The markets fell on Wednesday, led by tumbling energy and financial shares, as traders responded to signs that the economic recovery might not be as strong as anticipated.
Today’s Markets Keep reading →
2013
Sign up and get Breaking Energy news in your inbox.
We will never sell or share your information without your consent. See our privacy policy.
It’s a commonly used analogy for the global oil market: Crude oil is fungible and supplies from
producing countries and companies enter a giant pool that is drained by a wide variety of consumers. Analysts, academics and politicians often talk of the global oil trade in this manner, saying that additional supplies of oil – regardless of where they originate – are good for US energy security because increased volumes available on the global market should exert downward price pressure. Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s not that simple.
The situation is clarified in a recent journal article titled “Crude Oil Is Not Fungible, Where It Comes from Does Matter, and Global Markets Are More Fragmented Than Many Think.” The piece, written by Jonathan Chanis, a long-time commodity trader, finance expert and current Columbia University professor, appeared in American Foreign Policy Interests: The Journal of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. Keep reading →
Power markets have always been a complex proposition, perhaps especially so in the places where they could do the most good. How to price the creation and delivery of a commodity that can’t be stored, is technologically complex to ship and often dirty to create where it isn’t unreliable?
Transmission is the central component of the traditional power market. The lines and towers are the only thing that can make power flow from lower priced areas to higher priced areas, and as part of managing access the administrators of these markets have begun to charge for Congestion Revenue Rights. In California, those CRRs have become a major market, with banks, trading houses and power marketing firms all getting in on the action since trading began in 2009. Keep reading →
One of the biggest ignored threats to the power sector – and to electricity delivery to homes and businesses across much of the country’s most populated regions – is from a lack of natural gas pipeline capacity. A former federal regulator is warning that this issue, arcane at first glance, could prompt market failure and a crisis of reliability for some generators.
The free market is a funny thing; it works only over time and often in socially unpopular ways. The energy market in the US has been regulated, de-regulated and re-regulated over its history, but all market participants are operating in the context of rules set up to balance policy priorities and operating realities. Keep reading →
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR), a rocket-engine manufacturer based in Los Angeles, Calif., has marked a major milestone in technology that will provide reliable solar energy on demand – even when the sun isn’t shining.
The last of 14 Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) receiver panels and heat shields have been installed at the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy project, and construction of the 10,400 articulating mirrors, or heliostats, on the 1600-acre heliostat field is underway in Tonopah, Nevada. PWR has provided the worldwide exclusive license to SolarReserve, a developer of large-scale solar energy projects based in Santa Monica, Calif., for the molten salt power tower and heliostat technologies. Keep reading →
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has come under fire for the nuanced lists of exemptions it has offered to various firms and groups as it implements some portions of Dodd Frank legislation that require greater transparency and tighter limits on hedging and trading of the derivatives it oversees.
Included in this group have been certain “natural” players perceived as having an inherent physical position in a relevant commodity and therefore less likely to game the market without regard for fundamental supply and demand or to hold dangerously large positions. Also included as of this week are public power companies and cooperative utilities, which have been exempted from all but the anti-fraud, anti-manipulation and record inspection provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act when it comes to energy transactions. Keep reading →
In this video, the US Department of Interior highlights outgoing Secretary Salazar touring five new national monuments designated by President Obama; the Secretary bids an emotional farewell at a ceremony at the Department of the Interior; and the Obama Administration releases a new national strategy to fight climate change by preserving our natural resources.
Salazar is stepping down and President Obama has nominated Sally Jewell to take his place. Jewell is president and chief executive of outdoor recreation company REI and worked as an oil field engineer earlier in her career. The Department manages the country’s energy resources located on federal lands both onshore and offshore. Keep reading →
It’s On! EPA’s Proposed Cleaner Fuels and Cars Standards Applauded by Some, Hated by Others
By Jared Anderson
Last week the US EPA proposed regulations known as Tier 3 rulemaking that would increase fuel efficiency and tighten controls on sulfur in gasoline. The EPA described the new rules as “sensible standards for cars and gasoline that will significantly reduce harmful pollution, prevent thousands of premature deaths and illnesses, while also enabling efficiency improvements in the cars and trucks we drive.”
The environmental community, many politicians and some business associations are strongly in favor of the regulations, while the refining industry is bitterly opposed. Both sides claim the regulations will save money and have very different views on how the rules will affect gasoline prices. The following is a collection of statements EPA sent in an email from prominent environmental, political and trade group voices speaking in favor of the regulations: Keep reading →
When Exelon merged with Constellation, Joe Glace started reporting directly to the president and CEO, Christopher Crane. As the Chief Risk Officer for the mega-utility, it was imperative that he was part of company’s executive committee.
“The new Exelon will have a significantly increased scope across the energy value chain,” Crane said at the time of the announcement in December 2011. “It is vital to our future success that we diligently manage risk from an independent and enterprise-wide perspective.” Keep reading →
The excitement over solar power, which once attracted billions in private investment and public subsidies, has waned recently, underscoring the limitations of renewable energies and the unchallenged dominance of fossil fuels.
Some of the $75 billion sector’s high profile names have fallen on hard times recently – most notably Suntech Power. The China-based solar panel company rattled the industry when it filed for bankruptcy last week. In its heyday, the stock traded just shy of $90 and had a market capitalization of $16 billion: on Thursday, the last day U.S. markets were open, the shares traded around for 42 cents each. Keep reading →
