There I was, surrounded by thousands of barrels of Kentucky’s finest — seemingly, enough bourbon to get every of-age taxpayer in the U.S. a little tipsy. By any stretch of the imagination, this place was paradise. Rolling hills as far as you could see and the air was thick with the smell of the latest batch. But even this paradise, hidden well in the confines of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, was prey to Uncle Sam’s grubby little hands.

You see, on my recent trip to Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail, one thing stuck in my mind: TAXES. I was utterly shocked when I heard what the distillery tour guide was saying about a $13.50 per gallon tax on any distilled bourbon. That’s over $700 of taxes per barrel. And that’s before the bourbon even gets to the bottle. For me and you, fellow Whiskey Shooter, there’s another tax when we get to the

In May, Axial Vector Energy Corp. announced that its PETRO AVEC Joint Venture partner, Petrosonics LLC, recently received a Russian patent protecting the purification process that removes sulfur and nitrogen compounds from diesel oil, FCC cycle oil, FCC slurry oil, light/heavy gas oil and coker gas oil fractions. The patent will remain in effect for 20 years with the possibility of an additional five-year extension.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Russia has 41 oil refineries with a total crude oil processing capacity of 5.4 million bbl/d, and produces significant amounts of heavy fuel oil, middle distillates, and gasoline. Roughly 20.5% of Russia’s total diesel output is exported. However, their refineries need to modernize in order to meet Europe’s growing demand for low sulfur fuels.

Dr. Mazin Samman, lead PETRO AVEC licensing negotiator for Russia, stated, “Russian oil companies are prime licensing

OriginOil, Inc. (OOIL.OB) Leads the Way in Algae to Oil Technology

OriginOil Incorporated is developing a breakthrough technology that will transform algae into a true competitor to petroleum. Algae is one of the most promising future sources of renewable oil. Much of the world’s oil and gas deposits came from ancient algae deposits.

On April 20, 2009, OriginOil announced an innovative single-step process to extract oil from algae. In addition to integrating this process into its own production system, the company plans to rapidly commercialize the patent-pending process for use by others in the rapidly-growing algae industry.

Initial testing indicates that the new algae oil extraction process is simpler and more efficient than current systems, without requiring chemicals or significant capital expenditure for heavy machinery. Unlike some competing systems, the company’s process will not disrupt the environment or the food supply chain.

The company released a time-lapse video which begins with a batch