Category: Energy

At first glance, Rep. Joe Barton’s call for more government investigation into the voluntary carbon-offset market Monday sounds oil-patch foot-dragging. But he might end up helping solidify the market he and Congressional allies liken to “the 21st century version of snake oil and patent medicine.”

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.)

Those were the words Reps. Barton (R-Tex.) […]

Offshore wind power in the U.S. got a big boost yesterday when a government report concluded the Cape Wind project off Nantucket Sound wouldnÂ’t have any major environmental impact. If only it were so easy to get the wind farm up and running economically.

Something’s rotating in Denmark.

The Cape Wind project, a 130-turbine, 420-megawatt proposal, would […]

President Bush asked Saudi Arabia to rattle the cupboards and look for more oil to take pressure off the U.S. economy, reports the NYT. Getting more oil from “friendly” OPEC countries is crucial because demand for oil in developed countries has disconnected from oil prices, reports the WSJ. Unlike in the 1970s, when energy costs […]

The Detroit auto show is humming with alternative-fuel vehicles, from plug-in hybrids to diesels.  All a logical response to higher gas prices, tougher fuel-economy standards, and climate-change hobgoblins.
But havenÂ’t we heard this one before?
 

Compliant in New Delhi. (Wikipedia)

The U.S. government tried to jump-start alternative fuels at the time of a previous oil-price scare, under Bush 41. It hasnÂ’t […]

Clay Sell.

Another Bush administration defection: Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell will resign at the end of February, the DOE said Monday.
Sell, a former White House staffer and architect of the presidentÂ’s energy policies, flew the administrationÂ’s colors at the DOE. (As in this speech late last year.) He was pro-nuclear and pro-clean-coal. He […]

Oil prices are torn between Middle East tension and U.S. economic worries and inched higher Monday, reports AP. DonÂ’t look to OPEC for supply-side relief, notes Bloomberg: No sign of a production increase ahead of next monthÂ’s Vienna meeting.
Maybe Motown will help. Big automakers unveiled a new slate of alternative-fuel vehicles at the Detroit Auto […]

ItÂ’s tempting, with a spate of climate-change bills meandering through Congress, to forget some basic truths about one countryÂ’s efforts to tackle a global problem decades into the future. The thinkers at the Energy Information Administration havenÂ’t forgotten.
The EIA released its assessment of the Bingaman-Specter climate bill yesterday, the Low Carbon Economy Act of 2007, […]

Deepening fears of recession in the U.S., fueled by bearish Fed statements, are roiling oil markets. A slowdown means less demand and lower prices, reports Bloomberg, while the prospect of a rate cut is keeping oil prices buoyant, AFP notes. Further tanker attacks by Nigerian militants, meanwhile, are keeping supply-side pressure, notes the WSJ (subscription […]

The wind industryÂ’s new mantra: Mine is bigger than yours.
It must be a Texas thing. ItalyÂ’s Enel SpA and GE Energy Financial Services just finished a wind farm in Snyder, TX, that boasts the tallest turbines in the U.S. The massive towers soar 345 feet to take advantage of higher sustained wind speeds […]

Time to tighten the belt. (Wikipedia)

The home of the Kyoto Protocol is finding there’s an easier way to cut global-warming emissions: Write a check.
Japan promised under the Kyoto treaty to cut its emissions 6% below 1990 levels by 2012. But as of 2006, Japan’s emissions were 6.4% above 1990 levels. Right number, wrong direction.
In a […]