Recent Gas News/GasBuddy Blog

The Detroit News -- Last year's "cash for clunkers" incentives program stoked demand for cars and trucks without pulling sales forward, according to a study by the Maritz Automotive Research Group.

"Our findings not only provide strong evidence that many more vehicles were sold as a direct result of the incentive program than were previously estimated, but they also largely debunk the myth that 'cash for clunkers' mortgaged future car and truck sales," said Dave Fish, vice president, Maritz Automotive Research Group.

"In fact, the program resulted in sales of vehicles to people who don't normally buy them."

Toledo, Ohio-based Maritz surveyed nearly 36,000 consumers who bought a new car or truck between July and August 2009, when the Car Allowance Rebate System was in effect.

 (go to article)

Anchorage Daily News online -- JUNEAU -- A bill that would change Alaska's system of taxing oil and gas production together got its first hearing Tuesday, with consultants giving the Senate Finance Committee a rundown on the separation of the two.

Public testimony is set for later this week, with senators hoping to hear from Gov. Sean Parnell's administration as well.
 (go to article)

Forbes -- Is the market underplaying the electric car or are investors being suitably wary of a new technology that holds promise, but not necessarily profits? Old-fashioned gas-powered cars are one of academia's favorite case studies on the unprofitable nature of disruptive technologies.

Add to that lesson learned the dot-com bust and the most recent financial crisis and perhaps financial markets should only be lukewarm on battery-powered vehicles. Yet Rod Lache of Deutsche Bank sees reason to think electric cars will spread faster than the public gives them credit for.  (go to article)

Forbes -- In 2008, when gas cost $4 a gallon, the fuel-sipping Smart Fortwo looked like a smart buy. Now the quirky two-seater made by Daimler (better known for its Mercedes) looks like a fad that has run its course. After a nice start in the U.S.--24,600 vehicles in 2008--Smart sales fell 41% in 2009, the victim of a weak economy and lower gas prices. The tally was even worse in January, with sales of 278 cars, a decline of 84% from a year earlier.

Can it be revived? A big name in the auto industry, Roger Penske, is behind the car. He's the chief executive of Smart's U.S. distributor, Penske Automotive Group (PAG). In January he asked Jill Lajdziak, who ran General Motors' Saturn division for a decade, to recapture some buzz for the car.  (go to article)

JuneauEmpire.com -- President Obama plans to boost the effort to develop Alaska's natural gas resources into the executive office of the White House, according to legislators who visited Washington, D.C., to discuss energy issued with other legislators.

Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, recently nominated legislative aide Larry Persily for the Obama appointment as federal coordinator. Persily has support from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, as well.

He is now awaiting confirmation by the Senate, after having been approved by the Senate Energy Committee.  (go to article)

bloomberg --

By Joe Carroll

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. energy company, plans to sell its only remaining European refinery, cut 2,000 jobs and shed assets in the Caribbean and Central America to stanch losses from its fuel-making business.

Chevron also plans to slash capital spending on refineries by 23 percent this year and may reduce operations at a plant in Hawaii, Mike Wirth, executive vice president of the company’s global refining and marketing business, said in a presentation to analysts today in New York.

Chevron’s refining unit lost $613 million during the fourth quarter of 2009 as fuel demand sank, hindering Chief Executive Officer John Watson’s goal of generating returns of at least 10 percent from each plant. The job cuts announced today will shrink th  (go to article)

Automotive News -- WASHINGTON -- Chrysler Group, reacting to General Motors Co.'s plans to reinstate 661 rejected dealerships, is signaling that it will not follow suit while noting that the number of arbitration claims involving its former dealers has fallen 5 percent.

“Dealer appointments will be a function of the arbitrations,” Chrysler said in an e-mail yesterday to Automotive News. “The company looks forward to the expeditious completion of the arbitration process.”

As of late January, 418 of the 789 shuttered Chrysler dealerships had paid $1,625 apiece to give notice of their intent to arbitrate, the company said. That number has fallen to below 400 after some dealerships changed their minds, Chrysler said.

