July 2008 Archives

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, the first career scientist to head the agency, had to have had a better time when he was toiling away as a civil servant in the bowels of agency, out of public view and out of the line of fire

Johnson was appointed administrator in March 2005 and charged with carrying out the polices of the Bush administration,and it has not been a happy ride. It culminated this week with allegations from Democratic members of the Senate Environment Committee that Johnson perjured himself in testimony before Congress, and their demand for his resignation.

Heeding the aphorism attributed to Otto von Bismarck - "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made" - perhaps it would have been best to avert one's gaze from the US Senate last week.

With gasoline and crude prices at record levels, Democrats and Republicans put forth proposals that each side said promised relief to their long-suffering (and complaining) constituents. The "world's greatest deliberative body" deliberated all week, but rent by partisan bickering, produced nothing.

Daniel J. Weiss, the senior fellow and director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress, followed up today's vote on SPR with an interesting take on SPR history.

"We know that releasing Reserve oil will lower prices," he said in a prepared statement. "Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush each released oil from the Reserve. After their announcements, prices dropped $5 to $10 a barrel within days, and remained lower for months."

This week's statistical report from the Energy Information Administration had some interesting numbers about what refiners are doing in the fact of enormously profitable diesel margins, and gasoline margins that are weak and unattractive.

After the recent declines in prices, it's difficult to sign on to the idea that the market is headed significantly lower still when the news keeps coming out of Mexico about that country's collapsing rate of production.

It's been said in recent years that to get the pulse of what America is talking about, check out the monologues of Jay Leno and David Letterman.

Here's what Jay had to say this week about a particular oil issue.

With feedstock prices at sky-high levels, alternative fuel producers had a lot to think about at the National Algae Association forum outside Houston this week.

The standing-room-only gathering that aimed to showcase the latest algae-for-fuel developments, attended by academics, algae growers, technical researchers and would-be financiers, proved that it's exhausting just to think about some of the problems that still need to be solved in this promising new niche of the alternative energy landscape. But in the curious realm of alternative fuels that insinuates biology into the purely physical sciences, there are no shortage of visionaries pursuing dreams of energy alchemy and eventual riches in a crude-strained future.

Paul Ting is an independent analyst who had been one of the top Wall Street equity analysts. He focuses now on China, and his analysis of recent data and information from his sources in that country has led him to conclude that the country passed a significant demand mark last month.

According to Ting, Chinese demand passed 8 million b/d for the month, for the first time. Specifically, it rose to 8.43 million b/d, up from 7.919 million b/d the month before.

Planning to relocate between now and 2050 and want to avoid most of the possible impacts of climate change, then head to Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama. More adventurous souls should head west to the Pacific States (including Alaska and Hawaii), which could see it all.

Every region could experience heat waves and droughts, according to a study by the US Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to heat waves and droughts, the potential impacts are degraded air quality, the urban-heat island effect, early snowmelt, wildfires, tropical storms, extreme rainfall with flooding, and sea level rise, the EPA report said.

What nightmares could Mukesh Ambani possibly suffer? The elder brother in India's most famous industrialist family, and the de facto leader of a generation of Indian businessmen and women that will by any measure be seen by historians as a Golden Generation, you might think strolling a mile in Ambani's shoes would be a mighty pleasurable experience.

The latest OPEC monthly report could be read as bearish, offering some hope to beleaguered consumers. But its bearishness rides on the outcome of one development that has consistently disappointed: non-OPEC output.

In its report, released Tuesday, OPEC said global markets would require 710,000 b/d less oil from the organization's members next year. It forecast that demand for OPEC crude would decline to 31.24 million b/d from 31.95 million
b/d in 2008. The equation OPEC forecasts is increased non-OECD demand minus decreased OECD demand plus rising non-OPEC output equals a reduced call for OPEC crude. OPEC forecast a rise in non-OPEC supply of 900,000 b/d.

Shortly after taking office in 2001, President Bush reneged on a campaign pledge to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from US power plants. Last week the administration, in office for only six more months, closed the circle and announced that it still would not regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Given what the Washington Post called seven years of administration "denial, inaction and foot-dragging," the decision should have surprised no one. But what set it apart from business-as-usual was that it was in response to a US Supreme Court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate GHG emissions under the Clean Air Act.

It's standing-room only. The way the audience clamors for what few seats remain, one would think they're lining up for a prized stake at the latest Stones tour, or a front-row seat at the Cirque du Soleil.

Obvious analogy aside, the recent fury of Congressional lawmakers to expand the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's reach over speculative players -- purportedly behind soaring energy and agricultural prices of late --has drawn packed audiences, excited to learn the latest regulatory loophole that immoral traders are using to line their pockets.

I went to Fort McMurray last year, though I doubt I was there even 24 hours. But even that short-view leads me to conclude that this brief CNN overview is pretty accurate.

One observation: this video may not be safe for children's viewing, if you've been telling your kids that formal education is the way to the top. Just watch; you'll see why.

A recent poll by the Pew Institute shows a remarkable amount of consistency across the political spectrum in the American public's views on more offshore drilling.

There are plenty of fascinating tales in a recent lawsuit filed against BP by a former trader, Alison Myers. But it's the dollar signs that have everyone talking.

Buried, as we are, deep inside the Capitol Beltway (a real ring road circling Washington DC and political metaphor for being out of touch with the rest of America), our stories mostly reflect the voice of officialdom -- politicians, agency heads, interest group representatives, spokespersons, authorities.

It makes sense, of course, because these are the people whose activities make "news," as we define it (although by the time you've covered the third congressional hearing on the same subject with essentially the same witnesses, that definition needs to be very elastic). What we don't often do, buried, as we are, deep inside the Beltway and writing for business publications, is listen to the voices of "regular" people from beyond the metaphorical Beltway.

It's not at all difficult to understand why the general public is confused about energy, and oil supply in particular, these days. Perhaps the most confusing feature, at least to me, is the apparent use of one particular fact to derail the US Outer Continental Shelf drilling discussion.

Former Platts' senior writer Jim Norman has written a book spelling out a rather different view of why the price of oil is climbing.