The Rebirth of the Electric Car

i MiEV Electric Car to be Sold 1 Year Ahead of Schedule in Japan

by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 07.10.08

CARS & TRANSPORTATION

Treehugger

Mitsubishi’s i MiEV Electric Car is Ahead of Schedule
A couple months ago, we got our hands on Mitsubishi’s roadmap for its i MiEV electric car. The plan was to lease a few units to fleet customers first in 2009 and then launch it in 2010 (with a focus on Japan, but also in North-America and Europe), but reality is turning out better than even the optimists thought.

Consumers at fault for high prices says BP

Oil giant blames consumers, not speculators, for soaring prices

Shaun Polczer

Canwest News Service

Monday, June 30, 2008

MADRID – Much-maligned speculators aren’t to blame for soaring oil prices, the head of Anglo oil giant BP PLC said Monday.

Rather, it’s consumers who have pushed demand for energy to new heights that are the cause of runaway crude prices, Tony Hayward told the inaugural session of the 19th World Petroleum Congress.

The rookie CEO of the world’s second-largest oil company said sky-high crude prices are “completely based on fundamentals,” and characterized speculators as “investors” rather than profiteers.

Tar Sands: environmental destruction at its worst

The Flow Must Go On

Amid major flooding in the Midwest that marks a break from normal weather patterns, President Bush comes out in favor of offshore drilling. It’s easy to make Bush an environmental straw man (sometimes I find myself wondering what childhood trauma he’s avenging), but Bush is really only the messenger of the oil and gas lobby.

How are oil companies responding to global warming, beyond their absurd greenwashing PR campaigns?

On Saturday, we saw the effects of their campaign to ignore global demands for protections of the polar bear. Just before the polar bear won threatened status in May, the federal government sold oil leases to ConocoPhillips Co., Shell Oil Co. and others. In what was clearly a tit-for-tat arrangement set up with the companies behind closed doors, Bush announced Saturday that the companies would get a pass on harming polar bears in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, where nearly 10 percent of all surviving Arctic polar bears live. Here’s a picture:

Tar Sands Destruction Set to Grow

Alberta Tar Sands to Increase Output 250% Over Next 10 Years

by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 06.18.08

Science & Technology (alternative energy)

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Alberta Tar Sands
Not all barrels of oil are created equal. Some take more energy and more water to get out of the ground than others, and tar sands, aka bituminous sands or extra heavy oil, are at the “extra dirty” end of the spectrum. So it’s not exactly good news for the environment to learn that a significant portion of the strong demand for oil in the next 10 years will be met by hydrocarbons from Alberta.

Energy firms put on the spot

Symposium lures investors and protesters

Jon Harding

Calgary Herald

Monday, June 16, 2008

Oil and gas companies swimming in cash. Protesters handing out bottles of Athabasca River water.

Both await 350 of the top institutional investors in the Canadian oilpatch as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) investment symposium begins Monday in Calgary.

The annual CAPP event opens with a different backdrop to a year ago, when drilling activity in Western Canada was in a rut and capital markets were dry as dust, particularly for scores of Canada’s junior and intermediate explorers.

Oil prices are fluttering towards $140 US a barrel and natural gas prices are up roughly 70 per cent since January — an almost immeasurable difference, although one that investors in equities have still not taken completely to heart. Some Canadian oil and gas stocks are up but the group as a whole has lagged behind growth in surging oil and natural gas.

Meanwhile, the world’s focus on Alberta’s oilsands has recently intensified amid global supply constraints and growing concern about the massive play’s environmental footprint.