Recent Gas News/GasBuddy Blog

Wall Street Journal -- Caterpillar Inc. is considering relocating some heavy-equipment overseas production to a new U.S. plant, part of a growing movement among manufacturers to bring more operations back home—a shift that will likely spark fierce competition among states for new manufacturing jobs.
The trend, known as onshoring or reshoring, is gaining momentum as a weak U.S. dollar makes it costlier to import products from overseas. Manufacturers are also counting on White House jobs incentives, as well as their ability to negotiate lower prices from U.S. suppliers who were hurt by the downturn and willing to bargain.
After a decade of rapid globalization, economists say companies are seeing disadvantages of offshore production, including shipping costs, complicated logistics, and quality issues.  (go to article)

Detroit News -- General Motors Co. will keep making big trucks and SUVs because U.S. buyers demand them, but a major portion of them will be gas-electric hybrids in the near future, retiring Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said.

Lutz didn't give details, but said GM must apply hybrid technology to more vehicles in order to meet fuel-economy standards that will rise 40 percent to an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. The cost will likely be spread across GM's lineup, since charging individual buyers for a hybrid system would make vehicles too expensive. GM has seven hybrids in its lineup now.

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Boston Globe -- PORTLAND, Maine — The state’s highest court yesterday upheld a law that aims to hasten the permit process for wind farms in the state.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court unanimously rejected arguments from the Friends of Lincoln Lakes nonprofit group, which challenged the Department of Environmental Protection’s approval of a 40-turbine wind power project on Rollins Mountain in Penobscot County.  (go to article)

FORBES.COM -- IRVING, Texas -- Exxon Mobil Corp. said Friday it is has finalized financing and sales agreements so it can begin developing a liquefied natural gas project in Papua New Guinea.

The company said the development positions it and its partners to meet growing energy demand in developing Asian countries.

The project includes gas production and processing facilities, onshore and offshore pipelines with capacity of 6.6 million tons per year.

Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said its affiliate, Esso Highlands Ltd., will begin work on the project now that the agreements are complete.

The initial phase is estimated to cost $15 billion and deliveries are to begin in 2014. Funding will come from co-venturers and market-rate loans.

The project is expected to produce more  (go to article)

FORBES.COM -- By JAMES MacPHERSON

BISMARCK, N.D. -- Oil companies will be able to tap more than 5 million gallons of Missouri River water daily for drilling operations under a pair of projects announced Friday by North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven.

The state and a water district in McKenzie County will share the cost of a $7 million project that will pipe about 4 million gallons of Missouri River water daily from Williston to a water depot some seven miles away, where it would be sold to oil companies.

A second project, pegged at $150,000, will tap into an existing pipeline near Dodge in Dunn County to provide up to 1.4 million gallons of water daily to the oil industry. The pipeline brings water to Dickinson from Lake Sakakawea, a 180-mile-long reservoir on the Missouri River.
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WCCO -- The rites of spring: the snow melts, the trees bud, and gasoline prices go up. But this year, gas prices are rising while people are cutting back on driving.

So what's the real story behind the jump at the pump?

According to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report, the average gallon of regular unleaded cost $2.75 on the morning of March 11.

Over the past month, gasoline has gone up about 25 cents. But compared to last year at this time, we're paying almost a dollar more. The average  (go to article)

Reuters -- Coming not so soon and probably not to a house near you is the home solar hydrogen refueling station -- Honda Motor Co's latest idea in its drive to make hydrogen the fuel of choice for zero emission cars.

The Japanese auto giant believes hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles offer the best long-term alternative to fossil fuels and the company showed on Friday a refueling breakthrough that it says points to a home version down the road.

Most major automakers have spent billions of dollars in researching hydrogen-powered fuel cells, tempted by the idea of a car that uses no gasoline and emits only water vapor. But Honda is widely seen as the hydrogen leader, while others like General Motors put more effort into battery-powered electric vehicles like the upcoming Volt.  (go to article)

Reuters -- LIBREVILLE, March 12 - Gabon, Africa's seventh largest oil producer, is offering 42 additional offshore deepwater and ultra-deepwater oil blocks for exploration, the government said on Friday.

