/

• Cuba, Oil Diplomacy and the Southern Tip of Florida

  U.S. lawmakers spent most of this week lobbing insults at the Cuban government while assessing the risks of an offshore oil spill about 90 miles from the southern Florida coast. Spanish energy company Repsol is leading an exploratory drilling campaign in Cuban waters and, rightfully so, many wary U.S. lawmakers are still shell-shocked from the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Considering Florida relies on tourism for a substantial part of state revenue, it's no wonder Florida's Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll said Cuba can't be trusted with protecting regional waters from an oil spill. But if more than…

• What Affect Will High Oil Prices Have on the 2012 Election

  If current trends continue, gasoline prices and U.S. energy policy seem destined to play a larger role in the political debate prior to the November elections than ever before. Gasoline on the East Coast is already within striking distance of all-time highs and most prognosticators are talking about the likelihood of $4+ gasoline before summer. Although the U.S. consumer is more inured to $4 gasoline than four years ago, the crossing of the $4 barrier is bound to set off another round of recriminations and finger pointing as to just who or what is causing this phenomenon. If what happened…

• Lebanon's Electrical Woes Become Political Football

  Beirut, the “Paris of the Middle East,” has one problem that the City of Light does not – electricity shortages. In a country whose complex politics frequently produce gridlock, concerns about the country’s shambolic electrical infrastructure have become a political football. Lebanon’s consumption exceeds 2,400 megawatts, far greater than the 1,500 megawatts produced and the country currently faces a generating shortfall of 1,000 megawatts, leading to widespread blackouts and rising political unrest. The failure of the current government to grapple with the problem has resulted in demonstrations in south Lebanon, the Chouf and the Bekaa regions. Endemic power cuts have worsened during…

• An Abundant Supply of Cheap Oil is the Most Important Resource for Our Future

  Our economy runs on oil. Most of the tractors used for growing food run on oil. Nearly all of today’s cars and trucks run on oil. It is popular to talk about changing to some other fuel, but the practicalities are that any such change will be very slow. There is a huge cost associated with replacing cars and trucks with vehicles using other fuels, assuming we could figure out the technology to do this. Since 2005, world crude oil supply has bumped up against what seems to be a limit of 75 million barrels of oil a day. No…

• International Pipelines - Peacemakers or Hostages to Fortune?

  Supporters of pipelines that cross international frontiers have fervent supporters in the energy industry, who maintain that they are “win win” solutions for both energy producing nations and transit countries. The reality is however that the true picture is more mixed, as the following survey shows. Perhaps Exhibit A for the view that international pipelines in fact raise tensions is the ongoing dispute between Sudan and South Sudan over the latter’s exports through Khartoum’s pipeline network to Port Sudan. The issue? Transit fees – South Sudan proposed paying $1 per barrel, while Sudan insisted on a $32.20 per barrel tariff, causing the South Sudanese…

• Why is Gulfsands Petroleum Still Drilling in Syria?

  Authors note: After publication this week, Gulfsands Petroleum announced Thursday it was ending its exploration campaign in Syria while sanctions are in place.Independent energy company Gulfsands Petroleum announced this week that it made oil and natural gas discoveries during drilling operations in the country's northeast. Gulfands was forced to halt production activity in Syria late last year because of sanctions pressure but that did little to curb its Syrian exploration campaign. The 10-month-old conflict in Syria is looking more and more like full-blown civil war and, with most oil majors headed for the exit doors, unless there's some sort of…

• Methane Gas Hydrates - Vast Energy Resource or Ecological Disaster Awaiting?

  A vast and untapped resource of fuel? A contributor to global climate change? A submarine hazard and potential trigger of tsunami's? A cause of catastrophic species extinction? An ELE - Extinction of Life Event? All of these are postulated scenarios for methane gas hydrates. Methane hydrate is formed when methane gas and water are brought together under suitable conditions of low temperature and elevated pressure, such that an "ice" type structure is formed containing methane molecules in considerable quantity. It is thought that vast quantities of methane hydrate exist on the ocean beds and in the sediments of the sea…

• Nuclear Fusion: The Power Source of the Future...the Far Off Future

  Ah, fusion. Long promised, both on Do the Math and in real life, fusion is regarded as the ultimate power source—the holy grail—the “arrival” of the human species. Talk of fusion conjures visions of green fields and rainbows and bunny rabbits…and a unicorn too, I hear. But I strike too harsh a tone in my jest. Fusion is indeed a stunningly potent source of energy that falls firmly on the reality side of the science fiction divide—unlike unicorns. Indeed, fusion has been achieved (sub break-even) in the lab, and in the deadliest of bombs. On the flip side, fusion has…

• Forget Wind Turbines - a Completely New Type of Wind Farm is in Development

  A design firm from New York, Atelier DNA, has developed a concept that uses cattail like stalks instead of traditional turbine blades for harnessing the power of wind. Planned for the city of Masdar, being built just outside of Abu Dhabi, the “Windstalk” project came in second in the Land Art Generator competition, generating renewable energy in an artistic way from a plethora of international submissions. Traditional wind turbines' biggest downfalls include noise pollution, inadvertent bird death trapping and general difficulties in installing such large structures. Atelier's new stalk design generates electricity when the wind sets them waving—minus the dreadful…

• New Technique Discovered to Help Harvest Algae

  At the UKs Sheffield University (SU) a team led by Professor Will Zimmerman in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering believes they have developed an inexpensive way of producing microbubbles that can float algae particles to the surface of the water, making harvesting easier, and saving biofuel-producing companies time and money. One of the cost of production problems that holds algae back as a major biomatter resource is an efficient cost-effective method of harvesting and removing the water from the algae for it to be processed. Algae have the potential to be a very efficient biofuel producer.  The one cell…