Yikes!! A report from the Government Accountability Office says that Peak Oil is coming sometime between now and 2040, and we are not prepared.

President Jed, no make that, Congressman Roscoe Bartlett from Western Maryland says the phenomenon called “peak oil” is inevitable, and he’s calling for strong leadership to develop alternatives before it’s too late.

Says Matthew Simmons, Author of Twilight in the Desert,

“We are on the verge of actually replacing global warming by this term peak oil. We have demand roaring ahead and supply is faltering.”

Sounds like a problem all right. 2040 is right around the corner.

Two meetings within six months! This time Bush praised automakers for promoting alternative fuels. Detroit is committed to making half their new vehicles flex-fuel capable by 2012.

This was a slight change from their earlier pledge in Nov ’06, when it had a condition that more pumps and filling stations capable of handling alternative fuels must be made available.

Woo-hoo! Go 20 in 10 plan (20% reduced gasoline consumption in 10 years)!

“We are absolutely on the edge of being able to move into a new era with flex-fuel, a lot of developments in batteries and hybrids,” GM Chairman Rick Wagoner told reporters on the White House’s south lawn. “We ought to stick with that and play it hard. This is a real opportunity.”

But that thing about more stations having alternative fuels available sounds big to us. If there is nothing but gasoline, what would you put into the gas tank?

Hostage situation critical.

Traders are pushing up prices in anticipation of increasing tension in Iran possibly causing disruption in Iranian oil supply. Oil is up 8% in the last week.

‘Iran is going to try and extract as much as it can from this,’ noted Fimat analyst, Mike Fitzpatrick. ‘Accordingly, don’t look for the hostages to be released any time soon. If this is the card they hope to use as leverage with the Security Council, oil prices could move even higher as a result.’

That’s a very large bargaining chip Iran has.

Following up on Dubya’s call for a reduction in gasoline consumption, Secretary Samuel Bodwin and Administrator Stephen Johnson sent a proposal to the Powers That Be on the House Committee on Energy & Commerce.

They’re looking for a big requirement of 35 billion gal. of the other white meat by 2017. In 2005, the Renewable Energy Program goal was 7.5 billion gal of alternative by 2012.

I guess that will reduce some of the imported stuff!

The Chicago Merc will add to its weather products trading in hurricane futures/options on March 12, just in time for this year’s hurricane season. Another tool for traders to hedge weather that affects biz or economy.

Like the temperature contracts, “the new hurricane contracts will be just as important to commodity markets impacted by these tropical storms,” said Ben Smith, president of First Enercast Financial, which offers weather risk-management services.
“There are numerous forecasters releasing hurricane predictions based off scientific data and studies,” he explained. “The price discovery this hurricane market will produce will help provide a consensus hurricane forecast.”
And that, in turn, will “allow other markets, such as energy, to better assess the risks associated with these devastating storms,” he said.

The underlying indexes will be calculated by Carvill and the Carvill Hurricane Index

The hurricane contracts cover 5 regions and once a hurricane hits land in any one of the five points, the contracts will settle within 2 business days and expire.