A drilling platform at a geothermal project near LaPine, Ore. Geothermal extraction is believed to be lower risk than fracking, Alic writes, but certainly not risk free both in terms of potential water pollution and seismic activity. (Don Ryan/AP/File)
France's geothermal 'fracking' conundrum
France finds itself in an interesting conundrum that the oil industry is hoping to take advantage of: The country has banned fracking but is now planning to tap into geothermal energy which requires a process similar to fracking.
In 2011, France banned shale fracking. In February, France’s Environment Ministry awarded two exploration licenses for geothermal energy, which involves drilling deep into the Earth’s crust.
The media has described the oil industry as up in arms over France’s geothermal plans. It’s not fair. Fracking is, after all, fracking. But more to the point, the oil industry likely sees an opportunity here to reverse the fracking ban.
France will have a hard time arguing that geothermal fracking is so much different than shale fracking. The outcome will either be to foster public opposition to geothermal energy plans and sideline this as well, or to advance the shale cause. (Related article: U.S. Game Changing Renewable - Geothermal Power)
And France’s geothermal energy plans are rather ambitious: Not only have they awarded three licenses, but they are reviewing 18 more. At the same time, along with the 2011 ban on shale fracking, the government revoked shale exploration licenses awarded to France’s Total SA and the US’ Schuepbach Energy LLC. ( Continue… )
Gina McCarthy testifies before a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on her nomination to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
Gina McCarthy: How would she change EPA?
On paper, the goal of Thursday's Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works meeting was to consider the nomination of Gina McCarthy to head the US Environmental Protection Agency. In practice, it was equally a referendum on the agency's considerable regulatory powers.
What are the costs and benefits of regulating fossil-fuel energy production? Do savings on health and infrastructure outweigh losses in employment and production?
McCarthy has a reputation for being a tough regulator. As head of EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, she helped draft new regulations curbing emissions of mercury and soot from power plants. Just last month the EPA passed stronger standards for car tailpipe emissions and sulphur levels in gasoline. ( Continue… )
Processed coal streams out into a pile after being cleaned in the prep plant at the Century Mine near Beallsville, Ohio. The US Energy Information Administration predicts that coal generation will gain in 2013 due to the rising price of natural gas. (Jason Cohn/Reuters/File)
Will high natural gas prices increase coal use? (Sponsor content)
In an article from yesterday’s Power Magazine, the magazine states that the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts that coal generation will gain in 2013 due to the rising price of natural gas.
According to the article: “The increasing cost of natural gas relative to coal is expected to increase coal’s share of total generation from 37.4% in 2012 to 39.9% in 2013, according to the EIA April release of its Short-Term Energy Outlook.
Though that would leave coal’s percentage below its 42.3% share in 2011, it indicates that gas may not be on an inevitable path to overtake a significantly greater share of the generation pie.”
Just today, a dedication ceremony was held for the John W. Turk Plant in Arkansas. The 600-megawatt coal-fueled plant began commercial operations in December 2012 and is one of the cleanest, most efficient coal-fueled plants in the United States, and the first of its kind in operation in the United States.
EIA figures also show that coal consumption will increase both domestically and internationally to meet rising electricity demand during the next several decades, providing the U.S. and other countries with indigenous energy resources.
Copies of President Barack Obama's budget plan for fiscal year 2014 are distributed to Senate staff on Capitol Hill in Washington. The budget calls for investing billions in clean-energy technology and eliminating tax preferences for oil and gas companies – two features of the administration's energy policy that have repeatedly rankled Republicans. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Obama budget boosts 'green energy,' but no olive branch to GOP
President Obama's proposed 2014 budget aims for a "grand bargain" with cuts to Social Security and Medicare. But on energy, the president doesn't seem interested in making concessions.
Mr. Obama calls for investing billions in clean-energy technology and eliminating tax breaks for oil and gas companies – two features of the administration's energy policy that have repeatedly rankled Republicans.
"As we continue to pursue clean energy technologies that will support future economic growth, we should not devote scarce resources to subsidizing the use of fossil fuels produced by some of the largest, most profitable companies in the world," the budget reads.
It's like nails across a chalkboard for the oil and gas industry. They say eliminating such tax preferences would kill jobs and slow economic development.
