U.S. stocks tumbled Thursday as concerns about a subdued economic recovery played in the minds of investors.  Safer bets like dollar strengthened and oil prices slumped.  As investors turned to safe havens, Treasury prices rose, sending corresponding yields lower.  Yields on three-month bills, considered one of the safest bets, turned negative for the first time since December.  A Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgrade of semiconductor industry also added to the downward pressure.     

The spike in bond prices came even as the Treasury announced plans to auction a record $118 billion in new notes next week – an auction schedule of $44 billion 2-year notes on Monday, $42 billion 5-year notes Tuesday, and $32 billion 7-year notes on Wednesday.

The Dow, which had plunged as much as 170 points during the session, ended down 93.87 points, or 0.9%, to 10,332.44.  The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 14.90

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VIASPACE Inc., a clean energy company growing Giant King(TM) Grass as a renewable, low carbon, energy crop, announced this morning that its Chief Executive, Dr. Carl Kukkonen, will be presenting the company’s Giant King Grass at the Next-Generation Biofuels Feedstocks USA Conference to be held November 16-17, 2009, at Le Meridien Hotel in San Francisco.

Contrived to identify renewable energy feedstocks with the most potential, the conference will be attended by leading experts, business executives, investors and others to discuss the challenges and opportunities in next-generation biofuels feedstocks. The conference will also compare how existing and next-generation feedstocks impact the environment. Prices, market trends and yield potential will also be considered in the comparisons.

VIASPACE Chief Executive Dr. Carl Kukkonen commented, “Whether biomass is used to generate electricity or as feedstock for producing green gasoline, price, supply reliability, technical performance and environmental effects

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VIASPACE Inc., a clean energy company growing Giant King(TM) grass as a renewable, low carbon, energy crop, announced this morning that it has applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark “Giant King” as a unique brand of grass.

Interest in, and demand for, Giant King grass continues to grow as energy producers seek next-generation feedstock to reduce dependence on high-polluting fossil fuels. Compared to other agricultural feedstock now being used for biofuels and biomass, Giant King grass has advantageous growing characteristics and superior technical performance. VIASPACE sees substantial business potential in establishing Giant King grass as the leading brand for renewable energy feedstock.

VIASPACE Chief Executive Dr. Carl Kukkonen stated, “VIASPACE has created global interest in Giant King grass, and it is becoming apparent that its unique characteristics and tested performance provide a strong basis for establishing Giant King grass

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Major average closed essentially flat Monday as cautious investors chose to halt last week’s buying spree and wait for next round of economic data.  Treasury prices advanced ahead of the next round of note auctions.  Oil prices rose to their highest level this year, sending shares of energy producers higher. Commodities advanced.  Markets were buoyant through the early afternoon but the rally faded in the afternoon.

The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 3.32 points, or 0.03%, to end at 9,509.28.  The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 0.56 points to end at 1,025.57, and the NASDAQ fell 2.92 points, or 0.14%, to 2,017.98.  On the New York Stock Exchange, winners narrowly edged losers on volume of 1.23 billion shares.

Shares of auto-related companies were under pressure as the government’s cash-for-clunkers program was set to end.  Financial stocks retreated 0.9% after an influential banking analyst noted that the current

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Recently, I had the unique opportunity to tour two different oil sands operations near Fort McMurray, in northern Alberta. I saw a massive open-pit oil sands mine, and the associated reclamation effort, operated by Syncrude Canada Ltd. I also visited an in situ oil sands recovery project called Surmont, operated by ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP).

The trip was sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute (API), which paid for the airfare and accommodations. Managers at both Syncrude and ConocoPhillips granted me access to any parts of their operations I wanted to see (within allowances for safety). And everyone answered any and all questions I asked.

Post-trip, I have complete editorial freedom to write about what I saw and learned. And I learned a lot. So this is Part I of a two-part series. Watch for Part II.

