Among the key findings released this week: For all the talk about Canada's huge oil sands reserves and their potential, only two Canadian companies, EnCana Corp. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., made the elite list, ranking 34th and 39th, respectively, behind even such government-owned lightweights as Colombia's Ecopetrol and Uzbekistan's Uzbekneftegas.

Although there are many potential alternatives to fossil fuels, there are none sufficiently developed to provide a credible alternative in the foreseeable future.

Two of the main issues to be discussed are expected to be biofuels sustainability and a proposed review of climate change targets set for 2020 in six years' time.

For the second time in a week, the bureau announced late Tuesday that it was pulling auction parcels from an expanded oil-and-gas leasing program in Utah. The latest tracts include land inside Nine Mile Canyon and Desolation Canyon on the Green River.

Russia's war with Georgia underscores the need to step up preparations for the prospective Nabucco pipeline, EU special representative Pierre Morel said after meeting with the leader of gas-rich Turkmenistan, President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov.

The researchers analyzed data from dozens of studies to determine how planting new biofuel crops can influence the carbon content of the soil.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday approved the repeal of a 1983 law that prohibited surface coal mining within 100 feet of flowing streams. Most U.S. surface coal mining is done in the steep mountains of Appalachia, across Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky.

The report said carbon dioxide, the leading pollution linked to global warming, rose by 1.3 percent in 2007 as people used more coal, oil and natural gas because of a colder winter and more electricity during a warmer summer. Half of the country's electricity is generated by coal-burning power plants.

The figures come as one of London's two electric car distributors, Nice Car Company, was put into administration.

Way back in Napoleonic Paris, a Monsieur Girard had a novel idea about energy: power from the sea. In 1799, Girard obtained a patent for a machine he and his son had designed to mechanically capture the energy in ocean waves. Wave power could be used, they figured, to run pumps and sawmills and the like.

But lately, the wait for the cafe's signature Packer breakfast sandwich, which is two eggs and sausage covered in gravy on a biscuit, has been shorter than usual. On a recent Tuesday morning at 7 a.m., the restaurant was only a quarter full. "One of the drilling crews just got laid off," says waitress Theresa Steffen. "It's slowed down a little."

On the campaign trail, Obama railed against big oil companies. He often criticized John McCain for backing tax cuts that would reward ExxonMobil and other top oil manufacturers. But now Obama's proposal to apply a windfall tax on big oil has vanished... at least from his transition website. The President-elect's transition team hasn't explicitly announced it will drop the windfall tax plan, but a transition aide, commenting on the condition he not be identified, backed off the promise in an email. "President-elect Obama announced the [windfall profits tax] policy during the campaign because oil prices were above $80 per barrel," he said. "They are currently below that now and expected to stay below that."

Greens spokeswoman on transport and climate change Christine Milne wants the fund—which will be used to finance port, road, rail and communications projects—to be overseen by a parliamentary committee.

Consumer prices in October fell at the fastest pace in more than 60 years, sucked down by the rapidly deteriorating economy. The prices of oil, food, cars, clothing and electronics have all plunged. Home prices continue to swoon and so do stock prices.