Rising gas prices are causing some Californians to head to the border. Photo: Thomas Hawk (flickr)

Rising gas prices are driving Californians to fill up in Mexico, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Gas is approaching $5 a gallon in San Diego — twice as much as it is in neighboring Tijuana. Many Californians not only filling up in Mexico, they're even installing extra-large fuel tanks in pickups and work vehicles for later use, often bringing back enough to sell in California for a large profit.

Suppliers of fuel tanks and San Diego auto shops are happy at the phenomenal business. For example, fuel tank company Transfer Flow made more than half a million dollars in May alone.

But many Mexicans are unhappy about the “gringo invasion," which has meant long lines at gas stations and diesel shortages. This week, the number of Tijuana stations offering diesel dropped significantly. Many stations are beginning to refuse to serve Americans.

Historically Pemex, the Mexican state oil monopoly, set gas prices along the border within a few cents of U.S. prices, deterring motorists from comparison shopping. But as gas prices have shot up in the U.S., Mexico has kept its prices down with massive government subsidies to keep gas affordable for Mexican citizens. But these subsidies are causing problems for the government's budget. In fact, an additional $20 billion dollar subsidy was added to the Mexican federal budget as an emergency measure in May, as part of an effort bolster the economy.

And because Mexico doesn’t have the refinery capacity to turn their own oil into gasoline, it imports a large percentage of its gas from the U.S.. So by subsidizing the fuel — and then reselling it to U.S. citizens at cheap rates — the Mexican government is losing money any way you look at it.

The Green Jobs Act puts $125 million to developing green jobs in the U.S. Photo: Rain Forest Action Network (flickr)

The unemployed in the U.S. may be taking the next big steps to solve our climate crisis.

The U.S. House of Representative recently approved the Green Jobs Act of 2007, which provides $125 million dollars to fund national and state job training programs in green industries, such as energy efficient buildings and construction, renewable electric power, and energy efficient transportation. It also researches new jobs and skills that are created by growing renewable energy and energy efficiency industries. This research is then used to develop job standards and create training programs.

The Green Jobs Act would create jobs that allow people in poverty programs to become self sufficient. Priority for the training programs would go to veterans, displaced workers, and at risk youth. The Senate has passed a similar bill, and a conference committee is meeting to work out the different versions.

The Green Jobs Act was largely supported by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, as part of founder Van Jones’ Green Collar Job Campaign, which argues that the only way for a green economy to succeed is for all sectors of society to be equally involved and equally benefiting.

As Van Jones explains, “It’s not a hand out here; you’re really connecting people who most need work with the work that most needs to get done.”

Photo: tlindenbaum(flickr)

Ethanol is traditionally used as an additive to fuel, but these days it's adding to something else: the global food crisis.

Most U.S. ethanol is made from corn, the kind used mostly to make high fructose corn syrup and feed for cattle, chicken and pigs. But it seems a little backwards to devote farmland for fuel when 850 million people go hungry each year, according to the UN, a number expected to increase by 100 million in the next year.

Ethanol’s supporters say its environmental, economic and strategic benefits outweigh any link to higher food prices. The National Corn Growers Association claims greenhouse gases could be reduced by 20 percent if we used 15 billion gallons of ethanol in our cars.

As an example of its economic advantages, The Ethanol Factbook reported that:

A 40 million gallon per year ethanol plant will cost about $60 million to build, expand the economic base for the local economy by $110 million, generate an additional $19.6 million in household income, improve the tax revenue for the state and local governments by $1.2 million, and create nearly 700 permanent jobs.

Ethanol also has the potential to reduce our dependence on Middle East oil.

Moreover, many supporters of ethanol claim that there is a very low correlation between higher food prices and expanded ethanol production. “We think that there are enough elements in current commodity markets that resulted in very high prices for cereals and oilseeds and even they would have happened without this hike in biofuel production," says Loek Boonekamp, a top official for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Skeptics of ethanol say there’s not enough research to prove ethanol is beneficial in the long term, that it is fueling increased food prices, and that ethanol-based corn subsidies help only a select few.

Environmental benefits? Two independent scientists looked at the footprint of biofuels, and found that the way they’re produced creates more harm than good to the environment.

The latest World Bank assessment on rising food prices found that, “Almost all of the increase in global maize production from 2004 to 2007 (the period when grain prices rose sharply) went for biofuels production in the U.S.” The New York Times reported that, “Work by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington suggests that biofuel production accounts for a quarter to a third of the recent increase in global commodity prices.”

