Recent Gas News/GasBuddy Blog

The Daily Reporter -- A manufacturer and union predict more construction work from a state renewable energy bill, while business groups argue the measure would drive jobs out of Wisconsin.

The bill would support energy-conservation projects by increasing the amount the state charges ratepayers. It also would set a 2025 deadline for 25 percent of state electricity to come from renewable sources, such as wind or solar.

Supporters of the bill, such as solar panel manufacturer Helios USA LLC and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Wisconsin local unions, are rallying for the bill.

The proposed changes, especially the conservation mandate, mean jobs for electricians, construction laborers and pipe fitters, said Dave Boetcher, government affairs coordinator for the local unions.

 (go to article)

National Public Radio -- How do you double the value of a Yugo? Fill the gas tank.

What do you call a Yugo that breaks down after 100 miles? An overachiever.

Remember the Yugo? Jason Vuic would like to remind you of its not-so-illustrious story. The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History is Vuic's book on the tiny, no-frills, breakdown-prone automobile imported from communist Yugoslavia in the 1980s that is better known today as a punchline than a piece of machinery that might (or might not) take you from point A to point Y.

Despite his book's title, Vuic says that the Yugo is far from the worst car in history. There was even a time when the car ignited a sort of Yugo-mania in America. Between 1984 and 1992, Americans bought 150,000 Yugos.
 (go to article)

Physorg.com -- Part of the headache of having to constantly recharge batteries is not just how often they need to be charged, but also the time it takes to charge them. In a new study, researchers have proposed a charging method that could greatly reduce the charging time of lithium-ion batteries, which are used in everything from electronic devices to electric vehicles. The new method uses an additional oscillating electric field (besides the charging field) that should be capable of charging a lithium-ion battery in a fraction of the time compared with traditional methods......  (go to article)

The Auto Channel -- Excerpts-

An all-new 3.5-liter EcoBoost(TM) V-6 twin-turbocharged, direct-injection engine will deliver at least 365 horsepower and 350 ft.-lb. of torque across a broad rpm range.

..the brakes have been increased in size and performance. The cooling package is purpose-built as well, featuring a heavy-duty alternator and larger radiator.
Front seats have been specially designed, with a lower bolster removed to better accommodate officers' utility belts. Inserted into the seatback are anti-stab plates, designed to protect front-seat occupants.

BLIS® (Blind Spot Information System): The system uses two radar sensors located in the rear quarter panels to detect vehicles in the surrounding lanes.

NewPolice Interceptor sedan will be manufactured at Ford's Chicago (Ill.) Assembly Pla  (go to article)

reuters.com -- (Reuters) - British Columbia has given the green light to 19 private-sector clean energy projects that will generate enough power to supply nearly 218,000 homes in Canada's Pacific Coast province.

Green Business

The approvals, announced late on Thursday by BC Hydro, the government-owned electricity utility, mark the first phase in the provincial government's long-delayed push to generate more green power.

Fourteen of the 19 proposals are 14 run-of-river hydroelectric projects, in which river water is diverted through turbines to produce power without the use of dams. The remainder are wind power projects.

Combined, the projects will generate more than 2,400 gigawatt hours of electricity annually.

Another 28 projects remain under consideration, said BC Hydro, which will

 (go to article)

MSN autos -- Hybrids and electric cars are increasingly being called silent road hazards. So what should they sound like?  (go to article)

SeekingAlpha.com -- By Wayne A. Corbitt

There is an intense debate raging surrounding the future direction of crude oil prices. The bulls say the upcoming driving season will spur demand once again to give crude a push higher. They also argue that demand from China and other countries with healthier economies than our own will continue to soak up supply.

The bears argue that China is in the process of draining excess liquidity to dampen speculation and apply the brakes on an overheating economy. The bears also contend that with our "mirage" economy is so weak (just watch the employment numbers) that demand in this country will tail off.

