FuelClub Discount

Fuel prices are the latest problem to hit the farming industry and one Welsh agricultural contractor warned yesterday that they could drive him out of business.

Tecwyn Hughes of Cleifiog Isaf, Llanynghenedl who works alongside his two sons has been contracting from his Anglesey home since 1952, but fears that he will have to quit because of massive rises in the price of red and white diesel.

Mr Hughes said: “In all my time in this industry, I have never faced a situation as dire as this. I feel as though contractors and farmers are being pushed over the edge as we simply cannot cope with the huge rise in the price of fuel.”
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CH Energy Group Inc. lowered its full-year earnings forecast Monday, citing high fuel supply prices and softening economic conditions.

The utility holding company now anticipates 2008 net income in a range of $2.30 to $2.50 per share. It previously predicted a profit between $2.40 and $2.70 per share.
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Using crops to produce fuel is “criminal” as the world suffers a food shortage, Venezuela’s oil minister said in Rome where energy ministers from around the globe are meeting to discuss investment plans.

“Look at the effect it has, the craziness,” Rafael Ramirez told reporters today in the Italian capital, where he is attending the three-day International Energy Forum. “All countries, and particularly in Latin America, have problems with food stuffs. It is such a bad idea to use foodstuffs for fuel, it is criminal.”

The U.S. and Europe have been encouraging the development of fuels made from crops such as corn and soybeans to limit their dependence on oil imports as prices reach a record. Biofuels are also being promoted as a renewal energy source to limit climate change.

Global food stocks are at their lowest since the 1980s, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization as food lines form in the Philippines and soaring rice prices cause riots in Haiti and Egypt. Biofuels are partly to blame for rising food prices because they displace crops that might otherwise be used to feed people or animals, oil industry officials said.

“Biofuels illustrates that in politics nothing is that easy,” U.K. Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said in a Bloomberg Television interview at the energy forum in Rome today.
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After powering the micro-electronics revolution, silicon could carve out an important new role in speeding the debut of ultra-clean fuel cell vehicles powered by hydrogen, researchers in China suggest. Their calculations show for the first time that silicon nanotubes can store hydrogen more efficiently than their carbon nanotube counterparts.
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U.K. Coal Plc, the nation’s largest producer of the fuel, said full-year profit rose more than fivefold on record prices and a jump in the value of its property holdings.

Net income increased to 94 million pounds ($187 million), or 59.9 pence a share, from 17.5 million pounds, or 11.7 pence, a year earlier, the Doncaster, England-based company said today in a statement distributed by the Regulatory News Service. Sales dropped 3.3 percent to 328.5 million pounds.

“The world coal price has almost doubled. We have successfully moved our overall sales prices closer to the market price,” Chairman David Jones said in the statement.
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Automakers need to form some consensus on the technology they will use to improve fuel economy _ whether it’s diesels, hybrids, electric vehicles or hydrogen fuel cells _ and do a better of explaining those options if they want consumers to buy in, auto industry experts said Wednesday at a conference for engineers.

“It is imperative that consumers believe there is a plan, that you know where you’re going,” said Scott Miller, chief executive officer of Synovate Motoresearch, which does market research for automakers and others. “You have to give them peace of mind that you’re not going to yank the rug out from under them in five years.”

The government also needs to consider more tax credits for fuel-efficient vehicles, carbon taxes to penalize gas-guzzlers, and mandates to promote cleaner fuels such as ethanol, which are some of the approaches that have successfully changed consumers’ driving habits in Europe, according to Scott Bailey, vice president of powertrain systems at auto supplier Delphi Corp.
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