Chevron estimates that the abundance of cheap natural gas in the US will be short-lived, according to one of its key strategy staff.
Andre Peterhans, manager of strategic planning, last week told a group at the BERC Energy Symposium at UC Berkeley that “$2 gas has perhaps come and gone”. Keep reading →
The battle lines have been drawn for years, but the fight over nuclear power’s risks and benefits reached a new stage in New York this week where issues including public safety, reliability, the environment and ratepayer costs are being disputed.
The Indian Point nuclear power plant run by Entergy generates over 2,000 MW approximately 30 miles north of New York City. Supplying roughly 25% of New York City’s and Westchester County’s electricity, the plant’s operating licenses are due to expire within the next few years and the federal hearings are drawing Indian Point’s proponents and critics into stark relief. Keep reading →
With each passing month, it’s becoming more evident that increasingly inexpensive and abundant supplies of natural gas are overhauling America’s energy landscape. The price of natural gas is at a 10-year low and is roughly half of what it was this time last year, due largely to technological advances – in hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’ especially – which allow for recovery of enormous stores of natural gas found in shale deposits. Fracking has in turn led energy magnates including General Electric CEO Jeffery Immelt to suggest that natural gas could be “permanently cheap,” and that the U.S. is entering a new era of domestically produced fossil fuels.
In response, analysts and pundits such as Thomas Friedman have expressed concern that the shale gas boom will significantly defer the transition to solar and other renewables. This is a valid point – the long-term goal of the solar industry has always been to be truly price-competitive with conventionally produced electricity, and cheap natural gas makes that a more difficult task. Keep reading →
Touted by movie stars, discussed in presidential debates, solar and wind energy are the technological ‘it girls’ of our time. Meanwhile, combined heat and power, 100 years old and shaped like a box, can’t get a date with popular culture.
Such was the lament that threaded through last week’s annual gathering in Washington, D.C. of about 120 industry supporters of CHP, as the technology is more commonly known (for those who know it). Keep reading →
The pace of Iraq’s economic and social development going forward is largely tied to the success or failure of its energy sector goals, and in turn the degree to which the country’s oil industry can meet its aggressive targets will play a pivotal role in the global oil market over the next two decades.
The International Energy Agency has analyzed the future of Iraq’s energy industry using three scenarios – high, central and delayed – as a means of addressing the opportunities and risks facing the development of Iraq’s energy sectors. The special report entitled “Iraq Energy Outlook” is part of the IEA’s World Energy Outlook series. Keep reading →
An effort by 22 U.S. states to spur demand for natural gas vehicles has produced a strong response from auto dealers to a request to supply CNG-powered cars, vans and trucks for state fleets.
Dealerships in 28 states representing the three big U.S. manufacturers plus Honda submitted more than 100 bids in response to a joint request for proposals by the states, which are seeking to boost demand for abundant domestic natural gas, and support the price after it fell to a decade-low in spring 2011. Keep reading →
The German wind industry sits at the heart of a European energy market preparing for a disruptive transformation intended to promote integration and allow the rich wind resource of the North to fuel continent-wide growth, without the risks of nuclear power and reliance on foreign energy producers.
It is a comprehensive, ambitious vision that in Germany alone the environment minister Peter Altmaier has compared in scale to the country’s painful post-Communist reunification. Keep reading →
The Bakken Shale has already had a transformational impact on its region, with the lightly populated part of North Dakota experiencing an employment boom alongside serious strains on its infrastructure.
This infographic, pulled together by energy publishers Hart Energy, focuses more on what is next for the Bakken region and for the US as the possible further expansion of drilling for its oil and gas resources becomes a central component of the national conversation about energy independence, jobs in the oil and gas sector, and environmental tradeoffs. Keep reading →
Iraqi growth fuelled by #energy: http://bit.ly/QwGA0e @IEA
Ongoing conflict between Pennsylvania’s booming natural gas industry and its opponents will reach a new focus on October 17 when the state’s Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over whether state law can pre-empt local regulations over gas development.
At issue is a section of Act 13, a wide-ranging new law that restricts the ability of municipalities to control the location of gas drilling within their bounds, as well as imposing impact fees and a host of other conditions on the industry drilling in the gas-rich Marcellus and Utica Shales beneath Pennsylvania. Keep reading →