What’s clear is that ethanol is coming under fire — even here in the U.S. — as food prices climb higher. According to the L.A. Times, “Some analysts believe the rapid increase in the use of corn to make ethanol has left the nation with little room to maneuver through weather-related disasters in the Midwest.”

Economist Jeffery Sachs argues we should redouble scientific efforts to grow biofuels on land that’s not suitable for growing food, but that we should end our “misguided” corn-to-ethanol subsidies. “Farmers hardly need them given world demand for food and feed grains.”

Regardless of the arguments for and against, ending ethanol subsidies may not provide the immediate assistance that UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon is looking for to solve the world’s food crisis. It would take time for farmers to convert their fields. Factor in growing time, and the impact might not be felt for several seasons.

But some experts say the conversions would take immediate pressure off food prices. At the very least, this is a great opportunity for the U.S. government to show that they are concerned about the world's growing hunger.

An Australian professor says the push to grow crops for biofuels rather than food has worsened the plight of cyclone victims in Myanmar.

Back in 2005, Myanmar's ruling junta required every farmer with an acre of land to plant Jatropha trees on their property. The oil squeezed from the non-edible crop boasts greater yields of oil per acre than other biofuels, with one-fifth the carbon emissions of petroleum-based products. The junta hoped biofuel exports would replace Myanmar's 40,000 barrels per day of petroleum imports and help an economy on the verge of collapse.

Production of biofuels in developing countries has been vigorously supported by industrialized countries. In fact, the International Herald Tribune reports that venture capital investment in biofuels has increased by 800 percent over the past four years.

But in Myanmar, otherwise known as Burma, the junta failed to build a refining plant, leaving its citizens with a useless Jatropha crop, setting off a chain reaction that increased food insecurity and fuel prices. Then the cyclone wiped out much of Myanmar's mid-year rice harvest.

Given Myanmar's political, social and economic idiosyncracies, it's certainly not the ideal case study for jatropha or biofuel. But plans to invest billions of dollars in biofuel refineries in neighboring countries have been put on hold, leading to questions about how sustainable the current equilibrium between food and fuel production really is.

Fuel prices have risen 40 percent since the start of the year.

Skyrocketing fuel prices make people angry. How angry you ask?

• Truck drivers in Spain started an indefinite strike on Monday, threatening to bring the entire country to a standstill. A growing number of gas stations have reported to have run out of fuel as a result, and supplies of fresh food are running low.
• From Portugal to Italy, commercial fishermen have protested rising fuel prices by blockading ports and refineries
• Last Thursday, more than 500 motorcyclists staged a “go-slow” demonstration outside Manchester, UK.
• Over in Asia, angry Indian consumers burned tires and blocked traffic after the government raised fuel prices. The protests shut down schools and businesses in West Bengal State.
• In Hong Kong, 500 buses and trucks colluded to bring traffic to a standstill in the central city.
• Enraged by the government’s recent 41-percent fuel price hike, Malaysians have planned a nationwide strike and a major demonstration in Kuala Lumpur on July 12.
• Truck drivers in Thailand are threatening to wreak traffic-havoc next week by clogging the roads with 400,000 trucks.
• In South Korea, truck drivers threatened to strike on Monday, ignoring the $10.2 billion government aid package designed to cushion the impact of soaring fuel prices.

What other angry reactions have you heard about?

The average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. is now just shy of $4. Throughout Europe, drivers are paying upwards of $8 to $10 a gallon. With the rising price of crude oil futures, and the subsequent rise in prices for many other commodities, everyone should be feeling the squeeze.

Everyone is feeling it, that is, except for Big Oil. Major oil companies are posting windfall profits: Royal Dutch Shell and BP reported 25 percent and 63 percent net income increases, respectively, for the first three months of 2008. Exxon reported a record-setting $40.6 billion in net income for 2007. There is a rising fear that oil companies are simply passing the bill of higher crude prices onto consumers.

Congress appears to share these concerns. The Senate Judiciary Committee has called on executives of five major U.S. oil companies to provide some answers. “The people we represent are hurting, while your companies are profiting,” said Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). “We need to get some balance.”

These executives fired back, saying that their corporations are being targeted as scapegoats and that the effects of supply and demand are contributing to the rising price of fuel. Moreover, they reasoned that the high cost of development in the oil industry requires they make high profit margins today to prepare for expensive investments tomorrow. The oil execs also placed some of the blame back on Congress by arguing that bans on drilling in regions like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska are curtailing supply potential.

So where do we go from here — especially when publications like The Economist hint at the potential of $200-a-barrel oil.