In cases such as these, the proper thing to do is to not get caught up in these fundamental debates but to look at what the market tells us.  (go to article)

Physorg.com -- Excerpts

"Methane hydrate is an ice-like substance that is sometimes called “combustible ice”...
Methane hydrate is an attractive energy source due to its high energy density: one cubic meter of combustible ice contains about 164 cubic meters of regular natural gas. This high energy density is due to the fact that methane is trapped within the hydrate crystal structure and greatly compressed."

Besides China, countries including the US, Japan, and the Republic of Korea have plans to tap the natural gas hydrate buried in their territories.

Last summer, US scientists on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico discovered pockets of highly concentrated methane hydrate estimated to contain 6,700 trillion cubic feet of gas.  (go to article)

inhabitat.com -- by Ariel Schwartz

Eventually, we’d like to think that everyone will be driving around in all-electric cars. But in the meantime, it’s important to develop efficient gas engine technology. That’s where a new system from Transonic Combustion comes in. The California-based startup has developed a fuel-injection system that can improve the efficiency of gasoline engines by 50%.

A standard engine using Transonic Combustion’s system gets 64 miles per gallon in highway driving–even more impressive than hybrids like the Prius, which gets only 48 miles per gallon. So why is the system so effective? According to MIT Technology Review, “Transonic’s injection system varies from direct injection in two ways: it uses supercritical fluids and doesn’t require a spark to ignite the fuel.  (go to article)

MSNBC.COM -- by Bob Sullivan

We may never know why runaway Toyotas suddenly seem to be everywhere. The scariest possibility, however, is that faulty computers are driving some victims to their deaths with frightening randomness. Suspicions that an elusive software glitch in computer-controlled throttles is to blame, combined with powerful images and harrowing tales, has tapped into our primal, science-fiction fueled fear of killer computers.

Excerpts

Concerns about random computer errors are justified, Fisher said, but it's important to know that mechanical linkages also fail at random intervals.

"A cable could get kinked, the springs could get stuck, the springs could break. A stuck-open throttle could happen with a mechanical failure, and did happen," he said.  (go to article)

BBC News -- Prosecutors in California are suing Toyota, claiming the Japanese carmaker sold hundreds of thousands of vehicles that it knew had defects.
-----
The world's largest carmaker has recalled millions of vehicles because of problems accelerating and braking.
-----
Regulators have linked five deaths to crashes allegedly caused by accelerator problems and are investigating dozens of others.

 (go to article)

FORBES.COM -- By Christopher Helman

Occidental Petroleum is the untrendiest of the big oil companies. Unlike its bigger rivals, Oxy has no refineries and no interest in Canadian oil sands, liquefied natural gas or deepwater prospects. The Los Angeles company is unabashedly partial to oil, with 73% of its reserves in crude; most operators are more than half natural gas.

Now Occidental ( OXY - news - people ) is breaking ranks in another way, by upsetting the commonplace view that the days of "easy oil" in the U.S. are over. Last year Oxy announced a new find outside Bakersfield, in Kern County, Calif., which is shaping up to be the biggest onshore oil discovery the U.S. has seen in three decades. It likely holds more than 1 billion barrels of oil (and natural gas equivalents) that will be easy and  (go to article)

FORBES.COM -- By Hannah Elliott

Of the top 10 industries that received the most consumer complaints last year, three were auto related.

New-car dealers, used-car dealers and auto service and repair shops registered almost 54,000 complaints in North America, according to the Better Business Bureau. They were the No. 4, 7 and 10th-most complaint-ridden industries of 2009. It's enough to make anyone blanch at the thought of buying a new car.

"Difficult times lead to creativity," says Bill Gerhard, AAA's director of financial services. "People come up with sensational hooks to try and get you to the dealerships, and once they lure you in, the goal is to sell you something and generate as much profit for the dealership as they can."

