The US government needs to stop giving subsidies to Big Oil! This is such a common rallying cry that few stop to consider what it really means.
The idea appears simple: Oil companies make so much money the government should not support them. But is the government giving oil companies money? How does the system really work? Keep reading →
While the nation has been focused on new sources of natural gas and shale oil, few noticed the slow decline of an older energy source, nuclear power. Today, commercial nuclear power is struggling to stay in the game.
The power markets are hammering the nation’s nukes. Over a decade ago, several regions decided to create Regional Transmission Organizations (or Independent System Operators) and use the market to set power prices. Today, North America has ten independent RTOs/ISOs, where wholesale power is auctioned every few minutes. Keep reading →
A new plan for deep cuts in carbon emissions from US power plants is designed to help counteract climate change and reduce health risks but could also lead to more job cuts in the beleaguered coal industry.
The environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council recently issued the proposal that would use existing technologies to cut generators’ carbon pollution by 26 percent by 2020 and 34 percent by 2025, also reducing emissions of other pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Keep reading →
If US solar manufacturers were looking to recently upheld trade tariffs to provide relief from the onslaught of low-priced Chinese panels that has decimated the US industry, they may be disappointed, industry participants said.
Duties of 24 to 36 percent on most solar panels imported from China, as confirmed by the US International Trade Commission in early November, are not expected to drive up prices or make US manufacturers more competitive because of a loophole in the regulation that allows low-cost Chinese producers to avoid the tariffs if they make the solar assemblies outside China. Keep reading →
Commercial oil sands development dates back to the 1960’s, but the process continued largely unnoticed by the international community until the early 2000’s when the resources’ proven reserves were widely publicized. Although the government of Alberta had been working to communicate the importance of the oil sands as an energy source and economic driver, the province’s leadership was taken by surprise when the environmental community trained its crosshairs on the large-scale industrial mining operations.
The debate between the environmental community, regulators, industry and stakeholders about the environmental costs versus the economic benefits of oil sands development has evolved over the years and continues today. Keep reading →
Connecticut has driven down the costs that ratepayers will incur for their public utilities’ clean-energy purchases through an innovative reverse auction. The newly-launched program is the first of its kind, but there’s a congressional proposal with language directing the Energy Department to set up reverse, renewable-energy auctions on a nationwide basis.
The legislation has languished in the current Congress, but it will be back – and its sponsor can now point to the promising outcome in Connecticut, where Gov. Dannel Malloy has led a charge for “cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable” electricity. Keep reading →
The American Petroleum Institute recently renewed its attack on the US government’s Renewable Fuels Standard after the Environmental Protection Agency said it would not waive the requirement that uses some 40 percent of the US corn crop to make ethanol.
The main oil and gas trade association said the RFS, which is designed to blend increasing amounts of ethanol with gasoline, is “increasingly unrealistic and unworkable” because it has been adopted without regard for its compatibility with some vehicles, and if fully implemented would exceed what API says is the maximum safe limit of 10 percent in gasoline. Keep reading →
BP will pay a record U.S. fine to settle criminal claims arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a Department of Justice official said Thursday.
The Keystone Pipeline emerged as one of the most prominent energy issues of 2012 and the US presidential election. The line is controversial because it would transport synthetic crude oil produced from Alberta’s oil sands deposits – oil that is more energy intensive to produce than conventional crude. The resource has been dubbed “dirty oil” by activists who also oppose its route through environmentally sensitive areas.
Proponents of the pipeline claim it would transport oil more efficiently from producing regions to demand centers, particularly the massive US Gulf Coast refining complex. The project would also benefit the US and Canadian economies by creating jobs and lowering gasoline prices, they say. Keep reading →
A hole and a section of pipe remain in a neighborhood that was devastasted by a gas line explosion in September of last year on May 19, 2011 in San Bruno, California. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier toured the San Bruno gas explosion site and a construction site where gas lines are being replaced.
President Obama’s re-election means “pretty aggressive” reforms of natural gas pipeline safety, undertaken in the wake of the fatal San Bruno pipeline explosion in California, will continue on schedule, a top safety official says, but the industry still needs better technology to improve safety. Keep reading →