The West African nation, which currently produces roughly 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day and relies on energy for about half of its gross domestic product, is seeking bids from international firms by May 5, it said.  (go to article)

Technology Review -- Transonic Combustion, a startup based in Camarillo, CA, has developed a fuel-injection system it says can improve the efficiency of gasoline engines by more than 50 percent. A test vehicle equipped with the technology gets 64 miles per gallon in highway driving, which is far better than more costly gas-electric hybrids, such as the Prius, which gets 48 miles per gallon on the highway.
The key is heating and pressurizing gasoline before injecting it into the combustion chamber, says Mike Rocke, Transonic's vice president of business development. This puts it into a supercritical state that allows for very fast and clean combustion, which in turn decreases the amount of fuel needed to propel a vehicle. The company also treats the gasoline with a catalyst that "activates" it, partially oxidiz  (go to article)

Fort Worth Star Telegram -- It's hard to believe it's been two years this month since this column first revealed that speculators were running riot in the oil futures market.  (go to article)

overlawyered.com -- Dating back to 1992 models, LA Times reporters found 56 deaths reported to NHTSA over the course of 19 model-years. If Toyota is suffering from electronic problems, these electronic problems should affect all drivers equally. If Toyota sudden acceleration is caused by driver pedal misapplication, then we should expect to see a disproportionate number of elderly and short drivers. Unfortunately, we don’t have driver heights, and in only 24 of the 56 cases, did the Times list the age of the driver.

The ages: 18, 21, 22*, 32, 34, 44, 45, 47, 56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71**, 72, 72, 77, 79, 83, 85, 89.  (go to article)

Technology Review -- By combining the new cathode with the previously developed silicon anode, the team created a battery with an initial discharge of 630 watt-hours per kilogram of active ingredients. This represents an approximately 80 percent increase in the energy density over commercially available lithium-ion batteries, according to Stanford's Cui, who was a coauthor of a paper describing the work published last month in Nano Letters.  (go to article)

washingtonexaminer.com -- I’ve been driving Toyota Priuses since 2001. As a junior defense lawyer in the mid-90s, I litigated a number of bogus sudden acceleration cases that were brought against General Motors.

So the recent kerfuffle over alleged mysterious electronic problems with the Prius and other Toyotas has certainly caught my attention beyond just throwing my floor mat in the trunk.
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Forbes.com -- "On the very day Toyota was making a high-profile defense of its cars, one of them was speeding out of control," said CBS News--and a vast number of other media outlets worldwide. The driver of a 2008 Toyota Prius, James Sikes, called 911 to say his accelerator was stuck, he was zooming faster than 90 miles per hour and absolutely couldn't slow down.  (go to article)

Solar CalFinder -- Four democratic senators have introduced an initiative urging the Obama administration to suspend a U.S. Treasury grant program formed under the Recovery Act. The program enables renewable energy producers to receive grants in lieu of Investment Tax Credit payments, essentially providing valuable financing up-front rather than over a number of tax years. That program has spawned a revival in investments for clean energy projects in the wake of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and is widely lauded by RE industry members.

However, senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) are concerned that components for these projects are coming from foreign companies. In other words, they believe funds intended to boost  (go to article)

Reuters -- Southern California prosecutors filed the first U.S. consumer protection lawsuit against Toyota Motor Corp on Friday, claiming it had engaged in "fraud" by hiding evidence of dangerous vehicle defects.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said his office along with private attorneys sued the U.S. sales arm of Toyota, charging that the world's top-selling automaker has endangered the public with defective vehicles, and engaged in deceptive business practices.

"Against this backdrop of fraud and concealment, Toyota has for decades touted its reputation for safety and reliability and knew that people bought its vehicles because of that reputation and yet purposefully chose to conceal and suppress the existence and nature of defects," said the 18-page lawsuit filed on Friday.  (go to article)

Reuters -- Toyota Motor Corp may keep aggressive discounts available for U.S. consumers beyond this month after unprecedented incentives sent its U.S. sales sharply higher in early March, an executive said on Friday.

Toyota's U.S. sales surged by 40 percent in the first 10 days of March compared to the year-earlier period after the automaker offered zero-percent financing and other incentives, Don Esmond, senior vice president of Toyota U.S. sales, told Reuters in an interview.

Esmond said Toyota would evaluate March sales results and reaction from dealers and consumers before deciding whether to extend the discounts, which the company called its most "far-reaching sales program in history."  (go to article)

Breitbart -- Oil rose close to 83 dollars a barrel on Friday as the International Energy Agency reported unexpectedly strong growth in world energy demand, led by China.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for April delivery, added 49 cents to 82.60 dollars a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for April gained 48 cents to 80.76 dollars per barrel in midday London trading.