On Friday, GM said it plans to reinstate 661 of the 1,160 dealerships that had filed ar  (go to article)

Reuters -- NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters) - U.S. retail gasoline demand rose 2.5 percent in the week to March 5, according to a MasterCard SpendingPulse report released on Tuesday.

Stocks | Financials

Gasoline demand averaged 9.619 million barrels per day last week, up from 9.385 million the previous week, the weekly survey showed.

Year-on-year, gasoline demand rose by 5.4 percent for the week.

The increase in the week-on-week consumption may have been driven in part by a storm on the West Coast, which disrupted gasoline pumping patterns, Michael McNamara, VP Research and Analysis for MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse said.

"I might pay a little more attention to the four-week moving average," he said.

Consumption of the motor fuel in the world's top oil consumer over the last four-w  (go to article)

Associated Press -- NEW YORK — The Energy Department on Tuesday said it still expects pump prices to climb past $3 per gallon as more motorists hit the road in the spring and summer driving seasons.

In its monthly short-term energy outlook report, the Energy Information Administration said that for the full year it sees a national average price of $2.84 per gallon, up from $2.35 per gallon in 2009.

Oil prices should average above $80 per barrel this spring, rising to an average of about $82 per barrel by the end of the year and to $85 per barrel by the end of 2011, the report said.

A more optimistic view of global economic growth prompted the EIA to boost its 2010 forecast for oil consumption growth to 1.5 million barrels per day from last month's prediction of 1.2 million barrels per day. EIA predic  (go to article)

Fox News -- A Prius driver calls 911 after accelerating to pass another vehicle on a California freeway and finding that he could not control his car.  (go to article)

GasBuddy Blog -- With warmer weather infiltrating the U.S. and Canada, you can expect that refiners will begin to undergo maintenance to prepare for summer blended gasoline, and to ensure their equipment is ready for additional production. Facilities typically undergo maintenance during the Spring and Fall, coinciding with switches in gasoline production.

According to reports, Shell has recently restarted a Bay area gasoline producing unit after completing a two month overhaul. The restart had previously been delayed at least twice, according to the report. The latest restart is nearly two weeks after it was expected.

Delek recently reported shutting down a unit at its relatively small 60,000bpd facility in Tyler, Texas, according to a...  (go to article)

Reuters -- Fueled by leftover chocolate and with components made from carrots, potato starch and flax, the world's first sustainable Formula 3 racing car has a top speed of 135 miles per hour and can go from zero to 60 in 2.5 seconds  (go to article)

NY Times -- As Toyota stumbles through its recall ordeal, G.M. and Ford have been handed a big chance to make their argument on quality to American consumers.  (go to article)

Globe and Mail - Reuters -- Some of the boldest speculative oil traders at banks and hedge funds are betting on a return of gasoline's strength ahead of peak summer demand, bringing an early shift to summer from winter to the oil market.

Many traders use a popular spread play between gasoline and heating oil to try to make money from seasonal shifts in demand in the Northern Hemisphere.

But the spread is one of the most volatile and unpredictable in the oil market and is often called “the widowmaker” after the plight of those who have made the wrong bet.

Unusually cold winter weather and a belief in resurgent gasoline demand this summer has lured traders back onto the seasonal play after 2009's relatively flat demand picture, analysts and traders said.

“We have seen massive speculative inflows this year  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Commodities fell, the dollar strengthened and Treasuries advanced amid speculation that a yearlong rally in riskier assets overshot prospects for the global economic recovery.

Crude oil declined as much as 2.1 percent after reaching an eight-week high near $82 a barrel yesterday. The Dollar Index, which gauges the U.S. currency against six major trading partners, climbed 0.3 percent to 80.648. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note slipped 2 basis points to 3.7 percent before today’s record-tying $40 billion auction of three-year notes. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index drifted between gains and losses on the anniversary of its 12-year low last year.

