March 05, 2015

 

By Jonathan Fahey 

Associated Press

 

 

 

The U.S. has so much crude that it is running out of places to put it, and that could drive oil and gasoline prices even lower in the coming months.

 

For the past eight weeks, the United States has been producing and importing an average of 1.1 million more barrels of oil every day than it is consuming. That extra crude is flowing into storage tanks, especially at the country's main trading hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, pushing U.S. supplies to their highest point in at least 80 years, according to the Energy Department.

 

If this keeps up, storage tanks could approach their operational limits, known in the industry as "tank tops," by mid-April and send the price of crude — and probably gasoline, too — plummeting.

 

The supply growth may even be speeding up. U.S. crude supplies rose 10.3 million barrels last week, the government said Wednesday, the largest weekly increase since October 2002.

 

"The fact of the matter is we are running out of storage capacity in the U.S.," Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Citibank, said at a recent symposium at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

 

Morse has suggested oil could fall all the way to $20 a barrel from the current $50. At that rock-bottom price, oil companies, faced with mounting losses, would stop pumping oil until the glut eased. Gasoline prices would fall along with crude, though lower refinery production, because of seasonal factors and unexpected outages, could prevent a sharp decline.

 

The national average price of gasoline is $2.44 a gallon. That's $1.02 cheaper than last year at this time, but up 37 cents over the past month.

 

Other analysts agree that crude is poised to fall sharply — if not all the way to $20 — because it continues to flood into storage for a number of reasons:

 

— U.S. oil production continues to rise. Companies are cutting back on new drilling, but that won't reduce supplies until later this year.

 

— The new oil being produced is light, sweet crude, which is a type many U.S. refineries are not designed to process. Oil companies can't just get rid of it by sending it abroad, because crude exports are restricted by federal law.

 

— Foreign oil continues to flow into the U.S., both because of economic weakness in other countries and to feed refineries designed to process heavy, sour crude.

 

— This is the slowest time of year for gasoline demand, so refiners typically reduce or stop production to perform maintenance. As refiners process less crude, supplies build up.

 

— Oil investors are making money buying and storing oil because of the difference between the current price of oil and the price for delivery in far-off months. An investor can buy oil at $50 today and enter into a contract to sell it for $59 in December, locking in a profit even after paying for storage during those months.

 

The delivery point for most of the oil traded in the U.S. is Cushing, a city of about 8,000 people halfway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa at an intersection of several pipelines. The city is dotted with tanks that can, in theory, hold 85 million barrels of oil, according to the Energy Department, though some of those tanks are used for blending or feeding pipelines, not for storing oil.

 

The market data provider Genscape, which flies helicopters equipped with infrared cameras and other technology over Cushing twice a week to measure storage levels, estimates Cushing is two-thirds full.

 

Hillary Stevenson, who manages storage, pipeline and refinery monitoring for Genscape, says Cushing could be full by mid-April. Supplies are increasing at "the highest rate we have ever seen at Cushing," she says.

 

Full tanks — or super-low prices — are not a sure thing. New storage is under construction at Cushing, and there are large storage terminals near Houston, in St. James, Louisiana, and elsewhere around the country that will probably begin to take in more oil as prices fall far enough to cover the cost of transporting the oil.

 

Also, drillers are quickly cutting back because oil prices have plummeted from $107 a barrel in June. And demand is showing signs of rising.

 

Despite the enormous increase in crude stocks reported Wednesday, inventories of gasoline did not rise and diesel fuel inventories have fallen slightly over the past two weeks. That leads some to conclude that demand for crude could soon pick up, easing the surplus somewhat.

 

But many analysts believe oil prices will fall through the spring, before summer drivers start to relieve the glut.

February 26, 2015

 

City News Service 

 

 

The Los Angeles City Council tentatively backed a ban last Friday on the practice of auctioning off parking spaces, as part of a move to prevent smartphone apps like MonkeyParking from operating in the city.

 

The council voted 10-0 on first reading to approve an ordinance that would prohibit the sale, lease, reservation or efforts to facilitate reservations of parking spaces and other public spaces without permission from the city. Violators of the ban would face fines of at least $250 and potential jail sentences of no more than six months.

 

The ordinance, which was tentatively approved without discussion, requires a second reading. It is expected to return to the City Council for another vote next week. Councilman Mike Bonin, who pushed for the ordinance, said in November that the proposed ban isn’t directed at people who reserve spots for friends and family, but rather is aimed at preventing app users from “pimping out a parking spot in the city of L.A. – taking something which is a public good, something that all of us own, and privatizing for a period of time.”

 

The MonkeyParking app was offered in San Francisco, but was disabled after government officials there sent out a cease-and-desist letter citing an existing law prohibiting the practice. The app-maker subsequently announced plans to launch in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and other parts of Los Angeles County. Santa Monica and Beverly Hills have already adopted bans on such apps.