"The continued economic optimism buoyed the oil price above the mark of 82 dollars per barrel," said Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg.  (go to article)

MSNBC -- Predicting the end of oil has proven tricky and often controversial, but Kuwaiti scientists now say that global oil production will peak in 2014.

Their work represents an updated version of the famous Hubbert model, which correctly predicted in 1956 that U.S. oil reserves would peak within 20 years. Many researchers have since tried using the model to predict when worldwide oil production might peak.

Some have said production already peaked. One earlier model by Swedish researchers suggested that oil would peak sometime between 2008 and 2018. And other researchers have argued there are decades to go before oil production goes into irreversible decline. The only thing they all agree on: Oil is a finite and very valuable resource.

 (go to article)

Fox News -- SANTA ANA, Calif. -- The Orange County district attorney has filed a lawsuit against Toyota Motor Corp., accusing the automaker of knowingly selling hundreds of thousands of vehicles with acceleration defects.

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said at a news conference Friday that his office has the right to bring consumer protective action on behalf of Orange County residents.

"We need to make sure that when Toyota says 'Oh, what a feeling' and 'Moving forward' that they are talking about great cars," Rackauckas said, referring to the company's slogans.

Toyota spokesman Mike Michels said he had no comment because the company hasn't been served with the lawsuit.

Orange County's lawsuit accuses Toyota of using deceptive business practices to become the world's top automaker. The suit se  (go to article)

Aol Autos -- Did the driver of a runaway Toyota Prius in San Diego tell the truth when he said his accelerator pedal stuck earlier this week? New evidence is calling the driver's credibility into question, although the real answer will not be entirely clear until Toyota and the NHTSA announce the results of their investigation. Details about the driver, James Sikes, leave many wondering if he had ulterior motives for his claims.
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Philadelphia Inquirer -- Phila.-area gas average up 4 cents in a week

INQUIRER STAFF AND ASSOCIATED PRESS

The average price of gas in the five-county Philadelphia area went up 4 cents since last Friday, to $2.81.

South Jersey's average for a gallon of regular no-lead was up 5 cents, to $2.62.

The U.S. average went up 6 cents, to $2.78.

Diesel is costing 2 cents more in Philadelphia and its closest suburban counties, 4 cents more in South Jersey, and 4 cents more in the United States overall.

Oil prices moved above $82 a barrel after the International Energy Agency brightened its outlook for world demand, predicting that a surge in Asian economic activity would make up for a fall in developed countries.

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PickupTrucks.com -- Chrysler is talking with Cummins to continue development of an all-new light-duty diesel engine for Ram pickup trucks.  (go to article)

GasBuddy Blog -- As much as it stinks to hear, sometimes rising gasoline prices are partially our own fault. The fact that Americans are beginning to spend more shows that the economy is on the mend, and while Americans may be buying more food or clothes, they're also making more trips to the store, the mall, etc. The one product letting them get there is gasoline. We can directly tie increased shopping purchases and retail sales increases to gasoline demand. The more people are purchasing, the more gasoline they're undoubtedly using to get to stores or to the mall.

February's retail sales report showed definite signs of people beginning to open their wallets more for items they want, but that also means they should prepare to pay more at the pump...  (go to article)

NY Times -- Collecting real-time data from cars could save lives....  (go to article)

The Examiner -- The Obama administration’s six-month delay in approving new offshore drilling leases in federal waters will become a new three-year ban, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar quietly told reporters last Friday. Which means that no new oil and gas leases will be approved during President Obama’s term even though two –thirds of the American public supports such activity, according to a December 2009 Rasmussen poll.
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AFP -- South Korean researchers Tuesday launched an environmentally friendly public transport system using a "recharging road" -- with a vehicle sucking power magnetically from buried electric strips.

The Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV), towing three buses, went into service at an amusement park in southern Seoul. If the prototype proves successful, there are plans to try it out on a bus route in the capital.

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The Tribune -- Except for the sound of tires rolling on the ground, the latest generation of Polaris all-terrain vehicles moves almost silently across a snowy field.

Powered by an electric battery instead of a gasoline engine, the new Ranger EV (for electric vehicle) is in sharp contrast to its noisy predecessors, sounding more like an electric golf cart cruising down a fairway. Also missing is the exhaust generated by a gas engine.