Business Week suggests that Americans, and the world in general, will adapt. People will alter their habits to drive less. That's already happening, according to the New York Times, which reports that Americans are already taking fewer road trips and seeking out public transportation more than ever before.

Photo: wili_hybrid (flickr)

Contrary to opinions such as Senator Frank Murkowski's, the Arctic is not just “snow and ice.”

From Inuit tribes to the migratory caribou, the Arctic is full of life, especially during the summer. For energy-hungry nations, however, the Arctic is full of another element of interest: oil.

Beneath its melting icecaps lie the “world’s largest remaining untapped gas reserves and some of its largest undeveloped oil reserves,” says the WWF. In face of the current “oil shock,” the five nations that border the Arctic Ocean — Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and the U.S. — all want a slice of this lucrative “ice” spot.

Late last May, these five rival nations met in Greenland to resolve these competing claims. The convention reaffirmed rules laid out by the UN Law of the Sea Convention, which draws national boundaries based on geological features. The UN is expected to oversee decisions on Arctic control by 2020.

Climate change has a big role in increasing the appeal of the Arctic. Rising temperatures rapidly melt the Arctic ice, which increase drilling and shipping access during summer months. Eventually, this will even open up “a route through the Arctic Ocean linking the Atlantic and Pacific that would reduce the sea journey from New York to Singapore by thousands of miles,” says The Telegraph.

Absent from the meeting were environmental groups, who “said the closed-door meeting paved the way for a land grab by countries who have claims to the continental shelf at the pole,” according to The Guardian.

Environmentalists also object to the environmental dangers of drilling.

John Calder, the director of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Arctic Research Division, warns not only of the landscape destruction and negative impacts on the indigenous Arctic villages due to infrastructure development, but also the calamitous effects of oil accidents:

Oil spills are especially dangerous in the Arctic, because its cold and heavily season-dependent ecosystems take a long time to recover. Besides, it is very difficult to remove the damage from oil spills in remote and cold regions, especially in parts of the ocean where there is ice.

Rainforest destruction and tribal interests conflict with development. Photo: Orvarati (flickr)

One of the world’s last uncontacted tribes was photographed this week from a helicopter flying over the Amazon rainforest, near the Brazil-Peru border. The photos were taken by the Brazilian government’s Indian Affairs Department to, “show the [tribes’] houses, to show they are there… This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence.”

Proof that this tribe exists complicates the current battle between those who want to conserve the Amazon and those who want to develop it. Even though they've not been contacted before, these tribes are a casualty of the forest battle.

Currently, the Indian Affairs Department guesses there are about 500 uncontacted Indians living on the Brazil side of the border. However, as previously uncontacted tribes in Peru have tried unsuccessfully to defend their territory from loggers, they have been systematically killed and forced to move across the border.

This migration is a problem not only for the tribes losing their traditional homeland, but also for the uncontacted tribes who are already living in Brazil. The Indian affairs department of Brazil predicts more violence in the area, not only between tribes and loggers, but between tribes now living in the same territory.

Contacted tribes in both Brazil and Peru have been active in attempting to prevent further intrusion into the rainforest. Brazilian Indians are holding a mass rally this week in Altamira, protesting the series of dams the government wants to build on the Xingu River. They say that they have not been included in the decision making process, even though the dams would essentially destroy their way of life. Kayapó Indian leader Raoni, sent a defiant letter to Brazil’s President Lula vowing to stop the construction. He also protests the government's violations of indigenous rights enshrined in Brazil's 1988 Constitution.

The conflict over the rainforest is not confined to regional politics. In Peru, a French company is being sued by an Amazon Indian organization, AIDESEP, in an attempt to prevent drilling for oil nearby the border area where the uncontacted tribes were just photographed. AIDESEP asserts that Perenco, a U.S. company recently taken over by French owners, should be prohibited from working in the area and contacting any tribes.

Any contact with the tribes could be catastrophic. The recently contacted Murunahua tribe by the Yurua river watched half of their members die from disease, a mortality rate common in recently contacted tribes.

Despite the danger to the tribes, and international law that acknowledges the uncontacted tribes as the rightful owners of their land, Perenco is currently expanding into these areas.

José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Júnior, head of the Indian Protection post near the Peru border says, "What is happening in this region is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the ‘civilized’ ones, treat the world."

Snowmelt from mountainous Tajikistan has the potential to make it an energy exporter. Photo: Jason Sangster for Mercy Corps

What do you do if you're a country that can't afford a big public infrastructure project? If you're Tajikistan, you ask your own citizens to chip in.