European shares fell after European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co., owner of planemaker Airbus SAS, posted  (go to article)

Canadian Driver -- Back when the automobile was young, many cars ran solely on electricity. At a time when you had to manually crank a gasoline engine to start it, battery-powered models offered the ease of simply pushing a button.

Cadillac’s introduction of an effective gasoline engine self-starter in 1912 changed all that. But today, concerns about fuel prices, oil reserves and the environment have automakers looking at a variety of vehicles that use electricity either alongside or instead of gasoline.  (go to article)

The Korea Times -- The government will finalize a roadmap plan by September to outline the strategies for the Korean auto industry to achieve a ``top-four'' global status in the emerging field of environment-friendly cars.

Despite the strengthening of ``green'' car initiatives, vehicles with hybrid drives are slowly rolling out of the gate here, with drivers being put off by the high prices and lagging fuel economy.

The Ministry of Knowledge Economy launched a forum on the green car strategies Tuesday, which was attended by more than 500 government officials, auto industry representatives and independent experts as they shared their ideas on expanding the market for hybrid and electric cars, and easing the transition on the manufacturing side.  (go to article)

The Financial Times -- The Wall Street Journal has an interview with J. Craig Venter, the biologist who mapped the human genome and whose company Synthetic Genomics last year received a sizeable commitmentfrom ExxonMobil to develop biofuels from algae.

Venter strikes an interesting balance between optimism and the reality of the many unknowns in getting algal biofuel towards being both cost-effective and scalable.

[We were interested to read the Synthetic Genomics is also working on a project with BP, although the financial details of that arrangement have not been disclosed.]  (go to article)

Bloomberg.com -- Brent crude oil may average $75 a barrel this year and trade between $60 and $85 as Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest supplier, maintains output policies to keep prices stable, Credit Suisse Group AG said.  (go to article)

The Detroit News -- Ford Motor Co. launched its first made-for-India compact car today, as the U.S. automaker continues its push into fast-growing Asian markets.

The four-door Figo, Italian for "cool," is the Dearborn-based automaker's first car designed -- and priced -- for the mass Indian market.

"Come heat, come dust, come monsoon rains or Delhi traffic, the Figo was born and bred for India," said Michael Boneham, president and managing director of Ford India.

As the global auto industry suffers, India has been enjoying an auto boom. An economic rebound, rising incomes and pent-up demand drove car sales to 1,370,659 vehicles from April to February, 25 percent more than during the same period the previous year.
 (go to article)

Yahoo News -- A California Highway Patrol officer helped slow a runaway Toyota Prius from 94 mph to a safe stop on Monday after the car's accelerator became stuck on a San Diego County freeway, the CHP said.

Prius driver James Sikes called 911 about 1:30 p.m. after accelerating to pass another vehicle on Interstate 8 near La Posta and finding that he could not control his car, the CHP said.

"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny... it jumped and it just stuck there," the 61-year-old driver said at a news conference. "As it was going, I was trying the brakes...it wasn't stopping, it wasn't doing anything and it just kept speeding up," Sikes said, adding he could smell the brakes burning he was pressing the pedal so hard.
 (go to article)

AP - Curt Anderson and Greg Bluestein / Associated Press From The Detroit News -- Last Updated: March 09. 2010 6:43AM
Class-action lawsuits could cost Toyota $3 billion
Curt Anderson and Greg Bluestein / Associated Press

Miami -- Toyota owners claiming that massive safety recalls are causing the value of their vehicles to plummet have filed at least 89 class-action lawsuits that could cost the Japanese auto giant $3 billion or more, according to an Associated Press review of cases, legal precedent and interviews with experts.

Those estimates do not include potential payouts for wrongful death and injury lawsuits, which could reach in the tens of millions each. Still, the sheer volume of cases involving U.S. Toyota owners claiming lost value -- 6 million or more -- could prove far more costly, adding up to losses in the billions for the automaker.