The midsize, two-seat vehicle is aimed at a green audience that likes quiet as well as a rechargeable energy source. It has the longest range and largest battery pack of any midsize ATV in production today.

Whether it will convert critics who contend that all-terrain vehicles can be disruptive to the environment is up in the air.  (go to article)

LiveScience -- Predicting the end of oil has proven tricky and often controversial, but Kuwaiti scientists now say that global oil production will peak in 2014.

Their work represents an updated version of the famous Hubbert model, which correctly predicted in 1956 that U.S. oil reserves would peak within 20 years. Many researchers have since tried using the model to predict when worldwide oil production might peak.

Some have said production already peaked. One earlier model by Swedish researchers suggested that oil would peak sometime between 2008 and 2018. And other researchers have argued there are decades to go before oil production goes into irreversible decline. The only thing they all agree on: Oil is a finite and very valuable resource.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose toward $83 a barrel in New York, poised for a second weekly gain, as the dollar weakened and the IEA bolstered its outlook for oil demand.

The International Energy Agency raised its forecast for global oil demand this year for a second month as consumption in Asia rises more than expected. The dollar weakened, raising the appeal of crude for hedging inflation, and European stocks rose, extending the Stoxx Europe 600 Index’s second weekly advance.

“Oil is being helped by a weaker dollar and a somewhat friendlier equity market,” said Eugen Weinberg, analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. “But the gains aren’t going to last. Demand from refineries is still very low and prices are way too high for demand to recover strongly.”

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Detroit Free Press -- The congressional panel overseeing federal bailout recipients estimates GMAC will never repay at least $6.3 billion of $17.2 billion in taxpayer aid and called on the Treasury Department to demand GMAC take drastic steps -- including a possible bankruptcy for its troubled ResCap mortgage lending business.

The panel, chaired by Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, also urged Treasury to give taxpayers more frequent and detailed information about GMAC's condition, demand a business plan from GMAC and consider merging the lender with its former parent GM.

As part of the bankruptcy restructurings of GM and Chrysler, Treasury wiped out the companies' common stock and, in Chrysler's case, forced bondholders to take about 29 cents on the dollar for the company's debt.  (go to article)

Domestic Fuel -- When discussing indirect land use it brings a popular saying to mind: If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound? Only in this situation the saying should be modified as follows: If a tree is cut down in a rainforest in Brazil to sell wood, should corn ethanol’s carbon footprint go up? Anyone with an ounce of commonsense would say no.  (go to article)

Central Valley Business Times -- Gasoline prices have increased for the third week in a row in California, according to two price surveys Friday.

“Prices are typically on the upswing at this time of year because demand is usually picking up from the slower winter months, and because refineries are beginning the switchover to producing the more-expensive ‘summer blend’ of gasoline that must be sold by all gas stations beginning April 1 to satisfy state air quality requirements,” Jeffrey Spring, a spokesman for the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Here are Central Valley market averages on March 12, driving from south to north, as reported by the American Automobile Association with last week’s (March 5) averages in parentheses and [Feb. 26] prices in brackets:  (go to article)

The Wall Street Journal -- Exxon Mobil Corp. said it would expand its oil and natural gas production this year, a notable feat for any large Western oil company. But analysts are growing concerned that much of the new production will be under conditions that could mean smaller returns than in the past.

The Irving, Texas-based energy giant said Thursday its production of oil and gas should expand by between 3% and 4% this year, equaling the company's best performance since a giant merger a decade ago. The expansion doesn't include Exxon's pending acquisition of U.S. natural-gas firm XTO Energy Inc., which could boost growth to between 9% and 10% if the deal closes as expected by mid-year.  (go to article)

The Detroit News -- Diesel power has reached a new mark for heavy-duty pickup trucks.

The all-new 6.6-liter Duramax diesel engine will deliver 397 horsepower and 765 pound-feet of torque, GMC officials said Wednesday when they took the wraps off of the 2011 Sierra Denali HD pickup at the National Truck Equipment Association Convention in St. Louis.

The pickup sibling of the heavy-duty Chevrolet Silverado, which was unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show, will include the strongest diesel engine being offered by any major automaker.

