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Spanish Truckers Block Border with France

Idle trucks trucks at the La Jonquera border crossing between France and Spainin Girona, Spain, during a protest against rising fuel costs.

MADRID — Gasoline at $4 a gallon? If that was America’s nightmare at the weekend as fuel prices reached a record national average, pity poor Europe, where the price of oil and taxes levied at the pump combine to push prices to about double the United States’ level.

In the latest show of distress, Spanish truckers Monday began a blockade of their country’s border with France, lining up their rigs and slowing them to a crawl to protest the cost of diesel fuel, according to The New York Times.

The strike blocked the highway in both directions in southwestern France. The protest turned ugly when would-be strike-breakers in Spain found their windshields and headlights smashed and their tires slashed.

But the Spanish drivers were not the only ones feeling the pinch. French drivers slowed traffic near Bordeaux to demand lower fuel prices, offering a foretaste of a planned national strike by truckers next Monday. Portuguese drivers blocked roads and in Belgium thousands of labor union members demonstrated in Liege to protest the rising cost of living as a result of fuel costs.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 1:43 PM to Fuel prices | Permalink | Comments 0

Saudi seeks meeting to tackle high oil prices

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia will call for a summit between oil producing countries and consumer states to discuss soaring energy prices, Information and Culture Minister Iyad Madani said Monday, according to the Associated Press.

The kingdom will also work with OPEC to "guarantee the availability of oil supplies now and in the future," the minister said following the weekly Cabinet meeting, held in the seaport city of Jiddah.

The Saudi announcement comes just three days after the biggest single-day price leap ever, when oil surged more than $11 to surpass $139 per barrel.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 1:38 PM to Crude oil market | Permalink | Comments 0

Backseat Driver: Gas prices don't hit as hard here as some other states

If you think $4.15 or so a gallon is expensive, try crossing the border into Connecticut where the price of regular was around $4.35 a gallon this weekend when I was down in Mystic.

And with the way crude oil prices are going, can $5.00 a gallon be far away? I don't think so, not with crude prices seen at $150 a barrel by July 4th, according to Goldman Sachs.

How symbolic is that? All the guff talked about energy independence over the decades and nothing done about it apart from filling salt domes with crude oil.

Why? because no president has had the desire or the vision or the courage to push through energy saving measures like imposing higher taxes, as was done in Europe after the run-up in oil prices in the early 1980s. Gas prices in Europe may be double those of the United States, but nobody is driving a hogmobile.

Instead U.S. politicians kowtowed to consumers who didn't want to pay more at the pump and to the auto companies who wanted to continue feeding at the trough of profits from gas-guzzling SUVs.

Well, here we are about to celebrate Independence Day with crude oil prices possibly at $150 a barrel. Maybe even more.

Looking on the bright side, Rhode Island is a small state, so we don't have to travel that far to go to work or to the beach.

By contrast, big rural states, especially in the south and stretching up thorugh the Plain States, are distinguished by rural poverty and big distances which are often driven in old, clapped-out cars and trucks that are hopeless gas guzzlers. For the most part, public transportation is not available, or indeed feasible.

By contrast, we in the Northeast may be least affected because we "make more money and drive shorter distances, or ... take a bus or train to work," according to The New York Times.

As a result, a much higher percentage of the rural's poor's household budget goes to gasoline compared to the average household in more densely populated regions, the Times said.

So spare a thought for those who are a lot worse affected by the high gas prices than we are here in Rhode Island.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 12:22 PM to Gas prices | Permalink | Comments 0

Nissan announces 'clean diesel' SUV and Maxima

TOKYO — Nissan said Monday that it plans to launch a "clean diesel" SUV in Japan this fall and plans to introduce a clean-diesel version of its popular Nissan Maxima passenger car in the USA in 2010, according to USA Today.

The automaker said it will send a prototype of its X-TRAIL SUV to next month's Group of Eight leaders' summit in Toyako, in northern Japan, where climate change tops the agenda.Delegates will be able to test drive the diesel sport-utility vehicle, which is based on technology developed with French partner Renault.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:27 AM to Clean diesel | Permalink | Comments 0

Oil prices fall; traders see choppy market ahead

Oil prices fell Monday, retreating from a record surge late last week, and traders said the market would remain choppy amid jitters about supplies, growing global demand and a weak U.S. dollar, according to the Associated Press.

The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States hit $4 for the first time ever Sunday, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Record prices threaten to shake consumers who are spending and increasingly large share of paychecks on transportation.

By the afternoon in Europe, light, sweet crude for July delivery was down $1.99 to $135.55 a barrel. The contract was volatile, trading between $135.27 and $138.25 so far in the session.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:23 AM to Crude oil market | Permalink | Comments 0

Tasca out in first round at Route 66 Raceway, still ranked 10th

JOLIET, Ill. – Despite an exit in the first round at Route 66 Raceway, Bob Tasca III maintained his spot at 10th in NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series points. Tasca shook the tires against Cruz Pedregon in the duo’s first meeting in the first round of eliminations on Sunday,according to his publicist Alexis Kinch.

“We were a little bit too aggressive,” said the driver of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane/Custom Accessories Shelby Mustang. “I felt it shake, and I pedaled it. I think I did a pretty good job trying to get it to recover. It recovered and it started to charge, and then it knocked the tires off again. When that happens, you’re looking out at the driver in the left lane and you’re hoping he smokes the tires. Unfortunately for us, Cruz went A to B, didn’t spin the tires, and we lost.

"I had a good reaction time [0.030], and I felt very comfortable in the car,” said Tasca. “I’m very pleased with how we performed through qualifying. We missed a couple of the night sessions because we had some set-up issues. But for us, it’s not about staying the same; it’s about getting better. And sometimes you have to take one step back to make a full step forward. We’re not just going to send this car down the track and not try to improve it. And in order to do that, you need to try things. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t.”

Tasca was able to maintain his spot in the championship after Ashley Force defeated Gary Scelzi, who sits 11th in points, in the second round of eliminations.

“This championship deal will go to Indy,” said Tasca. “I truly believe that the top 10 won’t be decided on before that. That’s what keeps us going at all of these races, because we know that we have a racecar that can race solidly into the top 10. But even being sixth or seventh right now, you’re not safe. You’ve got to go rounds and you’ve got to qualify well to give yourself that chance. We’re looking forward to a weekend off, we’ve been running hard here for a month. Literally it’s been every weekend between building cars and racing, so we’ll recharge our batteries and come home ready to race in Englishtown.”

The series has next week off before heading to Englishtown, N.J. for the 39th annual Lucas Oil Supernationals June 19-22. The hometown race for the Rhode Island resident will be the 11th race of the 24-race Funny Car schedule.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:19 AM to Racing | Permalink | Comments 0