When Bill Crews, the chairman of Wauchula State Bank, and Tom Trevino, a broker with Merrill Lynch's brokerage in Sebring, spoke to the Kiwanis in Hardee County on Tuesday, they faced a deluge of questions. ...more

September 18, 2008

Speculation by large investors - not supply and the demand for oil - were a primary reason for the surge in oil prices during the first half of the year and the more recent price declines, an independent study concluded Wednesday. ...more

September 11, 2008

Nothing stokes our anger better than a convenient villain who probably drives a cool car. So it was that, through much of this summer's understandable angst over gasoline prices, flailing politicians tried to help the rest of us - hey, it's an election year - point the blame gun. ...more

September 10, 2008

Four dollar-a-gallon gasoline has done something few Republicans thought possible a few months ago: given them hope. United behind a renewed push for offshore oil drilling, Republican members of Congress and the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, think they have found their best political issue of the 2008 campaign. ...more

July 27, 2008

Hardworking Tampa Bay area families are being squeezed by the rising costs of health care, housing, property insurance and, of course, gas prices. Many reformers have been standing up to the White House and urging them for years to change direction and focus on long-term solutions to our energy challenges. Big Oil and their allies in Washington have had a stranglehold over our country's energy policy, and unfortunately families and businesses across America are paying the price. Bipartisan reformers are not giving up, however. ...more

July 4, 2008

After all the hand-wringing and worrying about oil, the American people have already found their own solution. Train ridership is up, small car sales and scooters are through the roof, and for the first time since 1974 the use of oil has declined. All this flailing about to find new sources of oil or punish oil speculators only muddies the waters of our need to change our ways. Any new sources of oil will only be temporary and further delay our eventual inevitable change to an alternative. ...more

June 29, 2008

The aviation industry - in a rare challenge to a fellow private-sector enterprise - has begun to focus on oil speculators as a chief cause of what it calls its worst-ever economic crisis. ...more

June 26, 2008

It's unusually difficult to know what's right or wrong about drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico... ...more

June 25, 2008

Anyone filling up the tank of their car right now will be cursing oil speculators. Likewise, anyone loading up a shopping cart with food for a family may feel angry with hedge-fund managers pushing the cost of wheat, rice and other basics through the roof. ...more

May 30, 2008

Saudi Arabia has the world's largest oil reserves, but how much can it really ramp up production in the short-term? ...more

January 16, 2008