Ford Motor Co. recently announced its all-new 6.7-liter V-8 diesel engine, which produces 385 horsepower and 735 pound-feet of torque. The 2010 Dodge Ram Heavy-Duty offers a 6.7-liter I-6 Cummins diesel engine that creates 350 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque.  (go to article)

Baltimore Sun --


Energy By Ronald D. White
Tribune Newspapers
March 12, 2010
E-mail Print Share Text Size bal-bz.refineries11mar12

Some of the nation's biggest oil companies are looking at permanently reducing how much gasoline and diesel fuel they make, a move that analysts say would almost certainly trigger higher  (go to article)

CBC News -- Members of Parliament grilled Transport Canada officials Thursday about what they knew about safety problems with Toyota vehicles — and when they knew it.
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But many MPs were not satisfied with the responses, saying they want to put the spotlight on Toyota officials themselves next week.
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Transport Canada has received 17 complaints about Toyota cars involving a number of issues over the past three years.
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The transport committee meeting was told Transport Canada had received a total of 17 complaints about Toyota cars involving a number of issues in the past three years, but none involving sticky pedals until Toyota informed the department it had received five.  (go to article)

Earth Techling -- We all know that automakers are feverishly developing hybrid vehicles in an attempt to reduce our dependency on gasoline. But as long as gasoline is available and petrol-based cars remain prolific, that gasoline is going to be used despite all our efforts to wean ourselves from it. So, why not devise a more efficient method of consuming it? Transonic Combustion, a fuel efficiency startup company located in Camarillo, CA, submits an answer to that logical inquiry in the form of a fuel injection system that the company claims will improve gasoline efficiency by 50 percent when it is implemented in production cars by 2014.
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Bloomberg -- Valero Energy Corp. plans to build a 100,000-barrel-a-day pipeline between its refinery near Quebec City and a fuel storage site on the island of Montreal, the company said.

The line will help the refinery meet fuel needs in the Montreal market, according to Louis Forget, a company spokesman. Construction will probably begin in the late summer or early fall, he said. Valero ships 45,000 to 50,000 barrels a day of fuels from its Quebec refinery by train and vessel to Montreal. The company also imports some fuels to meet demand, said Forget.

The planned pipeline could be expanded to transport 170,000 barrels a day of gasoline and distillate fuels with additional pumps, Forget said. There are no plans to expand the 265,000- barrel-a-day refinery, he said.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Ayman Asfari, the chief executive officer whose oil and gas engineering skills guided a fourfold increase in the value of Petrofac Plc within five years, is now preparing to tap Iraq’s energy boom.

Iraq, with estimated reserves of 115 billion barrels of oil, the world’s third-largest, is set to ramp up production as companies including BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. spend as much as $100 billion to develop fields awarded in contracts last year. A good chunk of that will go to contractors including Petrofac and larger U.S. rivals Baker Hughes Inc. and Halliburton Co.  (go to article)

The Toronto Star -- NEW YORK, N.Y.—Following a brief pullback the previous day, oil prices jumped Wednesday after a U.S. government report showed that crude stockpiles grew less than analysts had predicted, raising hopes that demand for oil and gas is picking up.

Oil also got a boost from China, which reported surging trade figures — and from OPEC, which bumped up its global oil demand forecast for the year.

Benchmark crude for April delivery rose as high as US$83.03 a barrel in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, before moving back to $82.08, up 59 cents.  (go to article)

CNet.com -- View the slideshow..

BOSTON--The MIT Energy Conference, now in its fifth year, is the place to show off energy inventions and discuss how to tackle big-picture energy challenges.  (go to article)

Detroit Free Press -- WASHINGTON – The chief U.S. auto safety regulator told Congress today that regulators had done their jobs in pressuring Toyota to recall 5.6 million vehicles in the United States for problems linked to sudden acceleration.

David Strickland, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, also said he will consider a bevy of new rules in the wake of the Toyota recalls, but that he has enough resources at the moment to watch the industry.

Federal officials have said NHTSA had to press Toyota into its recalls, including a December visit by acting administrator Ron Medford to Toyota's headquarters. But several lawmakers have questioned why NHTSA did not order recalls earlier, despite thousands of complaints and eight probes involving sudden acceleration dating back  (go to article)

CNN -- John D. Rockefeller figured out a long time ago that the most efficient way to transport liquid fuels long distances wasn't on wheels but in pipelines. Today POET, the privately held Sioux Falls, S.D., company that is the country's largest producer of ethanol, and Tulsa pipeline-builder Magellan Midstream Partners are poised to make the same leap.

