A recent increase in U.S. inflation is driven primarily by rising commodity prices globally, and is unlikely to persist, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Monday. The comments stood in sharp contrast to a string of U.S. central bank officials, some of whom have argued the time is coming for the Fed to begin tightening monetary policy. Earlier...
Two important announcements involving renewable energy made on the opening day of U.S. President Barack Obama’s official visit to Brazil, both directly relevant to Brazil’s successful sugarcane ethanol industry, are encouraging signs that Brazil and the U.S. are on a path to achieve free, unobstructed trade for clean, renewable biofuels....
Stocks rose on Friday, led by gains in energy shares after Japan’s biggest earthquake on record hurt the country’s oil refining capacity, but trade was choppy as investors tried to weigh the quake’s economic impact. The 8.9 magnitude quake that struck the northeast coast of Japan, the world’s third largest economy, triggered...
The trading pattern of the prices of stocks and crude oil looks worryingly like it did just before the last recession. Oil and equity prices rise and fall more or less in tandem when demand and economic growth expectations dictate prices. But the short-term relationship has been turned on its head in recent weeks with investors worried that political...
W2 Energy, Inc., a clean energy company is pleased to announce that as of March 1, it has converted the SunFilter 1 algae reactor to use Euglena Gracilis, a more efficient strain of algae. The Euglena Gracilis strain of algae grows in fresh water rather than saltwater, and can sequester 40% of the carbon dioxide dissolved in the water. The previously...
Surging oil prices are deepening a split inside the Federal Reserve, blurring the likely direction of U.S. monetary policy and making next week’s policy meeting all the more contentious. The sharp rise in energy costs, precipitated by a wave of pro-democracy uprisings across the Arab world, could affect the economy in different ways, by retarding...
John Hanger, immediate past secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, former member of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, and nationally-recognized expert on energy, the economy, and the environment, issued a statement today on his blog about the documentary “Gasland,” nominated for an Academy Award to be awarded...
Viridian Energy, a leading provider of affordable, green retail energy, today announced the launch of its services in New York City and the surrounding area. Viridian’s NYC launch is the most recent expansion in the company’s rapid growth and development, which includes ten markets in five states in just 17 months. Entrance into the nation’s single...
The U.S. electric utility industry faces an “unprecedented convergence of new federal environmental rules – unprecedented in scope of change and compression of deadlines,” Progress Energy Chairman, President and CEO Bill Johnson told utility regulators Monday in Washington. And the “current fragmented approach, coupled with rapid-compliance...
Stocks were headed for their best week in nine on Friday as the market defied calls for a pullback despite signs of rotation into defensive and lagging sectors that could intensify in coming weeks. Signs of improvement in the economy and strong corporate earnings have propelled stock prices but tapering volume, meager gains and declining numbers of...