Energy Industry Archive

All the talk about clean coal in the United States may finally get some action. The FutureGen project, a 275 megawatt coal burning plant whose carbon dioxide emissions will be captured and pumped underground, is back on track after being derailed by the Bush administration last year. The plant got its first cancellation because of budget overruns, initially reported to be almost double the...

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In a debate on America’s energy future, Chevron’s CEO Dave O’Reilly and Sierra Club’s executive director Carl Pope traded a few jabs and — perhaps to the surprise of some — found some common ground. Bringing together two powerful individuals with opposing views is always an interesting exercise in forensics especially when an alliance of sorts - albeit a...

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Legislation introduced this week that targets hydraulic fracturing — a technique used to access vast new fields for drilling – is pitting the oil and gas industry against environmentalists in a debate over public health, federal versus state regulation and the protection of industry trade secrets. Here’s what the legislation also will do: deliver massive lobbying...

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Republicans to unveil competing energy bill — House Republicans have brewed up an energy plan to compete with Democratic offerings that center around renewable energy. Nuclear power is the centerpiece; the party envisions 100 new nukes over the next 20 years. Increased oil and gas drilling is also a component. While the plan appears to be laughably late, the GOP is trying to give party...

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Schools in our society seem to be perennially cash-strapped, unable to spend extra on frills even if they might make the educational experience better. So it’s somewhat surprising that more and more schools are lining up for solar power, some in multi-million dollar deals. The most recent of these is an agreement between California’s Fremont Union High School District and Real Goods...

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Oil and gas drilling has been expanded in the eastern Gulf of Mexico under an amendment approved Tuesday by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. But long before oil and gas companies set up shop in this new extended area, the measure faces a number of hurdles and opposition within Congress. Right now the biggest threats to the amendment come from within Congress. Sen. Bill Nelson,...

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Investment in the global renewable energy industry slowed considerably in 2008 and went into a freefall in the first quarter of 2009. But a recent study by New Energy Finance reveals a few green shoots of recovery have begun to appear. The 2009 Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment report, commissioned by the UN Environment Programme, found that $155 billion was invested in renewable...

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Jatropha, a hardy, drought resistant plant that grows oil-heavy fruit, was supposed to be the salvation of the biodiesel industry. The plant, which was targeted for an $80 million pilot project by BP and D1 Oils, can grow on marginal lands that crops don’t like. It tends to favor a land type that is common in developing countries like China and India, as well as many African nations,...

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The term “offshore wind” usually refers to wind turbines erected on islands or in shallow water off a mainland coast, as with the infamous Cape Wind project. But the real prize would be floating turbines far enough from shore to be out of sight, catching the strongest, most constant winds available. It’s a technical challenge, but Norway’s StatoilHydro has just set up...

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China is fueling much of the consolidation within the oil and gas industry, with as much as $12 billion worth of deal currently in the pipeline. The latest company to catch China’s asset-focused eye is Addax Petroleum, a Geneva-based oil and gas explorer, the South China Morning Post reported Monday. Addax has since released a press release confirming “it has held preliminary...

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