OSLO (Reuters 23 Jun 2008) - The world needs a shift as radical as the Industrial Revolution to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 while safeguarding economic growth, the McKinsey Global Institute said on Thursday.It said in a study that a modern “carbon revolution” to curb global warming would require a tenfold rise by 2050 in the level of economic output for every tonne of greenhouse gases emitted, mainly by burning fossil fuels.

“This is comparable in magnitude to the labor productivity increases of the Industrial Revolution,” a 48-page report said. The institute is the economic research arm of consultants McKinsey & Co.

It estimated that the world needed to produce $7,300 of gross domestic product (GDP) for every tonne of carbon dioxide emitted by 2050, up from a carbon productivity rate of $740 now.

“Increasing carbon productivity tenfold in less than 50 years will be one of the greatest tests humankind has ever faced. But both history and economics give us confidence it can be done,” it said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters Jun 25, 2008) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the record $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp had been ordered to pay for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska.

The nation’s highest court ruled that the punitive damages should be limited to an amount equal to the total relevant compensatory damages of $507.5 million.

By a 5-3 vote, the justices overturned a ruling by a U.S. Court of Appeals that had awarded the record punitive damages to about 32,000 commercial fishermen, Alaska natives, property owners and others harmed by the nation’s worst tanker spill.

The Exxon Valdez supertanker ran aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in March 1989, spilling about 11 million gallons of crude oil. The spill spread oil to more than 1,200 miles of coastline, closed fisheries and killed thousands of marine mammals and hundreds of thousands of sea birds.

A federal jury in Alaska awarded $5 billion in punitive damages in 1994. A federal judge later reduced the punitive damages to $4.5 billion, and the appeals court further cut it to $2.5 billion.

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BRUSSELS (Reuters Jun 24, 2008) - Biofuels are responsible for 30 percent of the increase in global food prices, pushing 30 million people worldwide into poverty, aid agency Oxfam said in a report on Wednesday.

Oxfam called on rich countries to dismantle subsidies for biofuels and reduce import tariffs.

“Rich countries spent up to $15 billion last year supporting biofuels while blocking cheaper Brazilian ethanol, which is far less damaging for global food security,” the report said.

The aid agency also urged rich countries to scrap biofuels targets, including European Union plans to get 10 percent of its transport fuel from renewable sources like biofuels by 2020.

Oxfam estimates that by 2020, CO2 emissions from land-use change in the palm oil sector may have reached over 3.1 billion tonnes, largely as a result of the EU target — and it would take over 46 years of biofuel use at 2020 levels to repay this “carbon debt”.

“Biofuels are taking over agricultural land and forcing farming to expand into lands that are important carbon sinks, like forests and wetlands,” the report said. “This triggers the release of carbon from soil and vegetation that will take decades to repay.”

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters Jun 19, 2008  ) - U.S. motorists are risking rampant drug violence in Mexico to drive over the border and fill their tanks with cheap Mexican fuel, some even coming to blows over gas shortages and long queues.

The gap between Mexico’s subsidized gasoline and record U.S. prices has made it well worth making the trip, and U.S. drivers are even shrugging off the dangers of Mexico’s drug war which sees almost daily shootings in border towns.

Some say they can save up to $100 a month by filling up every two weeks in Mexico. The extra demand is causing shortages at hundreds of Mexico’s border gas stations, some of which are starting to ration fuel.

“It’s worth taking the risk even with the violence,” said a retired California engineer named Terry, who declined to give his surname, as he filled his red Ford pick-up truck in Tijuana, over the border from San Diego. “I know they could kill me or kidnap me, but the cost of filling my tank in the United States is just too much,” he said.

Mexico’s subsidized gasoline — around $1.40 cheaper per gallon than in the United States — is a huge draw as average U.S. pump prices hit an unprecedented $4 a gallon ($1.06 a liter). In West Coast cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, prices are over $4.50 a gallon.

Savings on diesel in Mexico are even greater. A gallon of diesel in southern Arizona cost $4.64 this week, compared to around $2.25 in Mexican border towns.

NEW YORK (Reuters Mon Jun 9, 2008) - By the time U.S. airlines are done cutting capacity and shrinking to survive record fuel costs, the U.S. commercial airline network will look a lot leaner and, for some consumers, a lot meaner.

Travelers flying between two noncompetitive markets over 1,500 air miles now pay at least $340 round-trip more than they did last December, according to Tom Parsons, chief executive of Bestfares.com, an Internet travel Web site.

Lehman Brothers analyst Gary Chase said the U.S. airline industry is undertaking a restructuring twice as large as it did in the years following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

In a recent note, Chase wrote that he expects the airline industry will need to raise almost $3 billion in new equity over the next 12 to 18 months to shore up liquidity.

