Energy Industry Archive

Following a reported loss yesterday of more than three times what analysts were estimating, JA Solar shot up almost 25 percent today on a lone analyst’s upgrade from “Neutral” to “Buy”, Forbes reports. The analyst, John Hardy of Broadpoint, thinks that the dismal demand levels that led to JA’s loss have bottomed out, and sales will increase rapidly from here...

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Shareholder rebellion was in the air this week. And while not all were successful, the sheer number reveals just how emboldened and peeved investors have become over hefty bonuses and compensation packages awarded to executives who have failed to meet expectations. Royal Dutch Shell took the biggest hit. It’s shareholders actually managed a victory, albeit a symbolic one, when nearly 60...

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Russia’s state-owned nuclear company Rosatom began building the country’s first floating nuclear power station (FNPS) this week, according to the Moscow Times, opening a new chapter on the country’s outstanding record of nuclear innovation and safety. There won’t be much to distinguish an FNPS from a regular ship, to an untrained observer. The first will be 472 feet long...

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Shell investors say ‘No’ to senior executive pay packages – A majority of Royal Dutch Shell shareholders, angry with plans to award bonuses in a year of missed performance targets, rejected the senior executive pay package at its annual general meeting. The vote is advisory and the pay package including the bonuses can still be awarded to executives. Shell chairman Jorma...

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President Obama’s soon-to-be-announced plan to establish tougher fuel-economy and emissions standards for cars and trucks already has folks busy tabulating the potential affect on the environment, auto industry and consumers. The stricter regulations – expected to curb tailpipe emissions 30 percent by 2016, as BNET Auto points out – also will speed up changes within the...

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Politicians have spent decades studiously avoiding higher gasoline taxes, to avoid their voter’s wrath. But it looks like a new gas tax will finally go ahead, as part of the new American Clean Energy and Security Act, the formal name for the United States’ cap-and-trade bill. Cap-and-trade was originally intended by President Obama to auction off all emissions permits. Concessions...

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A popular refrain among venture capitalists investing in clean technologies is that they won’t touch wind because it’s a “mature” technology. Despite that view, the industry is still figuring out improvements on a fairly regular basis. By “improvements” I don’t mean oddball ideas like the Maglev Wind Turbine or designer Philippe Starck’s stylish...

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Climate bill compromises mean more carbon emissions allowances — A large chunk of carbon emissions permits would be given away — not sold as Obama wanted — to utilities, natural-gas companies, the auto industry and refiners, under a plan released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In 2012, the first year of the program, 69 percent of permits, valued at $55 billion,...

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ConocoPhillips ended its long-idling animal fat-to-diesel fuel project with Tyson Foods on Wednesday because federal tax credits slashed in half last fall have yet to be restored by lawmakers. The question is whether Conoco, the second-largest U.S. oil refiner, should have ever qualified for the $1-per-gallon tax credit? For that matter, does Big Oil deserve subsidies for producing biofuels?...

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The nice thing about having the National Aeronautics and Space Administration tackle algal biofuels versus a startup is that NASA refrains from making impossible claims. The space agency’s Ames Research Center has come up with a technology that it says could potentially create aviation fuel, with the pleasant side affect of cleaning up sewage (or vice versa, depending on your...

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