Oil Firm Can Drill Off the Santa Barbara Coast for 10 Years, In Return For Giving Up Land and Shutting Down Completely (LA Times, 4/11/08)

"A Houston oil company has agreed to shut down its offshore oil production off Santa Barbara County decades early in exchange for approval this year to drill into untapped undersea reserves and cash in on the nation's record oil prices."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-oil11apr11,1,5565151,full.story

Google wants to make RE < C

Last week Google announced an initiative with the bold goal of making renewable energy cheaper than coal.

At first glance, this seems to be outside of their core competency, however Google and companies like Microsoft and Yahoo! are huge customers of energy with the large data centers being created.

Also, Google stated at its IPO: "Our goal is to develop services that significantly improve the lives of as many people as possible. In pursuing this goal, we may do things that we believe have a positive impact on the world, even if the near-term financial returns are not obvious."

"High Oil Prices Confound OPEC" (New York Times, Nov 16, 2007)

“We do not like policies that discriminate against petroleum or fossil fuels in general,” Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, said at a news conference on Tuesday. “It behooves us to find a technological process that will make the continued use of fossil fuels possible.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/16/business/16cnd-opec.html?pagewanted=all

"Big Oil buys Sacramento (aka, why you're not hearing a peep from California politicians on record-high gas prices)"

The issue of refinery capacity and fuel pricing isn't as simple as this op-ed portrays, but it reflects very well the sentiment/concerns people have w.r.t. oil.

"Gasoline prices are stuck well above last year's record highs and about 50 cents above the national average. Yet state politicians are not saying or doing a thing, except for raking in political cash from the oil companies and flying around the world on their dime."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-court14may14,0,991123.story

"The Effects of High-Priced Oil" (NYT)

Two new articles in the NYT today, about the effect high-oil prices are having on geopolitics, and possible long-term concerns re: economic growth:


"The prospect of triple-digit oil prices has redrawn the economic and political map of the world, challenging some old notions of power. Oil-rich nations are enjoying historic gains and opportunities, while major importers — including China and India, home to a third of the world’s population — confront rising economic and social costs."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/business/07oilwealth.html?hp=&pagewanted=all


"[T]he International Energy Agency warned that demand for oil imports by China and India will almost quadruple by 2030 and could create a supply 'crunch' as soon as 2015 if oil producers do not step up production, energy efficiency fails to improve and demand from the two countries is not dampened."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/business/07cnd-energy.html?pagewanted=all

Climate Change, Measurement Methodology

Climate change is related to many issues in the energy industry; therefore, I thought readers might find it useful to read this post, which talks about some of the protocols used to measure climate change, and new findings in this regard.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2007/10/25/climate-change-mega-post

BP Agrees to Pay Fine of $373 Million to US Govt (AFP, Oct 25, 2007)

"The global energy giant agreed to pay the fines, some of which were criminal penalties, for environmental violations relating to a Texas refinery blast in 2005, crude oil pipeline leaks in Alaska, and to defer a prosecution for fixing prices in the propane gas market."

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j-KKOgwF5bAblQR7VOnJTzlZFxEw

http://www.forbes.com/business/energy/2007/10/25/bp-energy-environment-biz-energy-cx_bw_1025bpfines.html