New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a new program designed to reduce energy consumption in buildings as part of the city’s greenhouse gas reduction goal. The program called NYC Built to Last is modelled after the NYC Clean Heat initiative that cut soot pollution from heating oil by 50 percent. “Representing three quarters… Keep reading →
Deemed one of the most-well-funded terrorist networks, the Islamist State in Syria and Iraq is reportedly making millions of dollars daily from smuggling, stealing, refining and selling oil. Completely shutting down their vast operation appears unlikely according to expert consensus. “When Islamic State fighters stormed across the Syrian border into Iraq and seized Mosul, a… Keep reading →
The EU further ratcheted up sanctions against Russia’s oil sector targeting Gazpromneft, Transneft and Rosneft with measures that will prevent the firms from raising capital in EU member states. The economic restrictions again fall short of squeezing Russia’s natural gas industry upon which many European companies closely rely. [Wall Street Journal] European Energy Commissioner Günther… Keep reading →
Citing pressure from stakeholders and legal proceedings, the EPA said Thursday it’s moving forward with an endangerment finding regarding aircraft emissions that account for an estimated 11% of US greenhouse gas emissions. Proving pollutants from aircraft engines are a danger to the public is the first step in crafting enforceable limits to regulate those emissions.… Keep reading →
The American Petroleum Institute organized a tour of natural gas drilling operations and newly-created educational opportunities in southeastern Pennsylvania Monday. Prolific Marcellus shale development is driving a need for skilled workers in a region struggling with high unemployment rates. “About 6.8 percent of Philadelphians are unemployed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics… Keep reading →
Admiral Mike Mullen, retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke on U.S. energy security last Wednesday in Washington DC at an event hosted by the groups Securing America’s Future Energy and the Foreign Policy Initiative. Mullen was asked whether the US can take advantage of the surge in domestic energy production as a… Keep reading →
Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer Prize winning author and Vice Chairman of global consulting firm IHS spoke at the 2014 EIA Conference in Washington D.C. on Monday. EIA, the U.S. Energy Information Association is the statistics arm of the federal Department of Energy and the conference featured leading figures from industry, academia and government. Yergin stated emphatically… Keep reading →
It’s called “Energetic Bear” and some experts believe elements of the Russian government are behind a string of malware infections that reportedly compromised hundreds of industrial control systems. Originally thought to be used as a form of espionage, experts believe the technology can gain control of energy infrastructure and “cripple physical systems such as wind… Keep reading →
The highly informative and thought-provoking 2014 annual International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) International Conference came to a successful close last week in New York. The energy world, a world of disparate natural resources endowments that constantly wrangles with its steady companion ‘political risk’, is highly volatile and, therefore, always in flux. In this context, Jason… Keep reading →
Energy consumers often seek similar goals when sourcing supply: Reliable, clean and cheap. The European Union is no exception and a new energy strategy document drafted in the wake of Gazprom’s latest natural gas supply cutoff reiterates that goal. “We must avoid Europe relying to such a high extent on fuel and gas imports. To… Keep reading →
