Energy / Energy-General

• Energy in the Time of Elections: Claims and Counterclaims

  Where there's oil and gas, there's milk and honey. That is the thrust of the American Petroleum Institute's report to the platform committees of the Republican and Democratic parties. It was previewed in Washington on May 15 by API President and CEO Jack Gerard, the oil industry's man on Earth, known for his tough attitudes to just about everything, but the Obama Administration in particular. In unveiling the report at the National Press Club, Gerard declared that the recommendations were without political slant and were delivered to both parties’ platform committees without favor; although it is generally known that the…

• Why the Smart Grid is More Than Just Smart Meters

  Richard Ford doesn’t like the term smart grid. “It means different things to different people,” says the manager of grid solutions at Toronto Hydro. “The term has become overused. It gets in the way.” Many hydro customers in the city associate the term with the smart meters in their homes and the time-of-use pricing they enable. Some imagine a smart home or building equipped with intelligent appliances and lighting systems that interact with each other and can be remotely managed by software to reduce energy use. Others think of a kind of energy Internet made up of millions of users…

• Cyber Update: Pipelines, China and Lax Security Standards

  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has identified China as the possible origin of an ongoing cyber attack targeting US gas pipeline companies, and specifically a group that managed to hack into RSA security in 2011.   The cyber attack could be a continuation of the “Night Dragon” attack in February 2011 on McAfee computer security firm, which was also traced back to China. The objective of that attack was to obtain financial data from oil and gas companies.  Chinese officials deny that there is any evidence that the cyber attack is coming “directly” from China.At the same time, US officials…

• The Real Cost of Cheap Energy

  Where does your energy come from? Although I live in Colorado now, I grew up in East Tennessee, where many people still assume their power is fairly clean, dominated by 90-year-old hydroelectric plants. In truth, more than 50 percent of my family’s electricity was generated from coal, and still is. I didn’t think about it much.What price are we paying for energy apathy? What price will our children pay? As a child, I watched coal-seamed mountaintops disappear in the face of an energy crisis. Potentially potable water now goes to the highest bidders for gas and oil extraction, despite record-breaking…

• Climate Economics: Creatively Destroying the World

  In the 70 years that have passed since Joseph Schumpeter coined the term "creative destruction," economists have struggled awkwardly with how to think about growth and innovation. Born of the low-growth agricultural economies of 18th Century Europe, the dismal science to this day remains focused on the question of how to most efficiently distribute scarce resources, not on how to create new ones -- this despite two centuries of rapid economic growth driven by disruptive technologies, from the steam engine to electricity to the Internet.There are some important, if qualified, exceptions. Sixty years ago, Nobelist Robert Solow and colleagues calculated…

• How Falling Energy Costs will Shape the World

  A major plank in my golden age scenario for the 2020's is the collapse of the cost of energy. This won't occur because of a single big discovery, but from a 1,000 small ones that aggregate together to create a leveraged effect. The upshot is that we may be free of OPEC in 3-5 years, and completely energy independent not long after that. The impact on financial markets and global standards of living will be huge.To flesh out my arguments, I called Dr. Amory B. Lovins, chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute, who spends a lot of time thinking…

• How the Export of Coal and Natural Gas in the U.S. has Developed over time

  The beaten and bruised US coal industry got up off the floor from the body blows of US EPA’s regulations and got back in the race as an export champion serving energy hungry Asian markets. Fourth quarter 2011 US coal exports increased 6.6 percent from the Q3: 2011 and 32.6 percent from Q4: 2010 to 27.7 metric short tonnes (mst) with exports going mostly to Europe and Asia continuing to climb.Meanwhile, total U.S. coal consumption decreased by of 18.8 percent from third quarter 2011 and 9.4 percent from fourth quarter 2010 to 227.1 mst.  This was the lowest since second…

• What the EIA's Short Term Energy Outlook Tells us about the Global Economy

  The US Energy information Administration (EIA) released its updated Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO) May 8, 2012.  The overview calls for falling crude oil prices, falling gasoline prices, falling electric demand but higher natural gas prices as the prospect of exports reduces fears of excess inventory.The STEO is always a volatile cocktail of near term market fluxuations and this update is no different.  The question is whether this short term forecast is good news or bad news about the economic future. In the case of global oil the answer is mixed.  Falling crude prices reflect the weakening of demand in…

• As Saudi Oil Giant Expands, Can it Meet Mounting Security Concerns?

  Already the largest oil exporter in the world, state-owned Saudi Aramco plans to significantly expand refining capacity and for the first time ever to venture into oil trading, which could render it the world’s largest integrated energy company; but mounting security threats pose a serious challenge to these ambitious goals. Aramco Trading, which opened in January, plans to move 1.5 million barrels per day in physical oil and gas, paper, futures and derivatives trading. The move coincides with Aramco’s goal of doubling its refining capacity to 8 million barrels per day in ten years in a $200 billion investment. Since…

• U.S., China Compete for Canadian Energy Assets

  To hear Carlos Pascual, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy on international energy tell it, “The United States values Canada as its most important energy partner. There has never been a doubt about that. It is true now and it will continue to be true in the future.” A year ago at the Gas & Oil Expo and Conference North America 2011 the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, David Jacobson, told his audience, “The United States and Canada have the closest energy relationship in the world. And the U.S. sees Canada as a pillar of our energy security. We will continue to…