It helps to know what you may face before hitting the showroom.  (go to article)

Investors Business Daily -- Research director Gabriel Calzada Alvarez didn't object to wind power itself, but found that when a government artificially props up this industry with subsidies, higher electrical costs (31%), tax hikes (5%) and government debt follow. Fact is, these subsidies have the same "Cuisinart" effect on jobs as wind-generating propeller blades have on birds. Every green job costs $800,000 to create and 90% of them are temporary, he found.

Alvarez made no bones about the lessons of Spain for the Obama administration, which has big plans for "green jobs." His report warned of "considerable employment consequences" from "self-inflicted economic wounds."  (go to article)

Detroit Free Press -- Ford has long dominated the police car market, but will face more competition as it tries to hold onto that market share, even with the all-new Ford Police Interceptor that it is introducing today.
The Crown Victoria, introduced in the early 1980s, has long dominated police car sales and accounts for about 75% of the police car market with annual sales that exceed 45,000, Ford officials said in November.Ford confirmed last year that the new Interceptor will be based on the company’s Ford Taurus full-size sedan and will replace Ford’s Crown Victoria-based Police Interceptor in 2011.“The bottom line is they have a police car that defines the American police car,” said Jim Hall, managing director of 2953 Analytics in Birmingham. “Police departments love it for a million rea  (go to article)

Houston Chronicle -- From enthusiasm for cleaner-burning natural gas and energy efficiency, to big-spending plans for carbon capture projects and renewable power, talk at the CERA-Week conference suggests the energy business is thinking greener.

“If you read the popular press, one would think maybe there's a pause button on climate change,” Patricia DiOrio, a director for IHS Cambridge Energy Associates, said during a panel discussion on Friday, the closing day of the conference hosted by IHS CERA.

“But I didn't see that here. The energy industry is very committed to moving forward on reducing carbon.”

A number of events have sidetracked efforts to pass sweeping laws that would put a price on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the United States.
 (go to article)

Morning Times -- February was the busiest month yet for the natural gas industry in Bradford County, with 26 wells drilled over the month’s 28 days, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).  (go to article)

Detroit Free Press -- Korean battery maker LG Chem and its U.S. subsidiary Compact Power on Friday confirmed their plans to build a $303-million plant to make lithium-ion battery cells for electric vehicles, including the Chevrolet Volt.

The plant, which is to break ground this summer, is to be running in 2012. By 2013, LG Chem expects to have hired 400 people for the plant.

"LG Chem's selection of Holland to house the company's battery cell facility was a balanced decision based on the city's excellent infrastructure and proven, quality workforce," said Jae Ham, senior vice president of LG Chem, in a statement Friday.

The factory is to be able to make enough lithium-ion battery cells for 50,000 to 200,000 vehicle battery packs a year.

LG Chem's new 650,000-square-foot lithium-ion battery plant ....  (go to article)

Detroit Free Press -- General Motors wants to pay factory workers making advanced technology items for electric cars less than $14 per hour - lower than a controversial second-tier wage reached in the 2007 national contract.

GM and the UAW have reached the understanding on pay as part of a framework for a future contract, the Free Press has learned.

"This should set a standard for other companies" as automakers do in-house parts manufacturing for next-generation vehicles, said Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

The new framework - which also includes fewer job classifications and new work rules - was hashed out late last summer with the intention of being applied to new hourly workers at GM's Brownstown Township battery pack and Baltimore electric-  (go to article)

Miami Herald -- ALLAHASSEE -- A Nike swoosh or the Golden Arches might one day call to consumers from the back of your car.

The legislation that could allow some companies to stamp their corporate logo on Florida license plates as a way to bring in some cash for the state -- and save drivers some money -- is likely to get a vote in a Senate committee next week.

The vote is likely this coming week after the Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee adds the language to a shell bill that will be before the committee, said its chairman, Sen. Mike Fasano, who floated the idea a few weeks ago.

