Virginia Energy News: 2010

August 9, 2010

August 3, 2010

Oil up to $82 a barrel on weak dollar/weak recovery

Bloomberg just posted this.

Three month high. Joy.

Manufacturing jobs a focus of the Democrats

One way to make manufacturing in America more competitive is to lower energy costs.

That should be part of the overall strategy.

Washington Post has a story on manufacturing jobs as a focus for the Democrats in the upcoming elections.

Roanoke Times Editorial on Coal Ash

How widespread of a problem is coal ash in Virginia?

This editorial leaves no room on where the Roanoke Times editorial board stands.

July 15, 2010

AWEA Launches Offshore Wind Development Coalition

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) announced yesterday that it has launched the Offshore Wind Development Coalition, known as OffshoreWindDC. As noted in AWEA’s press release, “OffshoreWindDC will both expand and sharpen the focus of the industry efforts already underway through AWEA,” and many industry and government stakeholders are expected to take part in the effort.

Heat Wave in U.S. Driving Coal to 18-Month High: Energy Markets

Prices have gained 30 percent this year on hotter-than normal weather from California to New York. Demand from utilities increased amid stiffer federal scrutiny of the mining industry after the Massey Energy Co. disaster on April 5 curbed operations in Appalachia, home to 33 percent of U.S. coal production. Output has dropped 6.9 percent in the past 12 months, Energy Department data show.

Pollution fight cools climate talks

Closed-door meetings between a select group of environmentalists and a handful of electric utility executives may determine the fate of climate change legislation in the Senate. Majority Leader Harry Reid’s top energy aide, Chris Miller, nudged the small group to the bargaining table earlier this month in the hope they could resolve more than a decade of dispute on Clean Air Act regulations and reach agreement on a first-ever cap on greenhouse gas emissions.

Why President Obama loses by winning

Having moved swiftly toward achieving the very policy objectives he promised voters as a candidate, Obama is still widely perceived as flirting with a failed presidency.

“[Cap-and-trade] is not in my vocabulary” — Reid

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will bring a sweeping energy and climate bill to the floor as early as the week of July 26, including a controversial cap on emissions from power plants,” Greenwire reporter Darren Samuelsohn writes today in Politico. Except that Reid — like Sens. John Kerry (D.-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) – won’t call a spade a spade.

Regional Carbon Cap Gets Second Look as 'Template' for National Plan

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, operating in 10 states from Maine to Maryland, restricts emissions just from the utility sector, like one of the leading ideas to address climate change now percolating on Capitol Hill. The impetus began to grow last month after a meeting at the White House before the congressional recess. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) called the regional program a "template" for national climate legislation.

New Offshore Drilling Moratorium Issued

It is unnecessary and shortsighted to shut down a major part of the nation's energy lifeline while working to enhance offshore safety. The new moratorium threatens enormous harm to the nation and to the Gulf region. It places the jobs of tens of thousands of workers in serious and immediate jeopardy and promises a substantial reduction in domestic energy production. No certain and expeditious path forward has been established for a resumption of drilling.

A Disaster Congress Voted For

In a 1995 attempt to encourage more exploration, Congress agreed to reduce the cut of the proceeds the government could collect on oil and gas drilling in deep waters. Ten years later, despite higher oil prices and declarations from President George W. Bush that more incentives were not needed, a Republican-led Congress reduced royalties yet again.

Obama is right to impose moratorium on risky offshore drilling

After the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and its well began spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration took the logical step: It virtually shut down deepwater drilling until officials could determine what happened and why, and then develop a plan to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. Any response short of that would have been irresponsible.

Bingaman draft outlines utility-only climate approach

The 50-page Bingaman draft echoes several key talking points Democratic leaders and centrists in both parties have been sounding off on lately on what it will take to get 60 votes for a combined carbon pricing and energy production strategy.

Circumventing Cap and Trade with an Another Bad Energy Bill

In the midst of a crisis in the Gulf, some Senators are making a final push to pass energy and climate legislation this year. Senators John Kerry (D–MA) and Joe Lieberman (I–CT) are introducing a scaled-back version of their original cap-and-trade bill but still want to maintain a carbon cap. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) wants to bring an energy bill up for debate the week of July 26 that addresses the oil spill response and a greenhouse gas reduction plan for utilities only. A draft leaked from Senator Jeff Bingaman (D–NM) would go after utilities and aim to “cut emissions from the electric utility industry by 17 percent in 2020 and 43 percent by 2030.”

Farmers must be part of renewable energy plans

The resounding message at the recent Minnesota Ag, Climate and Energy Forum in Willmar was clear: Agriculture must come to the table when energy, especially alternative energy, policy is discussed to capture revenue opportunities.

Bechtel, B&W unite on mini-reactor work

Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Energy Inc. and Bechtel Power Corp. have formed an alliance to design, license, and deploy a small modular nuclear power plant, the first commercially viable facility of its type in the world, a press release said.

Clean Energy Builds Slowly, Despite Federal Cash

The Recovery Act has provided billions of dollars in matching grants for clean energy programs. Despite this massive infusion of federal money, it is unlikely that these technologies will make a dent in Americans' fossil fuel consumption anytime soon.

Reid may include Pickens' gas proposal in Senate energy bill

A plan promoted by investor T. Boone Pickens to encourage more natural-gas vehicles will likely hitch a ride on a Senate energy bill that is to come up for a vote at the end of July.

Survey shows 73% of Americans are against drilling moratorium

Most Americans oppose President Barack Obama’s ban on deepwater oil drilling in response to BP Plc’s Gulf of Mexico spill, even as they hold the company primarily responsible for the incident.

API cites boost in oil, gas well completions in second quarter

After posting a 22% decline in the first quarter, US oil and natural gas drilling activity staged a turnaround in Q2, with completions rising 38% from the same period of 2009, the American Petroleum Institute said in a report this week.

House, Senate call for new oil spill panel

The House Natural Resources Committee has joined a Senate panel in approving the creation of a bipartisan oil spill commission that would effectively compete against President Obama’s.

Virginia Energy News for July 15, 2010

Read the latest Virginia Energy News here.

July 14, 2010

FedEx CEO Takes Stock of Alternative Energy, Obama and China

Frederick W. Smith, chairman and chief executive of FedEx Corp. sat down in late June with Wall Street Journal reporter Jennifer Levitz at the company's headquarters in Memphis, Tenn., to talk about the U.S. economy, his new fuel-efficient planes and other subjects ranging from China to President Barack Obama to whether cargo jets will ever fly without pilots.

