In The Loop: 31/07/08

Higher oil price boosts BP profit

Oil giant BP has announced a 6% rise in profits for the second quarter of 2008, largely thanks to a sharp rise in the price of oil. [BBC]

Climate activists occupy proposed site for coal-fired power station

Climate change activists yesterday occupied the proposed site for Britain's first coal-fired power station in 30 years, claiming the development will cause huge damage to the environment if it goes ahead. [Guardian]

Next prime minister or this one must deal with rising energy prices

Excellent article by Micael White on UK utility companies’ failure to develop modern infrastructure to keep down the price of energy. [Guardian]

Cable calls for social tariff for energy providers

Vince Cable was asked about rising energy prices, the housing market and the profits of Centrica. He called for a social tariff whereby energy providers would feed money back to those most in need.

He said on the issue of home heating that as summer moves to winter, “those high prices will really bite. We have 2.5 million people in fuel poverty.

He said that for the energy providers, “there should be an obligation to provide a real social tariff.” [PoliticsHome]

'Oil from algae' promises climate friendly fuel

A liquid fuel made from plants that is chemically identical to crude oil but which does not contribute to climate change when it is burned or, unlike other biofuels, need agricultural land to produce sounds too good to be true. But a company in San Diego claims to have developed exactly that – a sustainable version of oil it calls "green crude". [Guardian]

Two wheels

Wonderful look by Claire Armitstead on the relationship between cycling and political values. [Guardian]

UK is second in the world at research

UK scientists publish more research than any other country in the world except the United States, the science minister will say today. However, China now publishes almost the same number of studies as the UK – four times as many as it did 10 years ago. [Guardian]

United States economy shrinks for first time since 2001

The US economy shrank at the end of 2007 for the first time in six years, according to official figures, leading analysts to speculate the world's largest economy may be in recession. [Guardian]

House prices suffer record fall

House prices continued to fall in July, recording their largest year-on-year drop since the property market crash of the early 1990s, figures from Nationwide building society showed today. [Guardian]

Nasa discovers giant lake on surface of Saturn moon

Nasa scientists said today they had discovered the first direct evidence that the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has lakes of liquid hydrocarbons - the only object other than Earth to have standing liquids on its surface. [Guardian]

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