Recent Gas News/GasBuddy Blog

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.
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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)

Gas 2.0 -- Last time I reported on the topic of using termite guts to make next generation cellulosic ethanol cheaper and easier, it was 2008. Back then a team of researchers from the University of Florida had just started on the path to analyzing the more than 7,000 genes associated with the production of special enzymes within the termite guts that can break down woody fibers so that the termites can digest them and use them for energy.

This process that goes on in the bellies of hundreds of millions, perhaps trillions, of termites all around the world, day-in and day-out—a process that many homeowners fear in the depths of their hearts—is exactly what the next generation ethanol crowd needs to make fuel from woody waste such as thinned forest debris and agricultural residues.

In a paper publish  (go to article)

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES -- General Motors Co. on Friday announced a recall of 59,714 Agile model cars in Brazil to replace a faulty fuel hose.

Due to a faulty production process in the 2010 and 2011 models, the hose may develop cracks, leaking fuel which could cause a fire in the car's engine, GM said in a statement published Friday in Brazilian newspapers.

The recall is at least the eighth major recall this year by auto makers in Latin America's biggest economy.

A worldwide problem, recalls have plagued the Brazilian auto industry this year. Other Brazilian manufacturers hurt by recalls this year were local units of Ford Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp., Fiat SpA, Volkswagen AG and Honda Motor Co.

Altogether, including Friday's GM announcement, recalls have affected some 700,000 Brazilian-made motor vehicles...
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CBC -- Irving Oil announced Friday it has been selling premium gasoline below specifications for more than two years.

The company said that octane levels on its premium gasoline have been lower than expected since the beginning of 2008.

Irving Oil had already been offering rebates to drivers who bought its Plus or Supreme gasoline during 2010 after it discovered a problem Aug. 13 at the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, N.B.

That reimbursement program opened Aug. 17 and closes Friday afternoon. Around 8,000 people took advantage of it, the company said.

That refund was equivalent to just over three cents per litre purchased since Jan. 1. Customers were to be sent a gift card for that amount.

Friday, Irving Oil concluded its review of the problem — a valve malfunction — and det  (go to article)

AP -- The federal government said engineers will start work Monday to remove the temporary cap that stopped oil from gushing out of BP's blown-out Gulf well so that crews can raise a key piece of equipment from the seabed.
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Truthout.org -- An Alyeska Pipeline Service Company engineer sent a letter to federal regulators and BP's Office of the Ombudsman claiming internal company documents were altered following a 4,500-barrel oil spill May 25 to cover up the fact that Alyeska allegedly failed to perform maintenance on a key piece of equipment.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Deep-water drilling engineer John Guide helped orchestrate BP Plc’s climb during the past decade to largest producer of Gulf of Mexico crude.

Then the Macondo well erupted on his watch, killing 11 workers and triggering the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

After months of hearings and media reports focusing on other participants in the April disaster, Guide, 52, is emerging as one of the critical decision-makers. According to internal company memos and testimony at recent hearings, it was Guide who vetoed a proposal to install equipment that may have kept explosive natural gas from seeping into the well and jetting up to the floating rig.

“As they continue their investigation and more evidence surfaces, he may find himself asked to return and provide additional answe  (go to article)

CNN Money -- A new law requiring oil companies to disclose all payments made to governments has sparked a sharp debate, with Big Oil saying it will put it at a big competitive disadvantage.

The law, attached at the last minute to the financial reform bill last month, applies to extractive industries - basically all U.S.-listed oil, gas and mining companies.

These companies pay hundreds of billions of dollars each year to governments in the form of royalties, taxes, and other fees. The problem, say some, is that these payments are often not transparent. Now firms must disclose these payments.

The law is very specific, requiring information about each individual project in countries where they operate, not simply a lump-sum figure.  (go to article)

U.S.NEWS AND WORLD REPORT -- Imagine spending thousands of dollars on a new car, only to find out later that an even better model will soon be available for roughly the same price? That situation stinks, and it happens all the time.
More and more automakers are attempting to get a leg up on the competition by releasing vehicles from their 2011 lineups early. While that can mean great discounts on current-year models, the savings only make sense on cars that hardly change from one year to the next. Redesigned ones are usually worth waiting for.
To avoid buying a car that you’ll want to kick yourself for later, you’ll need to check out how the car you want is expected to change in 2011. What you learn may save you from feeling duped. Start with the list below. You would have to be nuts to buy any of these  (go to article)

Associated Press -- Prices at gasoline stations across the country should keep dropping as travelers hit the road for late-summer trips.

