Margaret Ryan

 

Posts by Margaret Ryan


US greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector are going to stay below their 2005 peak for the foreseeable future, thanks to more efficient energy usage and increased use of lower-carbon energy sources, says the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The projection is in EIA’s preliminary outlook to 2040, the first agency analysis to project beyond 2035. Keep reading →

EA-6B Prowler from the Salty Dogs of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 flies September 16, 2011 over Southern Maryland. The plane uses a biofuel blend of JP-5 aviation fuel and camelina oil.

Growing demand in huge emerging economies like China and India will drive up world oil prices no matter what the US does, so it’s crucial for the US to develop energy alternatives that will keep it from being hurt by those nations’ successes, says Adm. (Ret.) Dennis Blair, former director of national intelligence. Keep reading →


As of the end of October, the Department of Energy (DOE) had 18 applications pending for authority to export liquefied natural gas (LNG).

International demand is growing and expert studies say the LNG market will need 15 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) more in five years. Keep reading →


What happens when federal regulation designed to guard against national shortages of a critical fuel runs headlong into fuel surpluses?

That’s what the US is finding out now with natural gas, and nowhere is the dilemma more clearly on display than the issue of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. Keep reading →


Government agencies tasked with US energy policy are “like an orchestra without a conductor,” says former North Dakota Senator Bryan Dorgan, now part of a panel of experts urging the second Obama administration to change the way it approaches energy.

Dorgan, a Democrat, is part of a Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) energy project that’s hammering out policy recommendations for the second Obama administration and the incoming Congress. The recommendations are due to be finished right after the inauguration. Keep reading →


The daunting cost of getting new transmission lines built is spurring the search for alternatives that not only cost less but can make the electricity system more resilient in the face of natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy.

Proponents of distributed generation, like rooftop solar panels, have been promoting many of these options as clean energy. But Doug Hurley, senior associate with Synapse Energy Economics, told the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) in Baltimore this week that cost alone will drive the power industry toward “non-transmission alternatives” (NTAs). Keep reading →


Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials are seeing “no surprises” as the power industry plans compliance with new mercury rules, but some industry officials say the surprises are still to come – in customer bills.

EPA Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy told the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in Baltimore this week that “just a handful” of companies with specific compliance challenges have come to EPA to discuss getting additional time to comply with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS). Keep reading →


Hurricane Sandy presents state and federal officials nationwide with a superb opportunity to think through how to better utilize all their resources in an even worse disaster, says Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Stockton.

And a worse disaster is coming – either from human enemies or from Mother Nature, he warned the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), meeting recently held in Baltimore. Keep reading →

A hole and a section of pipe remain in a neighborhood that was devastasted by a gas line explosion in September of last year on May 19, 2011 in San Bruno, California. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier toured the San Bruno gas explosion site and a construction site where gas lines are being replaced.

President Obama’s re-election means “pretty aggressive” reforms of natural gas pipeline safety, undertaken in the wake of the fatal San Bruno pipeline explosion in California, will continue on schedule, a top safety official says, but the industry still needs better technology to improve safety. Keep reading →

For countries with lots of coal looking for clean alternatives to burning it, Synthesis Energy Systems has an answer: use that coal to run cars and make plastics.

That’s not only technically feasible, it’s actually being done commercially in China, Robert Rigdon, SES President and CEO, told Breaking Energy. Keep reading →

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