Building retrofitting, geothermal energy among growing sectors

President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan is intended to revive the economy, largely by putting people back to work. A hefty chunk of that money, $40 billion, is aimed directly at creating what the administration calls “green jobs.”

1. Advanced biofuels
2. Building retrofitting
3. Geothermal energy
4. Green chemistry
5. Green manufacturing
6. Smart grid
7. Solar energy
8. Sustainable agriculture
9. Sustainable green retailing
10. Wind energy

For More Detail listing go to: MSNBC

Exxon Mobil Corp. said Tuesday it will make its first major investment in greenhouse-gas reducing biofuels in a $600 million partnership with biotech company Synthetic Genomics Inc. to develop transportation fuels from algae.

Despite record-breaking profits in recent years, the oil and gas giant has been criticized by environmental groups, members of Congress and even shareholders for not spending enough to explore alternative energy options.

One of the company’s requirements was finding a biofuel source that could be produced on a large scale. It says photosynthetic algae appears to be a viable, long-term candidate. If the alliance is successful, pumping algae-based gasoline at Exxon service stations is still several years away and will mean additional, multibillion-dollar investments for mass production.

For More information: MSNBC

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“Many analysts forecast emissions to become the most widely traded derivative product in the next 20 years, surpassing even T-Bills with the market growing to over US$3 trillion,” said Michael Schwartz, chief marketing officer, Triple Point. “Emissions management is a corporate governance and compliance issue for our customers but it also offers a potentially large trading opportunity when handled with a sophisticated, multi-commodity platform such as Commodity XL.”

Commodity XL for Emissions is the only solution that handles the full scope of emissions trading and management across all regulatory schemes on a multi-commodity platform. It is the most sophisticated and flexible system available that supports organizational corporate governance strategies in the quickly evolving emissions market. Commodity XL for Emissions tracks position by installation, business line, company, country or any other hierarchical level enabling identification of any shortfalls or surpluses in compliance position. This ensures timely and accurate reporting to regulatory bodies. Commodity XL for Emissions provides what-if scenario analysis to optimize abatement strategies, fuel switching alternatives and trading programs.

For more information: Triple Point

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest refiner, said the transition away from oil-derived fuels is probably 100 years away.

Petroleum-based fuels including gasoline and diesel, as well as hydrocarbons such as coal and natural gas, will remain the dominant sources of energy for factories, offices, homes and cars for decades because there are no viable alternatives, Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson told reporters today after Exxon Mobil’s annual shareholders meeting in Dallas.

In the U.S., which burns a quarter of global oil supplies, consumers probably face higher fuel prices if lawmakers impose greenhouse-gas rules that inflate fuel-production costs, Tillerson said. A plan introduced by Democrats this month would allocate a limited number of emission credits to refiners and electricity producers, with the aim of curbing greenhouse gases.

“The oil-gas-refining side of the business received a very, very small amount of the allocations, which means that sector will bear more of the costs more immediately,” Tillerson said. “If we’re going to place a price on carbon, let’s do that in the most efficient way. A carbon tax is more efficient than a tax that’s applied by way of a cap-and-trade mechanism.”

Tillerson, 57, said lawmakers are hurrying to restrict greenhouse gases when many scientific questions surrounding the global warming issue remain unresolved.

From Bloomberg News.

The following map shows pipelines in North America, including cross-border, international pipelines which originate or end in North American countries. You can click the map to see an enlarged version. The pipeline routes on the map are labeled with the codes that are explained in separate tables. These tables, together with more detailed maps of groups of countries, can be accessed through the following links. On the maps and table, pipeline label codes are colored green for oil, red for gas and blue for products, such as gasolene and ethylene. The diameter, length and capacity of the pipelines, if known, are shown on the tables.

Click here to see the detail Map of US and Canada

- Gold $255 (4/01) - $1033.90 (Mar 17) - and $681 (Oct 23)
- Silver $4.54 (1/03) - $21.44 (Mar 17) - and $9.09 (Oct 24)
- Platinum $406 (10/01) - $2308.80 (Mar 4) - and $752.10 (Oct 27)
- Copper $0.60 (11/01) - $4.26 lbs. (May 5) - and $1.25 (Dec 26)

- CRB $184 (11/01) - $618 (July 2) - and $327.50 (Dec 5), Reuters Commodity Research Bureau Index of 17 commodities.
- Oil $10 (12/98) - $147.27 (July 11) - and $32.40 (Dec 19).
- U.S. Dollar, eur:usd $0.8228 (Oct 26, 2000) to $1.6038 (July 15) - a 95% decline and $1.23 (Oct 23) up 22% in 3 month.

- Wheat from $4.12 (Apr ‘07) to $13.49 (Feb 17) - and $4.71 (Dec 5)
- Corn from $2.22 (Sep ‘06) to $7.79 (Jun 27) - and $3.05 (Dec 5)
- Soybeans from $6.00 (Oct ‘06) to $16.60 (Jun 27) - and $7.76 (Dec 5)
- Rice from $6.18 (Jul ‘05) to $24.35 (Apr 18) - and $12.60 (Jan 23 ‘09)

- US dollar - up 24.9% in 7 months:
70.80 on 17 March 2008 to 89.25 on 11/19.
- Japanese yen, jpy:usd - up 40.9% in 18 months:
$0.008087/123.6 on 11 June 2007 to $0.01149/87.0 on 12/17.
- Chinese yuan/renminbi, cny:usd - up 18.6% in 3 years:
$0.123/8.11 on 21 July 2005 to $0.146/6.82 on 10/10.

- Euro, eur:usd - down 22% in 3 months:
$1.60/.625 on Jul 15 to $1.23/.813 on Oct 23.
- British Pound, gbp:usd - down 36.4% in 14 months:
$2.11/.474 on Nov 5 2007 to $1.35/.741 on Jan 23.
- Canadian Dollar, cad:usd - down 30% in 1 year:
$1.10/.909 on Nov 5 2007 to $0.768/1.302 on Oct 28.
- Indian Rupee, inr:usd - down 28.6% in 11 months:
($0.025/39.1 on Feb 1 2008 to $0.020/50.3 on Dec 1.
- Russian Ruble, rub:usd - down 37.2% in 6 months:
$0.043/23.2 on Jul 11 2008 to $0.027/35.9 on Jan 16.

Commodity Trading Products (Physical and Financial)

Energy: Crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, natural gas, LNG, electric power, etc
Precious Metals: Gold, silver, platinum, palladium etc
Base Metals: Copper, aluminum, nickel, zinc, etc.
Agricultural: Tobacco, grains, soy beans, coffee, pork bellies, etc
Others: Coke, chess, pulp, paper, weather, chemicals, etc