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Heating Oil Dealer Vows to End His Company’s Dependence on Unfriendly Oil
Our soil, our oil—that’s the slogan of a Northeast heating oil dealer who has stopped selling foreign oil. As of May 31st, the company’s 25,000 customers only receive home heating oil produced in North America, the news site lancasteronline reported. The same pledge applies to the other fuels they also sell—diesel and biodiesel immediately, [...]
Read More »Waxman Promotes Cap and Trade and Carbon Capture in Interview
We recently outlined, here on The Heat Zone, the provisions of the Waxman- Markey climate and energy bill, which aims to substantially reduce national greenhouse gas emissions. The so called cap and trade part of the bill would work by setting a permissible emissions level, or cap, for a given business and then issuing credits. [...]
Read More »Obama Admin. Betting on Carbon Capture and Storage; Technology Still Unproven
About half of the electricity produced in the US comes from coal-fired power plants – around 500 of them – that together churn out 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, or about 36 percent of the country’s total CO2 emissions, according to the Department of Energy. If there were a way to somehow [...]
Read More »Unintended Consequence of an Energy Policy: Black Liquor, the Paper Industry’s Profitable Cocktail
The alternative fuel mixture credit was intended to spur development of new, cleaner, and greener energy sources by providing a tax credit for alternative fuels, including ones incorporating traditional fossil fuels into their mix. It was not intended to subsidize an activity the paper and forest products industry were doing anyway—but that’s become one of [...]
Read More »Sanders’ Proposal to Regulate Heating Oil Speculators Attached to Drilling Bill
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee accepted a proposal authored by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders that would require oil traders to divulge resources held in offshore tankers. The committee took on the proposal yesterday, attaching it as an amendment to the current legislation that will set new policies governing oil and gas drilling in [...]
Read More »Drilling Debate Heats Up in Congress as New Rules are Considered
Republicans in Congress have tended to support the expansion of offshore drilling in American waters, while Democrats have traditionally opposed it. As reported recently on The Heat Zone, Congress allowed an 18-year old general moratorium on offshore drilling to expire last year, and coastal reserves in the Gulf of Mexico were re-opened as well.
There are [...]
More Green Energy Blowin’ in the Winds of the Midwest
When you think of game-changing technology—especially green technology—you usually think of the Pacific Northwest, particularly the Seattle area. But when it comes to green-energy technology, you should be thinking of the American heartland, especially Iowa.
Green energy technology—biofuels? No. The hot “new” energy source in the heartland is one of mankind’s first sources of mechanical energy, [...]
Federal Weatherization Money Going to Hot and Cold States
The Federal government has announced it will spend stimulus package funds to help homeowners in warm states save on air conditioning costs, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
Read More »Inhofe Leads GOP Opposition to Clean Air Legislation, Predicts Emissions Bill’s Failure in Senate
It seems pretty straight forward. You make it worthwhile for industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and you get cleaner air, a better environment and slow down global warming. But getting opposing political factions to agree on how to do that, or even whether to do anything at all, is where things bog down.
Although the [...]
UPDATE: Geithner Says No to Merging of CFTC and SEC
Maybe it won’t happen after all.
Lawmakers who attended a private dinner with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said that Geithner does not support merging the Securities Exchange Commission with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Those who attended the meeting wished to not have their names published as it was a private event. But Bloomberg.com reporters wrote [...]
SEC Commissioner Advocates Merger With CFTC; Move Could Help Steady Heating Oil Prices
Ever since the financial crisis placed the world in economic turmoil, pundits have discussed the possibility of major regulatory overhaul. One possibility that has been mentioned would be to combine the nation’s two biggest financial regulatory agencies into one unit.
Currently, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) oversees American commodities trading, including crude and heating oil; [...]
Sen. Sanders of VT Pushes for Stricter Regulation of Energy Markets
Once again, oil speculators are at the center of controversy. During the past few months, the price of oil has once again climbed. This has come despite a drop in oil demand and a massive supply surplus. As a result, fingers are once again being pointed at oil speculators.
Speculators invest in commodities such as oil [...]
Big Oil Gets into the Biofuel Business
A recent article in the New York Times described how oil giant BP has taken a sudden and unexpected interest in ethanol, one of the so-called “biofuels,” a development that it and other major oil companies have long resisted.
Biofuel, which represents about 9% of the nation’s market for liquid fuels, has typically been made from [...]
Controversial Emissions Bill Includes Support for Heating Oil Programs
The Washington Post reported earlier this week that the House Energy and Commerce Committee had released a 932-page bill “designed to bring together a coalition of lawmakers, industries and environmental groups behind the regulation of greenhouse gases.”
The legislation sets national targets for gradually lowering total greenhouse-gas emissions, but will also give allowances to utilities and [...]
CT Congressman Leads Effort to Extend Federal Energy Benefits to Heating Oil Users
Energy reform and climate change have become priorities for both President Barack Obama and Congress. Headlines constantly tout the positive impact that going green and building alternative energy sources will have on the environment and the economy.
However, some feel that heating oil has been lost in the shuffle, including Connecticut Congressman Chris Murphy. Murphy wants [...]
Energy Execs: Obama Energy Plans Unrealistic
The Obama Administration’s energy policy mixes ambition and idealism, with calls for heavy investment in green, alternative, renewable, and sustainable energy sources. One of its central pillars is a call for energy independence. During his campaign, for example, President Obama called for energy independence within 10 years. Since then, his Administration has been [...]
Read More »Editors at Richmond Times Dispatch Give Tough Analysis Obama’s Energy Speech
The Heat Zone took an cautiously optimistic position on President Obama’s Earth Day talk about energy initiatives, especially his promise that if we pull together, we can look forward to a cleaner country, a stronger economy and lower prices for petroleum products like gasoline and heating oil.
Obama’s plan, of course, hangs on reducing demand for [...]
Senator Proposes National Reserves of Refined Petroleum Products
Writing for Reuters last week, Tom Dogget reported that Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, wants the federal government to create emergency stockpiles of specific petroleum products, such as gasoline and diesel fuel, to help offset supply disruptions such as those experienced when recent hurricanes [...]
Read More »Specter’s Party Switch Unlikely to Expedite Climate Legislation
Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania may be a newly-minted Democrat, but he still comes from a state with a heavy manufacturing base and a vested interest in the coal industry. An article in yesterday’s New York Times reported that Specter’s surprising party switch, while welcomed by Senate Democrats since it brings them closer to the [...]
Read More »Leaders from OPEC, Asia Call for Increased Regulation of Oil Speculation to Avoid Price Spike
Last Sunday, leaders from the member nations of OPEC and 13 Asian nations convened in Tokyo for the biennial Asian Ministerial Round Table Meeting. Following the meeting, the group released a draft statement that included calls for stricter controls over speculation in the oil markets to avoid a future price spike, Bloomberg.com reported.
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