Jon Hurdle

 

Posts by Jon Hurdle

Biodiesel Producer Urges EPA to Resist Calls for Ethanol Mandate Cut

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As livestock farmers call on the EPA to waive its requirement for corn ethanol production in response to this year’s U.S. drought, a leading renewable fuels producer is urging the government to resist the pressure, saying a waiver of the corn mandate could undermine confidence in other biofuels, and even result in higher food prices.

Renewable Energy Group, the largest U.S. producer of biodiesel, argues that any easing of the corn-ethanol requirement would create uncertainty for all biofuels, raising concerns in the industry about the sustainability of market demand. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 30, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Natural Gas Industry Seeks to Build Public Support in Philadelphia

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Pennsylvania’s natural gas executives recently launched a new drive to build public support for the industry that has generated thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue for the state but is viewed with skepticism or outright opposition by some people.

“Learn About Shale”, a new website, is targeted at consumers in the five counties of metropolitan Philadelphia, an area that has not experienced the intensive gas development seen in many other areas of the state during the gas boom of the last five years, but which contains 45 percent of state’s population and contains strong resistance to the gas industry in some quarters. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 28, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Infrastructure Scarcity Hits Natural Gas Vehicle Use

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Natural gas is being taken more seriously as a transportation fuel by U.S. fleet operators and trucking companies, but its scarce availability is standing in the way of widespread adoption by the general public, industry experts said recently.

Despite the clear price advantage enjoyed by the relatively few car and truck drivers that use natural gas, it won’t become a significant source of transportation fuel until there’s a network of publicly available natural gas filling stations comparable to that for gasoline, or until home refueling is a viable option for most consumers, the experts said. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 27, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Shale Gas Industry Hails Gains Despite Continued Attacks

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Supporters and opponents of shale gas development resumed their war of words on Thursday as Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry gathered for Shale Gas Insight, its annual forum on the development of the Marcellus Shale, one of America’s biggest gas reserves.

Industry and government leaders argued that fracking for natural gas can and is being done without endangering public water supplies, and that industry is taking increasing steps to ensure that fracking chemicals don’t seep in to groundwater. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 21, 2012 at 11:45 AM

Marcellus Gas Output Jumps Despite Low Price

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The Marcellus Shale is living up to its promise.

The biggest portion of the massive Appalachian gas field – that underlying Pennsylvania – produced 895 billion cubic feet of gas in the first half of 2012, more than twice as much as it did a year earlier, and 42 percent more than in the second half of last year. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 12, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Shell Oil Sands Project May Set Precedent for CCS

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Shell’s plans to build the world’s first oil sands carbon-capture storage facility in Alberta, Canada will make only a modest reduction in that project’s overall carbon emissions but could set an important precedent in establishing the credibility of CCS worldwide, analysts said.

The oil giant said Wednesday that the US$1.36 billion project will create underground storage starting in late 2015 for more than 1 million tones a year of C02 produced in the processing of bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands, one of the world’s largest reserves of crude oil. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 7, 2012 at 9:15 AM

Volt Suspension Raises More Questions About EV Prospects

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GM’s recent decision to suspend production of its Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid may either be the latest indication that America isn’t ready for electric vehicles, or a distraction along the road to growing public acceptance of a new kind of automobile.

Partisans on both sides of the EV debate are adamant in their interpretation of the latest hiatus in output of the vehicle that is vilified by some as too expensive and impractical to ever be more than a plaything of well-heeled tree-huggers, while being praised by others as an early but hopeful step toward a post-gasoline transportation economy. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 5, 2012 at 1:45 PM

Natural Gas Vehicles: 22 States Stand Behind a Growing Market

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American car companies are moving ahead with a plan to produce natural gas powered cars and trucks for public fleets in state-sponsored efforts to create a wider public market for the vehicles.

Representatives of the Big Three carmakers, and Honda, as well as auto dealers and companies that convert conventional engines to run on compressed natural gas, met with leaders of a consortium of states in Oklahoma City this month to discuss a request for proposal that has been issued by the states to the car makers. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 16, 2012 at 2:00 PM

Wind Tax Credit at Center of Presidential Election Spat

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The scheduled expiration of a production tax credit for the wind industry has taken center stage in the energy policy debate between President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The credit, which allows taxpayers to claim 2.2 cents for every kilowatt hour of wind energy produced by a utility-scale wind farm, is due to expire on Dec. 31, 2012, a prospect that is already causing layoffs in the wind industry, according to its advocates. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 16, 2012 at 8:30 AM

What Is Set to Drive Natural Gas Prices Lower?

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Prices for natural gas are headed lower after a hot summer showed signs of the first boost in pricing for the fuel on which the US energy sector is increasingly relying.

With the approaching end of the cooling season and continued strong supply from domestic gas producers, prices are likely to revert to their earlier trading range between $2 and $3 per million BTU, predicted Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research, a Massachusetts consultancy. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 14, 2012 at 2:00 PM
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