``We're going to have to approve them,'' likely on a case-by-case basis, Fasano said. ``We certainly don't want the Pussycat Lounge on somebody's tag.''  (go to article)

Wall Street Journal -- Caterpillar Inc. is considering relocating some heavy-equipment overseas production to a new U.S. plant, part of a growing movement among manufacturers to bring more operations back home—a shift that will likely spark fierce competition among states for new manufacturing jobs.
The trend, known as onshoring or reshoring, is gaining momentum as a weak U.S. dollar makes it costlier to import products from overseas. Manufacturers are also counting on White House jobs incentives, as well as their ability to negotiate lower prices from U.S. suppliers who were hurt by the downturn and willing to bargain.
After a decade of rapid globalization, economists say companies are seeing disadvantages of offshore production, including shipping costs, complicated logistics, and quality issues.  (go to article)

Detroit News -- General Motors Co. will keep making big trucks and SUVs because U.S. buyers demand them, but a major portion of them will be gas-electric hybrids in the near future, retiring Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said.

Lutz didn't give details, but said GM must apply hybrid technology to more vehicles in order to meet fuel-economy standards that will rise 40 percent to an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. The cost will likely be spread across GM's lineup, since charging individual buyers for a hybrid system would make vehicles too expensive. GM has seven hybrids in its lineup now.

 (go to article)

Boston Globe -- PORTLAND, Maine — The state’s highest court yesterday upheld a law that aims to hasten the permit process for wind farms in the state.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court unanimously rejected arguments from the Friends of Lincoln Lakes nonprofit group, which challenged the Department of Environmental Protection’s approval of a 40-turbine wind power project on Rollins Mountain in Penobscot County.  (go to article)

FORBES.COM -- IRVING, Texas -- Exxon Mobil Corp. said Friday it is has finalized financing and sales agreements so it can begin developing a liquefied natural gas project in Papua New Guinea.

The company said the development positions it and its partners to meet growing energy demand in developing Asian countries.

The project includes gas production and processing facilities, onshore and offshore pipelines with capacity of 6.6 million tons per year.

Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said its affiliate, Esso Highlands Ltd., will begin work on the project now that the agreements are complete.

The initial phase is estimated to cost $15 billion and deliveries are to begin in 2014. Funding will come from co-venturers and market-rate loans.

The project is expected to produce more  (go to article)

FORBES.COM -- By JAMES MacPHERSON

BISMARCK, N.D. -- Oil companies will be able to tap more than 5 million gallons of Missouri River water daily for drilling operations under a pair of projects announced Friday by North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven.

The state and a water district in McKenzie County will share the cost of a $7 million project that will pipe about 4 million gallons of Missouri River water daily from Williston to a water depot some seven miles away, where it would be sold to oil companies.

A second project, pegged at $150,000, will tap into an existing pipeline near Dodge in Dunn County to provide up to 1.4 million gallons of water daily to the oil industry. The pipeline brings water to Dickinson from Lake Sakakawea, a 180-mile-long reservoir on the Missouri River.
 (go to article)

WCCO -- The rites of spring: the snow melts, the trees bud, and gasoline prices go up. But this year, gas prices are rising while people are cutting back on driving.

So what's the real story behind the jump at the pump?

According to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report, the average gallon of regular unleaded cost $2.75 on the morning of March 11.

Over the past month, gasoline has gone up about 25 cents. But compared to last year at this time, we're paying almost a dollar more. The average  (go to article)

Reuters -- Coming not so soon and probably not to a house near you is the home solar hydrogen refueling station -- Honda Motor Co's latest idea in its drive to make hydrogen the fuel of choice for zero emission cars.

The Japanese auto giant believes hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles offer the best long-term alternative to fossil fuels and the company showed on Friday a refueling breakthrough that it says points to a home version down the road.

