It's going to be another cold winter in many parts of the country. Staying warm will likely come at a high cost, with heating bills expected to jump by as much as 25 percent. Those bills may become even steeper during the next few years, if Congress pursues any of the counterproductive energy solutions that lawmakers and candidates have recently touted in their campaigns. ...more

January 4, 2009

Vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin repeated the McCain campaign's recent themes - mainly bashing Barack Obama on taxes and vowing more domestic oil drilling - in a speech Sunday to a huge crowd that sweltered in an outdoor square at this huge retirement complex. ...more

September 22, 2008

State regulators investigating gasoline price gouging complaints are turning their attention from retailers to oil companies, wondering whether they inflated the prices they charged gas station owners in recent days. ...more

September 16, 2008

Think Of The Economy Regarding "Call to 'Drill, Baby, Drill' Misleads Nation, Threatens Florida" (Our Opinion, Sept. 7): ...more

September 14, 2008

"Should I stay or should I go." To quote the band "The Clash," illegal immigrants to Avon Park and its environs must be asking just that question. If they stay here, they risk arrest, deportation, exploitation or worse. If they go back to Mexico, they risk greater poverty, starvation, exploitation even murder by corrupt thugs, drug dealers and cops. Nice choice, eh? I recently witnessed a demonstration against illegal immigration at the intersection of US 27 and SR 64 in Avon Park. Truck drivers were honking their air horns presumably in support of the demonstrators who proudly waved American flags next to a pickup truck with a sign against illegal immigration and for drilling domestic oil. In attendance was the former mayor of Avon Park, a huge enemy of illegal immigration. I don't know him, never met him, but I've heard him speak. Nice to know paranoia is alive and well in America. ...more

September 8, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday he would be willing to support limited additional offshore oil drilling if that's what it takes to enact a comprehensive policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and develop alternate energy sources. ...more

August 1, 2008

According to one of Sen. John McCain's campaign advisers, America has become "a nation of whiners." ...more

July 16, 2008

Gov. Charlie Crist on Wednesday evoked President Kennedy's challenge to land on the moon and called for the same dedication and innovation to finding ways to save the Earth in an address that kicked off his second annual summit on climate change. ...more

June 26, 2008

As President Bush calls for repealing a ban on drilling off most of the coast of the United States, a shortage of ships used for deep-water offshore drilling promises to impede any rapid turnaround in oil exploration and supply. ...more

June 19, 2008

With the price at the pump rising past four dollars a gallon and no end in sight, everyone's favorite "Gee I wish" is for cheaper gas prices. This is surely to be desired. Regretfully, relief is more of an illusion than an achievable reality, especially in the short run. Since it is about to be dragged into the presidential campaign, it might be useful to examine a few unpleasant aspects of the reality. To the man on the street, the dream of energy independence has been equated to gasoline cheap enough for him to continue to operate his gas hog, 12-miles-to-the-gallon SUV into the future. ...more

June 12, 2008