October 24, 2007

Investors are eyeing Canadian oil sands. It may well turn out to be black gold. But it may also spell environmental troubles.

Nations around the world are demanding ever increasing amounts of oil. But supplies are shrinking and causing crude oil prices to rise to record levels. The phenomenon has forced major energy giants to set their sights on unconventional oil supplies and specifically reserves flush with oil sands. Estimates are that in a decade at least 3 million barrels a day could be derived from Canadian fields, sharply cutting into foreign exports.

Just what's in that biofuel you just put into your tank?  A Kettering University researcher is working to standardize the bio-fuel industry, which will help level the playing field in fuel economy for consumers.

Dr. Stacy Seeley, associate professor of chemistry, says more checks and balances are needed for bio-fuels.

"Industry needs to know what is being put in the tank, how it will impact a car and whether or not it will meet EPA standards," Seeley said.

So she and husband Dr. John Seeley, an associate professor of chemistry at Oakland University, have been developing new analytical methods for characterizing the composition of alternative (bio) fuels to facilitate standardization.

KALAMAZOO -- After years of planning and incremental advances, the city of Kalamazoo is poised to open an environmentally friendly business park on the once badly polluted site of an oil refinery on the city's southeast side.

Mayor Hannah McKinney, U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, and city officials will host a phalanx of dignitaries in a ceremonial opening of the Davis Creek Business Park, on about 18.5 acres of land on the north side of Cork Street, at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

October 19, 2007

If the market thinks $88 for a barrel of oil is high, it should wait a little longer. By year-end 2008, some economists say that it will hit $100 a barrel as global demand surges ahead of available supplies. When boiled down, the basic choices involve conservation, drilling for more oil or identifying and deploying more alternative fuels.

The time to start preparing for higher oil prices and possible oil shortages is right now. Not only will western nations continue to advance, but the developing countries will also do so and at rapid rates. Meanwhile, the oil producing countries of the Middle East (OPEC), Mexico and Russia are also growing. They will first and foremost attend to their own domestic needs before parceling out fewer barrels of oil to other nations.