Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.energy From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: energy Thu, Apr 30 1992 Date: Thu, 30 Apr 92 05:41:14 EDT Message-ID: 04-30 0000 DECISIONLINE: Energy USA TODAY Update April 30, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network JUMP IN PRICES UNEXPLAINED: Oil futures traders were looking for reasons for Wednesday's jump in crude prices to their highest levels of the year. Light sweet crude oil for delivery in June settled at $20.77 per barrel, up 36 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's the highest close since oil for next month delivery finished at $20.76 a barrel on Dec. 4. REFINED PRODUCTS ADVANCE: Refined products futures prices posted gains Wednesday at the Mercantile Exchange. Unleaded gasoline for delivery in May settled at 62.74 cents a gallon, up .17 cent. Home heating oil for delivery in May settled at 56.97 cents a gallon, up .85 cent. Natural gas prices shot up sharply, with contracts for delivery in June settling at $1.450 per 1,000 cubic feet, up 4.1 cents. EPA PLAN CALLED ETHANOL THREAT: A parade of corn-state officials told Congress on Wednesday that proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules threaten the future of ethanol and could cost the states manufacturing jobs and farm income. The rules, aimed at enforcing the 1990 Clean Air Act, make it unlikely ethanol will be used in reformulated gasoline required for summertime use in cars in nine cities with the worst smog. (For more, see special Ethanol package below.) LAWMAKER TO OFFER ALTERNATIVE: If Congress isn't careful, the United States may become as dependent upon foreign countries for alternative fuels as for oil, says Rep. Bob Wise, D-W.Va. Wise plans to offer an amendment Thursday when the Government Operations Committee writes its portion of the House national energy strategy to require at least 50% of all alternative fuels to be domestically produced. WIPP MAY NOT BE COMPLETED: In an impassioned, impromptu speech, Secretary of Energy James Watkins said Wednesday he had done everything "humanly possible" to get the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant opened and operating - but the site is in serious jeopardy. WIPP, planned as the USA's first underground repository for plutonium contaminated waste, was to open three years ago, but safety issues have delayed that plan. 60-DAY COUNTDOWN ON: WIPP has been studied and reviewed by every group imaginable, Energy Secretary James Watkins told the House Armed Services nuclear facilities panel Wednesday. A 60-day countdown is beginning, Watkins said. Either the House must pass legislation by July 1 to permit the opening of WIPP or he must begin taking people out of the Carlsbad, Calif., facility. HIGH-SPEED TRAIN SUPPORT URGED: Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., on Wednesday urged Congress to spend at least $2 million next year to launch a high-speed rail experiment the Bush administration wants to keep on the shelf for now. Magnetically levitated trains - or "maglev" - would be powered by magnets. She said her request "recognizes severe budget restrictions" for the 1993 fiscal year starting Oct. 1. FBI LOOKING FOR OIL EXECUTIVE: The FBI joined New Jersey authorities Wednesday in the search for missing Exxon Corp. international division chief Sidney Reso, 57. He left his house in Morris Township, but never arrived at work in Florham Park. His car was found in his driveway with a door open and the motor still running. It's being treated as a missing person's case, said a Morris County prosecutor's spokeswoman. DOE ANNOUNCES NUCLEAR SHUTDOWN: The U.S. Energy Department said Wednesday that it will stop reprocessing spent nuclear fuel for weapons, a move that will save the government $84 million but cost 1,050 jobs at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant. DOE said there is less need for stockpiled nuclear warheads. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON ETHANOL: ETHANOL MORE VOLATILE: The nine cities with the worst smog problems targeted by the 1990 Clean Air Act include the USA's largest markets - New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Although corn-based ethanol helps cut carbon monoxide, a wintertime problem in many areas, it also makes gasoline more volatile. The more volatile the gas, the more summer smog from vapors. The alternative is an oil-based methanol product. EPA ASKED TO EASE RESTRICTIONS: The corn lobby wants the EPA to ease emission restrictions for ethanol-enhanced gasoline while studies are done on the volatility problem. Illnois Gov. Jim Edgar told a House panel that his state is researching ethanol's impact on ozone formation and is optimistic the outcome will be positive. Illinois accounts for half of the 1 billion gallons of ethanol produced in the USA annually. EPA LOOKING TO AVOID FAVORITISM: Richard Wilson of EPA said the rules were written to avoid favoring any alternative fuel. He said gasoline suppliers can use ethanol in smog areas by combining it with a less-volatile gas or by turning the ethanol into ETBE. He also said the smog-reducing gasoline will be required for only 4 1:2 months of the year, meaning an ethanol-based gas could be sold the other 7 1:2 months. FUEL'S FATE LEFT TO OIL FIRMS: But Midwest House Agriculture subcommittee members told Wilson that leaves ethanol's fate up to the oil companies, which they said won't be friendly to ethanol. Rep. Jim Jontz, D-Ind., said it's a sham to think the oil companies will invest in ethanol. "When the oil companies don't want to use ethanol to start with ... are they going to go out and do it? C'mon. Of course they're not ..." (End of package.) Energy Editor: William Snoddy. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM