Crude bounced back from earlier losses as the dollar gave up some gains against the euro, reinforcing oils appeal for hedging inflation. Crude declined yesterday after the American Petroleum Institute said inventories rose by 6.5 million barrels in the week ended March 5. An Energy Department report today is forecast to show supplies climbed by 2 million barrels.
“Demand in the U.S. has been very depressed,” said Eliane Tanner, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG in Zurich. “Thats looking like its starting to pick up and - - - - >

Oil increased 1.6 percent after the Labor Department reported that payrolls dropped 36,000 last month. The total was forecast to fall by 68,000, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. U.S. fuel use, averaged over the past four weeks, was 3 percent higher than a year earlier, an Energy Department report showed on March 3.
“We had a nice spike up on the jobless report,” said Addison Armstrong, director of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.
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Obama singled out nuclear power in his State of the Union address, and his spending plan for the next budget year is expected to include billions more dollars in federal guarantees for new nuclear reactors. This emphasis reflects both the political difficulties of passing a climate bill in an election year and a shift from his once cautious embrace of nuclear energy.
Hes now calling for a new generation of nuclear power plants.
During the campaign, Obama said he would support nuclear power with caveats. He was concerned about how to deal with radioactive waste and how much federal money was needed - - - - >

Oil declined after a prediction that above-normal temperatures will begin moving into eastern cities including New York and Boston later this week, according to MDA Federal Inc.s EarthSat Energy Weather. The Northeast accounts for about four- fifths of the countrys heating oil consumption.
“The cold weather drove the recent run higher and now oil is taking a breather,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst with VTB Capital in London. “While the economic outlook is still positive, the overhang in supplies shows prices ran ahead of themselves and should - - - - >

U.S. heating oil inventories, which have fallen for six weeks, may be further strained by record low temperatures across the countrys northeast. Russian oil supplies to Europe were threatened after a deadline passed in talks with Belarus on export duties. In Iran, holder of the second-largest crude reserves, a crackdown on opposition protests last week was the harshest in six months.
“Most important has been the cold weather,” said Christopher Bellew, senior broker with Bache Commodities Ltd. in London. “There has also been the re-emergence of political - - - - >

Oakland, Calif.-based BrightSource Energy has been pushing for more than two years for permission to erect 400,000 mirrors on the site to gather the suns energy. It could become the first project of its kind on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property, leaving a footprint for others to follow on vast stretches of public land across the West.
The construction would come with a cost: Government scientists have concluded that more than 6 square miles of habitat for the federally threatened desert tortoise would be permanently lost.
The Sierra Club and other environmentalists want the complex relocated to preserve what they call - - - - >

That was down from the previous low of 52 in 2008.
U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration documents show 18 of the deaths occurred in coal mines, down from 29 in 2008; and 16 were in gold, copper and other types of mines, down from 22 in 2008. Most involved aboveground truck accidents on mine property, though some of the deaths resulted from rock falls and being struck by machinery.
Obama administration mine safety czar Joe Main said the numbers are encouraging, but he wont be satisfied until no miners are killed on the job.
“I think thats accomplishable, if you look at - - - - >

Oil traded near $74 a barrel as Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said the producer group, which pumps about 40 percent of the worlds oil, will leave output quotas unchanged. Distillate fuel inventories in the U.S., the worlds largest energy user, probably fell as colder weather moved across the countrys north, according to a Bloomberg News survey.
“The hope is of course that oil demand is strong,” Johannes Benigni, chief executive officer of JBC Energy GmbH in Vienna, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “With - - - - >

Its natural gas, the same fossil fuel that was in such short supply a decade ago that it was deemed unreliable. Its now being uncovered at such a rapid pace that its price is near a seven-year low. Long used to heat half the nations homes, its becoming the fuel of choice when building new power plants. Someday, it may win wider acceptance as a replacement for gasoline in our cars and trucks.
Natural gas abundance and low price come as governments around the world debate how to curtail carbon dioxide and other pollution that contribute to global warming. The likely - - - - >

Exxon agreed to buy XTO Energy in an all-stock deal at a 25 percent premium, showing how eagerly a company that is among the most conservative in a conservative industry is jumping into the market for natural gas.
As negotiators haggled in Copenhagen over a global plan to curb carbon emissions, the deal suggested Exxon sees change coming for an energy source best known now for heating homes.
The deal announced Monday was also the largest for the U.S. energy sector in at least four years and Exxons biggest acquisition since it bought Mobil Corp. for $75 billion in 1999.
The technology to - - - - >