In Tajikistan's capital, Dushanbe, the mayor has asked residents to "donate" half their monthly salary this month and next to finish a Soviet-era dam that was never completed, according to EurasiaNet.

Tajikistan is Central Asia's poorest country. The guaranteed minimum monthly salary is barely above $10 — half the estimated monthly living expenses. Despite being Central Asia's poorest state, EurasiaNet reports that many residents are complying with the request out of fear of government reprisals. Rumors are that the government tracks who does and doesn't contribute.

The request follows a severe winter energy crisis that left most of the country in sub-zero temperatures without water, electricity or heat for four weeks. Eurasia Daily Monitor reports that Tajikistan is still importing most of its energy from its Central Asian neighbors, even though in most years it relies on its own energy production starting in mid-April.

In fact, Tajikistan has the water resources to actually export power to its neighbors. It's home to more than half of the region's hydropower potential, notes a blogger on neweurasia.net.

But with seemingly no one willing to invest in its neglected infrastructure — its ranking among the world's most corrupt countries poses one challenge — the government is left to try to collect loose change from the people themselves.

This short segment from Reuters discusses the impact of rising food prices on standards of living around the world. This is a terrific snapshot overview of the dynamics at play in the current world food crisis.

Photo: Rob McDougall (flickr)

Access to cheap energy underpins modern societies. Finding enough to fuel industrialized economies and pull developing countries out of poverty without overheating the climate is a central challenge of the 21st century. — Michael Wines, New York Times

Sub-Saharan Africa is perilously close to an energy crisis.

Massive drought across Kenya and Ethiopia has slowed hydropower production to a trickle. Rickety electrical infrastructure in South Africa and elsewhere has led to huge rolling blackouts expected to go on for years in some regions, according to the International Herald Tribune. The World Bank says Africa's "lack of reliable power has already begun to hamper the region's development." The worst-hit African economies have seen economic growth slow by more than two percent.

Energy shortages impact a broad array of activities in these countries. In Uganda, for instance, power shortages are causing gas stations to run low on diesel. The environment suffers as well. For the 80 percent of sub-Saharan Africans who lack electricity, Inter Press Service News Agency says:

The destruction of natural vegetation could lead to desertification when there are no water catchment systems to feed rivers and streams. And when there is no water, the population in such an area suffers in many ways. They cannot plant crops and their animals die.

Solutions to the energy crisis still seem far off. India and China have begun funding new power generating facilities — in one instance providing Zambia's energy producer, Zesco, with $1.2 billion for upgrades and new capacity creation. But the sheer size of the problem suggests a multinational approach. "The best answer, most experts consulted agree, would be for nations to cooperate on regional power solutions," the New York Times reports. "One or two large regional plants, they say, could supply power more cheaply and efficiently than dozens of smaller ones."

Photo: Danny McL (flickr)

A town on Ireland's eastern coast is experimenting with running entirely on its own power. Dundalk is fueling a 1.5-square-mile "Sustainable Energy Zone" — including a school, a hospital and an industrial park — with a woodchip-fired heating system, a wind turbine and self-powered streetlights, according to Sustainable Energy Ireland.

The citywide experiment, funded by the European Union, is expected to make a significant impact on energy sources. Sustainable Energy Ireland says by 2010, renewable energy will produce at least 20 percent of the heat and electricity used in the Sustainable Energy Zone.

If the experiment is successful, replicating it elsewhere could be a boon to energy-starved nations. Stay tuned.

It's hard not to notice that gas prices seem to rise by the day. Most drivers may cringe a little more every time they fill up, but they aren't rioting in the streets. This isn't the story in some developing countries, where increasing oil prices — on top of soaring food prices — have increased the potential for widespread hunger.

To cope, the UN World Food Programme has launched an emergency appeal for $500 million. The WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency, working in 78 of the world’s poorest countries to help stop hunger. Funded entirely by individual donors and governments, the appeal was written to 60 governments in hopes to reach their goal by May 1. If this amount isn’t reached, the WFP will be forced to cut aid to countries in already desperate situations.

Although the WFP has launched many appeals in the past, this is the first time an appeal has been launched due to a market-generated crisis. The WFP says it was not prepared for the rise in staple food prices such as wheat and corn, as well as fuel.

NPR pointed out this morning that the food-price hikes are exacerbated by a shortage of rice due to bad harvests and growing demand. Rice-exporting countries in Asia are shipping less abroad to have enough of the dietary staple at home.

Photo: Karl Grobl for NetAid