Most major automakers have spent billions of dollars in researching hydrogen-powered fuel cells, tempted by the idea of a car that uses no gasoline and emits only water vapor. But Honda is widely seen as the hydrogen leader, while others like General Motors put more effort into battery-powered electric vehicles like the upcoming Volt.  (go to article)

Reuters -- LIBREVILLE, March 12 - Gabon, Africa's seventh largest oil producer, is offering 42 additional offshore deepwater and ultra-deepwater oil blocks for exploration, the government said on Friday.

The West African nation, which currently produces roughly 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day and relies on energy for about half of its gross domestic product, is seeking bids from international firms by May 5, it said.  (go to article)

Technology Review -- Transonic Combustion, a startup based in Camarillo, CA, has developed a fuel-injection system it says can improve the efficiency of gasoline engines by more than 50 percent. A test vehicle equipped with the technology gets 64 miles per gallon in highway driving, which is far better than more costly gas-electric hybrids, such as the Prius, which gets 48 miles per gallon on the highway.
The key is heating and pressurizing gasoline before injecting it into the combustion chamber, says Mike Rocke, Transonic's vice president of business development. This puts it into a supercritical state that allows for very fast and clean combustion, which in turn decreases the amount of fuel needed to propel a vehicle. The company also treats the gasoline with a catalyst that "activates" it, partially oxidiz  (go to article)

Fort Worth Star Telegram -- It's hard to believe it's been two years this month since this column first revealed that speculators were running riot in the oil futures market.  (go to article)

overlawyered.com -- Dating back to 1992 models, LA Times reporters found 56 deaths reported to NHTSA over the course of 19 model-years. If Toyota is suffering from electronic problems, these electronic problems should affect all drivers equally. If Toyota sudden acceleration is caused by driver pedal misapplication, then we should expect to see a disproportionate number of elderly and short drivers. Unfortunately, we don’t have driver heights, and in only 24 of the 56 cases, did the Times list the age of the driver.

The ages: 18, 21, 22*, 32, 34, 44, 45, 47, 56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71**, 72, 72, 77, 79, 83, 85, 89.  (go to article)

Technology Review -- By combining the new cathode with the previously developed silicon anode, the team created a battery with an initial discharge of 630 watt-hours per kilogram of active ingredients. This represents an approximately 80 percent increase in the energy density over commercially available lithium-ion batteries, according to Stanford's Cui, who was a coauthor of a paper describing the work published last month in Nano Letters.  (go to article)

washingtonexaminer.com -- I’ve been driving Toyota Priuses since 2001. As a junior defense lawyer in the mid-90s, I litigated a number of bogus sudden acceleration cases that were brought against General Motors.

So the recent kerfuffle over alleged mysterious electronic problems with the Prius and other Toyotas has certainly caught my attention beyond just throwing my floor mat in the trunk.
 (go to article)

Forbes.com -- "On the very day Toyota was making a high-profile defense of its cars, one of them was speeding out of control," said CBS News--and a vast number of other media outlets worldwide. The driver of a 2008 Toyota Prius, James Sikes, called 911 to say his accelerator was stuck, he was zooming faster than 90 miles per hour and absolutely couldn't slow down.  (go to article)

Solar CalFinder -- Four democratic senators have introduced an initiative urging the Obama administration to suspend a U.S. Treasury grant program formed under the Recovery Act. The program enables renewable energy producers to receive grants in lieu of Investment Tax Credit payments, essentially providing valuable financing up-front rather than over a number of tax years. That program has spawned a revival in investments for clean energy projects in the wake of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and is widely lauded by RE industry members.

However, senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) are concerned that components for these projects are coming from foreign companies. In other words, they believe funds intended to boost  (go to article)

Reuters -- Southern California prosecutors filed the first U.S. consumer protection lawsuit against Toyota Motor Corp on Friday, claiming it had engaged in "fraud" by hiding evidence of dangerous vehicle defects.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said his office along with private attorneys sued the U.S. sales arm of Toyota, charging that the world's top-selling automaker has endangered the public with defective vehicles, and engaged in deceptive business practices.

