Oil and gasoline

ARAUCA, Colombia — Over the past four decades, Colombia has pumped billions of barrels of oil from under a vast savanna it shares with neighboring Venezuela. Through pipelines, the thick crude travels over the Andes and to the Caribbean coast, and then onto tankers, mostly to the United States. Much like another famous export of Colombia’s, it has an addictive quality. In the span of a generation, the nation’s economy became dependent on oil revenue. This year, voters moved to break that habit, electing Colombia’s first leftist president in two centuries of independence, a former guerrilla fighter and environmentalist who wants to phase out oil while heavily taxing coal mining companies. “What is more poisonous for humanity: cocaine, coal or oil?” President Gustavo Petro asked world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in September. “The opinion of power has ordered that cocaine is poison,” he said. “But instead, coal and oil must be protected, even when it can … [Read more...] about In Colombia, Drilling Pays the Bills. The Country’s Leaders Want to Quit Oil.

India has found a way to profit greatly from Russia’s sanctions situation, purchasing cheap Russian crude and using its tremendous refining capacity to sell America and Europe gasoline and diesel, Bloomberg News revealed on Sunday. While the crude oil is of Russian origin, purchasing the refined products does not appear to violate sanctions on Russia’s fuel industry imposed in light of the year-old Russian “special operation” to colonize Ukraine. India has refused to boycott Russian oil, coal, or natural gas, citing the government’s need to provide abundant and affordable fuel to its people and the fact that the European countries attempting to lead the charge against Russia are still heavily dependent on its natural gas to heat homes. According to Bloomberg, India has increased its exports of gasoline and diesel to New York to levels not seen in nearly four years: 89,000 barrels a day. “Daily low-sulfur diesel flows to Europe were at 172,000 barrels in January, the most … [Read more...] about India Is Making Huge Profits Refining Cheap Russian Oil to Sell to America

Petrol doped with 20 per cent ethanol was rolled out on Monday at select petrol pumps in 11 states and union territories as part of a programme to increase use of biofuels to cut emissions as well as dependence on foreign exchange-draining imports. At present, 10 per cent ethanol is blended in petrol (10 per cent ethanol, 90 per cent petrol) and the government is looking to double this quantity by 2025. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the higher 20 per cent ethanol blended petrol two months ahead of the planned rollout in April, at the India Energy Week (IEW) 2023 in Delhi. “We have increased ethanol blending in petrol from 1.5 per cent (in 2014) to 10 per cent and are now progressing towards 20 per cent blending," Modi said. What is E20? A biofuel called ethanol, also known as C2H5OH, is produced spontaneously when sugar is fermented. It is mostly produced by extracting sugar from sugarcane, although other organic materials, such as cereal grains, can also be used … [Read more...] about What is E20, the Ethanol-blended Petrol PM Modi Launched Today? Explained

To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android . Late one summer evening in 2018, an American citizen named Joseph Mahmoud Dibee was sitting in José Martí International Airport in Havana, Cuba — trying, unsuccessfully, to sleep — when he was approached by three men. Dibee, a civil engineer, was in Havana on a layover. After a long business trip in Ecuador, he was heading home to Russia, where he lived with his wife and stepson. The men demanded his passport, then led him out of the terminal and into a waiting sedan. Dibee asked where they were going, but got no response. Sandwiched between his captors, he was driven miles through the night before finally arriving at what appeared to be a jail. For the next three days, Dibee would claim in a subsequent court filing, he was imprisoned without explanation and, in effect, tortured. His small concrete cell was open to the elements; during the day, the cage baked. As … [Read more...] about The Rise and Fall of America’s Environmentalist Underground

A few years ago, I was sitting in the book-lined study of an elegant condo with a view of downtown Washington, interviewing a former senior Koch Industries lobbyist about his job. I asked him what got him up in the morning when he worked for Koch. He gave me a one-word answer: “Carbon.” At the time, I had been reporting for years on Koch Industries, one of the largest and most confusingly complex private companies in the world. Its annual revenue is larger than that of Facebook, Goldman Sachs and U.S. Steel combined, and it makes everything from gasoline to nitrogen fertilizer to nylon, paper towels and windows. For all this complexity, one business inside Koch Industries remains more important than the rest — processing and selling fossil fuels. David Koch, who died Friday at the age of 79 , is best known as a major funder of right-wing political causes, from tax cuts to deregulation, an enthusiastic patron of the arts and a man-about-town. But to his critics, his most lasting … [Read more...] about David Koch Was the Ultimate Climate Change Denier

WASHINGTON — A Senate hearing on nominees for two top environmental posts on Wednesday quickly turned testy over the Trump administration’s ambivalence on climate change science. Andrew R. Wheeler , a lobbyist for Murray Energy, which is owned by Robert E. Murray, an Appalachian coal mining magnate and prominent backer of President Trump, has been nominated to be the deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Kathleen Hartnett White , a former Texas environmental regulator who has described belief in global warming as “a kind of paganism,” has been tapped to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Democratic members of the Environment and Public Works Committee focused much of their hostility on Mrs. White, a fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the former chairwoman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Democrats assailed her past writings on climate change, including articles in which she called carbon dioxide … [Read more...] about Democrats Assail Environmental Nominees Over Climate Change

___ Retailers try to curb theft while not angering shoppers NEW YORK (AP) — Across the retail landscape, businesses have been putting items under lock and key as a quick way to stop thieves. Some are considering extreme measures, including Rite Aid Corp., whose chief retail officer recently said it’s looking at “literally putting everything behind showcases to ensure the products are there for customers who want to buy it.” But by trying to solve one problem, these businesses may be creating another: turning off shoppers with overreaching measures. For consumers of color in particular, the stepped-up security measures risk alienating a population that already feels overpoliced. ___ Renault, Nissan reboot auto alliance for post-Ghosn era LONDON (AP) — Automakers Renault and Nissan on Monday formalized their reboot of a relationship that had grown rocky. Under the decision announced Monday, both companies will own 15% in the other. Up to now, Renault Group of France owned … [Read more...] about Business Highlights: Retailers’ locks, Super Bowl ads