Author: Graham Winfrey

Yesterday we posted a video of a Japanese whaling ship ramming into anti-whaling protester boat the Ady Gil and slicing it in two.

Apparently, the craft that rescued the six activists on board the Ady Gil was the Bob Barker, a fellow anti-whaling vessel purchased with a $5 million donation from the former host of The Price Is Right, the LA Times reports.

Barker, “one of the entertainment industry’s top animal-cause philanthropists,” got involved in the anti-whaling cause after the head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation society, Paul Watson, told him $5 million could pay for a boat that would help “put Japanese whalers out of business.”

Barker made the commitment for his namesake ship on the spot.

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• Amazing Footage Of Japanese Whaling Ship Slicing Anti-Whaling Protester Boat In Two

The recent cold spell across the U.S. has ushered in the return of $3 gas, which some economists think is enough to put a dent in consumer spending, reports CNNMoney.com.

The average price of an unleaded gallon of gas in the U.S is approximately $2.71, according to AAA.

Prices have gone up by 7 cents in the past week, and now are now higher than they were during at any point last year.

Natural gas prices have also jumped thanks to the U.S. cold spell, which will create an additional headache for consumers since it could raise the cost to heat their homes.

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• Expect Big Natural Gas Bills This Month
• Gas Prices Hit a Seven-Month High

After a number of reports that GM-owned Saab could be rescued at the 11th hour, the Swedish brand’s board announced Friday that the company is officailly being liquidated, AFP reports.

GM had received several last minute bids by groups including Dutch sportscar manufacturer Spyker, but none were attractive enough to move on.

So long, Saab.

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• Saab Maybe Not Dead After All
• Is Saab Dead?

Climate change has found the unlikeliest of friends in Republican senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, who has called for more federal control over greenhouse gas pollution, CleanTechnica reports.

In a speech on Tuesday, Graham expressed support for legislation to crack down on carbon dioxide pollution, which he believes will bolster the U.S. economy and simultaneously reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Graham has come under fire from his more conservative collegaues for his surprising position on the matter, but apparently is not backing down.

Talk about a switch hitter for the green team!

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• Obama Will Promise To Radically Cut Carbon Emissions
• Stunner: Oil Execs Don’t Believe The U.S. Gets Off Foreign Oil Anytime Soon

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• Google Close To Getting Renewable Energy For Less Than Coal
• Google Promises To Invest In Clean Energy, Again

Former CIBC World Markets Inc. chief economist, Jeff Rubin — who accurately predicted crude price increases over the last decade — expects oil to reach $90 a barrel by the end of Q1 and $100 by the end of the year, Bloomberg reports.

Yesterday, the price of crude hit a 15-month high at $83.52 a barrel.

Rubin forecast in his book, “Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller” that oil will hit $200 a barrel by 2012

The strain of $200 oil on consuming nations may prompt a subsequent collapse toward $40, he added.

“When we get into 2011 or 2012 and we start to deal with prices of $120 a barrel, $147 a barrel, $160 a barrel, that’s where I think at least the global economy becomes very challenged,” he said.

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• Blistering Cold Sends Oil To $83
• Oil Above $81 For The First Time In 15 Months
• How Rising Oil Prices Will Force U.S. Into A Post-Industrial Wasteland

Yesterday we told you about the UK’s National Grid issuing its second ever “gas balancing alert”  after cold temperatures lead to record high demands for gas.

Energy analysts insisted that threats of power blackouts were alarmist, citing the fact that Britain now has two new pipeline links as well as a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import system in South Wales, the Guardian reports.

Things don’t seem to be as peachy today, however, as factories in England are having their energy supplies cut off for the first time in years.

In the first tangible sign that fears over energy shortages are translating into supply disruption, the
National Grid has withdrawn gas via suppliers such as British Gas from 94 industrial customers who have signed up to interruptible contracts in a bid to safeguard power to domestic homes.

…

Its latest instruction to suppliers will force many large industrial users, such as factories and chemical plants, to halt work or turn to alternative energy sources.

