It's the end of the world as we know it...and even the smart people are saying so.

Last month, ITP Business printed an article called Is peak oil pure fiction? This month, they printed letters they got in response to it. Pretty good responses to the cornucopian view.

Calpine's losses more than triple, a victim of tightening credit and high natural gas prices.

Pickup truck sales latest victim of high US gasoline prices.

BP blames Venezuela's Chavez for shortfall in production.

BP - the UK's largest oil company - said yesterday that it produced less oil in the past three months than many analysts had predicted, leading some to suggest it could miss its production targets for the year.

The company blamed a more aggressive attitude by the Chavez government, which forced the renegotiation of contracts on three of BP's oil fields in Venezuela. It is believed that BP was forced to give up about two-thirds of the oil the fields were producing, handing it instead to the state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

Petrocaribe deal slow to take effect:

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - One year after 13 Caribbean countries signed a deal with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to buy oil under preferential terms, a majority of them have not received a single drop of fuel, while those that have are still paying high prices at the pump.

...The program has gotten bogged down because many governments don't have state-owned docking or storage facilities, or the know-how of running an oil business — a task they previously left to private companies.

Forget cheap gas, Iran tells India

A note received on June 25 from the Indian mission in Tehran, addressed to ministry of external affairs (MEA) and the petroleum ministry, quoted Hosseinian saying, “Iran could not pay subsidies for supply of cheap gas to India and Pakistan who have kept gas price low in their domestic markets by providing subsidies. India and Pakistan should forget purchasing low price gas from Iran and they should take advantage of the opportunity of using the 'peace' gas pipeline.”

China has published a list of coal and electricity consumption for every province, region and municipality. The goal is to promote sustainable growth and energy efficiency.

John McCarron argues that homebuyers need to take transportation costs into account.

Recently a coalition of not-for-profits, led in Chicago by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, has been working on what they call The Housing and Transportation Affordability Index. It uses a complex formula that weighs, among other factors, rents and prices plus proximity to public transit and average vehicle miles traveled by residents in a given neighborhood. The index may not measure the exact cost of where we choose to live, but it's more accurate than what can be divined from most other sources.