Oil & Petroleum Fuels
June 19, 2012
A variety of recent articles have trumpeted how U.S. oil and gas production is up. For example, Daniel Yergin, in a New York Times op ed, notes that U.S. oil production has increased 1.6 million barrels per day since 1998 and that a further...
November 17, 2011
Federal agencies have formally proposed standards that would raise average car and light truck fuel economy to nearly 50 miles per gallon by 2025, up from the current average new auto fuel economy of about 28 miles per gallon. The National Highway...
September 22, 2011
The uncertain economy and fluctuating gasoline prices have made consumers more discerning about their vehicle purchases. At the same time, the federal government is taking steps to ensure that future generations of vehicles will use less petroleum...
August 9, 2011
Today the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency adopted the first fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for heavy trucks and buses in the U.S., covering vehicles from super-duty pickups to tractor-trailers...
May 4, 2011
In an earlier blog post I noted that June was likely to be a critical month for possible federal energy legislation. It now looks like June will be consumed with work on the long-term federal budget and raising the federal debt ceiling, crowding...
April 15, 2011
Growing uneasiness about U.S. oil dependence means interest is high once again in energy legislation and petroleum legislation in particular. Upward fuel price trends of recent months, reflecting both turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa,...
March 24, 2011
It doesn’t take a Ouija board to know that activity on federal energy legislation has been less than dynamic recently. With Congress currently focused on funding the 2011 Fiscal Year (already now half over) and then increasing the federal...
April 19, 2010
Seeking Alpha has posted a very troubling blog entry this morning on the topic of Peak Oil. The post reviews international analyses and expert presentations that suggests that we may be closer to a Hubbert-like peak event than the U.S. press are...
July 8, 2008
In June, the U.S. Senate spent several days debating climate change legislation. The debate was nominally on the Lieberman-Warner bill that would establish a federal cap and trade program for greenhouse gas emissions beginning in 2012, with the...
January 7, 2007
The results of November's election will increase the chances of new energy efficiency legislation in 2007. Public opinion polls show voters concerned about rising U.S. dependence on imported energy and about global warming. Even President Bush...