The favorite topic du jour in DC these days is the price of gas - and this being DC - the blame game around it. The right talks about the lack of supply - and says the solution lies in relaxing green refinery rules and opening up ANWR. The left blames corporate profiteering and Bush administration opposition to demand reduction. Both sides talk about peak oil in hushed tones.

Nobody is talking about the war.

The Republicans are trying to get the upper hand in the escalating political battle over high gasoline prices by proposing a $100 rebate for taxpayers, by suggesting that they might increase taxes on oil-industry profits, and by proposing the old chestnut that ANWR should be opened. The price tag for the Republican package has been put at $20 billion. So what could you do for $20 billion to solve the nation’s crisis and solve climate change? Suggestions please...

Exxon Mobil posted record first quarter-profits of over $8 billion but that wasn't enough to meet Wall Street's eager expectations.  Exxon's net income of $8.4 billion, or $1.37 a share, was up 7% from $7.9 billion, or $1.22 a share, in the year-earlier period.

Europe’s largest-ever windfarm was granted permission yesterday by the Scottish Executive. It will be built at Whitelee, south of Glasgow, will cost £300m to build and its 140 turbines will produce enough electricity to power 200,000 homes.

Great sketch in yesterday’s Washington Post by Dana Milbank about the hypocrisy of America’s politicians when it comes to driving. Suddenly as the price of fuel reaches $3 a gallon, everyone is up in arms.

They preach that America has a problem with rising fuel costs and energy security. Although they moan about it, not up for discussion is their right to drive and drive cars most Europeans would think are the size of a truck or even a well-endowed tank.

As oil-price fever gripped Congress this week, both political parties have said they are ready to revoke oil and gas incentives that were passed as recently as eight months ago.

George W. Bush, who proclaimed America’s “oil addiction,” in his January State of the Union address, exhibited a classic symptom of addiction Tuesday: denial.

As the price of a gallon of gas heads for (and beyond) three dollars, Mr. Bush proposed a truly meaningless agenda, asking oil companies to invest some of their outrageous profits in alternative energy and pledging to stop adding to the national petroleum reserve, for now. (Mr. Bush can afford to wait until prices come down, unlike the rest of us.)

There are apparently three things we can be sure of in life: death, taxes, and that when the oil industry gets in trouble, environmentalists will get blamed and more money will be thrown at Big Oil.

Twenty years after Chernobyl the nuclear industry is enjoying a renaissance it could only have dreamed of a few years ago. The twin issues of climate change and energy security have driven it up the political agenda both in Europe and in the US.

BP's CEO, John Browne, has warned that fear was driving the price of crude to artificially high levels, with "untold consequences" for the global economy. He argued that turbulence in Iran, Iraq and Nigeria was leading to continual speculation about oil shortages and there were "all sorts of things that suggest it is getting worse".