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Three ways that oil matters for the crisis in Iraq

Source: https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://www.vox.com/2014/8/11/5988377/kurdistan-oil&ct=ga&cd=CAAYADIaZWU0YWJkY2QyMmM0ZGJmZTpjb206ZW46VVM&usg=AFQjCNFc8x2h9k_3r4i1-stUvIPAHf0Sng
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For months now, Sunni militants from the Islamic State (better known as ISIS) have been seizing control of large swathes of Iraq. ISIS is now threatening a major oil-producing region of Iraq. But it wasn’t until they encroached into semi-autonomous Kurdish territory and near the Kurdish capital of Erbil — an oil boomtown full of Western companies like Chevron and ExxonMobil — that the Obama administration decided to authorize airstrikes against ISIS

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Refinery issues cause gas prices to rise

Source: https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://wane.com/2014/08/11/refinery-issues-cause-gas-prices-to-rise/&ct=ga&cd=CAAYAzIaMWVkY2JkYzVjYTU3YzU0OTpjb206ZW46VVM&usg=AFQjCNGfXnKGpC8t7ZDhpo5AFr3Ns6Ymlg
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Average retail gasoline prices in Fort Wayne have risen 11.1 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $3.53 a gallon Sunday, Augus t10, 2014 according to GasBuddy’s daily survey of 201 gas outlets in Fort Wayne. This compares with the national average that has fallen 1.7 cents per gallon in the last week to $3.47 a gallon, according to gasoline price website GasBuddy.com which powers wane.com’s Gas Gauge.

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Ethanol: Key To U.S. Energy Independence

Source: Yuma News
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In 2013, ethanol production contributed more than $44 billion to the Gross Domestic Product and generated more than $4.5 billion in federal tax revenues. And in 2013 alone, the ethanol industry created and supported nearly 400,000 new jobs across the country. Contributing to food production, as well, ethanol supports the livestock industry by producing dried distiller’s grains, or DDGs—a high-protein livestock feed and ethanol by-product. Every 56-pound bushel of corn processed by a dry mill ethanol plant generates 2.8 gallons of ethanol and approximately 17.5 pounds of animal feed.

 

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End ban on crude oil exports

Source: Washington Post
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The United States is a rising oil exporter. That sentence is amazing when you consider that federal law technically bans crude oil exports. Last week, the BW Zambesi oil tanker left Texas City, Texas, with $40 million worth of minimally processed condensate, a form of oil, and headed to South Korea. This was the first shipment following a Commerce Department determination that decades-old federal restrictions on crude oil exports do not apply to condensate from which drillers have removed various natural compounds.

 

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Living in Oil: the Microorganisms that Ruin our Fuel

Source: Nature World News
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Oil might not seem like it could be home to, well, anything. We’ve seen what oil spills can do to ecosystems, and it’s hard to imagine that anything would actually live in the black blood of industry. However, researchers have discovered tiny organisms do indeed make their home there, and they are an essential part of the reason that oil degrades over time.

 

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Tesla Motors, Inc.’s Demand Is Growing Faster Than Production

Source: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/08/06/tesla-motors-incs-demand-is-growing-faster-than-pr.aspx
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Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA ) Model S has been an enormous success. Not only has the all-electric luxury sedan been outselling all comparably priced cars in North America in 2013, but Tesla is expecting sales to increase by more than 50% this year. Most surprising of all, however, is that Tesla is achieving this without spending any money on advertising. How long can this trend continue?