Reid throws climate lifeline to greens

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has pledged to bring to the Senate floor an energy and climate package that includes controversial greenhouse gas curbs, throwing a lifeline to liberals who say the legislation falls short without them.

Oil-Industry Group Hires New Leader for Media Team

As it works to reshape the oil industry's image, American Petroleum Institute's media shop has nabbed a former spokesman for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Eric Wohlschlegel started work yesterday as API's director of media relations. Running the team that talks to reporters, Wohlschlegel said he is focused on communicating the oil and natural gas industry's importance.

API opposes new offshore drilling moratorium

The American Petroleum Institute (API) in the US says it believes the Interior Department’s latest moratorium on deepwater drilling is not necessary for safety and will cost jobs, harm the Gulf region and weaken our nation’s energy security.

July 13, 2010

Whither Cap & Trade?

Today, the prospects for climate legislation remain highly uncertain, while the clock runs out on the current Congressional session. And if all that weren't enough, the EPA has just issued new regulations covering interstate emissions of conventional air pollutants that could effectively terminate the highly-successful sulfur-dioxide market upon which cap & trade for GHGs was based. Can cap & trade survive these travails, and should it?

Kerry Looking to Strike Deal With Utilities on Carbon Emissions Cap

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) told reporters yesterday that conversations between Democrats and utilities are ongoing and that he remained optimistic that they could strike a deal. Convincing the electric power industry to back a scaled-down carbon cap as part of a utility-only proposal is widely seen as the Senate's best shot at directly limiting greenhouse gas emissions this year.

Economic Damage of Drilling Ban May Dwarf Oil Spill

The six-month drilling ban, which the U.S. Interior Department revised today following lawsuits from local businesses, may affect as many as 24,000 jobs in Louisiana, Michael Hecht, president and CEO of economic-development group Greater New Orleans Inc., told a presidential commission today.

NC congressman won't support offshore drilling

A North Carolina congressman said Monday that he won't support offshore drilling until the cause of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is fully understood.

Landrieu criticizes Obama drilling limits

The Louisiana Democrat told the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling in New Orleans that the moratorium announced by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar — which would halt deepwater drilling until Nov. 30 — threatens the Gulf economy.

Poll: Confidence in Barack Obama hits low

Fifty-eight percent of the 1,288 adults polled nationwide said that they have “just some” or no confidence in the president, the low mark of his presidency in the poll.

Offshore Wind Energy Agreement between Maine and Nova Scotia

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) issued the following statement by AWEA CEO Denise Bode on the memorandum of understanding signed between the state of Maine and the province of Nova Scotia on offshore wind power and tidal power : “AWEA is pleased to see the MOU between Maine and Nova Scotia that is focused on offshore renewable energy collaboration through research and data sharing. This type of partnership will help the North American offshore wind energy industry reach its potential, and realize its many environmental, economic and job creation benefits.”

A good energy strategy doesn't fit in a slogan

Green energy, which is promoted endlessly by business as well as the government and various pols, is a great idea. It sounds great, and it would be great. But it's being way oversold and will take years -- or decades -- to have any major effect.

A Watchdog’s Warning on Nuclear Waste

When President Obama said he wanted to discontinue work to develop a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, one of the entities that filed suit to protect the project was Washington State, where vast amounts of nuclear waste accumulated at the Hanford nuclear reservation, a weapons site. As I reported on Sunday, a new report suggests that Hanford has a lot more plutonium waste that the Energy Department had acknowledged.

China Stockpiling Uranium in Rush to Build More Nuclear Plants

China is stockpiling uranium and purchasing the yellow metal in unprecedented quantities as part of its effort to build new nuclear reactors and provide electricity for its power hungry populace.

The New-Old Drilling Ban

When it comes to a showdown between jobs and ideology, the Obama Administration never fails to choose the latter. The latest example is Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's decision yesterday to reimpose a ban on Gulf drilling after the courts had declared his first moratorium illegal.

New offshore oil moratorium not focused on depth

The Obama administration issued a new moratorium Monday on deep-water offshore drilling that no longer bans operators by the depth of water they're operating in and stresses new evidence of safety concerns, hoping the revised ban will pass muster with the courts after the initial one was rejected.

Another line for an energy bill to cross

Eleven governors from the Northeast have signed a letter to Senate leaders protesting the latest energy bill's plan (PDF) to promote a giant electric power transmission line to link the windy Great Plains to the Midwest population centers. The governors say that the transmission line, expected to eventually cost $160 billion, would be subsidized by citizens in their states.

Senators question if BP played role in Pan Am bomber's release

A group of U.S. lawmakers have called for an investigation into whether BP may have played a role in lobbying for the release of Abdel Basset al Megrahi to secure an oil contract with the Libyan government.

Taking initiative on clean energy

Over the past 18 months, the president has taken unprecedented action to make a down payment on our clean energy future. Under his leadership, this administration has invested tens of billions of dollars in clean energy through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Oil spill may influence climate bill

The 40th anniversary of Earth Day will go down in history as the start of perhaps the country’s worst environmental disaster. But will the BP oil spill — now on Day 84 — actually change any environmental laws or lead to new ones?

Drilling ban reissued

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar reissued a moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling Monday, after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the White House’s appeal of a lower court decision to halt the drilling ban.

Moment of truth for energy bill

The next three weeks represent Democrats’ last, best shot at getting an energy and climate change bill passed this year. In the White House and the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, it’s moment-of-truth time. People on every side of the energy debate say that Reid must unveil a concrete plan backed by a full-court press from the president this week, or the entire effort will fall apart in the run-up to the midterm elections.

The public is ready for clean energy legislation. Is the Senate?

Jonathan Cohn, writing at his new must-read blog, has a fascinating piece on the policy implications of the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The gist of his argument is that the public push for clean energy policy -- in the form of marches on Washington and calls to Congress -- is more subdued than should be expected in the wake of such a devastating environmental catastrophe, and that this dynamic is largely responsible for the Senate's slim chances of moving comprehensive legislation this year.

BP Is Said to Explore Asset Sale

BP has already said that it will sell about $10 billion worth of assets as part of its financing strategy. It has already suspended its dividend to help conserve about $8 billion in cash, and plans to cut capital spending by several billion dollars. The company has been lining up financing from a group of banks as well, though it has also said it does not plan to issue new equity to potential new investors.

