Calgary-based Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., has dropped merger talks with CSX Corp. of Jacksonville, Fla., and remarks this week by the always-blunt Canadian Pacific CEO E. Hunter Harrison are very telling about the future of oil traveling by rail. The volume of oil, including that produced in the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota and […]
Researchers at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California at Davis have made a startling discovery: Consumers in the market for an electric vehicle hate dealing with the traditional car dealers that sell EVs. Green Car Congress has a story on the UC Davis study, which found that purchasers of plug-in electrics were […]
The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a story about how three large plants that produce cellulosic ethanol — fuel made from inedible parts of corn like the cob — could be the last for a while. “Wavering U.S. policy on renewable fuels and the North American oil boom cast a shadow over the commercial triumph,” the story says. […]
The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a new report saying that lifting the nation’s nearly 40-year-old ban on oil exports would reduce gas prices for Americans. The ban was put in place after the oil shortages of the 1970s. But critics of the ban say the ramped-up production in the U.S. of light sweet crude […]
[Video] John Hofmeister, chief executive officer and founder at Citizens for Affordable Energy, and Kevin Book, managing director and co-founder at Clearview Energy partners, discuss the factors causing an over-supply of oil and the impact of falling prices on energy producers and the global economy. Read more at: Bloomberg
The Renewable Fuels Association is having a contest to promote E85 ethanol blends around the country. It’s simple: Post a photo of an E85 pump that shows the price. A random winner will be chosen, and that person will win a year’s supply of the fuel. As RFA notes, E85 is sold at more than […]
With the global plunge in oil prices comes concern that many U.S. companies that drill in tight-oil shale formations might be hurt, since it’s more expensive to extract that oil and their profit margins are smaller. But Bloomberg has a helpful chart showing that “most regions continue to be profitable below $80, including the Bakken […]
Has the precipitous slide in oil prices ended? For a couple days, at least. As The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, oil futures gained for a second straight day. Here’s a (possibly prescient) quote from an analyst about where prices are going: “I think we have seen a peak in downside momentum,” Citigroup Inc. analyst […]
The New York Times has an instructive story about the tenuous situation Saudi Arabia is in as oil-producing nations deal with the sudden, precipitous drop in global crude prices. The kingdom so far seems to be willing to ride out the price drop. But other influencers inside and outside the country say it needs to […]
Whenever a petroleum analyst writes a sentence that begins: “I can still recall when prices collapsed in 1986 …” you know he’s seen just about everything in the global oil market. Michael Lynch has some sage words for those who are predicting slashed U.S. production (and accompanying job losses) owing to the rapidly falling price […]