The factories could refuse to have their power withdrawn but would face financial penalties for doing so and the reduction in energy would have to come from other manufacturers.

Continue reading here.

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• UK Warned Of Immediate Gas Crisis After Freezing Temperatures Spike Demand For Heat

During a protest action Wednesday, a Japanese ship crashed into the high-tech speedboat Ady Gil, critically damaging it. Both crews blame the other side for the collision, 3News reports. The crash is thought to have taken place either in or near Australian waters.

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• Pirates Seize Ship Carrying 2,300 Hyundai’s
• Oil Tanker Lays The Smack Down On Somali Pirates
• Will Piracy Fears Lead To An Offshore Oil Worker Shortage?

A ship carrying 2,300 Hyundai’s and Kia’s was captured by Somali pirates about 600 miles off the coast of Somalia late Friday, The Car Connection reports.

Not to make light of something as serious as a pirate attack, but PR manager at Hyundai Motor America Dan Bedore tweeted that: “Even Pirates seem to be switching to Hyundai.”

He also ReTweeted @Hyundai’s official response: “We hope for the prompt and safe return of the 25 crewmen aboard the Asian Glory.”

No one aboard was injured in the attack.

The autos were headed for Saudi Arabia from their home port of Ulsan when the hijack occurred just before reaching EU-patrolled international shipping channels.

It is expected that the pirates will hold the ship for ransom, just one of at least 11 also currently being held by Somali pirates.

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• Oil Tanker Lays The Smack Down On Somali Pirates
• Somalian Pirates Pool Funds, Form Criminal Stock Exchange

The concept of Peak Oil has been around for decades.

But what is it?

Some think it refers to the point when the world runs out of oil, after which there will be a global economic crisis and all hell will break loose.

Others believe that peak oil is a thing of the past, something that took place in the United States in the 1970s, that we’ve long since recovered from.

Neither of these conceptions are accurate, however. For an explanation of Peak Oil, and what it means for the future of the global economy, keep reading.

What is Peak Oil? >

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• Blistering Cold Sends Oil To $83
• Peak Oil Begins In 2020
• The 10 Countries With The Most Dwindling Oil Production

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• How Rising Oil Prices Will Force U.S. Into A Post-Industrial Wasteland
• Oil Above $81 For The First Time In 15 Months

A new report on sustainable biofuels points out that the U.S. government spent $4 billion in 2008 on subsidies to replace just 2% of the U.S. gasoline supply.

The average cost to taxpayers for the substituted barrels of gasoline was roughly $82 per barrel, or $1.95 per gallon on top of the gasoline retail price. 

The use of corn-based ethanol, the report suggests, will not only be difficult and expensive to reach congressionally mandated levels for renewable fuels, but the produciton itself comes with a slew of negative consequences for humans and the environment.

From the report:

• The addition of ethanol to gasoline poses a great risk for human exposure to toxic constituents present in underground storage tank leaks.

• Increases in corn-based ethanol production in the U.S. Midwest could cause an increase in detrimental environmental impacts, including exacerbating damage to ecosystems and fisheries along the Mississippi River and in the Gulf of Mexico and creating water shortages in some areas.

• Any clearing of forests and grasslands to grow biofuels will add to the release of carbondioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere.

…

It is uncertain whether existing biofuels production provides any beneficial improvement over traditional gasoline, after taking into account land use changes and emissions of nitrous oxide. Legislation giving biofuels preferences on the basis of greenhouse gas benefits
should be avoided.

 

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• Obama Tries Sucking Up To Corn States On Ethanol
• Ethanol Could Screw Up The Energy Bill

Russia is now the world’s largest oil exporter thanks to a new pipeline and port complex, as well as declining production in Saudi Arabia, reports Robert Morley of Trumpet.com.

The new complex, which Putin calls one of the “biggest projects in contemporary Russia,” will create a two-way gate through which Russia’s large Siberian oilfields will pour into Asia’s energy-thirsty economies.

