petroleum
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Microbes May Hold the Secret to Creating More Powerful Rocket Fuel
A popular rocket fuel called RP-1 gets its name from its key ingredient: refined petroleum. Research published last week in the journal Joule suggests a potentially cleaner and more powerful ingredient: a molecule produced by the Streptomyces bacteria. The proposed fuel won’t be ready any time soon, but the new research points to this intriguing…
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What the Omicron Variant Could Mean for Oil Prices
There’s a new coronavirus variant in town — and it may have a striking impact on oil. Global prices fell by more than 10% on Friday after the World Health Organisation declared the omicron variant a “variant of concern.” The dip marks the biggest one-day crash since the early days of the pandemic.
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The Real Reason US Petrol Prices Are So High Right Now
On Wednesday, amid a fresh surge in petrol prices, the Biden administration announced that it had asked the FTC to investigate whether oil and gas companies were doing anything illegal to manipulate prices. Republicans have countered that it’s a cheap political stunt and blamed President Joe Biden’s energy policies.
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The ABCs of Big Oil: The Father of Forestry’s Influence on Big Oil
On the ABCs of Big Oil, a new podcast miniseries from Earther and Drilled, climate journalist Amy Westervelt and I have spent two episodes looking into the oil and gas industry’s century-long assault on American education; how it has shaped school curricula to limit how Americans think about the climate crisis and how to take…