E.On has argued that, during the coldest days of winter, so little wind blows that 92 per cent of installed wind capacity would have to be backed up by traditional power stations.

High prices — a barrel reached almost $150 last month — are fueling the province's oil boom. Since it's costly to extract oil from the sands, using the process on a widespread basis began to make sense only when crude prices started skyrocketing a few years ago.

Several ethanol companies like Cosan and Louis Dreyfus signed deals to produce and export verified sustainable ethanol in the last couple of months to address consumers' concerns over the impact of ethanol which powers almost all the country's new cars.

The Department of Energy estimates that thirteen million tons of greenhouse gases were avoided in 2007 due to biofuels production and use. Scientists there found that corn ethanol from the U.S. reduced gas emissions nineteen percent compared with gasoline, when the full "life cycle" of the fuel is considered – that is, from growing it, to producing the fuel, to burning it.

This enduring notion — that the world can have its coal and climate, too, by pumping the carbon dioxide from combustion into the earth — has been promoted by institutions including Peabody Energy, the world’s biggest coal company (see its coal-sales ticker here), and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Driven by sharply rising shale gas volumes, U.S. production of natural gas is on track to rise by more than 6 per cent this year. In a jointly funded report, the gas distributors say North American production is now expected to increase 16 per cent by 2015, and 30 per cent by 2030. The prospect of booming production has triggered a dramatic selloff in natural gas futures, bringing prices 40 per cent below their July peak.

For over a year, one of the main themes in currency and commodity markets has been to short -- or sell -- the dollar as U.S. economic health looked suspect, and go long -- or buy -- oil as an insurance against inflation and uncertainties in raw materials supply.

[...] Mad Max 2, the 1981 movie starring Mel Gibson, was based on a post-apocalyptic vision of a world with little oil. At the start the narrator described how a world based on oil usage had gone to war and collapsed. The film itself is centered on a besieged community, living by an oil well, surrounded by murderous renegades. The scenario, written by George Miller, was conceived in response to the oil crisis of the mid-1970s.

This summer's misery for energy consumers reached a climax yesterday when the last two of the big six suppliers raised prices for millions of household customers.

The carrier has sought court protection from its creditors, effectively declaring itself insolvent.

As U.S. gasoline prices burst above $4 a gallon this summer, U.S. gasoline demand staged its biggest drop in more than a quarter of a century.

ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell.

...Due to the oil embargo of the 1970s, a number of countries have plans to mitigate the impact of an oil supply disruption. Some have their own strategic reserves to protect against short-term oil shortages. The International Energy Agency, a membership organization to address energy issues, also coordinates national reserves (PDF) among twenty-seven member countries including the United States to share oil reserves during emergencies. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a number of countries supplied oil products to the United States; even though United States has a massive strategic supply of crude, the storm knocked out a significant portion of the country's refining capacity.

The report notes that oil production in the rig-dotted Gulf, which has been seen as America's best hope for greater energy self-sufficiency, will be increasingly threatened by severe storms that continue to grow in frequency and strength in the region.

The Anglo-Canadian airline, which employed 600 people, said yesterday that it would declare itself insolvent, blaming high fuel costs for its losses.