Such class-action l  (go to article)

Reuters -- Chevron Corp, the second-largest U.S. oil company, said it planned to put several downstream operations up for sale, including its Pembroke refinery in the UK, and eliminate 2,000 jobs this year.

"Downstream market conditions are likely to be difficult for the next several years," Mike Wirth, executive vice president for Chevron's global downstream, said in a statement to its annual meeting with analysts in New York.

Wirth said he would continue to cut jobs into 2011 and expected after-tax severance charges of $150 million to $200 million in the first quarter of this year.  (go to article)

Gm-Volt.com -- Electrification of the automobile is well underway, with the first mass produced cars expected to hit the roads later this year.
-----
The firm notes the average lithium-ion cell price in 2009 has been $650 per kwh, but claims automakers are already seeing bids for $450 per kwh from battery companies for delivery contracts in the 2011/2012 timeframe.
-----
If one considers the Volt has a 16 kwh lithium ion battery, at $450 per kwh its total cell cost would be $7200.  (go to article)

Reuters -- Japanese carmakers are considering following Toyota Motor's lead in adopting a brake override system that would potentially address all sources of unintended acceleration, including driver error.

Under fire after recalling more than 8 million vehicles globally for problems of uncontrollable acceleration, Toyota said last month it would add the function to all future vehicles worldwide. The system cuts engine power when the accelerator and brake pedals are applied at the same time.  (go to article)

Market Watch Wall Street Journal Digital Network --

AUSTIN, Texas, Mar 09, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- FieldPoint Petroleum Corporation /quotes/comstock/14*!fpp/quotes/nls/fpp (FPP 2.18, +0.10, +4.81%) today announced that production is averaging more than 300 BOEPD (barrels of oil equivalent per day). This includes production for the fourth quarter of 2009 and up to this point in the first quarter of 2010.

In the fourth quarter of 2009, oil production was approximately 19,300 barrels and natural gas production was approximately 47,071 mcf. This represents increases of approximately 39% for oil production and 26% for gas production over the same quarter in 2008.
 (go to article)

Wall Street Journal -- The oil market's usual spring bounce may not get far off the ground this year.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its widely followed short-term energy outlook midday Tuesday.

Its price forecasts typically have underestimated a spike in summer oil prices. This month, though, the government forecast could closely mirror the mood in the market, which seems reluctant to kick off a rally that has come like clockwork each of the past six springs.

Oil futures normally begin a steady climb around this time of year, as large fuel consumers lock in supplies at cheap winter prices before heavy summer U.S. gasoline demand begins to strain supplies.

Hedge funds and other speculative traders often hitch a ride on a rally that has become almost an annual tradition.  (go to article)

NY Times -- U.S. EPA has submitted the first piece of its suite of greenhouse gas rules to the White House for review, a signal that the agency is on schedule to finalize its first regulations to curb the heat-trapping emissions.

EPA sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget last Thursday its final reconsideration of the George W. Bush administration's "Johnson memo," a determination from former EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson about when the government must begin to regulate industrial facilities' greenhouse gas emissions. That decision is seen as a critical policy to have in place before the agency issues its final greenhouse gas rule for tailpipe emissions (Greenwire, March 5).  (go to article)

News Herald Panama City -- Retail gasoline prices jumped another 10 cents per gallon here over the past week, but a AAA spokeswoman said the spike won’t last.

“Right now, there’s really not much there to drive these prices,” AAA Auto Club South spokeswoman Jessica Brady said. “The fundamentals aren’t there to support these prices.”

Locally, retail gasoline averaged about $2.64 per gallon a week ago but averaged $2.74 per gallon as of Monday afternoon. Prices are likely to creep up as investors hear more good news about the economy and buy crude oil. Sweet crude remains over $81 per barrel despite ample supply and lower consumer confidence in February.

Investors are optimistic after hearing reports that unemployment remained steady and that travel is up after an abysmal 2009, Brady said.  (go to article)

Galveston County Daily News -- LEAGUE CITY — More than 1,700 drivers given red light camera tickets in League City are due refunds, the city’s police chief said Monday.

