@newsletter

AOL Energy Week In Review

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After a tumultuous end to the summer, the energy industry has stepped back to focus on fundamentals and damage control in the past few weeks as it prepares for the final months of 2011 and braces for a high-drama politics-focused 2012.

How to attract and allocate rare resources from skittish investors was the focus of the week as the conference season got into full swing. In addition to the high-profile, and oil and gas-heavy, high-level Pacesetters conference, the renewable energy and cleantech industries gathered in California for a pair of events. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 30, 2011 at 3:30 PM

Drilling Advances Trigger Tight Oil Renaissance

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Technological advancements in oil and gas drilling have rejuvenated the US and Canadian onshore oil and gas sectors, but above-ground risks may impede rapid production growth.

Widespread use of drilling techniques such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in shales and other geologic formations have shifted the outlook for North American natural gas supply, and proved more applicable to onshore oil production, as well. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 27, 2011 at 8:00 AM

AOL Energy Week In Review

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In a world of heightened tension between Democrats and Republicans intensified by a seemingly endless fiscal crisis, the Solyndra bankruptcy has been a crisis of its time, prompting shock and escalating rounds of blame.

Republicans blame the Obama administration for heavy government spending and fiscal imprudence while Democrats point out that it was in fact the Bush administration that initially singled Solyndra out for government financing. Caught in the scapegoating is a saturated solar manufacturing sector that is struggling to stay afloat as prices for PV panels drop and renewable tax credits run out at the end of the year. Read more on renewable energy financing: After Solyndra: Renewable Energy Financing 3.0. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 23, 2011 at 2:45 PM

After Solyndra: Renewable Energy Financing 3.0

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To secure financing for renewable energy projects, developers must find investors willing to manage a suite of technological, financial and political risks.

Most technologies in renewable energy are relatively new and untested. On top of that, competition from markets with lower manufacturing costs is pressuring solar panel and wind turbine manufacturing, and fluctuating agricultural and transport fuel prices are adding uncertainty to investments in biofuels. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 20, 2011 at 9:00 AM

AOL Energy Week In Review

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The fall season is in full swing in the energy industry with only a few mishaps to darken the mood.

To usher in a new academic year, Breaking Energy is highlighting some of the Top Fives across the industry, from law firms and regulators to unique project financing and innovative technologies.
Each day, a gallery will feature one new category. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 16, 2011 at 3:20 PM

Top Five Energy Regulators

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It’s a tough time to be an energy regulator in Washington.

The value of all federal regulation is being challenged on the political front as “job-killing,” but the legal requirements remain in place. Regulators must enforce laws while debate rages. Conversations with Washington observers evoked not only vociferous criticism and fervent praise for those on the spot to keep energy regulation functioning, but also a general respect for the barriers regulators face. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 15, 2011 at 12:20 PM

Colombia’s Ecopetrol Seeks Slice of Growing Biofuels Market

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Colombia’s state-owned Ecopetrol is aiming for dramatic growth in biofuels production by 2020 to capture what could be a rapidly-growing domestic market.

Ecopetrol plans to invest $516 million in biofuels to 2020, developing new capacity in sugarcane ethanol and palm oil biodiesel. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 15, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Top Five Energy Law Firms

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The energy industry is a massive, heavily-regulated sector involved in some of the largest, most complex and most drawn-out legal issues of our time. It would be hard to find a law firm that did not count energy firms as major clients, and many of the top firms pride themselves on the excellent work they do for firms both in the US and around the world.

The list below is not an attempt to quantify the number of hours spent by attorneys, or even rate the overall profile of the firm within the golden circle of law firms themselves, much less quantify the value of the deals each firm has worked. Based on conversations with energy industry sources, these are the firms getting the most attention from insiders, and this list lays out how they are perceived. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 14, 2011 at 12:05 PM

AOL Energy Week In Review

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The end of the summer brings with it the sense, if not always the reality, of the western world returning to work.

For a lot of people in the US today, there simply is no work, as unemployment numbers and straggling economic growth continue to make clear. President Obama gathered Congress together to announce his own plan for the war on unemployment, and his suggestions met with mixed response from the energy industry. In previous speeches, Obama has singled out the energy business as a major provider of jobs; in this one, with the exception of a passing reference to an Infrastructure Bank, he largely avoided the subject. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 9, 2011 at 4:00 PM

At The State Level, The National Energy Future

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Talk about the US electricity generation sector and most people refer to national trends, but the fact is that in recent years state and regional policy has been crucial to unique local energy developments, as this Breaking Energy infographic, using US government data, shows.

Click on the picture above for a full size version, or to download. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 7, 2011 at 2:00 PM
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