CIBC World Markets Chief Economist Jeffrey Rubin thinks high energy costs could result in a sort of reverse globalization, as some overseas manufacturing is forced to return closer to home.
Rubin says the cost of shipping a standard 40-foot container from East Asia to the eastern U.S. has risen from $3,000 in 2000 to about $8,000, [...]
The Senate voted to temporarily halt the shipment of thousands of barrels of oil a day into the government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Both Democrats and Republicans said the shipments make no sense when oil costs over $120 a barrel and could better be used to add supplies to a tight market and help keep prices down.
“We [...]
Shares of most aluminum producers rose Monday as prices for the commodity rose, offsetting a warning from a Deutsche Bank analyst.
FBR Capital Markets analyst Amir Arif said in a client note that he is “most concerned about (Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Inc.), not so much on the expected first quarter 2008 results, but on second quarter 2008 [...]
British Gas lowered its residential electricity and gas prices on Thursday in the latest salvo of a price war.
British Gas parent, utility Centrica, said the business was cutting electricity prices by 6 percent and gas prices by 3 percent. Coupled with cuts earlier this year this would reduce the average annual dual fuel bill by [...]
A plant scheduled for construction in Indonesia is intended eventually to be able to turn low-grade coal into a higher grade version of the fossil fuel.
The factory — being developed by Kobe Steel Ltd. and Indonesia’s Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry — would be the first of its kind [...]
The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry and Kobe Steel Ltd. will in March start construction in Indonesia of the world’s first plant capable of turning low-grade coal into high-grade coal.
According to sources in the ministry and the company, the plant will be built to test the commercial potential of a method in which low-grade coal, [...]
President Bush on Tuesday lifted a ban on new oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, a decision that angered environmentalists and could provoke a battle with the Democratic-controlled Congress over energy policy.
The 5.6 million acres of the bay on the west side of the Alaska Peninsula just north of the Aleutian Islands have [...]
Google is going solar. The Internet giant announced today it plans to install what could be the largest solar system in the world at its Mountain View headquarters. It is the start of what many are predicting will be a major shift to renewable energy.
The sun may not be healthy for our skin, but the [...]
When Erica Grubb installed solar panels on the roof of her Berkeley house, the decision was both personal and political.
Personal because Grubb used a small inheritance from her mother to purchase the solar panels, which cost $18,000 — $13,000 after rebates.
Political because seeing “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore’s movie on global warming, inspired Grubb, a [...]
Ethanol may not be the energy panacea many in Hawai’i had hoped for.
Producing the biofuel from sugar cane would help move Hawai’i away from dependence on imported oil while invigorating the farm industry.
Sounds great, but making it happen is far from simple.
The barriers to producing ethanol locally include:
# Building production plants.
# Getting water rights switched [...]