It will be one of the largest oil centers in the world, with a capacity for 16% of Russia’s total exports.

Factor in Russia’s natural gas exports, and you could make the argument that Russia is now the most important energy power in the world?

Read the whole thing here.

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• Goldman’s Jim O’Neill: Easy Money And High Oil Prices Make Russia The #1 BRIC For 2010
• New Russian Oil Dispute With Belarus Puts European Supply In Jeopardy

Calls for Britain to build more gas storage facilities came Tuesday after the National Grid warned of temporary gas shortages due to record high demands, the Guardian reports.

The cold weather-induced demand spike caused the second ever “gas balancing alert” by the National Grid, and high power firms and large industries were asked to cut back on their consumption. 

Still, a grid spokesman said there was no danger of Britain running short of gas, blaming the shortage on problems in one specific field. Although the alert was quikly lifted, critics said it underscored a dangerous weakness in the energy supply system.

A Conservative claim that Britain had only eight days worth of storage was called “alarmist” by David Hunter, an energy analyst at the McKinnon & Clarke consultants. Still, Hunter’s claim that the UK had about three weeks’ storage capacity pales in comparison to Germany, which has four months worth of supplies.

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• China Entering Winter With A Severe Natural Gas Shortage

Americans’ car fleet dropped by a sizeable four million vehicles in 2009, the only large decline since the Department of Transportation began keeping records in 1960, The Globe and Mail reports.

Americans bought 10 million cars but sent 14 million to the scrap yard this year, bringing the total down to 246 million nation-wide.

Analysts have come up with an eclectic list of factors that could be responsible for the drop, from high gas prices and the expansion of municipal transit systems to the popularity of networking websites that make it easier for teenagers to socialize without leaving home.

Auto sales for the month of December, however, were expected to be the second best month of the year after August, when the “cash for clunkers” rebate program temporarily revived the auto industry.

The Earth Policy Institute, an environmental think tank based in Washington, on Wednesday will issue an analysis stating that the drop in 2009 is not a recession induced fluke, but the beginning of a long-term decline that will see the U.S. fleet drop by another 25 million by 2020.

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• Even Without Cash For Clunkers, Americans Keep Bingeing On Cars
• Cash For Clunkers May Have Altered Car-Buying Permanently

General Motors said Monday that it sold a record 1.83 million vehicles in China last year, a 66.9 percent jump over 2008, AFP reports.

GM also expressed optimism that 2010 will see even more sales. The company’s market share was up 1.3 percentage points to an estimated 13.4 percent.

GM China Group president Kevin Wale noted that China, whose car sales surpassed the U.S.’s for the first time last January, would play a leading role in driving GM’s overall sales.

According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the Asian giant’s total auto sales for the first 11 months of 2009 reached 12.23 million units.

Shanghai GM, a joint venture with China’s largest auto maker SAIC Motor Corp, saw sales rise 63.3 percent from the previous year to 727,620 units in 2009.

Back in November, the auto giant announced that it would begin paying back bailout funds before the end of 2009.

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• GM Will Crank Cars 24-Hours A Day In Bid To Surpass Toyota In Efficiency
• GM Says It Will Begin Paying Back Government Loans By Year End
• Rattner: You Won’t Believe How Incompetent GM’s Management Was

China’s BYD Auto has high hopes for its E6 all-electric car and F3DM plug-in hybrid sedan, both of which will be on display at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit next week, HybridCars.com reports.

Both vehicles, however, were also on display last year, and neither model shook up the automotive world like BYD had hoped they would. The massively hyped plug-in hybrid sold fewer than 100 units during its first eight months on the market, amid expectations of selling between 4,000-5,000 over the course of 2009.

This year, BYD will rely on a boost from the Chinese government, which last month announced incentives to help private consumers buy green cars. With the midsize F3DM plug-in hybrid priced at about $22,000 in China, and the five-seat electric E6 at $40,000, government rebates could be the game changer BYD needs, as the company’s hot-selling compacts go for considerably less (about $14,500), but the specific amount of the coming incentives is still unknown.

