Morning News Roundup (04 May)

• Tight petroleum supplies amid soaring demand could drive crude oil prices above $100 a barrel by this winter, energy experts warned yesterday. That could translate into gas prices of more than $5 a gallon at the pump and spike home heating oil an additional 30%, analysts said. [NYDailyNews]
  
  
• Though it remains unclear whether Congress will actually force automakers to produce more fuel-efficient fleets -- a company's car lineup must now average 27.5 miles per gallon, while many advocates support making it 33 mpg for both cars and light trucks by 2015 -- several House members who had opposed higher fuel economy requirements now say they back tougher standards.
  
  House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.), who along with Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) has tried to raise CAFE standards to 33 mpg since 2001, said the political climate has shifted. But Boehlert and his allies still face a tough fight: Last year their proposal failed 254 to 177 in the House, while a similar Senate amendment lost by 67 to 28. A number of Democrats from auto-producing states, along with many Republicans, argue that stricter fuel efficiency standards could cost U.S. manufacturing jobs. [WaPo]
  
  
• $6.89 billion: The first quarter profits of Royal Dutch Shell, the world’s third-largest oil company. [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• A suicide car bomb exploded in a busy street in northeastern Baghdad Thursday killing at least 12 people and wounding more than 50. Separately, the U.S. military announced the deaths Thursday of two soldiers after their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in south-central Baghdad. And in the restive city of Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad, 13 people were killed in a U.S. air strike on a house. [WaPo]
  
  
• Zacarias Moussaoui escaped the death penalty (which, as an opponent of the death penalty, I applaud; plus, it takes away his potential martyrdom). ThinkProgress' ThinkFast also notes the following from the LATimes:
  

  The Zacarias Moussaoui trial reveals a central contradiction in the Bush administration’s fight against terrorism — “bit players often have been put on trial, while those thought to have orchestrated the plots have been held in secret for questioning.”

  
  
• President Vicente Fox reversed course Wednesday and decided not to sign a drug legalization bill that critics on both sides of the border said would turn Mexico into a narcotics haven. [LATimes]
  
  
• Climate scientists identified a likely new victim of global warming Wednesday: the vast looping system of air currents that fuels Pacific trade winds and climate from South America to Indonesia. This could mean more El Nino-like weather patterns in the United States, more rain in the western Pacific and less nourishment for marine life along the Equator and off the South American coast. [Reuters via ENN]
  
  
• In World Cup news, Steve McClaren, current manager of English Premier League mid-tablers Middlesbrough, is set to be named to be the replacement for current England national coach, Sven Goran Eriksson (the switch happening after the Finals are concluded). Chelsea captain John Terry has been given the all-clear for the World Cup after receiving positive results from a scan on his injured ankle.