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Italy’s lorry drivers say they are suspending their three-day blockade that has led to shortages of petrol and food across the country.

The two main unions representing the strikers say the government has agreed to address their concerns about rising fuel prices and long working hours.

Thousands of drivers have been blockading motorways since Monday.

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 This news is interesting on 2 levels. The first is the realization that within 3 days, food shelves can be emptied, gasoline reserves can be deleted, and chaos can break out in a 1st world nation just with a truck strike.

 The 2nd interesting thing to consider it the amazing power we consumers have to change our situation. Maybe it’s time government and big oil realized the growing dissatisfaction many people have with their expensive over-priced over-taxed cash cows, and start to work for the people that put them into power in the first place.

A Senate bill to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions would raise energy prices and also reduce American economic output by more than half a trillion dollars over two decades, according to a government report released on Monday.

Congress is expected to consider climate legislation this fall that would fight global warming. Many businesses worry the U.S. economy would suffer under a measure to impose tough mandatory cuts in emissions.

One proposal, introduced by Sens. Joseph Lieberman and John McCain, would gradually reduce total U.S. emissions by the year 2050 to 60 percent below 1990 levels.

The bill would require companies to report their yearly greenhouse gas emissions and submit a matching number of government-issued allowances to equal the emissions spewed. Companies that emit more would have to buy allowances from cleaner companies that produce fewer emissions.

However, the proposal would cut into the U.S. economy and raise gasoline and other energy prices paid by consumers, according to an analysis of the legislation by the Energy Information Administration.

The legislation “increases the cost of using energy, which reduces real economic output, reduces purchasing power, and lowers aggregate demand for goods and services,” the EIA said.

With companies trying to meet the shrinking emissions levels, U.S. economic output would be $533 billion lower over the 2009 to 2030 time period, the agency said.

In the transportation sector, gasoline and other petroleum products would cost more as oil refiners buy allowances to cover the emissions spewed by their facilities.

“The cost of the allowances will be included in the prices of the fuels,” the EIA said.

Gasoline prices are forecast to be 23 cents a gallon higher in 2020 and 41 cents more in 2030 because of the required emission cuts, the agency said.

The EIA said the fuel price increases would not be large enough “to create dramatic shifts in consumer behavior,” but there would be more demand for fuel efficient vehicles.

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Oil prices retreated after jumping to a new record Wednesday on the government’s report of a steep drop in crude inventories and surge in refinery activity.
Crude prices initially rose after the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration reported that oil inventories fell by 6.5 million barrels last week, far more than expected. But gas futures fell on word that refiners ramped up their operations much quicker than expected. As the slide in gas futures prices accelerated, oil prices had little choice but to follow, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.

“The refineries have finally gotten their act together,” Flynn said. “They’re back to normal, almost.”

As the industry rebounds from a spring and early summer in which refiners experienced an unusual number of outages, it is drawing down crude inventories that had hit 9-year highs. Some investors see that draw as a sign crude inventories are tightening.

“That’s going to keep the (crude) market underpinned for now,” Flynn said.

But traders also remember last summer, when oil prices plummeted by almost $20 in a little over a month after hitting record highs.

“Oil does have a tendency to peak in late summer,” Flynn said. “Seasonally-speaking, this bull market’s on borrowed time.”

Light, sweet crude for September delivery fell $1.30 to $76.91 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising as high as $78.77 earlier. That surpasses the previous intraday record of $78.40, set in July 2006.

On the other side of the petroleum supply chain, refineries are producing more gasoline. That news sent September gasoline futures down 7.97 cents to $2.0262 a gallon on the Nymex.

Retail prices typically lag the futures market, and prices at the pump fell by 0.9 cent overnight to a national average of $2.867 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gas prices peaked at $3.227 a gallon in late May. Gas futures have fallen steeply in recent weeks as refineries have ramped up operations.

Refineries are also churning out more distillates, including heating oil. Nymex heating oil futures fell by 5.01cents to $2.0731 a gallon.

Nymex natural gas futures gained 21.5 cents to $6.406 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, September Brent crude fell $1.51 to $75.54 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

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