A few weeks ago, every politician in Washington seemed to be blaming speculators for driving up oil prices last year. The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in July that the agency was likely to clamp down on…

Advantage Capital Partners, a venture capital firm with an office in Clayton, hopes to raise $50 million to invest in alternative-energy companies in Missouri and Illinois. R. Foster Duncan, a managing director of Advantage, mentioned the new fund Friday at…

If you weren’t swayed by my economic arguments against the “cash for clunkers” program, you may want to read Christopher Knittel’s analysis of the program’s supposed environmental benefits. Knittel, an economist at the University of California-Davis, calculated how much carbon…

After I wrote a column critical of Illinois’ local-food law, a couple of readers accused me of ignoring the energy used in shipping food. A comment from Oni, for example, said:

Shipping food all over the place has several problems not mentioned…

The markets haven’t been kind to MegaWest Energy, the Canadian company that began producing oil in western Missouri last year. Falling oil prices forced the company to suspend production jst a few months after it started, and the wells have been idle…

If you think you are (or your broker is) smart enough to beat the market, be sure to read Bloomberg’s analysis of recommendations by the top Wall Street analysts. Reporters Lynn Thomasson and Adria Cimino go back to March, just before…

The scrolling sign at McArthur’s Bakery in St. Louis County usually advertises something sweet, but one recent message was downright bitter. According to Fox News, the sign read:

“Russ Carnahan voted to … close us and other … small business.”

The reference…

It’s not exactly a gusher, but oil is flowing from the Missouri oil find that we took note of last winter. MegaWest Energy of Calgary announced that the first sale of oil from its Missouri well, which it now calls the…

If you think we’re in an energy crisis now, coal executive Steve Leer told a business audience recently, just wait until the U.S. starts seeing electricity shortages. Leer, chief executive of Arch Coal, told the local Association for Corporate Growth…

We’ve already seen the promise of “free” gasoline being used to sell cars and concert tickets. Now McBride & Son, a prominent St. Louis home builder, is offering gasoline vouchers of $3,000 to $6,000 with the purchase of a new home.…