oil prices

It’s not just the government that’s considering bailing out the auto industry. Several utilities executives are considering ordering thousands of plug-in electric cars.

Shock, surprise! Exxon Mobil Corp. reported record-breaking quarterly profits today. The oil company earned $14.83 billion in its fiscal third quarter, more than any company in U.S. history.
Hearing the news, Sen. John McCain accused Sen. Barack Obama of being in the pockets of Big Oil, a charge Obama has repeatedly leveled at McCain in campaign [...]

The cost of a barrel of oil is sliding as demand weakens and the global economy falters. Economists wonder whether the conservation lessons learned during the time of high energy prices will stick. But a recession may trump all.

Since oil prices plummeted to below $70 a barrel, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has been talking about cutting oil production to respond to a demand that just keeps dropping. Today, OPEC is doing it. It announced a plan to cut oil output by 1.5 million barrels.

With the price of oil dropping to around $74 a barrel — and gasoline prices, on average, falling below $3 a gallon — the alternative-energy industry may have something to lose. The drop in oil prices stems from the global credit crisis and the recession fears it has spawned.
The stocks of alternative-energy companies, which had [...]