USAEE

Beyond Fukushima: Benefits Of Nuclear Remain Clear

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The US nuclear industry is not dodging the big question; what is next for nuclear power after the Fukushima accident in Japan earlier this year?

The Nuclear Energy Institute’s Leslie Kass beat Breaking Energy to the subject in this video interview, mentioning Fukushima as she acknowledged it has been a busy year for the nuclear industry. While the accident has created challenges for operators in the US beyond providing assistance to the impacted site, it has also given the industry what Kass called “a great platform to communicate.” Keep reading →

 /  Published November 9, 2011 at 6:00 AM

The Five Reasons Federal Government Energy Research Has Led Innovation

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Governments play an important role in innovation, says David Sandalow.

The role of the federal government is up for question, Sandalow, Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs at the Department of Energy, acknowledges. But failures in promoting innovation through basic research should not force a change of direction, and the government must keep its resolve despite challenging times. Sandalow does not mention Solyndra by name in this video shot at the US Association for Energy Economics Summit in Washington, DC, but the solar company’s high-profile collapse has weighed on the entire energy sector and cast a long shadow over both the summit and this address. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 3, 2011 at 10:30 AM

Seeing The Future In Hydropower: NHA Talks Investment, Permitting And Technology

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While it would be hard to call hydropower the forgotten renewable when it already produces seven percent of US electricity, the industry’s role as a technology driver with the same funding and financing challenges as other innovative sectors is often shortchanged when consumers and regulators imagine solar panels and wind turbines.

But the hydropower sector is an area of constant reinvention through technological innovation, National Hydropower Association executive director Linda Church-Ciocci told Breaking Energy at the recent US Association for Energy Economics summit in Washington, DC. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 2, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Payment, Not Planning, The Top Issue In Electricity Transmission Debate

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US electricity regulators may be further toward a consensus on transmission planning than many in the disparate space have forecast, though the devilish details of cost allocation remain a stumbling block.

Former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chief of staff Howard Shafferman, now a lawyer at Ballard Spahr, says in this video interview that although there is always room for misunderstanding, the basic principles of regional transmission planning are widely understood. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 1, 2011 at 9:30 AM

Natural Gas Ascending: Opportunities Abound For Domestic Energy Source

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After many years as a sideline in the US energy business, natural gas has become the central fuel driving new generation, with opportunities to remake the American energy economy both regionally and globally.

It is hard to remember when natural gas was flared as a waste product in the search for oil; many of those same oil giants are quickly becoming gas giants instead as the scale of the available shale gas resource becomes apparent. Increased use of natural gas has been hailed as the next step in responding to global warming threats, and as a way to reduce US dependence on energy imports. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 25, 2011 at 6:00 AM

The Game Changer: Developing Natural Gas Shales

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Can you have too much a good thing? When it comes to natural gas, massive new supply development could alleviate energy price increases, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and enhance US energy security, but finding the right price to encourage development when a glut of gas is available remains a challenge for both producers and consumers.

Covering the quickly-evolving natural gas industry requires a broad range of knowledge, and Ballard Spahr LLP partner Dena Wiggins demonstrates an unusually comprehensive understanding of the sector’s opportunities and challenges in this Breaking Energy video interview. Breaking Energy spoke with Ballard Spahr attorneys at the US Association For Energy Economics conference in Washington, DC earlier this month. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 24, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Bringing Transparency To Transmission Planning

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The average US customer is paying only 7% of their electricity bill to cover transmission investment, John Jimison of the Energy Future Coalition told Breaking Energy in this video from the US Association for Energy Economics Conference in Washington, DC.

As regulators move to address a “decades-long under-investment in transmission,” a number of incumbent utilities are opposing the approach the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has taken in one of its most recent orders, widely known as FERC 1000. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 21, 2011 at 9:00 AM

Energy Data Series Head For The Exits As Budget Cuts Pinch

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Learning to live with less is an increasingly common experience across the US federal government as budget cuts bite, but the hidden costs of those cuts are often poorly understood.

The energy business, like all industrial sectors, lives off of a continual flow of data. Much of that data originates with the federal government, and for energy much of it arises from the activities of the Energy Information Administration. The EIA’s mission, to provide independent and impartial energy information, has become so widely accepted as to be almost invisible to its users. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 20, 2011 at 10:15 AM

Paid To Worry: AOL Energy Week In Review

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The energy business increasingly operates in a world of “black swans.”

In one year, earthquakes, floods, financial chaos and political deadlock all at enormous scale have rocked the energy industry. While most firms remain functioning, or even prosperous, and regulators have responded with speed, the analysts charged with finding logic in data are scrambling to figure out how to price and plan for a new future filled with “unusual” events. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 14, 2011 at 2:30 PM

Unconventional No More: Huge Gas And Oil Plays Emerge

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Controversial estimates of potentially enormous new energy reserves highlighted by energy company strategists have sparked a wave of optimistic forecasts for fossil fuel development.

Natural gas from shale will soon cease to be considered “unconventional”, said vice-president and chief economist of industry group America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) Sara Banaszak. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 14, 2011 at 6:00 AM
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