosene lamps also lead to fires that cause severe burns and deaths.

Solar energy saves families money as well as allowing children to study in the evenings and giving families access to information through rad  (go to article)

nytimes.com -- Federal regulators are nearing final approval of what would be the largest solar power plant in the world, a milestone that sets a new standard for the industry and marks a major advancement in the Obama administration's efforts to expand renewable energy production nationwide.

The Bureau of Land Management has issued a final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Blythe Solar Power Project in southeast California. When fully operational, the solar thermal power plant would have the capacity to produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity -- enough to power roughly 800,000 homes.

The final EIS, which is considered the last federal regulatory hurdle before a record of decision authorizing construction, is open for public comment through Sept. 18. The California Energy Commission, whi  (go to article)

New York Times -- HOUSTON — More than four months after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, there appears to be no single smoking gun that implicates one person or company in the disaster. Instead, several missteps and oversights by the crew are being explored by federal investigators as possible triggers of the emergency.

By Friday, nearly all of the main witnesses, from roustabouts to senior vice presidents, had testified before a federal panel that is drafting a report about the lessons learned from the catastrophe, which killed 11 workers. The 75 witnesses had been grilled by an armada of lawyers and government experts about complex engineering procedures and pressed about yellow pod solenoid failures and lower marine riser packages. But the government has released no conclusions, and many questio  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Crude oil may rise next week after failing to break through a technical support level, a Bloomberg News survey showed.

Twenty of 49 analysts, or 41 percent, forecast crude oil will increase through Sept. 3. Seventeen respondents, or 35 percent, predicted that futures will be little changed, and 12 projected a decline. Last week, 39 percent of analysts forecast a drop.

October oil in New York fell to $70.76 a barrel on Aug. 25, the lowest intraday price for the contract since May 25. The failure to drop below the May low of $70.35 was a signal for technical traders to purchase futures.

“The market was oversold, and when we failed to take out the May lows the buyers came back in,” said Richard Ilczyszyn, a Chicago-based senior market strategist at Lind-Waldock, a division of MF Global Inc  (go to article)

SF Chronicle -- Oakland drivers may want to take a closer look at their owner's manuals this week. The city's first biofuels vending station opened Tuesday, offering fill-ups for any engine that can run using renewable alternatives to gasoline.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inoakland/detail?entry_id=71075&tsp=1#ixzz0xroreSko
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New York Times This article is by Clifford Krauss, Henry Fountain and John M. Broder. -- HOUSTON — Richard Lynch was walking down the hall in BP’s crisis command center in early May when some engineers rushed up, bearing bad news.

“We’ve lost the cofferdam,” they said.

In fact the cofferdam, a 100-ton, four-story-high steel dome that the company had lowered to try to contain the flow of oil from its out-of-control well, had become clogged with icelike crystals and was rising in the water, full of flammable gas and oil.

“I said: ‘What the hell do you mean you’ve lost the cofferdam? How did you lose it? Don’t give me that!’ ” Mr. Lynch, a BP vice president and a leader of the effort to kill the well, recalled. “This thing has taken off like a damn balloon.”

Had the dome hit one of the work ships, another inferno like the one that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon d  (go to article)

By Tony Tagliavia WoodTV -- MARSHALL, Mich. (WOOD) - Federal investigators looking into what caused an estimated 819,000 gallons of oil to spill in Marshall have found corrosion at points in the part of the pipeline where the spill happened, a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said.

Those investigators also found problems with the adhesion between plastic coating along the pipeline and the pipe itself, according to the spokesman.
 (go to article)

Gas 2.0 -- A new study published by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has found that more and more Americans are warming to the idea of driving electric vehicles, citing environmental concerns as the main reason for making the change.

Over a quarter of the people surveyed described themselves as familiar with electric cars while 42% of respondents said they were likely to follow news reports about electric vehicles. Nearly a third of respondent described themselves as familiar or very familiar with hybrid vehicles.

Of those who said they would consider buying an electric car, nearly 80% said their greatest advantage was the fact they run without gasoline, while 67% cited the reduction in pollution.

However, when it came to reasons not to buy an electric car the survey showed that a defin  (go to article)