In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law an amendment to the Clean Air Act that mandated emissions reductions of the harmful pollutant sulfur dioxide, SO2, from coal-fired power plants. The government did not instruct industry how they were to achieve the reductions, but merely that they were required to. A novel system called… Keep reading →
Last Friday the U.S. Department of State released its Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Keystone XL pipeline project. Instantly, many media outlets were only too eager to suggest that with this report the Keystone decision to be made by President Obama is a foregone conclusion; namely, in favor of the controversial project.… Keep reading →
The US State Department released its Final Environmental Impact Statement on the Keystone XL Pipeline project Friday, which received spirited reactions across the energy business and political spectrums. The findings were largely in line with previous Environmental Impact Statements, which concluded Canada’s oil sands resources would likely be developed regardless of the pipeline’s construction.… Keep reading →
The highly controversial Keystone XL pipeline project – that would move Canadian oil sands crude from Alberta to the US Gulf Coast – took a step forward in the drawn-out approval process today when the State Department released its Final Environmental Impact Statement. The statement is mostly favorable – the executive summary is included below.… Keep reading →
We saw an interesting evolution of Barack Obama as an energy president on display last night in his fifth official State of the Union address. You might say the president got real. He was more emphatic than ever about the reality of climate change. He let his affection for natural gas blossom into a full-fledged love… Keep reading →
DOE will provide $1B financial assistance for the FutureGen 2.0 Project, the world’s first commercial-scale, oxy-combustion electric generation project with CCS technology. On January 15, 2014, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced its decision to provide approximately $1B in cost-shared funding to FutureGen Industrial Alliance for its $1.68B FutureGen 2.0 Project, a private-public partnership established… Keep reading →
Germany’s massive build out of renewable power generation resources and simultaneous nuclear power phase out has resulted in a difficult situation where coal use and customers’ electric bills are rising. The country’s new energy minister, Sigmar Gabriel, discussed these issues in a policy speech on Tuesday. Read Breaking Energy coverage of the German energy situation… Keep reading →
Many of the largest US pension fund managers gathered at the United Nations last week to discuss the risks and opportunities climate change poses to their investment portfolios. Institutional investment fund managers, like those in charge of pension resources, are in the difficult position of finding opportunities that provide returns needed to support beneficiaries for… Keep reading →
The EIA recently said that U.S. oil production will peak at 9.61 million barrels per day by 2019 and thereby nearly match the 9.64 mmb/d record set back in 1970. This is great news for U.S. energy self-sufficiency aspirations. Moreover, as Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil, pointed out in a recent interview:”We’re already the… Keep reading →
Energy Quote of the Day: On Comparing US Fossil Fuel Exports with Tobacco
By Jared AndersonA Rolling Stone article has been getting much attention for suggesting that as domestic fossil fuels markets for products like coal and petroleum coke diminish, companies increasingly seek overseas markets – often aided by US government offices – much like tobacco companies pushed their product overseas a couple decades ago. “Even as our nation is… Keep reading →