BYD’s goal is to dominate the global hybrid market by 2025.

Don’t Miss: The 10 Smallest Cars In The World

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• BYD Rival Unveils Electric Car That Lasts 124 Miles Per Charge
• Bad Omen: BYD Sells Just 100 Plug-In Hybrids In 8 Months
• The 10 Smallest Cars In The World

Europe is making moves on its first electricity super-grid dedicated to renewable energy this month, as nine countries will draw up plans to link up a grid of powerful clean energy projects all around the North Sea, CleanTechnica reports.

The plan would connect Scottish off-shore wind turbines with German solar energy, Norwegian hydro power and wave power off the coast of Belgium and Denmark.

The Nine North Sea nations - Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the UK - will eventually link the super grid to the equally large in scale Desertec grid, bringing solar power from Africa to Spain and Portugal.

The network of super efficient undersea transmission cables would cost about $43 billion.

The U.S. has enough wind potential to supply 25% of the entire country's needs in North Dakota alone, but no transmission lines to connect a statewide line of turbines that would balance out the power and send it to more populated areas. If the U.S. follows Europe's lead, we could harness enough off-shore wind potential along the Atlantic Seaboard to meet the electricity needs of a quarter of the U.S. population.

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• Say Hello To WAVE Energy!
• Wind Power In Texas Is Cutting The Cost Of Electricity
• Iowa Now Able To Blow Second Most Wind Energy In The US

Freezing temperatures and signs of an improving economy drove oil to $81.51 a barrel Monday, the highest it’s been since October 9, 2008, The New York Times reports.

Increased manufacturing activity and auto sales in December could help prices continue to rise, as traders anticipate a recovering economy.

The eighth consecutive trading day of higher prices was also attributed to a dispute between Russia and Belarus that could result in higher export taxes on oil sent to Belarus for European markets.

Heating oil futures also rose to the highest level in over a year, and gasoline was up 6 cents in the past week after a period of continued decline.

Most energy analysts still say it’s too early to begin predicting any significant price increases for oil or gas, however, as oil has fluctuated between roughly $70 and $80 per barrel since July.

Read the whole thing here.

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• New Russian Oil Dispute With Belarus Puts European Supply In Jeopardy
• How Rising Oil Prices Will Force U.S. Into A Post-Industrial Wasteland

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States, recently issued an alert for avoiding and dealing with green energy scams.

Fraudsters have reportedly been luring investors in green technology by promising outrageous returns.

FINRA.org: In one recently filed case, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that promoters of purported eco-friendly investment opportunities lured 300 investors into a $30 million Ponzi scheme, encouraging participants to finance such “green” initiatives of Mantria Corporation as a supposed “carbon negative” housing community in rural Tennessee and a “biochar” charcoal substitute made from organic waste. Investors were falsely promised returns ranging from 17 percent to “hundreds of percent” annually.

…

But, according the SEC’s complaint, Mantria did not generate any income from which such extraordinary returns could be paid.

How do you spot potential scams and distinguish frauds from legitimate investment opportunities? Rip off tip-offs include:

• Unsolicited communication such as faxes, emails, text messages tweets, and strategically placed “opinions” in blogs and message boards, usually related to a very low-priced stock.
• Seminars and webinars that use short-term incentives and bonuses, along with aggressive sales tactics, to encourage you to liquidate your current savings and go “all in” on a new investment initiative.
• Price targets or predications of swift and exponential growth.
• The use of facts from respected news sources to bolster claims of the size of the market for a new product or technology (“this is a billion dollar market…”).
• Mention of associations with or actions by federal and international governments that bolster a company’s product or service (“The President wants hydrogen to be part of the solution for Detroit…”).

Read the whole thing here.

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• Cleantech Takes A Bigger Slice Of VC Pie, Again
• Green Tech VC Activity Down Big In 2009