When Can We Expect Relief? Just a few months ago oil was at $145 a barrel. Yesterday it closed at $46. Effectively a 68 percent drop. Gasoline was $4 a gallon and is now about $1.83 - a 54 percent drop. ...more

December 6, 2008

In a corner of what was once an orange juice plant, dozens of towering stainless steel tanks have found a new purpose: storing the raw materials and finished product of Florida's largest biodiesel factory. ...more

November 29, 2008

Biodiesel is part of an array of alternate energy sources environmentalists and others see as a way to curb global climate change and reduce the country's dependence on the Middle East and other oil-rich global hot spots. But high production costs and low commercial demand have become hurdles to making the fuels a viable alternative to oil. ...more

November 28, 2008

Oil prices on Thursday hit levels not seen in more than three years and retail gasoline prices are now below $2 across nearly half of the country on dour economic reports suggesting a painful economic pullback. ...more

November 21, 2008

It seems inconceivable: Somali pirates in speedboats foil warships from the world's most powerful navies to prey on shipping lanes crucial to the oil supply. ...more

November 19, 2008

Wall Street launched a massive rebound Thursday, muscling the Dow Jones industrial average up nearly 553 points after driving it down near its lows for the year, as investors decided they did not want to miss out on cheap stocks. ...more

November 14, 2008

Who hasn't driven by a gas station lately and seen prices hovering around $2 a gallon and not felt positively giddy? It's as if motorists have awakened from a bad dream where the price of a gallon of gas was almost twice that and our car-loving culture and fragile household budgets were being strangled. ...more

November 14, 2008

Pump prices continued to tumble in the past week, falling more than 25 cents to a national average of $2.656 a gallon, new government figures show. In some places, gasoline is selling for less than $2 a gallon. ...more

October 28, 2008

It's looking like a good year for big oil - again. ConocoPhillips, the first of the major oil companies to report earnings for the third quarter, said profits soared 41 percent as crude prices soared to record highs over the summer. The numbers posted by the third-largest U.S. oil company easily topped Wall Street forecasts. ...more

October 23, 2008

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline has dropped below $3 a gallon in the Tampa Bay area, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report. Local retailers are charging, on average, $2.94 for a gallon of regular unleaded, down from $3.78 a month ago, AAA reported today. A year ago, the same grade of fuel was averaging $2.79 a gallon in the Bay area. ...more

October 20, 2008