Better Fill up today

[Jane]

Gas prices in Topeka, KS are $3.32 to 3.10.

[frawin]

I filled up this morning here in Bartlesville for $2.94, I filled up yesterday morning in Geneva IL at $3.44. With the holiday driving on, crude is up $4.00 plus this morning.

[frawin]

Crude oil settled at $92.66, up $2.79 on the day. The Iranian/Isralei threats have pushed the market up 10-12$ in the past 2 weeks.

[Warph]

Report: Carbon emissions are at a twenty-year low, due to...
posted at 7:37 pm on August 16, 2012 by Erika Johnsen

Oh, the glorious irony! While environmentalists everywhere have long insisted that we need major government interference in order to combat the greedy capitalism ostensibly fueling the effects of man-made climate change, and that hydraulic fracturing is one of the most environmentally unfriendly, earth-raping practices in the history of ever, it's officially official: It is in fact free enterprise and fracking together that have accomplished what greenies have been lecturing us to do for decades.

In a surprising turnaround, the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in the U.S. has fallen dramatically to its lowest level in 20 years, and government officials say the biggest reason is that cheap and plentiful natural gas has led many power plant operators to switch from dirtier-burning coal.

Many of the world's leading climate scientists didn't see the drop coming, in large part because it happened as a result of market forces rather than direct government action against carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere.

Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, said the shift away from coal is reason for "cautious optimism" about potential ways to deal with climate change. He said it demonstrates that "ultimately people follow their wallets" on global warming.

"There's a very clear lesson here. What it shows is that if you make a cleaner energy source cheaper, you will displace dirtier sources," said Roger Pielke Jr., a climate expert at the University of Colorado.

In a little-noticed technical report, the U.S. Energy Information Agency, a part of the Energy Department, said this month that total U.S. CO2 emissions for the first four months of this year fell to about 1992 levels. ... While conservation efforts, the lagging economy and greater use of renewable energy are factors in the CO2 decline, the drop-off is due mainly to low-priced natural gas, the agency said.

And it feels so good. Just look at that — the free market did something 'green' and good all on its own, no "necessarily skyrocketing" energy prices necessary! As I often argue, too many environmentalists operate under the mistaken impression that prosperity and environmental quality are mutually exclusive, but that assumption couldn't be more wrong. Not only are wealthy societies the only ones that have the luxury of worrying about their environmental impact, but a robust and thriving economy is the only thing that's ever going to bring about the efficiency and innovation that will lead to cleaner and better energy and resource usage.

Not to mention, natural gas is providing and can continue to provide a huge boost for economy, our global competitiveness, and our energy security. As John Deutch wrote for the WSJ the other day, the opportunities just keep on comin':

Two summers ago, natural gas cost $4.50 per thousand cubic feet, which was less than half what it had cost two summers earlier. Today the price is under $2.50, as unconventional natural gas production has increased to 20% of domestic supply from 5% in 2008, with 40% anticipated by 2020....

A United States hopelessly dependent on imported oil and natural gas is a thing of the past. Most energy experts now project that North America will have the capacity to be a net exporter of oil and natural gas by the end of this decade. ...

The historic ratio between the cost of natural gas and oil on an energy-equivalent basis—one to six—means that there is a tremendous economic incentive to develop new natural gas technologies for purposes including compressed natural gas vehicles, gas-to-liquid conversion, and methanol that could be used as a transportation fuel or blended into synthetic diesel fuel.

[frawin]

Great Post Warph, in addition to the increased use of Natural Gas, Windpower has also reduced the use of Coal and Fuel Oil. In my early days in Phillips Tanker Charting we delivered a lot of Fuel Oil to Power Plants in the Northeast.

[srkruzich]

Great Post Warph, in addition to the increased use of Natural Gas, Windpower has also reduced the use of Coal and Fuel Oil. In my early days in Phillips Tanker Charting we delivered a lot of Fuel Oil to Power Plants in the Northeast.

hate to say it but its not even a drop in the bucket!  

For the 12 months from June 2011 to May 2012, the electricity produced from wind power in the United States amounted to 129 terawatt-hours, or 3.17% of all generated electrical energy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_United_States

[frawin]

Crude has traded over $100.0 this morning, and I think it is going higher. Thanks to BHO not allowing drilling in many opf the US reserves. If BHO had approved both Legs of the Trans-Canada, Keystone Pipeline we could be well on our way to getting large volumes of crude from Canada and not being held hostage by many of the PG producers.

[srkruzich]

Crude has traded over $100.0 this morning, and I think it is going higher. Thanks to BHO not allowing drilling in many opf the US reserves. If BHO had approved both Legs of the Trans-Canada, Keystone Pipeline we could be well on our way to getting large volumes of crude from Canada and not being held hostage by many of the PG producers.

Well we can only hope it sinks his boat!

[Diane Amberg]

Every article I've read recently seems have slightly different, but similar %s  of where our oil  comes from. Apparently we produce between 38 to 40% of our own oil right here, and around 12%-15% coming from the middle east,including all the oil emirates.The rest comes from Canada, Mexico, England, South America and one or two other countries. So why do we panic every time the middle east has problems?  Is it really speculators trying to take advantage of the instability?   I'd like to see Keystone too, but apparently the states it will go through are scared to death and have a huge lobby.

[frawin]

Crude oil settled at $91.98, down $3.31 on the day.  The reason in the big drop is that Petroleum inventories went up considerably more than anticipated.  The Weekly Doe-Eia Petroleum Inventory report is attached for those that might be interested.