A stronger dollar and the prospect of weakening demand pushed oil down to $117 in Friday trading, Bloomberg reports. But the Turkish pipeline explosion and Thursday’s crude rebound shows oil markets are still vulnerable to supply shocks, notes the WSJ (sub reqd.). And isn’t that precisely what the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is for? asks Platt’s The Barrel. China is mulling adding to its own strategic reserve, but thinks $120 oil is still too pricey, in the WSJ (sub reqd.).
Chinese companies want more reserves, too, but Sinopec will need Russian state help if it wants to take over Imperial, notes the WSJ (sub reqd.). Don’t expect favors: Gazprom has become the face of energy imperialism, argues Energy Tribune: “Its abundant oil and gas resources are now being put to work to accomplish what nuclear weapons and 50 years of the Cold War were unable to.”
Robert Bryce explains why diesel prices are high (government regulations and lots of demand) and why they’ll stay higher than gasoline, also at the Energy Tribune. Don’t look to Amtrak for relief—a surge in riders is already taxing the tired train service, in the WSJ (sub reqd.).
The EPA struck down Texas’ request for a wavier for ethanol production, arguing that U.S. ethanol is an important tool to build energy security and isn’t so bad for the environment, in the Houston Chronicle, the NYT, and the WSJ (sub reqd.). Notes Grist: “Of course, getting a ringing endorsement from [EPA head Stephen] Johnson on environmental grounds is like having Al Capone sign off on the legality of your gun-running operation.”
The Economist looks at the U.S. energy debate, and finds Democratic proposals “an incoherent mishmash,” and Republican claims to have lowered oil prices by promising to drill “ludicrous.” What about those tire gauges? The L.A. Times explores why conservation is not a winning political strategy. But neither is a full-bore green revolution, the Economist argues—you can have cheap energy, or you can have green energy, but you can’t have both, yet.
Warming temperatures lead to more intense tropical downpours, a new study finds, in the NYT. Not in China, though: Beijing’s “weather modification” mandarins are trying all kinds of high-tech gimmicks to keep rain away from the Olympic parade, in the FT. NEI Nuclear Notes fisks yesterday’s L.A. Times anti-nuclear editorial and says John McCain’s nuclear plans are perfectly reasonable. Don’t tell the coal miners: The leader of Britain’s Socialist Labour Party, a former union boss, argues that going nuclear is the worst thing coal-rich industrial economies can do, in the Guardian.
Finally, Scotch gets greener. Diageo, the maker of Johnnie Walker and J&B, will turn distillery waste into biomass energy. The plans have been on the table for years, but only now make economic sense, reports The Guardian.