US Senate set for energy, environmental bill debate

Democrats in the U.S. Senate aim to debate in late July a bill clamping down on offshore oil drilling practices and fostering more alternative energy use, but no decision has been made on whether to include controversial climate change provisions, aides said on Friday.

Vitter argues ban on offshore drilling has led to 'de facto moratorium' in the Gulf

In an interview on the conservative "Dateline Washington" radio program, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said, "The good news is that the courts so far have rejected so far the president's having proper authority to impose the drastic moratorium." He explained that the full case will not be heard for a couple weeks, and "because of all this uncertainty, no companies are rushing out to restart operations in the gulf, so there is a de facto moratorium that is killing us economically. If this continues," argued Vitter, "it will cost us far more jobs than the oil itself."

America must ban offshore drilling

Due to the inability of adequate responses that I have witnessed from the Exxon-Valdez oil spill and now the BP gulf oil spill, it is necessary for us to protect our coasts from this type of disaster from ever happening again. In order to accomplish this I urge President Obama to ban offshore drilling in new areas and lead the charge for a clean energy economy.

Should Congress Expand Offshore Drilling?

Should Congress push forward on offshore oil and natural gas exploration in light of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill? And should we be concerned that a moratorium on offshore drilling may make us even more dependent on foreign oil?

U.S. to Issue New Drilling Moratorium

The Obama administration on Monday issued a new order banning most new deepwater-drilling activities until Nov. 30, setting up a fresh round of conflict with the oil industry over when it will be safe to drill again offshore.

Note to EPA: 'Coal' isn't a dirty word

The EPA’s attempts to control climate change through regulation and stall the approval of mining permits can only lead to coal states like West Virginia bearing the brunt of poorly thought-out policies that translate into greater job loss and higher energy costs.

Seven Things Republicans Were For, Before They Were Against Them

So many Republicans have changed their ideas on so many major issues that it's hard to keep up. With the return of Congress this week, two of those issues – campaign finance disclosure and climate change – could play out in the Senate over the next month.

5 Alternative Energy Options That Are Bad Bargains

A hard look at natural gas fracking, clean coal, corn ethanol, tar sands and oil shale.

Algae: The World's New Alternative Energy Source?

Forget the Toyota Prius; a team of students and professors from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia are attempting to turn algae from Lake Matoaka into biodiesel for cars.

Offshore drilling: Walk along the Oregon coast, and think of Louisiana

As we all know, drilling for oil off the Oregon coast didn't happen. I don't really know why. Today I can't seem to find anyone who remembers anything about the issue. Whatever the reason, it was a victory for the Oregon coast. Oregon's drilling scheme died in 1981 and seemed buried for all time when Congress banned drilling for oil and gas in offshore waters.

Oil is still king in energy circles

President Barack Obama promises to rejuvenate America’s economy with countless green jobs by turning away from conventional fuels. The painful reality is that the world won’t be weaned off of fossil fuel any time soon, as China demonstrates with plans to pursue 20 new, large coal mines within five years

Many farms finding wind cash a breeze

President Obama made the encouragement of renewable energy a cornerstone of his policy of allocating federal stimulus money. And a state law took effect in Illinois in 2008 requiring Commonwealth Edison and the state's other power companies to get 5 percent of their power from renewable sources last year, 6 percent this year and a quarter of their power from renewable sources by 2025.

GOP: Dems wrongly linking carbon caps, oil reliance after spill

Republicans are increasingly accusing Democrats of exploiting the BP oil spill to win traction for global warming legislation, but they maintain that leading climate plans would do little to wean the country off oil.

World’s First Hybrid Solar-Coal Power Plant Opens in Colorado

In a traditional coal-fired power plant, coal that has been pulverized into a fine dust is burned to heat water until it becomes steam. The steam then turns the blades of a large turbine, which turns the generator and produces electricity. But if the fresh water is heated before it enters the boiler, less coal is needed in order to make the steam -- and that is the principal behind Xcel Energy's brand new solar-coal hybrid power plant in western Colorado.

EPA unveils draft interstate clean air rule

The proposed Clean Air Transport Rule replaces – and strengthens – a Bush-era rule in cutting soot-forming sulfur dioxide and smog-forming nitrogen oxide emissions from electric utilities that cross state lines, mainly in the eastern United States.

Opinion: BP oil disaster has huge repercussions

Will the oil stay in the Gulf of Mexico? Or will it circulate out into the Atlantic to be borne by the Gulf Stream to contaminate foreign shores? How much oil is yet to escape into the oceans? And how will it affect the world’s economy?

Drilling's dangers

The politics of offshore drilling couldn't be clearer: No politician wants to pass up the chance to curry favor with one of the world's richest industries. But the consequences of this craven behavior are even more stark, as hour by hour thousands more gallons of toxic oil pour into the ocean, the same ocean that washes up on our shores.

Renewable energy options abound from state to state

While solar energy has made inroads across the nation, some regions remain particularly well-suited for several different types of clean power production, including wind turbines.

Guest Opinion: End oil addiction, invest in clean energy

Remarkably, there’s a concerted attempt to discredit and misinform the public of the extraordinary progress that has already occurred in moving to clean, renewable, inexhaustible sources of energy. When political pundits and lobbyists for fossil-fuel industries try to convince the public that renewable energy is technologically off in the distant future, or too expensive, it is time to look at the facts and evidence at hand in Montana.

Obama takes to the road to stump for clean energy jobs bill

Today President Obama repeated his call for Congress to pass energy legislation this summer, this time emphasizing the jobs that would result from expanding clean energy manufacturing tax credits.

MIT Releases Report on Natural Gas: Promising ‘Transitional Fuel’ Toward Renewable Future

Natural gas has “great potential” to help curb greenhouse gas emissions and reduce our dependence on oil, paving the way toward a future that can run on renewable resources, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT said this could be done by replacing coal plants with more efficient combined-cycle gas plants.

California utilities struggle to meet renewable-power requirement

State law requires the Golden State's three large investor-owned utilities to procure 20% of their retail electricity sales from clean sources by the end of 2010. But with less than six months left to meet that requirement, even government watchdogs don't expect the power companies to make it.

