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Oil rises to $71 on supply worries

Crude oil rose to $71 a barrel in London today, near a nine-month high, as a strike in Nigeria threatened more of the country's output and Iran remained defiant over its nuclear program, according to Reuters.
Rising tension surrounding two of the world's leading oil producers have coincided with lower OPEC supply and relatively low gasoline stocks in top consumer the United States before the onset of peak summer demand.
London crude climbed 28 cents to $71.00 a barrel by early afternoon. It hit a 9-month high of $71.80 on Thursday. U.S. crude rose 75 cents to $64.93.

Posted by   at 10:51 AM to Oil | Permalink | Comments 0

GM gets SEC request, details Delphi exposure

General Motors said says U.S. securities regulators have requested documents relating to its accounting for financial hedges and adds that a parallel inquiry at its former finance arm could force it to restate past results again, Reuters reports.
GM also said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it had set its estimated exposure to bankrupt auto parts maker Delphi Corp at $7 billion and could take a $1 billion charge this quarter related to the restructuring of its former subsidiary, Reuters says.
The SEC's request for information marked the latest accounting setback for GM, which pledged to tighten its financial controls after twice restating results and delaying its fourth-quarter report.

Posted by   at 11:32 AM to Companies | Permalink | Comments 1

Cars are getting bossy when it comes to high-tech safety

Cars are getting to take over the driving, according to USA Today.
For example, using radar technology developed for military aircraft, an experimental BMW on a test track senses when it's about to crash and simultaneously flashes a red light on the dash, primes the brakes, pushes back on the gas pedal, closes the windows and sunroof, moves the seat upright, cinches the seat belt and adjusts the air bag deployment.
If the driver doesn't hit the brakes fast or hard enough, it will do that, too.

Posted by   at 11:23 AM to Companies , Safety , Technology | Permalink | Comments 0

Cutting up DCX not a done deal

The selling of Chrysler is not a done deal -- yet, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Cerberus Capital Management will spend the next few weeks -- if not months -- finalizing the deal, conducting further double-checking and settling details before signing on the dotted line to acquire the Chrysler Group from DaimlerChrysler AG.

Posted by   at 12:17 PM to Companies | Permalink | Comments 0

Calif. officials push strict fuel rule

California officials pushed federal environmental regulators on Tuesday to approve the state's plan for a 30% cut in greenhouse gases from cars and trucks, saying automakers had overplayed their challenges to meeting the targets, according to the Detroit Free Press.

If successful, California's plan would set up strict new fuel economy goals of about 43 miles per gallon by 2016 that automakers might be forced to follow nationwide.

Posted by   at 12:14 PM to Environment , Fuel economy | Permalink | Comments 0

NYC's taxi fleet will be green by 2012

The city's yellow taxi fleet will go entirely hybrid within five years, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday, according to USA Today.
"There's an awful lot of taxicabs on the streets of New York City," Bloomberg said. "These cars just sit there in traffic sometimes, belching fumes.
Nearly 400 fuel-efficient hybrids have been tested in the city's taxi fleet over the past 18 months, with models including the Toyota Prius, the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, the Lexus RX 400h and the Ford Escape.

Posted by   at 12:07 PM to Alternative fuels | Permalink | Comments 0

Oil Prices Fall Below $66 a Barrel

Oil prices pulled back as investors sold contracts before their expiration Tuesday, and before the government's weekly inventory report, the Associated Press reports.
News of a partial oil production shutdown in Alaska and a government report predicting a busy hurricane season failed to boost prices, AP reports.
The June contract for light, sweet crude, which expires Tuesday, fell 86 cents to $65.41 a barrel in afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The July contract also dropped 88 cents to $65.99 a barrel.

Posted by   at 2:31 PM to Oil | Permalink | Comments 0

Tarbox taking over Anderson Chrysler Jeep in Attleboro

After 38 years of being locally owned, Anderson Chrysler Jeep on Pleasant Street, Attleboro, Mass., is being sold to Tarbox Motors of North Kingstown, according to the Sun Chronicle. Tarbox will take over the business tomorrow, and will retain the 30 employees who work there.
The reason for the sale, General Manager Gerry Farinelli, 66, said, is that "some of us are getting old. We want to enjoy other pleasures in life."

Posted by   at 2:16 PM to Local dealerships | Permalink | Comments 0

BP Shuts 100,000 Barrels of Alaska Oil

BP said it will shut down 100,000 barrels, or one quarter, of its Alaskan oil production for a "few days" after discovering a water pipeline leak, the Associated Press reports.
Analysts said the temporary loss of output at Prudhoe Bay should not have a dramatic impact on world oil markets, but with supplies already tight and crude futures trading near $66 a barrel, any snag in the industry tends to make energy traders jittery.
Light sweet crude for June delivery fell 32 cents to $65.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Posted by   at 11:02 AM to Oil | Permalink | Comments 0

Drivers cut back — a 1st in 26 years

The average American motorist is driving substantially fewer miles for the first time in 26 years because of high gas prices and demographic shifts, according to a USA Today analysis of federal highway data.
The growth in miles driven has leveled off dramatically in the past 18 months after 25 years of steady climbs despite the addition of more than 1 million drivers to the nation's streets and highways since 2005, USA Today reports.
Miles driven in February declined 1.9% from February 2006 before rebounding slightly for a 0.3% year-over-year gain in March, data from the Federal Highway Administration show. That's in sharp contrast to the average annual growth rate of 2.7% recorded from 1980 through 2005, the paper says.