They want to build a $4 billion ethanol pipeline -- the first in the U.S. and the longest in the world -- linking cornfields and refineries in the upper Midwest to fuel-hungry markets on the East Coast, while boosting transport efficiency (equivalent to reducing the carbon footprint) 30% compared with rail and nearly 90% compared with trucks.

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news.bbc.co.uk -- China's demand for oil jumped by an "astonishing" 28% in January compared with the same month a year earlier, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says.

The body added that demand for oil in 2010 would be underpinned by rising demand from emerging markets, with half of all growth coming from Asia.

But the IEA predicted demand in developed countries would fall by 0.3%.  (go to article)

Energy -- Ethanol is taking a bite out of crude oil, this according to a recent OPEC report. An article published in The National, says that rising ethanol use in the United States is dampening demand for petroleum based fuels and this will be felt even more during the next few months.

Next week, OPEC ministers are getting ready to meet in Vienna, and last month OPEC participated in a preliminary report that estimates that $500 billion a year could be spent yer year on fossil-fuel based subsidies. In its latest monthly oil market report issued two days ago, the organization’s secretariat drew attention to an eight-fold increase in U.S. ethanol consumption since 2000. This use should grow as the E15 waiver, which allows consumers the choice to use up to 15 percent ethanol in conventional cars is e  (go to article)

Bloomberg.com -- Toyota Motor Corp. set a 2010 goal of regaining most of the U.S. market share lost in the past two months after global recalls of 8 million vehicles damped demand, the No. 2 U.S. sales executive said.

The target would be as much as 16.7 percent of new-car deliveries, said Don Esmond, senior vice president of Toyota’s U.S. sales unit. That would be the same level as in 2008, and less than 2009’s 17 percent, when Toyota trailed only General Motors Co., according to industry researcher Autodata Corp.

Esmond’s plan would require a rebound from Toyota’s U.S. share of 13.4 percent through February. With inventory replenished after the recalls, he said, no-interest loans and lease discounts helped boost sales through the first 10 days of March by about 40 percent over a year earlier.
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By Chidem Kurdas Guest blogger / March 10, 2010 -- The word “speculator” sounds derogatory, but it has a neutral, technical meaning. In commodity futures exchanges – the oldest and best established derivatives markets – a speculator is a trader who is neither a producer nor a user of the commodity in question. Commodity producers and consumers protect themselves against price fluctuations with futures contracts that specify delivery at a certain price and date.

By contrast, speculators trade the contracts as an activity in itself. They typically do not deliver or take delivery of the physical commodity. These specialized middlemen mediate between future buyers and sellers, playing an essential role in meeting the needs of both sides.

Futures markets work smoothly and effectively because there is a large number of so-called “speculato  (go to article)

The Detroit News -- Congress plans to toughen fines against automakers for safety breeches, and give government regulators more money and authority to speed recalls.

Congress also may require vehicle electronic data recorders -- so-called "black boxes" -- as well as brake override systems to help motorists stop runaway vehicles, and bar former government regulators from taking jobs with automakers for at least two years.

The proposed overhaul of auto safety laws, the biggest in more than a decade, was triggered by what critics call plodding action by Toyota Motor Corp. and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the worldwide recall of 8.5 million vehicles for sudden acceleration concerns.

NHTSA had eight separate investigations into sudden acceleration since 2000.  (go to article)

Bloomberg.com -- Crude oil traded above $82 a barrel in New York, poised for a second weekly gain, on optimism fuel demand will recover as China’s economic expansion accelerates.

Oil was little changed amid expectations the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will increase shipments this month on strong demand from China, the world’s second-biggest energy user. China’s inflation last month outstripped returns on household savings, threatening to spur asset purchases.

“China is going to continue to grow strongly, but it’s not going to be at a rampant pace,” said Ben Westmore, a minerals and energy economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. in Melbourne. “The oil market is sitting and waiting to see what happens at the moment.”

Crude oil for April delivery was at $82.17 a barrel, up 6 cents,  (go to article)

Detroit News -- Ford Motor Co. will unveil the new Ford Police Interceptor today -- the replacement for the venerable Crown Victoria that has been the backbone of the nation's law enforcement fleets since the early 1990s.

As The Detroit News first reported last year, the new model will be based on the same platform as the new Ford Taurus. However, it will be built for law enforcement work and incorporate several modifications to meet the needs of police officers  (go to article)