"Against this backdrop of fraud and concealment, Toyota has for decades touted its reputation for safety and reliability and knew that people bought its vehicles because of that reputation and yet purposefully chose to conceal and suppress the existence and nature of defects," said the 18-page lawsuit filed on Friday.  (go to article)

Reuters -- Toyota Motor Corp may keep aggressive discounts available for U.S. consumers beyond this month after unprecedented incentives sent its U.S. sales sharply higher in early March, an executive said on Friday.

Toyota's U.S. sales surged by 40 percent in the first 10 days of March compared to the year-earlier period after the automaker offered zero-percent financing and other incentives, Don Esmond, senior vice president of Toyota U.S. sales, told Reuters in an interview.

Esmond said Toyota would evaluate March sales results and reaction from dealers and consumers before deciding whether to extend the discounts, which the company called its most "far-reaching sales program in history."  (go to article)

Breitbart -- Oil rose close to 83 dollars a barrel on Friday as the International Energy Agency reported unexpectedly strong growth in world energy demand, led by China.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for April delivery, added 49 cents to 82.60 dollars a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for April gained 48 cents to 80.76 dollars per barrel in midday London trading.

"The continued economic optimism buoyed the oil price above the mark of 82 dollars per barrel," said Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg.  (go to article)

MSNBC -- Predicting the end of oil has proven tricky and often controversial, but Kuwaiti scientists now say that global oil production will peak in 2014.

Their work represents an updated version of the famous Hubbert model, which correctly predicted in 1956 that U.S. oil reserves would peak within 20 years. Many researchers have since tried using the model to predict when worldwide oil production might peak.

Some have said production already peaked. One earlier model by Swedish researchers suggested that oil would peak sometime between 2008 and 2018. And other researchers have argued there are decades to go before oil production goes into irreversible decline. The only thing they all agree on: Oil is a finite and very valuable resource.

 (go to article)

Fox News -- SANTA ANA, Calif. -- The Orange County district attorney has filed a lawsuit against Toyota Motor Corp., accusing the automaker of knowingly selling hundreds of thousands of vehicles with acceleration defects.

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said at a news conference Friday that his office has the right to bring consumer protective action on behalf of Orange County residents.

"We need to make sure that when Toyota says 'Oh, what a feeling' and 'Moving forward' that they are talking about great cars," Rackauckas said, referring to the company's slogans.

Toyota spokesman Mike Michels said he had no comment because the company hasn't been served with the lawsuit.

Orange County's lawsuit accuses Toyota of using deceptive business practices to become the world's top automaker. The suit se  (go to article)

Aol Autos -- Did the driver of a runaway Toyota Prius in San Diego tell the truth when he said his accelerator pedal stuck earlier this week? New evidence is calling the driver's credibility into question, although the real answer will not be entirely clear until Toyota and the NHTSA announce the results of their investigation. Details about the driver, James Sikes, leave many wondering if he had ulterior motives for his claims.
 (go to article)

Philadelphia Inquirer -- Phila.-area gas average up 4 cents in a week

INQUIRER STAFF AND ASSOCIATED PRESS

The average price of gas in the five-county Philadelphia area went up 4 cents since last Friday, to $2.81.

South Jersey's average for a gallon of regular no-lead was up 5 cents, to $2.62.

The U.S. average went up 6 cents, to $2.78.

Diesel is costing 2 cents more in Philadelphia and its closest suburban counties, 4 cents more in South Jersey, and 4 cents more in the United States overall.

Oil prices moved above $82 a barrel after the International Energy Agency brightened its outlook for world demand, predicting that a surge in Asian economic activity would make up for a fall in developed countries.