Nuclear Energy: Pro And Con

Connecticut has two sites for nuclear power reactors that can be used for the salvation of Connecticut's current inventory of high-wage unemployed manufacturing and construction workers, and for long-term, high-paying plant operations jobs after two 10 year periods of construction. Connecticut can have the low-cost power to bring manufacturing back to the state!

July 8, 2010

Virginia Energy News for July 8, 2010

Read the latest Virginia Energy News here.

W.H.: We're not anti-business

Obama has been happy to be seen by voters as cracking down on Wall Street but those efforts have had an unintended result: feeding a sense that the president and his party are indifferent or even actively hostile toward big business, whether those businesses are Silicon Valley tech companies, Midwestern manufacturers or Main Street small businesses.

The Obama administration's contested moratorium on deepwater drilling will take a larger portion out of U.S. oil production next year than previously thought, the government's energy forecasting agency said on Wednesday.

The big Washington trade group representing BP and the other major oil companies says it has begun paying for TV ads in 10 states that attack the introduction of “new taxes” on the petroleum industry as part of comprehensive energy legislation.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters finds that just nine percent (9%) rate the response of BP and Transocean, the companies associated with the leak, as good or excellent. This finding is down 20 points from early May and is the lowest level measured in the two months since an oil rig explosion caused the leak. A majority of voters (59%) rate the response of the companies as poor, up 10 points from two weeks ago.

Transocean is the world’s largest offshore drilling company, but until its Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April, few Americans outside the energy business had heard of it. It is well known, however, in a number of other countries — for testing local laws and regulations.

A day before an appeals court hearing on the administration's deep-water drilling moratorium, lawmakers and industry leaders told a drillers' group in Houston Wednesday that they must bring their employees and small-business partners into the campaign against the ban.

In a preliminary look at the American Power Act—the climate legislation that has been put forward by Senators John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman—the CBO found that the bill would actually reduce the budget deficit by about $19 billion over the 2011 to 2020 period. The CBO estimates that auctions of carbon allowances under the bill—which requires companies to essentially pay for the right to emit carbon dixoide—would raise government revenue by about $751 billion, more than bill would hike government spending through incentives for nuclear power, tax credits for energy efficiency and research and technology for new energy.

The Wall Street Journal reports July 6 that Japan is aligning its nuclear industry to support exports of nuclear reactors and to respond to the competitive threat from South Korea. Six companies are working under the umbrella of a government backed effort through the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Ohio Republican Senate candidate Rob Portman previews one of the GOP’s primary lines of attack this midterm election year in a new ad. He blasts the Democrats’ cap-and-trade “energy tax,” saying that the scheme will charge Americans for turning on a light bulb or cooking dinner. Scary? Perhaps. Misleading? Yes. Hypocritical?

Four months ago Energy Secretary Steven Chu listened as a key senator appealed for modesty in the chamber's approach to addressing greenhouse gases. The Senate at the time was being swept toward an ambitious -- and politically titanic -- plan designed to cast the nation's vast majority of emissions into a shopping cart, where it would be counted, priced and paid for.

Here in the Gulf, where Washington policy decisions have a real impact on the people and businesses most affected by BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we were thrilled by a federal judge’s recent decision to overrule President Barack Obama’s moratorium on deepwater drilling.

The Obama administration has asked a federal court in Louisiana to reinstate the ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the moratorium was a rational response to the unparalleled emergency of the BP oil spill.

When Republican Rep. Joe L. Barton of Texas accused the White House of shaking down oil giant BP for money and then apologized to the company for the government's actions, Democrats greeted his comments like manna from heaven.

A relief well being drilled deep into the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico to shut down the gushing well could be completed ahead of a long-set deadline of mid-August only if conditions are ideal, government and BP officials said Thursday.

The Gulf of Mexico is one of the world's major oil and gas provinces. The offshore industry was born here in 1947. It's close to the petro-capital of Houston. And, of course, it's in the backyard of the world's oil glutton. But the Gulf is about to get less attractive to work in.

When the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform set off the worst oil spill at sea in American history, it was flying the flag of the Marshall Islands. Registering there allowed the rig’s owner to significantly reduce its American taxes.

The American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday began running ads in opposition of a decision by House Ways and Means Chairman Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) to pay for his green energy tax bill by rescinding several tax breaks benefiting the oil and gas industry. The ads are slated to run in 10 states and depict the tax increases as job killers.

As a New York resident who grew up on the Gulf of Mexico and travels back there at least 10 times a year, it is painful to watch the devastation of the environment in the northern Gulf. As Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a longtime Republican, stated recently, "If this disaster does not force all of us to see how we must move to clean energy sources, then I don't know what will!"

Renewable wind energy is the fastest growing source of power of any renewable energy sources and technologies. With renewable wind energy, the flow of air turns wind turbines to create electricity. As the speed of the wind turning the turbines increases the amount of power the turbine produces increases as well. In areas where winds are strong, renewable wind energy is a smart choice for providing power to homes and businesses.

Virginia Energy News for July 7, 2010

Read the latest Virginia Energy News here.

Virginia Energy News for July 6, 2010

Read the latest Virginia Energy News here.

July 6, 2010

Hearings to Expand Offshore Drilling Delayed; Salazar Applauds New Legislation

The same day, according to BNA [subscription required], Secretary Salazar welcomed the prospect of an organic statute to govern the Interior Department and its new offshore energy agencies before a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee.

EPA’s proposed Clean Air Transport Rule is the administration’s most ambitious effort to date to tackle conventional smog- and soot-forming emissions. The agency said its standards, when finalized next year, would lead to hundreds of billions of dollars in public health benefits and help avoid as many as 36,000 premature deaths every year.

The ads will run in 10 target states, namely Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, starting July 6, API said. The commercial messages will feature working Americans’ responses to proposed new oil and gas taxes that the Obama administration proposed in its fiscal 2011 budget request, API said. Some members of Congress consider such taxes a good way to support alternative and renewable energy technology research and development.

As the climate bill sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) headed for a showdown in the House last year, critics warned that the energy-intensive U.S. chemical industry would be among the primary victims of a cap-and-trade carbon regime.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has highlighted the risks of offshore oil production and the potential costs involved in drilling deep below the ocean. The explosion on April 20 at the Deepwater Horizon rig, operated on behalf of BP (BP.L: Quote), has also reminded the oil industry of the growing importance of offshore production and the rising proportion of oil pumped from deep-sea wells.

Read more

Obama Decried, Then Used Some Bush Drilling Policies

Another reason: money. In its arguments to the court, the government said that the loss of royalties on the oil, estimated at almost $10 billion, "may have significant financial consequences for the federal government."