The citations are being dismissed because the time it takes for the traffic light at FM 518 and Interstate 45 to change from yellow to red is less than state law requires.

Chief Michael Jez said he was alerted to the quick-changing lights by Byron Schirmbeck, a Baytown resident who has been fighting Baytown’s decision to install red light cameras. Schirmbeck complained that the time between a yellow light and a red light was 4 seconds, when the state requires it to be 4.7 seconds, Jez said.
 (go to article)

Detroit Free Press -- Toyota's top two U.S. executives must appear Thursday and Friday in Troy for questioning by lawyers for the family of Guadalupe Alberto, Genesee County Circuit Judge Archie Hayman ordered today.

Alberto died in April 2008 after her 2005 Toyota Camry allegedly surged from 25 to 80 mph near her home in Flint. Representatives of her family have sued Toyota and Denso, one of Toyota's largest suppliers, alleging that Alberto's death was caused by a defect in the car's electronic throttle control system that Toyota had known about for several years.

Toyota attorneys had filed a motion to protect Yoshimi Inaba, chairman and CEO of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., and Jim Lentz, president and chief operation officer, from testifying in the case.

Andrea Moody, a lawyer representing Toyota today  (go to article)

Detroit Free Press -- Ford’s first-quarter profits are likely to be challenged by $200 million because the automaker has been drawn into an incentive war with Toyota and General Motors, one analyst said in a report today.

Ford last week began offering zero-percent financing for 60 months on the Ford Focus, Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan, as well as free financing for 72 months on Ford Explorer, SportTrac, Ranger and Mercury Mountaineer.

Ford introduced its offer Wednesday, a day after Toyota announced zero-percent financing for 60 months on 10 models and GM followed suit with similar zero-percent financing deals.

“Ford is likely to show a roughly $200 million pricing headwind,” Barclays Capital analyst Brian Johnson wrote. “What is troubling is that Ford is increasing incentives on some of the core cars  (go to article)

Detroit Free Press -- Hyundai is America's hottest car brand, full of bravado and spending like crazy to hype its new models.

General Motors is that sad-sack auto company that closed a lot of plants and cast thousands of workers adrift.

Toyota is a national joke.

Those were the main messages conveyed about the auto industry to 40 million viewers during Sunday's telecast of the Oscars on ABC.

Of course, it would be grossly simplistic to assign deep meaning to a few TV blips, even if the Oscars are a perennial ratings juggernaut in a class with the Super Bowl and the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Still, it's worth reflecting a bit on the auto-related blips from Sunday's telecast.

If it's true that you have an image problem when your brand becomes the perennial butt of late-night TV jokes....  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Mitsui & Co., the Japanese trading group that earns half its profit from energy, may restart oil product trading in Singapore after withdrawing from the city- state in 2007, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The Tokyo-based company pulled out from Asia’s biggest oil- trading center when it shut its Singapore unit Mitsui Oil (Asia) Pte in 2007 after losing $81 million from naphtha transactions hidden by a trader. The cover-up resulted in the imprisonment of three former employees by Singapore courts last year.

Japanese trading houses and oil refiners are trying to expand sales in overseas market as domestic petroleum demand declines amid a shrinking population and rising energy conservation.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Taiwan’s energy use rose for a fifth month in January after factories boosted production of semiconductors and display panels to meet overseas orders.

Consumption of coal, petroleum, gas, thermal energy and electricity advanced 22 percent from a year earlier to the equivalent of 9.65 million kiloliters of oil, or about 1.96 million barrels a day, according to an e-mailed report from the Bureau of Energy in Taipei today.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Ethanol, the commodity that cost Bill Gates more than $44 million the last time prices collapsed, is poised to rally as much as 20 percent as the fastest drop since 2008 spurs demand.

