The Economist looks at the recent success of Giant, the world’s largest bike manufacturer, which is capitalizing on a growing interest in cycling as an antidote to obesity and high transportation costs.

Drivers in the South continue to wait in long lines and pay high prices at the gas pump as the region reels from aftereffects of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. (New York Times — Robbie Brown)

Like everyone else, college students are finding clever ways to avoid paying high gas prices — with extra help from various new policies being implemented across college campuses. (Christian Science Monitor — Andrew Clark)

The New York Times bashes Congress’ fixation on looking for short-term solutions to high gas prices and pushes policymakers to do more to encourage the production of renewable energy.

Drivers in the Southeast face severe gas shortages after Hurricanes Ike and Gustav whomped the region’s oil refineries, bringing long lines, soaring prices, and rising tension at the pump. (Grist — Sara Barz)

California residents have suffered through some of the highest gas prices in the country. Unfortunately, they aren’t just paying for themselves — the state’s lawmakers have been given unrestricted use of gas cards, and racked up $220,000 in taxpayer-dollars through July. (Associated Press — Don Thompson)

Matt Simmons, one of the world’s leading oil analysts and a lifelong Republican, talks about peak oil and describes his party’s presidential candidate as “energy illiterate.” (Fortune Magazine — Brian O’Keefe)

While a prolonged drop in home prices continues to ripple through the nation’s economy, millions of Americans are still struggling to pay for their homes. According to the Associated Press, nearly 15 percent of homeowners with a mortgage spend more than half their income on housing costs. (Adrian Sainz and Alan Zibel)

Wild stock market swings put oil prices all over the map on Monday, with light, sweet crude rising by $25 — the largest increase ever in a single day — before dropping to $107 a barrel on Tuesday morning. (New York Times — Matthew Saltmarsh)

Ryan Avent examines how sprawling development in the Sun Belt is changing communities while perpetuating an increasingly unsustainable method of growth. (Beta Culture 11)