Seems like there are a lot of energy myths and legends in the talk show mix. I’m not referring to true urban myths, such as the conspiracy myth about a local mechanic whose invention to triple gas mileage was nefariously suppressed by the big oil companies. Most folks recognize those kinds of tales as nonsense. At least I hope they do.

The Gulf of Mexico disaster has many faces. BP's incompetence is one. But there is also the failure of legislative oversight. What until recently was praised as an economic stimulus policy is now being criticised as "collusion with scoundrels". The BP boss, Tony Hayward, dons sackcloth and ashes and speaks of an "unprecedented series of mishaps". At a hearing in the US House of Representatives, a Democrat congressman confronted him with the list of BP accidents and revealed another truth: there are still hundreds, indeed thousands of oil platforms in this region alone, but also throughout the world, for which the other oil majors are responsible. To beat up on BP alone is shabby. Deepwater Horizon is the symbol of the demise of a global experiment: a model of progress and development based on exploiting fossil fuels.

As oil jetting from the seabed continues to foul hundreds of miles of central Gulf Coast, business leaders and public officials around Louisiana are mapping out the contours of even worse news: Bad as the BP Gulf oil spill is, the federal government's moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling seems certain to dwarf the spill's economic pain.

Ethanol was once slated to play a crucial role in the world of renewable energy, both in Hawaii as well as across the nation. High land costs and permit delays added with the fuel price collapse in the market have put to rest all such hopes, especially in the islands.

Critics of renewable energy often point their need of subsidies, like the Production Tax Credit (PTC) or Investment Tax Credit (ITC) in order to compete with fossil fuels. Somehow the huge (and longstanding) subsidies available to oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries never get factored into this discussion.

But the EPA is not on a mission to force a bureaucratic assault on free enterprise. In fact, the EPA was required by a Supreme Court ruling to investigate the health impacts of greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA found as a matter of scientific analysis that these emissions are harmful. They are not only bad for the air and human health; they are also costly to our economy.

Since 1973, reliance on imports has risen from 28 percent of U.S. consumption to 57 percent. From a low of 15.2 million barrels per day in 1983, U.S. consumption has grown to nearly 20 million barrels per day this year. While strides have been made in improving energy efficiency, our national vulnerability to cutoffs of foreign supplies from unfriendly regimes in the Middle East and South America has escalated dangerously.

The top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee plans to release a report Thursday that he alleged would blow holes in White House claims about its command of the oil spill response and the amount of assets deployed.

Land drilling continued to increase while offshore drilling continued to dribble away this week with a total 1,557 rotary rigs working in the US and its waters, 5 more than the previous week and up strongly from 928 during the comparable week in 2009, Baker Hughes Inc. reported.

My 30-year legal career—including experience as a prosecutor during the Iran-contra affair and inspector-general of the Justice Department—has been defined by law enforcement. So I was surprised when the White House and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asked if I’d like to run the Minerals Management Service, the regulatory body in charge of offshore oil and gas drilling. I also wasn’t sure I wanted the job, which would mean leaving a thriving private practice to head an agency under more investigations than any in memory. “I’m not there yet,” I told Secretary Salazar after our first face-to-face meeting about the work. I was still undecided after the president reached me the following day, although his call had an enormous impact on my thinking.

Europeans do consume less total primary energy per capita than their counterparts in the US. For example, Italy consumes about 8 quadrillion British Thermal Units (BTUs) per annum, a figure that includes energy for transport, electricity and other applications.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering license applications for 28 new nuclear power reactors. The United States already operates the largest fleet of nuclear power reactors in the world with 104 reactors producing almost 20 percent of U.S. electricity.

US President Barack Obama announced on Saturday the awarding of nearly two billion dollars to two solar energy companies that have agreed to build new power plants in the United States, creating thousands of new jobs.

April was a tough month for 17-term Congressman Nick Rahall. First, a coal mine outside his hometown of Beckley, W.V., collapsed, killing 29 miners — including some Rahall knew personally. Then, 10 days later, the BP's Deepwater Horizon well off the Louisiana coast blew, killing 11 rig workers and spewing hundreds of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It was one of the deadliest months in decades for America's plumbing of its natural resources, and in the eyes of Rahall, the chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, much of the human and environmental toll was tragically preventable.

Pennsylvania shale play may contain additional natural gas reserves

The state that is already estimated to have enough gas in its Marcellus Shale formation to meet total U.S. needs for a decade or more may have additional reserves trapped in geological strata above and below the Marcellus, some energy companies believe.

Drilling in deepwater oil fields remains essential in spite of the moratorium in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico following the BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) oil spill, said Total SA (TOT, FP.FR) Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie.

The United States' six-month drilling ban "makes sense" to allow time to probe the cause of BP's (BP.L) (BP.N) oil spill, but if the moratorium is extended, companies should move their rigs to search for oil and natural gas in other countries' waters, the head of the International Energy Agency said on Thursday.

In his handling of the nuclear waste issue, President Obama is sending contradictory messages about his commitment to the expansion of nuclear power as a way of diminishing the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday formally directed officials to draw up a long-term economic and environmental plan to help the Gulf Coast region get back on its feet after the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

The ecological damage in the Gulf of Mexico is a national tragedy and has been economically devastating for some coastal communities. But will all the spilled oil lead to significant economic losses on a national level? We don't think so.

It’s almost a foregone conclusion, legal experts agree, that the federal investigation of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will produce criminal charges. After all, mere negligence leading to serious oil pollution constitutes a misdemeanor under the Clean Water Act.

Virginia Energy News for July 2, 2010

Read the latest Virginia Energy News here.

DOI, DOE Sign MOU to Spur Offshore Renewable Energy Projects

The Department of Interior and the Department of Energy announced today a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which seeks to prioritize and facilitate environmentally responsible deployment of commercial-scale offshore wind and marine hydrokinetic energy technologies on the Outer Continental Shelf. Under the MOU, the two agencies will facilitate such development by pursuing priority leasing and efficient regulatory processes for sites with high commercial-scale offshore wind and water power development potential, as well as exchange information and collaborate on research projects. "We have a major opportunity to tap the energy in waves and offshore wind," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "Increasing cooperation between our agencies will help make clean, renewable energy a reality."