“Most of them feel they have enough cash to get through the year but if fuel continues to climb and doesn’t let up, even the major carriers at some point could run out of cash.”

TOKYO (Fri Jun 6, 2008) - World governments must quickly start a $45 trillion “energy technology revolution” that could drive up the cost of producing carbon ten-fold, or risk emissions surging by 2050, the West’s energy watchdog warned on Friday.

The world would need to build dozens of nuclear power plants a year and bury carbon emitted from dozens more gas and coal plants, plus cutting the carbon intensity of cars, trucks, buses and planes eightfold, to halve emissions by mid-century, the International Energy Agency said in a new report.

Without taking action on government policy, emissions would surge by 130 percent and oil demand would rise by 70 percent by 2050, the IEA said, far beyond the level that many experts believe the world is capable of sustainably producing.

“There should be no doubt — meeting the target of a 50 percent cut in emissions represents a formidable target. We would require immediate policy action and technological transition on an unprecedented scale,” Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the IEA, said in a statement.

“It will essentially require a new global energy revolution which would completely transform the way we produce and use energy… We need to act now.”

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Wilmington, Delaware (Reuters Jun 3, 2008) General Motors Corp on Tuesday said it was closing four North American truck plants and could sell its Hummer brand to cut slow-selling trucks and SUVs from its lineup in response to higher gasoline prices the automaker now sees as a permanent threat to its business.

GM shares, which have lost almost 60 percent since their peak in October last year, were up about 2 percent at $17.79 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Wagoner said GM, which has lost a combined $51 billion over the past three years, was not ready to detail a timeline for returning to profitability.

“This is total capitulation by GM management to the price of oil,” said Ghriskey, who does not currently own GM shares but has in the past and follows the stock closely. “GM believes that the high price of oil is permanent and therefore they are making dramatic cuts in their low-mileage vehicles.”

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NEW YORK (Reuters Jun 2, 2008) - A surge in the price of crude is threatening global growth for the first time in decades and spurring a desperate surge in interest in energy alternatives and new technology to keep conventional oil flowing.

How companies and governments navigate the treacherous energy landscape — which some analysts liken to that of the 1970s and 1980s — will shape the future of the global economy and potentially tilt the geopolitical balance, experts said.

High prices are hitting motorists at the pumps, hobbling energy-intensive industries like airlines and freight and feeding broader inflation including prices hikes for food that have led to protests and even in extreme cases riots around the world.

“The oil price is unsustainable. I think we’ve reached the point now where we’re starting to see significant responses from consumers,” said Jim Hamilton, professor at the University of California in San Diego.

The silver lining could be in how the world fights back. Whereas in the 70s, governments looked mainly to conservation as a way to ease price woes, this era is looking to increased investment in alternative energies and better oil field technology to reach more resources.

Energy analyst and oil historian Daniel Yergin said earlier this month that record U.S. crude oil prices have reached a “break point” that will spur a shift away from an oil-centric transportation sector toward alternatives.

In the meantime continued price hikes are darkening the clouds on the global economic horizon. Energy experts said a continued rise could worsen an economic slowdown in Europe and the United States, already hit by a housing slump and credit crisis and potentially trigger a decisive recession.

“We’ll see growth slow globally,” said Jay Bryson, global economist at Wachovia Bank. “But the big losers are the oil importers of the world, including (South) Korea, Japan, China and a lot of other Asian economies in general.”  Russia and the big oil exporters of the Middle East have the most to gain, analysts said.

“The victory is not only economic but political as well. The ability to control where exports go and where they don’t go transforms into political power.”

LONDON (Reuters Mon Jun 2, 2008) - An “energy revolution” to cut demand is necessary to combat the world’s third energy crisis in 35 years, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Monday.

IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said the current oil price shock was unique because demand has remained robust despite prices climbing to $135 a barrel two weeks ago.

In contrast, global consumption fell after the 1973 Arab oil embargo and the Iranian revolution of 1979 as countries turned to more energy efficient transportation and power plants.

“We are in a third energy crisis,” he said during the Reuters Energy Summit.

“Our response should be an energy revolution. We have to change dramatically the demand side by efficiency and new technologies.”

ZED Comment: The hydrogen fueled external combustion ZED engine is the only  inexpensive and easily adapted zero emissions engine which can be scaled from train locomotive to car or lawn mower, with performance which meets or exceeds gasoline engines in all applications.  As a global solution to the current economic and environmental crisis brought on by petroleum, ZED engines can be produced by virtually any manufacturer in the world with a minimal change in re-tooling, foundry and assembly. for more information contact corpcomm@zedpower.com