 (go to article)

PickupTrucks.com -- Chrysler is talking with Cummins to continue development of an all-new light-duty diesel engine for Ram pickup trucks.  (go to article)

GasBuddy Blog -- As much as it stinks to hear, sometimes rising gasoline prices are partially our own fault. The fact that Americans are beginning to spend more shows that the economy is on the mend, and while Americans may be buying more food or clothes, they're also making more trips to the store, the mall, etc. The one product letting them get there is gasoline. We can directly tie increased shopping purchases and retail sales increases to gasoline demand. The more people are purchasing, the more gasoline they're undoubtedly using to get to stores or to the mall.

February's retail sales report showed definite signs of people beginning to open their wallets more for items they want, but that also means they should prepare to pay more at the pump...  (go to article)

NY Times -- Collecting real-time data from cars could save lives....  (go to article)

The Examiner -- The Obama administration’s six-month delay in approving new offshore drilling leases in federal waters will become a new three-year ban, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar quietly told reporters last Friday. Which means that no new oil and gas leases will be approved during President Obama’s term even though two –thirds of the American public supports such activity, according to a December 2009 Rasmussen poll.
 (go to article)

AFP -- South Korean researchers Tuesday launched an environmentally friendly public transport system using a "recharging road" -- with a vehicle sucking power magnetically from buried electric strips.

The Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV), towing three buses, went into service at an amusement park in southern Seoul. If the prototype proves successful, there are plans to try it out on a bus route in the capital.

 (go to article)

The Tribune -- Except for the sound of tires rolling on the ground, the latest generation of Polaris all-terrain vehicles moves almost silently across a snowy field.

Powered by an electric battery instead of a gasoline engine, the new Ranger EV (for electric vehicle) is in sharp contrast to its noisy predecessors, sounding more like an electric golf cart cruising down a fairway. Also missing is the exhaust generated by a gas engine.

The midsize, two-seat vehicle is aimed at a green audience that likes quiet as well as a rechargeable energy source. It has the longest range and largest battery pack of any midsize ATV in production today.

Whether it will convert critics who contend that all-terrain vehicles can be disruptive to the environment is up in the air.  (go to article)

LiveScience -- Predicting the end of oil has proven tricky and often controversial, but Kuwaiti scientists now say that global oil production will peak in 2014.

Their work represents an updated version of the famous Hubbert model, which correctly predicted in 1956 that U.S. oil reserves would peak within 20 years. Many researchers have since tried using the model to predict when worldwide oil production might peak.

Some have said production already peaked. One earlier model by Swedish researchers suggested that oil would peak sometime between 2008 and 2018. And other researchers have argued there are decades to go before oil production goes into irreversible decline. The only thing they all agree on: Oil is a finite and very valuable resource.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose toward $83 a barrel in New York, poised for a second weekly gain, as the dollar weakened and the IEA bolstered its outlook for oil demand.

The International Energy Agency raised its forecast for global oil demand this year for a second month as consumption in Asia rises more than expected. The dollar weakened, raising the appeal of crude for hedging inflation, and European stocks rose, extending the Stoxx Europe 600 Index’s second weekly advance.

“Oil is being helped by a weaker dollar and a somewhat friendlier equity market,” said Eugen Weinberg, analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. “But the gains aren’t going to last. Demand from refineries is still very low and prices are way too high for demand to recover strongly.”

 (go to article)

Detroit Free Press -- The congressional panel overseeing federal bailout recipients estimates GMAC will never repay at least $6.3 billion of $17.2 billion in taxpayer aid and called on the Treasury Department to demand GMAC take drastic steps -- including a possible bankruptcy for its troubled ResCap mortgage lending business.

The panel, chaired by Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, also urged Treasury to give taxpayers more frequent and detailed information about GMAC's condition, demand a business plan from GMAC and consider merging the lender with its former parent GM.

As part of the bankruptcy restructurings of GM and Chrysler, Treasury wiped out the companies' common stock and, in Chrysler's case, forced bondholders to take about 29 cents on the dollar for the company's debt.  (go to article)