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SMALL BUSINESS
Oil and Energy
Alternative energy down on the farm: A still-untapped resource
As the federal government hands out billions of dollars to subsidize, push, prod and canoodle companies into jump-starting a green revolution in the U.S., one segment of the economy has been more or less left out. That would be farmers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has gotten only a few tens of millions of dollars to underwrite grants and programs to promote rural alternative energy projects.Still, acccording to the AP, the ranks of farmers who are producing their own power is increasing. But what's even more striking is how few now do so, considering the nature of their business and their access to precious energy commodities such as large acreage...
Why the coming natural gas boom isn't all it's 'fracced' up to be
Please pardon my poor punning, and let me explain: "Fraccing" (rhymes with "cracking") is the oil and natural gas industry's an informal contraction for the technology called hydraulic fracturing, in which water (and in some cases, a chemical mixture) is pumped deep underground to fracture shale and rock and thus free up trapped oil and gas deposits.The financial media has been buzzing with stories proclaiming a new era for America's natural gas industry as new fraccing technology has enabled the tapping of vast dispersed fields in the Eastern U.S....
Hurricane Ida's trip through Gulf of Mexico could push oil prices higher
It has been months since a hurricane posed a real threat to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, Hurricane Ida is entering the region from the west after doing significant damage in Nicaragua.
Most hurricanes that move into the Gulf end up doing very little damage to either deep sea drilling platforms or the refineries around Houston, but traders still get nervous about the potential interruption in oil supply. According to the Financial Times, the Gulf of Mexico accounts for almost 25% of U.S. oil production.
Gold futures top $1,100, oil prices sink on economic worries
New York gold futures topped $1,100 an ounce for the first time ever as investors continued to funnel funds into safe-haven gold amid the slumping world economy.Most-active gold for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division reached the $1,100 mark about one year and eight months after it topped $1,000 for the first time in March 2008.
The benchmark contract posted a new closing record of $1,089.30 the previous day, ending higher for four days in a row.
Chrysler to sell new Fiat designs under Dodge nameplate
Chrysler Group LLC plans to introduce three new Dodge brand cars, and possibly a midsized truck as part of a larger plan to rejuvenate the brand and sell more vehicles. The beleaguered automaker also said its finances are improving, reporting it broke even in September and had $5.7 billion in cash on hand. That's up from $4 billion in June, the month in which the company exited bankruptcy protection following a deal with Fiat (FIATY) which gave the Italian automaker a controlling stake in Chrysler.The three new cars...
Warren Buffett's big railroad buy is also a huge bet on coal
If the Sage of Omaha is truly an oracle of future returns and a leading indicator for where the market is going, it's hard not to think that U.S. carbon emissions will continue to grow apace and that the budding green revolution will be more bang than bucks.Why? On Tuesday, Buffett paid a hefty 25 percent premium to acquire the remaining 77 percent interest in railroad giant Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) that his company, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A),...
Al Gore, the world's first carbon billionaire?
Al Gore's latest eco-treatise, Our Choice: A Plan To Solve the Climate Crisis, is set to hit stores Tuesday. The former vice-president says he will donate 100 percent of the proceeds from the book to the the Alliance for Climate Protection, a green group.But it turns out that the book money is small potatoes compared to what Gore could earn from his various eco-friendly investments. As a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital heavyweight Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Gore is poised to reap hundreds of millions from investments in the companies that will benefit from the government's increased emphasis on green technology. According to The...
Walmart's nuclear blunder: Retailer mishandled radioactive exit signs
By Bruce Watson
| Nov 3rd 2009, 1:00PM EST
Filed Under: Energy, Company News, Technology, Economy, Home Depot, Delta Air Lines, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., Wal-Mart Stores, Green
On Oct. 28, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission cited Walmart (WMT) for improperly disposing of nuclear material. The items in question were exit signs that contained tritium, a hydrogen isotope, and Walmart had apparently been lax in its removal of 2,979 of them....
Oil disaster off Australia raises concerns about deepwater drilling
An out-of-control rig fire off off the coast of Western Australia could prove a clarion call for the hazards of deep-sea drilling. Since Monday, a fire emanating from an oil and gas wellhead in the Montara Field has engulfed a drilling rig called West Atlas being used by Thai company PTTEP Australasia, according to industry publication Upstream Online. "The measures which we have been able to take so far can only mitigate the fire. They will not stop it," said executive Jose Martin of PTTEP Australasia, which owns the actual well.The towering inferno is only the latest twist in an ongoing aquatic nightmare unfolding in the Timor Sea, an area rich in oil and gas between Australia...
VC Jim Pettit sees big returns in green building materials as biofuels, solar dim
When Serious Materials announced $60 million in additional venture capital funding last month, investor Jim Pettit felt more than a little bit vindicated. Pettit and his venture capital firm Navitas Capital led the early funding rounds in Serious, a Sunnyvale, Calif. maker of energy efficient building materials such as windows and drywall material. Along with his partner Travis Putnam, Pettit had positioned Navitas to be an early player in a greentech sector -- construction and building materials -- that had lots of promise but...
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