With oil prices recently declining below the $110 level, it is not all that surprising to find that gasoline prices are following suit. Over the past two months, the average US price for a gallon of unleaded has declined over 40 cents per gallon. While this is welcome news, gasoline prices are still higher in inflation-adjusted terms than at any point prior to 2008 - Source - U.S. Energy Information Administration

Barbadians have started to breathe a deep sigh of relief at the news that world oil prices have tumbled from the $150.00 per barrel to $100.00 in recent days. Several reasons have been given by the market analysts but at the top of the list is a weakened demand caused by slowing down in global economies. Whatever the reasons are the Thompson government would be urging the agency responsible for importing oil into Barbados to button as many future contracts as resources would allow. The objective would be to create a buffer to the external shocks created by volatile oil prices. This would have the affect of giving the government time to do its work.

The last eight months has been a rough initiation!

The Thompson government should not celebrate too quickly because there is news surfacing that OPEC, the oil cartel responsible for producing 40% of the world’s oil maybe about to make a decision to cut back production to stop the price of a barrel of oil falling below $100.00. This comes against the background of oil producing countries and the oil refiners having earned billions of dollars in recent months. The greed is enough to make anybody sick.

Lord come for your world!

The Thompson government has been saying the right things about the need to create a viable energy policy, so far we have not had the feeling based on what we have seen that any major initiative is underway. BU appreciates that there is enormous research required to support  a decision to wean Barbados away from the tentacles of fossil fuels and the several interest groups that feed from it. But doesn’t commonsense dictate that we must and soon?

While Barbadians revert to old lifestyles caused by falling oil prices, some of us will continue to offer our concerns about the reluctance of Barbados to fully engage a renewable energy policy. Having said that we find the following article which appeared in the London mail very interesting. Continue reading →