We should have learned from decades of lying by tobacco companies, but we don't. Oil and gas companies have been lying about the "safety" of hydraulic fracturing, "fracking", of oil and gas wells. From the The New York Times: “There have been over a million wells hydraulically fractured in the history of the industry, and … Continue reading Fracking Can Contaminate Drinking Water
oil
Government Tax Breaks for People Who Speculate in Oil Futures
Gas prices have come down a bit recently, but it's not hard to remember the over $4 a gallon gas prices of just a few weeks ago. At the time, I wrote that I (and some others) suspect that these occassional spikes in oil and gas prices were due to speculators, particularly hedge funds and … Continue reading Government Tax Breaks for People Who Speculate in Oil Futures
What’s Up With Oil and Gas?
Calculated Risk sums up recent oil and gas prices nicely a few days ago (bold emphasis mine): Oil and gasoline prices are probably the biggest downside risk to the economy right now. Oil prices are off slightly today, from the WSJ: Oil Prices Ease The front-month July Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange was recently down 35 cents, or … Continue reading What’s Up With Oil and Gas?
A Little Oil History
While most history books focus on 1860 as the year Lincoln was elected and the South decided to secede making the Civil War inevitable, there was another momentous event happening. In Pennsylvania they found oil (petroleum) and found uses for it. It sealed the fate of the New England whale oil industry and set the … Continue reading A Little Oil History
Doing With Less Oil
Recession and revulsion at BP are doing what many thought not possible: getting Americans to use less gasoline per person per day. From Political Calculations: The chart to the right reveals what we found when we took the U.S. Energy Information Agency's figures for the average number of thousands of barrels of Finished Petroleum Products … Continue reading Doing With Less Oil
Norway Thrives by Going Against the Tide – NYTimes.com
Turns out that culture matters, too. From the NYTimes (free registration may be required) The global financial crisis has brought low the economies of just about every country on earth. But not Norway. Often natural resource wealth becomes a trap for a country as the nation is tempted to consume the riches that come from … Continue reading Norway Thrives by Going Against the Tide – NYTimes.com
EconProph 