The Past and Future of Oil and Oil Sands

The first thing that struck me about visiting

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I had the unique opportunity to tour two different oil sands operations near Fort McMurray, in northern Alberta. I saw a massive open-pit oil sands mine, and the associated reclamation effort, operated by Syncrude Canada Ltd. I also visited an in situ oil sands recovery project called Surmont, operated by ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP).

When we think about the concept of ’Peak Oil’ today, we need to keep in mind what we’re talking about. The curves show oil output peaking in so many parts of the world. This phenomenon is quite real, as long as you understand that it’s the light, sweet, easy-flowing oil that is getting harder and harder to find, certainly in significant quantity.

But there are a lot of other hydrocarbon molecules out there. Most of those molecules are not light, sweet crude oil. Indeed, most of the hydrocarbon molecules that the world will use in the future will be

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Government budget hits all-time insanity… record monthly, year-to-date deficits… “Cash for clunkers” helps GM, but not economy… July retail sales stage surprise fall… Fed plans exit strategy, ends bond buys… why the FOMC is still not helping you… Byron King’s crude reality: How Canada could be the next Saudi Arabia…

It’s official: Our government ran a record $180.7 billion over budget in July, the Treasury Department said today. That’s just a bit over Wall Street expectations and just under the Congressional Budget Office estimate we reported Monday. Thus the government tab so far this fiscal year is a record $1.27 trillion, not the record $1.3 trillion the CBO guessed earlier this week. Phew… what a relief.

A few more scary details:

The budget deficit is still on track to exceed $1.8 trillion by October, the end of the fiscal year. That would be four times last year’s record budget July spending rose to over ...

Ecosphere Technologies, Inc., a diversified water engineering and services company, announced this morning that its oil and gas environmental services subsidiary, Ecosphere Energy Services, LLC (EES), closed its agreements with Bledsoe Capital Group who know owns 33% of the subsidiary.

Drew Bledsoe, principal of Bledsoe Capital, stated, “Our goal was to find a ‘green’ technology to invest in that would make a major difference for present and future generations. EES has recently signed master service agreements with some of the most respected energy producers in the world. This is a testament to just how much of a game changing technology we have here. The Ecosphere opportunity allows us to participate in conserving two of the most important natural resources we have in the world, ‘Water and Natural Gas.’ The Ecosphere investment opportunity has exceeded all of our expectations.”

Ecosphere Energy Services LLC President Dennis McGuire commented, “It is very rewarding

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blockquote/blockquoteI'm not going to cover the full details of the Halliburton quarter (earnings lower, but beat estimates...we know the deal), but it was interesting that the CEO went out of his way to speak about natural gas prices. (a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/OILPRD/idUSN2049810620090720"data via Reuters/a).br /br /blockquoteHalliburton Cospan style="cursor: pointer;" id="symbol_HAL.N_0"/span, the world's second-largest oilfield services company, posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday, boosting its shares, but it warned that North American natural gas markets were likely to stay weak through the end of the year.br /br /Natural gas prices in the United States have tumbled to less than half of year-ago levels, and high inventories were expected to curb spending by energy producers on new wells.br /br /"Due to the continued weakness in natural gas demand, reflected in the high injection rates for working gas storage, we believe it is unlikely that there will be a meaningful recovery in natural gas ...

Leave it to the government. It’s proposing a “tax and cap” regime for energy producers which will require fossil-fuel generating plants to pay extra.  The idea is to encourage clean fuels and discourage dirty ones. That’s fine in theory. But instead of helping our future energy situation, it’s going to make it a lot worse.The price of oil has already doubled in the past six months to over $60 per barrel. But it’s just the beginning of oil’s next gigantic price surge. If you thought that oil was ridiculously expensive last summer, you haven’t seen anything yet.

It doesn’t matter whether you believe in “Peak Oil” because this isn’t about Peak Oil coming to fruition. Peak Oil believes that oil discoveries have peaked leading to oil production’s inevitable decline.

This crisis will be strictly man-made. Governments and oil companies have already planted the seeds of the next great energy crisis. And there’s

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