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A bill that the Senate will debate after Memorial Day could add about 50 cents to the price of a gallon of gasoline, according to a study.
Lawmakers have spent the spring debating ways to lower prices at the pump. But they will soon find themselves discussing a measure that could push fuel costs even higher.
A study paid for by a group that represents oil refiners found that the global warming bill, co-authored by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.), would raise pump prices by around 48 cents (in 2007 currency) by 2030. It also found that the bill would increase gas prices by as much as 13 cents over the next four years.
The debate highlights the difficulty lawmakers will face in trying to tackle global warming as they simultaneously try to provide economic relief to the nation’s drivers.
The Warner-Lieberman bill, which is expected to be debated on the Senate floor the first week of June, seeks to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 65 percent below 2005 levels by 2050.
It does so by imposing a cap on the amount of greenhouse gases an industrial sector can release. Companies that exceed that cap could buy emission allowances from greener businesses in an open market.
For refiners, the bill would act like a tax on carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas released when fossil fuels are burned. The total price hit would reach 60 cents, the study predicts.
About 80 percent of that would be passed on to consumers.
The report was performed by NERA Economic Consulting , a group that has helped craft a cap-and-trade system in Europe, and underwritten by the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association (NPRA) , a group that has called efforts in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions “premature.”
But the study reflects the findings of an earlier report performed by the impartial Energy Information Administration, a division of the Energy Department that tracks and reviews energy data. That report also projected around a 50-cent increase in gas prices due to new carbon dioxide emissions restraints.

thehill.com

No, it’s not a dance craze. Contago is a condition of supply and demand, essentially a fancy word to say that prices for items, typically commodities, are cheaper now than they would be at some point down the line.
Anything that¿s sold in the futures market can be in a case of contango. Futures are exactly that: a contract to buy an item or asset at a price in the future. This is the case with oil, with traders buying and selling contracts to acquire a barrel of oil in months down the line. When a market is in contango, spot prices, or the price of a commodity if you were to buy it right now, are lower than forward prices.
Why is that important? Well, it usually tells you the supply of a given commodity is plentiful (since, according to Economics 101, a large supply usually leads to cheap prices).
Incidentally, if you think contango is a mouthful, its opposite condition is known by the equally tongue-tying term backwardation.
IRVING, Texas, May 05, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) —-ExxonMobil announced today it is committing more than $100 million to complete development and testing of an improved natural gas treating technology which could make carbon capture and storage more affordable and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The company plans to build a commercial demonstration plant near LaBarge, Wyoming, where it will use ExxonMobil’s Controlled Freeze Zone(TM) technology, known as CFZ(TM). CFZ(TM) is a single-step cryogenic separation process that freezes out and then melts the carbon dioxide and removes other components including hydrogen sulfide, which is found in so-called sour gas. If successful, the process will reduce the cost of carbon dioxide removal from produced natural gas.
“This technology will assist in the development of additional gas resources to meet the world’s growing demand for energy and facilitate the application of carbon capture and storage, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Mark Albers, senior vice president of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM).

foxbusiness.com

Posted on: Thursday, 24 April 2008, 09:10 CDT
Boone Pickens said in Oklahoma City on Wednesday that the nation never will become energy independent because it imports more than 70 percent of the petroleum it needs today.
And more than 70 percent of that goes into transportation, he noted.
"The only fuel that can help when it comes to transportation is natural gas," he said.
Pickens also said the nation could reduce its dependence on imported oil by 38 percent if it used natural gas to power cars and trucks instead of generating electricity.
Part of that plan would involve developing solar and wind power, and generating more power using nuclear plants, he said.
"If wind plays a bigger part, and you bring solar on, and you take natural gas being used in electricity generation and move it to transportation, then you reduce the imports we need by 38 percent," Pickens said. "That is huge. There hasn’t been anyone yet who’s come up with a similar plan."
Pickens also talked about how oil prices eventually could climb as high as $150 a barrel before significant demand reductions cool the market.
Natural gas prices approaching $18 per thousand cubic feet could be a reality soon, too, unless the nation experiences a mild winter, he said.
Pickens said prices are being driven strictly by supply and demand, and not by speculators using the market to hedge their investments against a weakening dollar.
He said the U.S. uses about 25 percent of the 85 million barrels of oil that are produced each day in the world, but needs to rely more on renewable powers.
"You are not going to be able to get away from oil, natural gas and diesel. That is going to be going on for some time. But you can relieve the pressure" on those resources, he said.

redorbit.com