Falling corn prices and record ethanol supplies have driven the price down 17 percent in three months to $1.634 a gallon, its worst run since 2008’s fourth quarter. It will average $1.96 a gallon at the peak of the U.S. summer driving season as refiners from Valero Energy Corp. to Sunoco Inc. mix more into gasoline made from increasingly pricey oil, according to the median of 10 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.  (go to article)

Toronto Sun -- EL CAJON, Calif. — A California highway police officer helped slow a runaway Toyota Prius from 151 km/h to a safe stop on Monday after the car’s accelerator became stuck on a freeway near San Diego, authorities said said.

Prius driver James Sikes said that the incident Monday occurred just two weeks after he had taken the vehicle in to an El Cajon dealership for repairs after receiving a recall notice, but he was turned away.

“I gave them my recall notice and they handed it back and said I’m not on the recall list,” Sikes said.

In a statement, Toyota said it has dispatched a field technical specialist to San Diego to investigate the incident.

Toyota has recalled some 8.5 million vehicles worldwide — more than 6 million in the United States — since last fall because of accelerat  (go to article)

New York Times -- VENUSTIANO CARRANZA, Mexico — To the Mexican people, one of the great achievements in their history was the day their president kicked out foreign oil companies in 1938. Thus, they celebrate March 18 as a civic holiday.

The national oil company created after the 1938 seizure, Pemex, is entering a period of turmoil. Oil production in its aging fields is sagging so rapidly that Mexico, long one of the world’s top oil-exporting countries, could begin importing oil within the decade.

International oil executives share the enthusiasm for Mexico’s potential deepwater fields, which lie near rich new American fields. Mexico “potentially has, if not the largest, one of the largest undiscovered deepwater petroleum resources in the world,” said Jon Blickwede, a senior geologist at Statoil, a Norweg  (go to article)

Detroit Free Press -- Four years ago, the Christmas party at Compact Power consisted of five guys sharing some Chinese take-out food.

Things have changed for the battery company, a subsidiary of Korea-based LG Chem, which is developing lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.

Now, Compact has more than 120 employees and celebrated the holidays at the Detroit Yacht Club. The future looks bright for the company that has worked with General Motors on developing the Chevrolet Volt and plans to open a battery plant in Michigan within three years.

Patil said his company has an internal target of cutting the battery cost by at least a factor of two and perhaps as much as a factor of four over the next five to 10 years.  (go to article)

New York Times -- HOUSTON — Crude oil and gasoline prices are inching up again.

Optimism about the economy, new tensions in oil-producing Nigeria and reports that China intends to build up its strategic reserves lifted crude prices to around $82 on Monday, about a $10 increase in the last month.

Gasoline prices typically go up in the spring as refiners retool and switch to more expensive summer blends of gasoline. Demand and prices were particularly low this winter because of cold and stormy weather, and experts say they believe many drivers will be keen to take to the highway as spring blooms.

Meanwhile, China is building storage plants to amass emergency reserves while prices remain relatively low, raising expectations that China may import as much as 15 percent more oil this year.  (go to article)

Reuters -- Toyota Motor Corp on Monday sought to discredit an outside study critical of its electronic safety systems and said it had found no flaw with its throttle controls.

The conclusions, which were announced at a news conference, marked an attempt by the automaker to reassure consumers it has safety issues under control as it works to win back sales seven weeks into a recall crisis that has tarnished its reputation.

But in developments that underscored the continuing pressure on Toyota, a Michigan judge ordered the automaker's top two U.S. executives to appear for a deposition and a congressional panel told it to surrender a 2006 memo from employees in Japan warning of risks to quality controls.  (go to article)

Bloomberg.com -- Oil declined for the first day in three as the dollar strengthened and analysts forecast an increase in U.S. crude supplies last week, signaling that fuel demand in the world’s biggest energy user may be slow to recover.

Oil dropped from yesterday’s eight-week high as the greenback advanced against the euro, limiting investors’ need for assets, such as commodities, to hedge against inflation. Crude inventories probably rose 2 million barrels last week, according to analysts surveyed before an Energy Department report tomorrow. Gasoline inventories probably rose 150,000 barrels from 231.9 million the previous week.