In the midst of the BP oil spill, alternative energy companies and supporters are looking for love on Capitol Hill, aggressively promoting electric vehicles and other alternatives to oil.

Other than maybe Jason in Friday the 13th, nothing has supposedly died and come back to life more often than climate legislation and carbon cap-and-trade. A year ago, thanks in part to fierce opposition from business interests led by the Chamber of Commerce, the cap-and-trade bill cosponsored by Henry Waxman and Edward Markey just barely passed the House of Representatives, 219 to 212. As Eric Pooley writes in his great new book The Climate War, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to wield a mean whip to get her members in line for the vote. (Just eight Republicans voted for Waxman-Markey, and 44 Democrats opposed it.)

US Onshore Drilling Boom

All BP had to do was heed the warnings over blow-out preventers (BOPs) — which ultimately failed and contributed to the fireball over the Gulf of Mexico — and BP most likely wouldn't be in the mess it finds itself in today...

A review by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory has concluded that a radar station near Fossil can be upgraded to effectively reduce false targets from wind turbines, a concern that threatened to delay a huge wind energy project in north-central Oregon earlier this year.

Locations used to train soldiers such as California’s Mojave Desert also are prime sites for wind-energy developers, said Dorothy Robyn, a deputy undersecretary of Defense. Potential interference with surveillance radar from turbines has reached a “threshold point” in areas such as the Pacific Northwest, Robyn said today at a congressional hearing.

Senate Democrats are expected to work on an energy bill this week (June 29) that could include a cap on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from utility companies instead of regulating GHG emissions from all sources as initially proposed, reports The Chicago Tribune. The bill is not expected to be an economy-wide climate change bill that the House passed one year ago.

Dutch energy firm Shell has claimed that rising oil demand in developing countries will necessitate further offshore drilling projects, despite concerns over impending US regulations.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is writing legislation to cap emissions from the utility sector, an approach that is gaining traction in Washington amid fresh concerns about what carrots might be dangled in front of power plants as incentive to sign on.

Oil's biggest critics are mostly silent

The BP oil spill in the Gulf is shaping up to be the worst environmental crisis in American history. Climate change activist groups have every reason to stand on a soapbox and tout their message about the dangers of oil now, while Washington and the world are listening. But for the most part, they haven't.

A recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in physics, Richter was a signatory on a letter from 34 Nobel laureates to Obama last year pushing for a big and sustained rise in the federal investment in energy research. (He told me he is unaware of any response from the White House.) He also has written “ Beyond Smoke and Mirrors,” a cogent road map for facing the daunting long-term challenge of cutting emissions of greenhouse gases even as humanity’s growth spurt crests in the next few decades.

Democrats struggle to find energy plan

Congressional Democrats are still struggling to come up with a plan for energy legislation in response to the Gulf oil spill and are looking to a bipartisan meeting with President Barack Obama on Tuesday to produce some clarity about trade-offs the White House favors.

Virginia Energy News for July 1, 2010

Read the latest Virginia Energy news here.

June 28, 2010

Virginia Energy News for June 28, 2010

Read the latest Virginia Energy News here.

Obama Gulf vow will be tough to keep

In his Oval Office speech on the BP oil disaster, President Barack Obama declared he would reverse the devastation caused by crude oil on the area's shoreline, but pledged his administration would also address “decades of environmental degradation” and “multiple economic disasters” that have ruined the fragile Gulf Coast.

API is neutral on legislation to redirect funds for spill research

The oil industry has been heavily criticized for relying on old methods to tackle the Gulf oil spill, such as laying boom to collect crude, and not spending enough to develop better equipment to control runaway wells.

As more Americans shun BP gasoline as a form of protest over the Gulf oil spill, station owners are insisting BP do more to help them convince motorists that such boycotts mostly hurt independently owned businesses, not the British oil giant.

Read more here.

A Colossal Fracking Mess

On why the Delaware river is now one the coutries most indangered:

That’s because large swaths of land—private and public—in the watershed have been leased to energy companies eager to drill for natural gas here using a controversial, poorly understood technique called hydraulic fracturing. “Fracking,” as it’s colloquially known, involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals, many of them toxic, into the earth at high pressures to break up rock formations and release natural gas trapped inside. Sixty miles west of Damascus, the town of Dimock, population 1,400, makes all too clear the dangers posed by hydraulic fracturing. You don’t need to drive around Dimock long to notice how the rolling hills and farmland of this Appalachian town are scarred by barren, square-shaped clearings, jagged, newly constructed roads with 18-wheelers driving up and down them, and colorful freight containers labeled “residual waste.” Although there is a moratorium on drilling new wells for the time being, you can still see the occasional active drill site, manned by figures in hazmat suits and surrounded by klieg lights, trailers, and pits of toxic wastewater, the derricks towering over barns, horses, and cows in their shadows.

Read the full article here.

Yet another major poll finds strong public support for global warming action

The drumbeat of public support for comprehensive clean energy and global warming policies beats louder every day. The latest Wall Street Journal-NBC Poll [PDF] found overwhelming support for comprehensive clean energy legislation that includes carbon pollution reductions. It also registered that cleaning up the BP oil disaster and energy reform is the number two priority of Americans. Finally, it registered another drop in support for the expansion of offshore oil drilling.

Almost half of Americans say the risks associated with offshore drilling are too great to justify oil exploration, while even more favor the temporary ban on deepwater offshore drilling.

Key House Democrats on Friday pressed the Interior Department to work with the administration's workplace safety experts — not just the oil industry — as it crafts rules to protect workers offshore.

According to Market Strategies’ E2 (Energy + Environment) Index, which measures consumer perceptions of the energy industry’s economic contribution to the US economy, environmental performance and credibility on environmental issues, the oil industry’s image has plummeted from a score of 40 in December 2009 to 30 in June 2010 – a 25 percent decline in six months. The overall E2 Index, which encompasses all sectors of the energy industry, has fallen from 48 to 43, a decline of more than 10 percent.

How did we get here? A year ago at this time, President Barack Obama enjoyed approval ratings in the 60 percent range. Democrats in Washington had laid out an aggressive agenda that included passing both climate change and health care reform by the August recess. Political experts were writing that Republicans were still in search of a way out of the "political doghouse."

Read more here.

Offshore drilling loses some support

The most recent Pew Research Center nationwide poll taken June 16-20 showed that a majority of Americans surveyed (52 percent) oppose increased offshore drilling, a 14 percentage point increase from last month. However, only 22 percent supported a total ban on offshore drilling, while 35 percent favor banning only new drilling.

