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The Front Burner
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA) requires
strict compliance with Federal drug
and alcohol testing regulations for
motor carriers and drivers. Employers
in violation are subject to civil and
criminal penalties.
The NEFI Alliance Consortium s i a
simple, quick and inexpensive solution
to this federal
ment.
require As a non-
profit group, the NEFI Alliance is able
to offer this comprehensive program
at a most reasonable cost.
Avoid severe fines…
Join today!
Mandatory Drug & Alcohol Testing
Regulations for Motor Carriers…
It’s The Law!
NEFI Alliance Consortium
238 Bedford Street, Suite 2
Lexington, MA 02420
For program information
and application information,
call 617-924-1000,
fax 617-924-1022, or
email
*Figures taken from Energy Information Administration’s “This Week In Petroleum.”
THE BAROMETER
Comparing Heating Oil to Other Financial Products
December 2, 2013
One Year Ago
No. 2 Fuel Oil/New York (dollars/gallon)
$3.042
$3.038
WTI Crude (dollars/barrel)
$93.61
$88.69
Brent Crude (dollars/barrel)
$111.49
$111.27
10-year Treasury Bill
2.81%
1.63%
30-year mortgage
4.46%
3.34%
Dow Jones Average
16,008
12,965
THE DIFF.
Spot Prices (Cents/Gallon) as of December 2, 2013*
New York Harbor
New York Harbor
U.S. Midcontinent
No. 2 Fuel Oil / Heating Oil
No. 2 ULSD
No. 2 ULSD
3.042
3.050
2.961
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U.S. emissions of methane, a potent heat-trapping greenhouse gas and the pri-
mary ingredient in natural gas, may be more be more than twice as high as the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reported, according to a high-profile study
released late last year.
Entitled “Anthropogenic Emissions of Methane in the United States” and published
in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, the study uses data collected from
the tops of telecommunication towers to generate an objective measure of methane in
the atmosphere. The EPA relies on estimates to calculate methane emissions, not on
collected data.
The study reflects badly on natural gas, which has long been promoted as a clean source
of energy. Robert Howarth, a professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell
University, said the findings show the need to reduce the use of natural gas for heating.
“Natural gas is no bridge fuel,” Howarth said in a statement. “When used to generate elec-
tricity, natural gas likely has a greenhouse gas footprint similar to that for coal,” he said,
adding methane is responsible for up to half of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
This is the second important report in recent months to suggest that natural gas
aggravates global warming more than was previously believed. A recent report by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says methane is a far more potent
greenhouse gas than previously believed. IPCC raised its “global warming potential”
metric for methane in a 20-year timeframe from 72 to 86. That means that methane is 86
percent more powerful than carbon dioxide in aggravating global climate change.
Bottom line: EPA is misleading Americans about how much natural gas is leaking and
about how harmful those leaks are.
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A recent report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicates that
U.S. exports of diesel are continuing to rise, which is reducing seasonal variations in
prices for heating oil and other distillates. Increasing global demand has changed the
term structure of the NYMEX heating oil futures curve, shifting incentives away from
holding inventory and toward exporting, according to EIA.
It wasn’t always this way. “Without a strong demand pull from export markets, the
additional production of distillate during the summer months had no immediate market
and the futures curve would typically move into strong contango (when future prices are
higher than prompt prices), encouraging inventory building to meet winter demand,” EIA
reported. For 2012 and 2013, on trading days from June through August, the average spread
between the first contract and the fourth contract was -2 cents per gallon and -1 cent per
gallon, respectively. For the previous five years, that spread averaged -7 cents per gallon.