“The market is in oversupply for crude and products,” said Ken Hasegawa, a commodity derivatives sales manager at broker Newedge in Tokyo,  (go to article)

Boston Globe -- When the Kingdom Community Wind came to a vote last week at Town Meeting, residents voted 342-114 in favor of it. It still needs regulatory approval, but the size of the project and its resounding approval at the polls are noteworthy.

Despite its clean-and-green image, Vermont has been reluctant to embrace wind power, in part because people fear that towering windmills will spoil the mountain landscapes that are the state’s signature.

“It’ll give us a break,’’ said George Sargent, 57, a contractor, stopping for gas Friday at the Lowell General Store. “There’s no business here. You’ve got to have something to spur it. The way I look at it, it’s better than putting in a prison.’’  (go to article)

New York Times -- PUERTOLLANO, Spain — Two years ago, this gritty mining city hosted a brief 21st-century gold rush. Long famous for coal, Puertollano discovered another energy source it had overlooked: the relentless, scorching sun.

Soon, Puertollano, home to the Museum of the Mining Industry, had two enormous solar power plants, factories making solar panels and silicon wafers, and clean energy research institutes. Half the solar power installed globally in 2008 was installed in Spain.

But as low-quality, poorly designed solar plants sprang up on Spain’s plateaus, Spanish officials came to realize that they would have to subsidize many of them indefinitely, and that the industry they had created might never produce efficient green energy on its own.  (go to article)

Fox News -- ASHINGTON -- Toyota, dogged by millions of recalls and claims that it still has not fixed its safety problems, took its strongest step yet Monday to silence critics who blame faulty electronics for runaway cars and trucks.

Toyota assembled a group of experts to refute studies by an Illinois professor who revved Toyota engines simply by short-circuiting the wiring. Toyota's experts say the experiments were done under conditions that would never happen on the road.  (go to article)

NY Times -- Despite reports of unintended accelerations, Toyota denied the problems existed in Japan, where a pro-business culture undermines consumer protection.
 (go to article)

NY Times -- Edward B. Montgomery can’t bring auto jobs back, but he’s helping depressed former car-assembly towns tap federal money to build new futures.  (go to article)

Mercury News -- Today: Toyota gets help from a Stanford prof. Cisco shares rise. And Pandora hires a new chief financial officer. Plus SV tech stocks.

Toyota enlists Stanford prof to dispute faulty electronics claim

The embattled Japanese automaker gave a demonstration this morning that was aimed at discrediting widely publicized claims by an Illinois engineering expert who says faulty electronics caused unwanted acceleration in Toyota's vehicles.

Chris Gerdes, director of Stanford University's Center for Automotive Research, said attempts to duplicate the problem showed that acceleration occurred only after tampering with the vehicles' wiring, which would not occur in normal driving. He spoke during a presentation at Toyota's North American headquarters in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance.
 (go to article)

Anchorage Daily News online -- The majority leader of the Alaska House returned from last week's Energy Council meetings in D.C. with pessimism for the future of a big gas pipeline from Alaska through Canada to the Lower 48.
 (go to article)

Reuters -- Ray Irani, chief executive of Occidental Petroleum Corp for the past two decades, received $31.4 million in total compensation in 2009, a 40 percent increase on the year before.

Investors in the fourth-largest U.S. oil company will submit a nonbinding vote on executive compensation for the first time at Occidental's annual meeting on May 7.

According to a filing with U.S. financial regulators on Friday, Irani earned a salary of $1.17 million in 2009, down 10 percent from the year before, but his stock awards totaled nearly $24.76 million, up by $9 million over 2008.
 (go to article)

switched -- We've told you about power plants that pull electricity from garbage. We've reported on a Formula 3 car that draws its power from chocolate. We even knew a guy that knew a guy, back in high school, who rigged his father's riding lawnmower to run on his grandfather's white lightning. Well, thanks to a few brainy Brits, we can now add coffee to the ever-growing list of funny fuels.
 (go to article)