A plastic bag tumbles down Main Street U.S.A., lifted by a gust of Florida wind. For a moment it floats almost gracefully, hovering past strollers and churro carts like an accidental extra in Mary Poppins. Then it drops to the pavement. Within minutes, it disappears. Not by magic. Beneath the Magic Kingdom lies one of […]
“Got you at last, you wascally wabbit.” Elmer Fudd leveled the shotgun confidently at the rabbit hole. This time, he was sure. The tunnels had been mapped. The exits blocked. Financial pressure applied. Short sellers deployed. The economy in disarray. Carbon in retreat. The rabbit, surely, had nowhere left to go. Then two Bugs Bunnys […]
It was upon a damp and windless evening in late autumn that I found Sherlock Holmes stretched languidly upon the settee at Baker Street, his long fingers pressed together beneath his chin while the final embers of the coal fire settled into a crimson glow. London lay beneath one of those yellow fogs which seem […]
In Washington, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 1346, the Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act. Approved by a bipartisan vote of 218 to 203, this historic legislation permanently authorizes the year-round, nationwide sale of E15—a lower-cost fuel blend containing 15 percent ethanol. While E15 is already available at more than 4,800 […]
A man sits in a diner staring out the window at six parked cars. He knows which one probably contains a weapon. He knows the waitress is left-handed. He knows the man at the counter knows how to fight. He knows the exits, the sightlines, the distances, the angles. He knows he can run flat […]
The guns had been firing for two hours when the order finally came. Across the open fields west of Gettysburg, Pickett’s men stepped out from the tree line and began the long walk toward Cemetery Ridge. Nearly a mile under direct fire. The sort of assignment historians later describe as desperate because they already know […]
“Why don’t we ever learn?” Doug Durante recently posed the question directly in a thoughtful essay on America’s enduring vulnerability to global oil shocks. It is a fair question, and a frustrating one. Every generation seems to rediscover the same lesson about oil dependence the hard way — through war, embargo, refinery shutdowns, price spikes, […]
The pallets come in uneven. Not like fuel. Fuel moves clean—measured, continuous, almost abstract. But this is different. Boxes, drums, crates, sealed containers—each with its own handling, its own timing, its own consequence if it doesn’t arrive when it should. LTJG H. H. “Tex” Riley stands on the bridge of the fleet oiler USS Decatur […]
A policymaker walks into a lab and sees a carbon-slimming technology. He’s excited. Less carbon in the sky! “Marvelous,” he says. “If I invest €300 million in this, how much will I lose?” The technologist pauses. “€300 million.” It’s an old joke, slightly updated for the energy transition. But like most good jokes, it lingers […]
Growth in renewable fuels is offering refineries and new entrant producers opportunities with significant potential. Incentivization, mandates and regulations, from the EU’s ReFuelEU Aviation regulations to the US Renewable Fuel Standard developments, are creating an expanding market – and early movers can take full advantage. But the clock is already ticking when it comes to […]
