Oil prices hit news highs for the year Thursday after a decision by the Federal Reserve to spend billions snapping up U.S. bonds sent the dollar tumbling. Oil is priced in dollars and when the U.S. currency weakens, it essentially makes crude cheaper.
Benchmark crude for April delivery surged $3.47 to $51.61 a barrel in light trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices hit $52.25 earlier in the day, a price last seen Dec. 1.
Analysts said investors flocked to crude stocks after the Federal Reserve announced late Wednesday it would buy long-term government bonds, a measure that's expected to jolt the economy with lower rates on mortgages and other consumer debt.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
More support for nukes Nuclear power is becoming a more attractive energy option around the world, thanks to concerns about climate change, but the industry is still dogged by persistent concerns about nuclear safety and nuclear waste, a new Accenture survey found.
Accenture, the big consulting firm, just released the findings of its 20-country, 10,500-person survey on attitudes toward nuclear power, meant to sound out the popular appeal of different energy options for policymakers. The upshot? About 69 percent of people favor adding more nuclear power; 31 percent are opposed. In the past three years, 29 percent of people have become more supportive, and 19 percent have become more entrenched in their opposition.
China and India lead the nuclear-power bandwagon, with the highest levels of unconditional support for nuclear power in the survey; in China, 50 percent of the respondents said they've increased their support for nuclear power in recent years.
Overall support for nuclear power in the United States seems to be growing, with 37 percent of respondents saying they've become more supportive in recent years. And 81 percent favor using more nuclear power, with only 19 percent flat-out opposed to nukes. That opposition is due to concerns over plant safety, nuclear waste, terrorism and cost, in that order.