Read more here.

Scientists Question EPA Estimates Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The approach the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural anaerobic lagoons that treat manure contains errors and may underestimate methane emissions by up to 65%, according to scientists from the University of Missouri.

Read more here.

Biggest Oil Spills Map

This map shows the approximate location of eleven of the world’s biggest oil spills. The location icons are color-coded by cause (act of war, tanker accident, out-of-control well)

See the map here.

Quantcast Spill-related measures advance in Congress

A congressional stampede to pass oil spill legislation gathered momentum Thursday as a Senate committee voted to impose tougher penalties on water polluters, and lawmakers unveiled a comprehensive bill to strengthen environmental and safety rules on offshore drilling.

LA Times

First U.S. offshore wind energy project faces lawsuit

Environmental groups filed suit Friday in federal district court arguing that the nation's first offshore wind energy project violates the Endangered Species Act.

The suit accuses the Obama administration of failing to protect endangered birds and whales in approving the Cape Wind project, a set of 130 wind turbine generators to be installed on Nantucket Sound off the Massachusetts coast.

LA Times

Study Says Natural Gas Use Likely to Double

Natural gas will provide an increasing share of America’s energy needs over the next several decades, doubling its share of the energy market to 40 percent, from 20 percent, according to a report to be released Friday by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

NYT

June 24, 2010

Virginia Energy News for June 24, 2010

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Sierra Club Forcefully Opposes Key Cap-And-Trade Compromise

One of the leading environmental groups in the country offered its most forceful opposition yet to a leading compromise on climate change legislation, raising questions as to whether there is a broad enough coalition to get even a watered-down bill passed.

Huffington Post

$11M ad blitz for climate bill begins

Left-leaning advocacy groups are firing up an $11 million ad campaign to pressure a handful of swing-vote Democratic and Republican senators ahead of next month's expected floor debate on comprehensive energy and climate legislation.

Dems, Natural Gas Industry Negotiating Fracking Disclosure Plan

The Colorado Democrat has authored a much tougher bill calling on U.S. EPA to regulate fracturing. Now she is trying to hammer out a deal with industry representatives, but the industry is reported to be split about whether to cut a deal with Democrats or hope that Republican gains in November's midterm elections will stamp out any regulatory efforts.

New York Times

Obama accused of defying court on drilling ban

Moratorium opponents filed papers in a New Orleans federal court Wednesday afternoon requesting an emergency hearing before Judge Martin Feldman, who entered the order blocking the moratorium. Since that time, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar indicated both in a statement and Congressional testimony that he plans to re-impose the moratorium soon based on information that wasn't fully developed when the six-month drilling ban was imposed in late May.

Politico

How Can I Put Wind Energy To Use For My Home? Everything You Need To Know About Wind Turbines

Going green and saving on your energy bills does not have to be rocket science. You can really do a lot of things to cut back on your energy use. One of them is using wind power and therefore this article about everything you need to know about wind turbines. Of course there are many other things you can do but getting a wind turbine is one of the big things you can do.

Fresh News Theme

MMS Moving to Mandate Safety Standards for Rig Workers

The worker-safety standards in place for offshore oil rigs before the Deepwater Horizon blast two months ago were voluntary and developed in consultation with the oil industry, a senior official at the retooled Minerals Management Service (MMS) told lawmakers today.

New York Times

Deepwater Drilling Plan: A Message from Jack N. Gerard President & CEO API

While many companies may take a wait-and-see approach to renewed deepwater Gulf operations in the wake of a court decision to lift the six-month moratorium, the ruling was an important step in getting thousands of employees closer to returning to work providing Americans with the energy they need.

Following the ruling, in which U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman called the federal decision to stop deepwater drilling “invalid,” the White House said they would immediately appeal and late yesterday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar promised to issue a new ban.

While the administration acted appropriately to immediately inspect every Gulf rig following the Deepwater Horizon incident, an extended moratorium would have a tremendous impact on the nation’s energy security—and as others noted, hurt the economies of Gulf Coast communities.

Our industry is redoubling our commitment to safety. Where improvements can be made, we’ll make them; and we’ll continue to find ways to raise the bar higher.

To that end, our industry has formed two new task forces to address subsea well control and oil spill response. The new task forces will develop findings and recommendations to improve capabilities and technologies, and will share their findings with the government. Their work, and the government’s various reviews of the incident, will help ensure that U.S. deepwater exploration and production is the safest and cleanest in the world.

The industry’s commitment to safety and environmental protection is real and strong, but the Gulf tragedy clearly demonstrates it must improve. All of us realize we must do better to provide the energy our nation needs, and we will.

Sincerely,

Jack N. Gerard
President & CEO
API

June 23, 2010

Virginia Energy News for June 23, 2010

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Senate energy meeting with Obama postponed

A planned meeting Wednesday between President Barack Obama and a bipartisan group of senators to discuss energy policy has been postponed, according to White House and Senate aides.

New Drilling Agency Will Have Investigative Arm

The new director of the federal agency that oversees offshore oil drilling told a Senate panel on Wednesday that he would create an investigative unit to root out corruption and speed reorganization of the office.

Pickens: Americans ready for 10-year energy plan

Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens said Americans are ready for the challenge if President Barack Obama will commit to a 10-year plan to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Secretary Salazar Orders MMS to Be Renamed

On June 18, 2010, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued an order renaming the U.S. Minerals and Management Service to the Bureau of Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. The Bureau of Energy Management will eventually be reorganized into three different agencies to oversee royalty collection, energy leasing, and safety enforcement.

Drilling ban off, but operations will be slow to resume

Despite a win for oil companies and contractors yesterday in the form of a preliminary injunction blocking the White House's six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, drilling in the Gulf of Mexico probably won't start up again right away, Bloomberg said.

Virginia Energy News for June 22, 2010

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Poll: Obama lacks oil spill plan

A wide majority of Americans believe President Barack Obama does not have a blueprint to combat the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a new CBS/New York Times poll out Tuesday.

Climate trial balloon proves explosive

Electric utilities are divided over the prospect of a bill that caps their heat-trapping emissions while shunning mandatory limits on transportation and heavy domestic manufacturers, like pulp and paper mills and chemical plants.

