Then U.S. Energy Department awarded $61.1 million to a multistate environmental partnership to research new ways to capture and store carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
The Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership project, working with Columbus, Ohio-based Battelle Memorial Laboratories, will test ways to store the gases in underground geological formations, and in land occupied by [...]

Ford Motor Co. said it will double the number of six-speed automatic transmissions produced by the end of the year, and expects to install the more fuel-efficient gearboxes in 98 percent of its North American vehicles by 2012.
The transmissions, which will debut in 2009-model Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner crossover vehicles, offer 4 percent to [...]

Oil prices hit a new record near $124 a barrel after the U.S. Energy Department said diesel and heating oil supplies unexpectedly fell last week.
Light, sweet crude for June delivery hit a new high of $123.80 on the New York Mercantile Exchange before retreating slightly to settle up $1.69 at a record $123.53 a barrel.
The [...]

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. shares hit a new all-time high after the independent oil and gas producer reaffirmed its 2008 production target.
The Houston company said it expects to produce the equivalent of 207 million and 212 million barrels of oil this year. Anadarko has said it expects to grow annual production of 5 to 9 percent [...]

The main militant group in Nigeria’s oil-rich south said it would halt hostilities that have helped drive global crude prices higher if the government there would agree to mediation involving former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
The militants said Carter had agreed to help negotiate an end the long-running crisis, but an official affiliated with the former [...]

U.S. state attorneys general are meeting in Idaho for a conference aimed at addressing the location of power plants, efforts to restrict energy use, renewable energy mandates and other energy-related legal issues likely to arise in the coming years.
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden told his counterparts from across the country that attorneys general are often [...]

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said his country is considering pulling out of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries because it was no longer a net oil exporter.
The country of 235 million is Southeast Asia’s only OPEC member, but it now has to import oil following decades of declining investment due to corruption and a [...]

Iraq’s oil ministry said it is postponing the deadline for bids to develop the prized Akkas natural gas field in the western part of the country until May 18. The new deadline comes after the ministry said it was unable to lure enough offers by a previous deadline two weeks ago because of a lack [...]