February 05, 2015

 

By George E. Curry 

NNPA Editor-in-Chief

 

 

 

Blacks need to become more involved in what might appear to be arcane debates over “net neutrality – having an open Internet – because the fast-evolving Internet will have a major impact on their lives, including how they consult with medical providers in the future, says Kim M. Keenan, president and CEO of the Multicultural Media & Telecom Council (MMTC).

 

“The next wave is going to be telemedicine,” she said, referring to what the American Telemedicine Association defines as the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications – including smart phones, email, and video – to improve a patient’s clinical health status. “The day is going to come when better care is going to come through telemedicine and if our grandparents don’t have access to broadband – fast broadband – they are going to be left out.”

 

Keenan, who recently assumed her new position after serving as general counsel and secretary of the NAACP, made her comments here in an address to publishers attending the mid-winter conference of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA).

 

The Multicultural Media & Telecom Council, which recently changed its name from the Minority Media & Telecom Council, is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving equal opportunity and civil rights in the mass media, telecommunications and broadband industries, and closing the digital divide.

 

Keenan said African Americans should be concerned about the elderly, young students and everyone in between, all of whom are affected by a digital divide.

 

According to a study by John B. Horrigan, there is an economic divide that parallels the racial divide. It found that compared to more affluent students, 12.3 percent of all low-income students either lack access to the highest speed tier or were overrepresented in the bottom tier. It also found that “13.8 percent of all African American students who, compared to whites, either lack access to the highest speed tier or are overrepresented in the lowest tier.”

 

Keenan said that gap will likely expand under some programs, such has those launched by Google, that will target certain neighborhoods with service that will be 10 times faster than other offerings.

 

Although there is universal agreement that the Internet should be open to all, there is sharp disagreement on how that should be implemented.

 

MMTC favors placing consumer broadcast services of the jurisdiction of Section 706 of the Telecommuni­cations Act of 1996, but others –including President Obama – believe it should be covered by Title II of the act, an older section that initially covered telephones and other utilities.

 

Obama said in his Nov. 10 statement, “The FCC is an independent agency, and ultimately this decision is theirs alone.”

 

In its filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a coalition representing more than 40 major racial and ethnic civil rights organizations, including MMTC, Rainbow PUSH and Blacks in Government (BIG) said:

 

“The National Minority Organizations recognize that access to broadband, adoption, and digital literacy are critical civil rights issues broadband is essential to living a life of equal opportunity in the 21st century. Without broadband access, low income and middle-class Americans – and particularly people of color – cannot gain new skills, secure good jobs, obtain a quality education, participate in our civic dialogue, or obtain greater access to healthcare through tele-health technologies.

 

“…If strong consumer protections are adopted and enforced, and a presumption against paid prioritization is adopted, Section 706 would be well suited to meet the goals of the Commission and communities of color. This authority will enable the Commission to adopt and enforce smart net neutrality rules that meet the goals of transparency and equity, while fostering broadband adoption and informed use. Section 706 has been successful in paving the way for today’s open Internet, protecting consumers, promoting digital literacy and civic engagement, connecting schools and communities, and stimulating employment and entrepreneurship.”

 

Because major Internet service providers, such as Comcast and AT&T, also favor coverage under Section 706, the civil rights coalition has come under blistering criticism.

 

Lee Fang, writing in the online publication Republic Report said, “In other words, something close to half of the entire civil rights establishment just sold out the Internet.”

 

MMTC issued a statement saying, “These recent posts are false, and we believe they subtly embrace coarse racial stereotypes.” It continued, “MMTC and the national minority organizations formed their views on the Open Internet independently of the telecom companies, with no financial quid pro quos. Their position in the Open Internet rulemaking is the same as FCC Chairman Wheeler’s position except that the minority organizations sought stronger consumer protections than the Chairman did – specifically, a fast-track complaint process modeled after Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.”

 

Keenan was still bristling at such criticism when she addressed NNPA publishers.

 

“People have basically said. ‘They bought y’all out. That’s why y’all have this position.’” Kennan said. “It’s so insulting that people think that as Black people, we can be bought or that we don’t care about who will make it right for our community – that we won’t do what’s right like normal people do.”

 

Keenan praised Jesse Jackson’s push to diversify Silicon Valley.

 

“Much has been said about Rev. Jackson, but if I were to look back over his lifetime and say, ’What is the most significant thing that he’s done, I would point to this,” she said. ”A company [Intel] invests $300 million and comes out and say, ’We’re going to make our workforce look like America, we’re going to make sure we have Black engineers, but not just engineers. ’They need to have Black lawyers, Black accountants.’ People focus only on so many engineers, but there’s a whole lot of these other people.”

 

She also lauded Black publishers, saying, “When you tell our story, it gets told in our voice.”