A utilities-only cap-and-trade

The big movement on the climate-change bill today is that various power players -- including, most importantly, Rahm Emanuel -- are talking up a "utilities-only cap-and-trade bill." To put this in the simplest terms, it would mean that we price carbon in utilities but not cars. As it happens, this isn't as big a deal as you might think. As this graph from Harvard's Robert Stavins shows that cap-and-trade would, in the first 20 years, primarily affect utilities anyway:

Industry Steps Up Pro-Offshore Drilling Campaign

However, a recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll of adults taken on June 16th, the day after President Obama’s Oval Office energy address, found an 18% swing towards opposition to increased drilling compared to a similar poll taken three weeks ago.

Salazar creates new agency to oversee drilling

The Obama administration plans to break up the agency into three separate entities to eliminate conflicts of interest. President Barack Obama announced Bromwich's appointment last week and said Bromwich would have a mandate to implement far-reaching changes and the resources to do it.

Overwhelming majority support strong action to cut fossil fuel use, advance clean energy

As we enter the 64^th day of the nation’s worst environmental disaster, Americans’ opposition to offshore oil drilling continues to grow. CAP’s Daniel J. Weiss has the details.

Can President Obama Really Break Our Oil Addiction?

Two surreal things happened within the span of two days. In his televised address, President Obama again sternly warned that the nation must break its dependency on oil. He again called on Congress to pass an energy bill that would vastly expand our hunt for and use of alternative and renewable energy sources.

Read more here.

FYI: The AIP Bulletin of Science Policy News

An indication of how opinion has changed regarding the Obama Administration’s position on nuclear energy was the favorable reaction of hearing witnesses and Members of the House Science and Technology Committee to the Department of Energy’s “Nuclear Energy Research and Development Roadmap.” This 60-page strategy, released in April, was the focus of a May 19 hearing.

Read more here.

National Survey: Americans Willing to Embrace New Energy Behaviors to Affect Change

In a national survey commissioned by GE ,79 percent of Americans said they would adjust their energy consumption habits and behaviors in the short term to effect change long term, quite possibly because most of them (72 percent) believe that how they generate and use energy today could actually harm the economic growth of the country. Sixty-three percent noted they would work with their power company to influence change in consumption habits.

Read more here.

President Convenes Senators for Final Chance at Climate Bill This Year

President Obama will attempt to seize control of the Senate's splintered climate debate tomorrow with a goal to achieve some greenhouse gas emission restrictions before midterm elections.

Read more here.

June 22, 2010

BP exec says relief well within 200 feet of blown well

The first of two relief wells being drilled to plug the massive Gulf of Mexico leak is within 200 feet (60 metres) of the blown-out well, a BP (BP.L) (BP.N) executive said on Friday.

Oil Companies To Challenge Offshore Drilling Moratorium In Court Today

Oil service companies head to U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana this morning, to try to lift the moratorium on deep-water drilling, NPR's Robert Smith reports from New Orleans.

Top 10 Global Energy Trends

Global Markets Direct, the leading business intelligence provider, has released its latest research “Top Ten Global Energy Trends in 2010” The study, which is an offering from the company’s Energy Research Group, provides an analysis of the key challenges and potential short term trends in the global energy sector during 2010. The major areas of focus include impact of the financial crisis and the after effects of the crisis and the global economic recession
on the energy sector. Challenges in conventional as well as non conventional energy sector, technological developments in new and alternative energy sectors and the nuclear industry are also analyzed. The global economic recovery and the impact on the capital expenditure in the petroleum industry in 2010, growing trend towards the offshore oil and gas industry and the approach of the oil and gas companies to prepare for the upturn are some of the other issues that have been analyzed in the report. The report highlights and analyses the most critical trends or issues in the global energy sector in 2010. The report is built using the data and information sourced from proprietary databases, primary and secondary research and in house analysis by Global Markets Direct’s team of industry experts.

How safe are the new nuclear reactors?

In 2007, the first application to build a new reactor in the United States in more than three decades was filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). By the end of that year, four more applications had landed at the agency. In 2008, 12 additional applications arrived, with one more filed in 2009. Nuclear backers proclaimed a "renaissance" underway.

June 21, 2010

Clean energy startups often need alternative financing

Once they seal deals with prospective customers in the U.S. and abroad, their startup, Tempest Wind Energy Inc., plans to add workers and move to a larger manufacturing facility, they said.

Senior Senate Dem to unveil plans to overhaul offshore drilling

Bingaman spokesman Bill Wicker declined Friday to provide details about Bingaman’s bill, but suggested it will be expansive. “It will address all the things which are in the scope of our committee's jurisdiction,” Wicker said.

Read more here.

Drilling: Must continue after pause

Probable deficiencies in current U.S. oil rig safety and deepwater drilling regulations make that moratorium sensible, as well as the clear failures of federal government monitoring of those existing regulations the disaster likewise revealed. Revamping and putting teeth in those regulations and reorganizing and strengthening the monitoring procedures is obviously necessary.

Read more here.

Rockefeller: Abandon climate legislation for now - The Hill's E2-Wire

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) on Thursday said the Senate should abandon efforts – at least for now – to pass a sweeping climate change bill and also urged adoption of his plan that would block some EPA greenhouse gas regulations for two years.

Read more here.

TVA Halts Solar Energy Program

The Tennessee Valley Authority has placed a moratorium on a popular program that pays homeowners and businesses that generate electricity from solar energy.

Read more here.

Offshore Drilling Moratorium: Your 4 Biggest Questions Answered

To the Obama administration -- which ordered a moratorium on deepwater oil drilling after the catastrophic gulf oil spill -- the immediate suspension of operations was "needed, appropriate and prudent" to protect American lives and the environment.

Read the latest here.

Virginia Energy News for June 21, 2010

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June 17, 2010

Virginia Energy News for June 17, 2010

Read the latest Virginia Energy News here.

BP should pay every dime of the cost

Fifty-six days after BP’s oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico began, the oil giant has agreed to set-aside $20 billion in an escrow fund to pay damage claims and clean-up costs.

In a letter to BP CEO Tony Hayward earlier this week, Senator Warner and 54 of his colleagues suggested that such a fund be administered by an independent third-party "as an act of good faith and as a first step toward ensuring that there will be no delay in payments or attempts to evade responsibility for damages."

The senators wrote:

"Although creating this account at this level in no way limits BP's liability, we believe it will do more to improve BP's public image than the costly public relations campaign your company has launched."

Read the full letter here.