Maybe Google should consider acquiring Congress - at least then their stupidity would come with bean bag chairs and free yogurt. The House of Representatives yesterday passed a measure allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC over record gas prices. I'll give you a second on that one.... Okay. The House granted DOJ the ability to sue OPEC countries for colluding to restrict supplies and drive up prices. The bill, which passed the house 324-84, follows on the heels of a similar bill passed in the Senate last year by a 70-23 vote margin. Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WA), who both sponsored the bill and never graduated from high school, said "this bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules, instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities." What many in Congress fail to realize, and what the Saudi oil minister made clear this week, is that OPEC doesn't view the American people as its customers, and that in some ways, the price of gas is moved by different factors than the price of petroleum. I wonder if Congress has considered the possibility that OPEC just isn't able to produce more oil. If that's the case, we're going to need a lot more than lawsuits to get out of this mess.
The Morning Feedstock
Daniel Englander: May 21, 2008, 12:01 AM
Russian gas monopoly Gazprom engaged in some high profile saber rattling yesterday at a joint EU-Russia energy conference. Gazprom director Stanislav Tsygankov told the conference current EU proposals to force European utilities to unbundle power generation from transmission and distribution networks would create "instability and unpredictability" in the power sector. The gas giant has considerable sway over EU energy policy, as countries like Belgium, Germany, and the UK, among others, rely on Gazprom for as much as 45 percent of their total gas imports. In 2006, Gazprom shut off gas supplies to the Ukraine because of a pipeline dispute, sending prices on the Continent surging upwards. Now Gazprom is worried the proposed regulations will make it harder for it to protect its fixed assets in Europe, with the added potential of impacting its pipeline expansion plan. Tsygankov told the conference if the regulations passed the EC committee, European companies attempting to expand into Russia will face retaliation.
This has a more than a few Eurocrats worried about the lights going off - Gazprom isn't known for its blustering and hot air. But Ormat is. The geothermal company is reportedly an acquisition target for Google, whose co-founder Sergei Brin hinted at the possibility this week at a conference in Israel. Executives from the two companies have met a series of times, including a visit by Brin to Ormat's 11 MW pilot plant in Nevada. Ormat has received close to $1.6 million from the Department of Energy for ongoing research into enhanced geothermal systems, a new form of heat recovery that involves high temperature rock crushing away from traditional hot points. Brin also hinted his internet company may begin acquiring energy companies in 2009.
Maybe Google should consider acquiring Congress - at least then their stupidity would come with bean bag chairs and free yogurt. The House of Representatives yesterday passed a measure allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC over record gas prices. I'll give you a second on that one.... Okay. The House granted DOJ the ability to sue OPEC countries for colluding to restrict supplies and drive up prices. The bill, which passed the house 324-84, follows on the heels of a similar bill passed in the Senate last year by a 70-23 vote margin. Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WA), who both sponsored the bill and never graduated from high school, said "this bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules, instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities." What many in Congress fail to realize, and what the Saudi oil minister made clear this week, is that OPEC doesn't view the American people as its customers, and that in some ways, the price of gas is moved by different factors than the price of petroleum. I wonder if Congress has considered the possibility that OPEC just isn't able to produce more oil. If that's the case, we're going to need a lot more than lawsuits to get out of this mess.
Maybe Google should consider acquiring Congress - at least then their stupidity would come with bean bag chairs and free yogurt. The House of Representatives yesterday passed a measure allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC over record gas prices. I'll give you a second on that one.... Okay. The House granted DOJ the ability to sue OPEC countries for colluding to restrict supplies and drive up prices. The bill, which passed the house 324-84, follows on the heels of a similar bill passed in the Senate last year by a 70-23 vote margin. Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WA), who both sponsored the bill and never graduated from high school, said "this bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules, instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities." What many in Congress fail to realize, and what the Saudi oil minister made clear this week, is that OPEC doesn't view the American people as its customers, and that in some ways, the price of gas is moved by different factors than the price of petroleum. I wonder if Congress has considered the possibility that OPEC just isn't able to produce more oil. If that's the case, we're going to need a lot more than lawsuits to get out of this mess.