The national average pump price has declined for 17 days in a row, reaching $2.682 for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline on Friday, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. The price is 6.3 cents lower than a month ago and about 6.2 cents higher than it was last year at this time.

Motorists in the West are paying the most for gas, ranging from $2.815 to $3.521 a gallon. The cheapest prices are in Texas, parts of the Midwest and the Gulf Coast area, where the range is $2.446 to $2.537 a gallon.

The price pullback comes after a plunge in wholesale gasoline prices earlier this month continues to filter into the retail market. In addition,  (go to article)

Downstream Today -- The world is running out of oil.

This prediction could be made today, of course, but it also has been stated with moral certainty numerous times since 1909, Princeton researcher Roger Stern said Monday night at the University of Tulsa. The problem is not only that the forecast has been wrong, but that this "oil scarcity syndrome" has driven U.S. national security policy in the Middle East for most of the past century, he added.

"U.S. policy is detached from market realities," Stern told a crowd at Helmerich Hall. "So it has been led by allies such as the Saudis."
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Reuters -- (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co> is recalling about 575,000 Windstar vans in 21 cold-weather U.S. states and Canada from model years 1998 to 2003 because of the possibility that the rear axle may fracture due to corrosion, federal regulators reported on Friday.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary investigation of the problem on May 13 after receiving 234 reports of rear axle fractures and two minor crashes. The number of complaints has risen to 950.

NHTSA said the design of the axle appears to allow it to collect road salt slush, leading to rust.

The recalls total about 463,000 in the United States, and the remaining in Canada, a Ford spokesman said.

Windstar owners will be asked to bring their vans into Ford or Lincoln-Mercury dealerships for insp  (go to article)

GasBuddy Blog -- In the last part of our series on car insurance, we'll cover the extras that some motorists like to add to their policy- such things as towing, roadside assistance, and car rental.

Now, these may seem like things you don't need- but they certainly become nice luxuries once you've needed or used them. They typically don't cost much every month, but can save you a lot of headaches and bills if you have more than a claim or two every year.

Rental reimbursement will pay for your rental car if your vehicle is damaged or stolen. Basically, until your car is done being repaired, you get a rental. If the car is stolen, you can drive the rental until you've determined your next car and the insurance settles your claim. Make sure...  (go to article)

NY Times -- Mercedes-Benz, as part of its collaboration with Tesla Motors, will produce 500 battery-powered “E-Cell” versions of its small A-Class, introducing the car at the Paris auto show in October.

According to Shirin Emeera, a Daimler spokeswoman, details of the electric car will be announced on Sept. 15. She said the car would be produced at the Mercedes Rastatt plant, near Stuttgart, Germany, where the A-Class (which is not sold in the United States) is produced. Delivery of the cars will begin early next year.

Tesla’s components, which include the battery pack and controller, will be shipped there to be integrated into the car.........  (go to article)

NY Times -- In a plume of salt crystals, students from Ohio State University’s Center for Auto Research witnessed their electric-powered racer make history on Tuesday. The Buckeye Bullet 2.5 averaged 307.7 miles per hour in back-to-back runs on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, obliterating the previous record of 245.5 m.p.h., set in 1999............  (go to article)

Herald Democrat -- Texas-based KiOR, a company with plans to produce a crude oil substitute from wood chips and other biomass, will locate its first three facilities in Mississippi.

Gov. Haley Barbour and KiOR CEO Fred Cannon announced details of the venture Thursday, a day before lawmakers were set to return to the Capitol to approve incentives for the company.

Cannon said KiOR will become the first ever to use the catalytic conversion technology to produce the biofuel and sell it commercially. The process allows biomass, such as wood products and agricultural waste, to be converted to a high-quality renewable crude oil that can be used by refineries and to power vehicles, Cannon said.  (go to article)

Sympatico -- Ever wonder what royalty drives around in?
Or, at least in some cases, presidents with a lot of cash to burn?
Let's take a journey, from Brunei to Russia, to see what some of the world's most powerful people drive around in.
 (go to article)