Fracking-related earthquakes are back in the news, with a new study suggesting large overseas quakes triggered seismic activity in parts of the US where oil & gas drilling wastewater is disposed in deep injection wells. The findings, published in the Journal Science, are not limited to fracking, but appear to include any oil and gas… Keep reading →
NY state commission asks feds to look into “troubling” relationship between utility and key consultant. The Long Island Power Authority, the target of multiple investigations in the wake of its poor response to Hurricane Sandy, may soon be facing investigation by federal prosecutors as well. A special commission appointed by New York Gov. Andrew… Keep reading →
The ongoing boom in energy and industry infrastructure around the world, and the high price tags of many of these projects, have created a niche for entities like Siemens Financial Services, which can serve as a specialized financial intermediary for getting projects funded and built. Siemens Financial Services is the finance arm of technology and… Keep reading →
The following is an excerpt from an Energy Solutions Forum Policy Primer for the New York Energy Week Series Breakfast, The Rise of Cleanweb. While cleantech emphasizes the use of renewables to answer climate and energy issues, cleanweb offers a more leveraged means by applying information technology to addressresource constraints and energy efficiency requirements. In addition to infrastructure strategies… Keep reading →
The next ten years are likely to bring dramatic and surprising changes to the US energy sector, and solar could become a much larger part of the mix, said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz at the Energy Information Administration 2013 conference in Washington, DC on Monday. Moniz’s speech focused in large part on the intersection of… Keep reading →
The United States has received yet another disappointing mark for overall performance, this time in the energy infrastructure sector. The American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) 2013 report card for America’s Infrastructure gave the US a D+ for Energy Infrastructure, stressing the need for a national energy policy that adapts to future energy needs, a… Keep reading →
Cyber security, upgrading aging power infrastructure and integrating more renewables into the US energy portfolio are all high on Washington’s agenda and pressing issues for utilities, but addressing these concerns simultaneously is a major challenge Modernizing and protecting the often archaic US power grid is a massive – and expensive – undertaking, but if legacy… Keep reading →
The nation got a wakeup call recently when the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its Report Card for America’s infrastructure. Listed among the failing grades for roads, bridges and ports, was a grim evaluation of our energy infrastructure.
Giving it a grade of D+, the Report Card detailed the need for investment throughout the nation’s electricity system, but focused primarily on the aging electric grid. The nation’s power grid, which consists of a system of interconnected power plants, transmission and distribution facilities, some of which date back to the 1880s, is in dire need of repair. 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 →
The world’s swelling population and continued economic growth will require increasing volumes of oil to power the cars, trucks, trains and planes that transport people and goods around the planet. But the Citi commodities research team has questioned the extent of that assumption in a new research report titled “Global Oil Demand Growth – the End is Nigh.”
This rethinking of global oil demand trajectory is driven by the analyst’s view that natural gas will increasingly be substituted for oil in the transportation, power generation and industrial sectors, while considerable gains in fuel economy “raise the possibility that the tipping point for oil demand may come much sooner than the markets are expecting.” Keep reading →
