Ten years ago, one could find almost all the Nike shoes labeled as “made-in-China”, but today the word “China” is replaced by “Vietnam”. China is going through immense transitions. Its competitive advantage of cheap labor is gone. Its investment is slowing down to the extent that the export sector hit a record low in the… Keep reading →
British Columbia’s (BC) once high-flying liquefied natural gas (LNG) ambitions are taking yet another hit. The one-time goal of the Canadian province to have several LNG projects exporting gas to the Asia-Pacific market has already stalled amid plunging global oil and natural gas prices. Now, the Petronas–led C$36 billion (US$32 billion) Pacific Northwest LNG Project… Keep reading →
The crude oil tank cars that derailed in North Dakota earlier this week were carrying crude that had been treated to reduce volatility, although the tank cars themselves were older models that have been targeted for replacement. “Hess Corp. spokesman John Roper said the company’s oil complied with a state law that requires propane, butane… Keep reading →
WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that it is extending the application deadline for the third round of Strategic Technical Assistance Response Team (START) Renewable Energy Project Development Assistance to May 22, 2015. The START Program provides federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal entities with on-the-ground support to accelerate… Keep reading →
Supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline have been frustrated if not furious at what they see as unnecessary delays by President Barack Obama in deciding the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline. And by now, it appears, opponents of the pipeline are getting antsy too. As Bloomberg News reports, this is a bit of a… Keep reading →
Natural gas is a common power generation fuel, but it’s also used for heating. In Pumerend, a city of 80,000 residents in the Netherlands located about an hour from Amsterdam, a biomass heating facility was recently constructed to replace natural gas-fired heating. Breaking Energy toured the plant last spring before it officially went online to… Keep reading →
New York can begin to catalyze the transformation of its electric utilities by putting the right incentives in place for utilities to perform some of the duties envisioned for its distributed system platforms of the future. In a February order, the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) released the first major decision of its… Keep reading →
Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is a fledgling technology still mostly relegated to demonstration projects in the U.S. and other parts of the globe. While not yet commercialized, its prospects of putting coal-fired plants on the same footing with natural gas facilities – from a carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions perspective – gives it an innovative… Keep reading →
Opinion: Approving Energy Exports Would Unlock Huge Economic Growth
By Margo ThorningThe Department of Energy recently approved an application from Alaska LNG to export natural gas. But there’s a catch: these exports can only go to nations where the United States has a free-trade agreement in place. Never mind the fact that the top markets for LNG are India, China, and Japan, where we don’t have… Keep reading →