Posted by   at 10:57 AM to Fuel economy , Gas prices | Permalink | Comments 0

Study: Worldwide carbon dioxide emissions soar

Warnings about global warming may not be dire enough, according to a climate study that describes a runaway-train acceleration of industrial carbon dioxide emissions, USA Today reports.
Fueled by rapid growth in coal-reliant China, rates of carbon dioxide emission from industrial sources increased from 2000 to 2004 "at a rate that is over three times the rate during the 1990s," says a report released by the journal Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences.

Posted by   at 10:55 AM to Environment | Permalink | Comments 0

Job cuts won't fix Chrysler

Chrysler's new owners, Cerberus Capital Management LP, will need concessions from the UAW to trim costs and become competitive with Japanese automakers, industry experts say, but labor cuts alone will not turn Chrysler into a success, according to Detroit Free Press business writer Joe Guy Collier.
Chrysler estimates that Japanese automakers, such as Toyota Motor Corp., have a $30-an-hour labor cost advantage, counting benefits and special provisions, and the gap could grow to $45 an hour by 2009 without changes to the UAW contract, Collier reports. Chrysler, Ford and GM begin contract talks this summer with the UAW, presenting an opportunity to rework labor costs for all three automakers.

Posted by   at 10:24 AM to Companies | Permalink | Comments 0

How’s My Driving? Dial My License Plate

In “American Graffiti,” the character played by Richard Dreyfuss spends much of the movie pursuing a mysterious woman played by Suzanne Somers, who drives a white Ford Thunderbird. If only they'd had SameLane, a service that allows drivers to call strangers on the road by dialing their license plate numbers into cellphones, The New York Times reports.
A CB radio for this century, SameLane is aimed at commuters stuck in traffic, long-haul drivers fighting fatigue and good Samaritans trying to help people with broken taillights and such.
To use the service, which goes live on Monday, drivers register their cellphone and license plate numbers with SameLane, which sends them bumper stickers identifying the drivers as part of the SameLane network. After spotting a member, drivers dial a company number, punch in the license plate number of the car they want to reach and wait for SameLane’s computers to connect the call.

Posted by   at 10:16 AM to Accessories , Technology | Permalink | Comments 0

Fifty, Finned and Fabulous

1957 was a Golden Era for automobile design, but a fleeting one that would end before the year was out, according to a fascinating feature in The New York Times.
“I think 1957 was a high-water mark for Ford design; Chrysler as well,” said Greg Wallace, manager of General Motors’ Heritage Center in Sterling Heights, Mich.
The enduring popularity, not to mention collectibility, of Chevrolet’s 1957 cars “speaks for itself,” he said, adding, “The ’57 Chevy was quite simply the best-looking car of the entire postwar era.”

Posted by   at 10:11 AM to Auto industry , Companies , Design , Marques | Permalink | Comments 0

G.M.’s Mr. Horsepower Has an Electric Conversion

Speaking at a taping of “Wait Wait ...Don’t Tell Me!” the quiz program on National Public Radio, Robert A. Lutz, vice chairman at General Motors, declared Thursday night that the Chevrolet Volt, the hybrid-electric concept car that G.M. unveiled at this year’s Detroit auto show, may be among the most important vehicles that G.M. has ever developed, The New York Times reports.
Lutz has long been considered one of Detroit’s ultimate “car guys,” for whom no vehicle could be big enough, powerful enough or fast enough. He is the father of the V-10 Dodge Viper and has championed automobiles like the 1,000-horsepower Cadillac Sixteen.
Lutz said he was more excited about the Volt that he was about the Dodge Viper. “I think this can bring about the revolution and really make us independent of foreign oil and solve all the other problems," he said.

Posted by   at 10:03 AM to Alternative fuels , Companies , Design , Environment , Fuel economy , Marques , People in the News , Technology | Permalink | Comments 0

Oil prices on the march again

Oil prices climbed today on continued concerns that U.S. refiners are not producing enough gasoline to meet peak summer demand, the Associated Press reports.
The upward trend was held in check, however, with news from Nigeria that a key pipeline hub that had been taken over by protesters for nearly a week had started pumping again.
Light, sweet crude for June delivery gained 34 cents to $65.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange by noon in Europe.

Posted by   at 9:40 AM to Oil | Permalink | Comments 0

Gas prices getting up to record levels

The average price of self-serve regular gasoline hit a record high of $3.18, rising more than 11 cents over the past two weeks, according to a nationwide survey released Sunday, the Associated Press reports.
The latest figure topped the record of $3.07 set two weeks ago, which had been the highest price since the average cost of a gallon of gas hit $3.03 on Aug. 11, 2006, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country, AP said.
The latest price also beat the previous inflation-adjusted record of $3.15 per gallon in March 1981, AP said

Posted by   at 9:36 AM to Gas prices | Permalink | Comments 2