Twenty-five percent of America’s oil production and a significant amount of onshore refining capacity and pipeline infrastructure is located in the hurricane-prone central and western Gulf of Mexico — and much of it was in the path of Hurricane Gustav. Fortunately, unlike Katrina and Rita in 2005 and other past hurricanes, Gustav has not done significant damage to the energy infrastructure there. Prices and markets will be relatively unaffected. Nonetheless, the hurricane does underscore the benefits of geographic diversification in domestic oil production. The Atlantic, Pacific, and eastern Gulf of …
ST. PAUL — The mood here in Minneapolis-St. Paul is quite somber on what is going to be a radically scaled down first day of the Republican National Convention. All eyes are on the Gulf Coast region and the approaching Hurricane Gustav. John McCain summed up the feelings of many when he said from St. Louis yesterday, “It’s time to take our Republican hats off and put our American hats on.” Currently a Category 2 hurricane, Gustav has already dislocated more than 2 million people from Texas to Alabama. Tidal …
