Oh, and hybrids too.
From NY Times:
The goal, which radiates from the very top of the Chinese government, suggests that Detroit’s Big Three, already struggling to stay alive, will face even stiffer foreign competition on the next field of automotive technology than they do today. [...]
To some extent, China is making a virtue of a liability. [...]

“We don’t believe it makes sense to significantly subsidize the production and use of sources of energy (like oil and gas) that are dramatically going to add to our climate change (problem). We don’t think that’s good economic policy and we think changing those incentives is good for the country.”
- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner talking [...]

The moment I heard this idea it sounded like box office poison, and it looks like the administration did too. Because not only does it mean you’d have to have some sort of Orwellian GPS system attached to every car, but it completely negates the benefits of higher mileage hybrids that are in the pipeline.
From [...]

This should be welcome news for all of you Federalists.
From NY Times:
WASHINGTON — President Obama will direct federal regulators on Monday to move swiftly on an application by California and 13 other states to set strict automobile emission and fuel efficiency standards, two administration officials said Sunday.
The directive makes good on an Obama campaign pledge [...]

Following up on my earlier post about oil speculation, there’s news that 50 million barrels of oil are being hoarded on supertankers.
The market calls it “contango.”
I call it irresponsible.
From Marketplace…
“Contango” refers to a market condition in which the future price of a commodity is higher than the cost of buying it today. Right now, [...]

And they find that the folks who were trying to make a quick buck were affecting oil prices far more than the normal market forces of supply and demand.
Gee, that sounds oddly familiar…

Last year I argued time and time again that the energy speculators were the cause and that supply and demand couldn’t cause such [...]

Larry Burns on General Motors’ ideas for the next generation of automobiles, which include cars giving power back to the grid.

We can talk all we want about how firms like GM have failed in the past couple decades, but they’re right at that point where they can really make a difference and it would be [...]

Yesterday they cut off their natural gas supply to the Ukraine. Completely.
That also means the supply to numerous European countries has been severely diminished.
From AP:
The Russia-Ukraine natural gas dispute hit Europe with the force of a winter storm Tuesday, cutting or limiting supplies to nearly a dozen nations. Tens of thousands of people were left [...]

Well, yes and no, but it’s refreshing to see that Krauthammer wants to employ some price controls for gasoline. And that’s the bigger story in all of this…that a hard core fiscal conservative sees the need for a more reliable price for gas so the new generation of hybrids will be desirable in the market [...]

I’m glad to see we learned our lesson…
From CNN:
After nearly a year of flagging sales, low gas prices and fat incentives are reigniting America’s taste for big vehicles.
Trucks and SUVs will outsell cars in December, according to researchers at the automotive Website Edmunds.com, something that hasn’t happened since February.
Meanwhile the forecast finds that sales of [...]

Massive energy speculation mixed with much lower demand is driving the price down, down, down for the foreseeable future.
From AP:
A report by the Commerce Department showed that sales of new homes fell in November to the slowest pace in nearly 18 years, while new home prices dropped by the biggest amount in eight months.
“The energy [...]

Steven Chu is the pick and his background is beyond impressive.
From Wash Post:
President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who heads the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to be the next energy secretary, and he has picked veteran regulators from diverse backgrounds to fill three other key jobs on his environmental [...]

Remember folks, these are loans and we could actually make money on the deal…the same way we did last time when we helped a car company out and mandated they increase their CAFE standards.
From NY Times:
WASHINGTON — Faced with staggering new unemployment figures, Democratic Congressional leaders said on Friday that they were ready to provide [...]

Christopher Beam of Slate talks about the recent seismic shift in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Out: Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, the tough, cantankerous eminence grise of the House Democratic caucus (he’s 82), who was so deferential to Detroit as chairman of the House energy and commerce committee that Lee Iacocca once said he [...]

Yesterday, the Democratic House Caucus removed the House’s longest serving member, John Dingell of Michigan, from the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee. He was replaced by Henry Waxman of California. In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal explains what this means for the Democrats.
Of significance, Dingell represents Detroit and has been an opponent [...]

As always, the entire thing. Today’s was particularly good, with T. Boone Pickens making an appearance.

Thoughts?

Hey, this is Danielle Ivory from the American News Project, with our first report on the Obama transition.
Here’s a first look at Jay Inslee, who appears on the shortlists for Prez-Elect Obama’s Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Energy..

Repubs are hammering Obama on his coal comments and falsely accusing the San Francisco Chronicle of burying the interview even though they’ve had it available on their website since the interview took place.
In fact, here’s the complete video of the interview…

Republicans claim this is damning stuff.
Well, then I think it’s important to remember where McCain [...]

Today two pieces of audio (from the same interview) have popped up about Obama explaining how energy prices would go up under his cap and trade system.
First, Obama explains why energy prices would go up in the short term, but ultimately go down in the long term.

Let’s face it, there’s really nothing new here.
Yes, [...]