The territory is so well worn that the American Petroleum Institute simply rehashed last year's press release to respond to the latest budget: ( Continue… )
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md. Ms. Palin recently labeled electric carmaker Tesla Motors a 'loser,' prompting a rebuff from the company's CEO Elon Musk. (Carolyn Kaster/AP/File)
Sarah Palin Tesla slam: Is electric carmaker really a 'loser'?
Sarah Palin labeled Tesla Motors a "loser" in a Facebook post last week, lumping the electric car company in with Fisker Automotive as examples of President Obama's clean-energy policy gone awry.
Fisker is certainly in dire straits, but is Tesla really a "loser"?
Both companies were backed by Department of Energy loan guarantees, but the electric carmakers' balance sheets are far from similar. While Fisker teeters on the verge of bankruptcy, Tesla is exceeding sales targets and says it made its first profit in the first quarter of 2013.
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That's not to say Tesla's record is spotless. The former governor of Alaska pointed out one of Tesla's setbacks in her post:
"[T]he Obama-subsidized Tesla [turns] into a 'brick' when the battery completely discharges and then costs $40,000 to repair." ( Continue… )
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett attends his company's annual meeting in Omaha, Neb. Suntech stock rose as much as 28 percent after a Hong Kong news service said Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. might buy the Chinese manufacturer. (Rick Wilking/Reuters/File)
Will Warren Buffett buy China's bankrupt Suntech solar company?
After filing for bankruptcy and seeing its stock fall 40% when it default on $541 million in bonds, Chinese equity Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP) has rallied on rumors that Warren Buffett may buy the company.
Suntech’s rally brought other languishing Chinese solar companies along with it at it rose 0.4% to 89.44 at the close of trading in New York on 8 April. According to Bloomberg, after falling 40% following the default, Suntech rose as much as 28% after a Hong Kong news service said Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. might buy the Chinese manufacturer.
No one’s quite sure why Buffett might want to buy Suntech, with all the debt he would inherit at a time when solar prices are low. There has been no confirmation from MidAmerican Holdings that any deal is in the works. (Related article: Solar Industry Finally Producing More Energy than it Consumes)
Chinese lenders signed a bankruptcy petition for Suntech over the company’s debt in excess of $2.2 billion. Suntech continues to produce solar panels, however, further compounding the oversupply problem and forcing more drops in prices.
Solar stocks are extremely volatile right now and unable to deal with the combination of oversupply and declining demand at a time when government subsidies are being slashed.
RECOMMENDED: 8 steps to US energy security
Original source: http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Solar-Energy/Buffett-Rumor-Boosts-Beleaguered-Suntech.html
Ernest Moniz testifies before the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee on his nomination to be energy secretary in Washington. Mr. Moniz supports President Obama's 'all-of-the-above' energy policy as a means toward a low-carbon economy. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Ernest Moniz: Where would he take Energy Department?
Senators from across the political spectrum praised Ernest Moniz during his confirmation hearing Tuesday, all but indicating that the former undersecretary of the Department of Energy will soon claim the agency's top post.
So what will change at the DOE? Probably not much in terms of broad objectives. Mr. Moniz supports President Obama's "all-of-the-above" energy policy as a means toward a low-carbon economy.
But strategy is another question. During his confirmation hearing Tuesday, Moniz hinted that in contrast to the controversial direct investments in clean-energy companies under the previous energy secretary, he would refocus the department on its research and development roots.
"Our job is to push technology innovation to get the cost of low-carbon technologies as low as possible," Moniz said. It was a sentiment he echoed at various points throughout the hearing, saying research and development is "first and foremost" in the department's push to lower the cost of clean energy. ( Continue… )
A crew works on a gas drilling rig at a well site for shale based natural gas in Zelienople, Pa., in 2012. Natural gas prices are depressed now, but a trend is forming that will create a natural gas boom. (Keith Srakocic/AP/File)
Another energy boom is on the way
Trading energy and energy stocks this week have been a dangerous experience, as oil markets sloughed off more than $3 a barrel on little more than a whim. DOE reports showed a certain stockpile increase, but those reports have been rather irrelevant for years, so pointing to this particular report as a reason for the quick drop would seem a major overstatement I won’t be foolish enough to make.
Much more believable would be the one-sided nature of the trade for the past week and a half, with traders looking for risk assets to again take the lead in a stock market that has continued to float upon a layer of liquidity and make new highs almost daily.
But risk assets have done anything but cooperate – copper is bad, gold is bad as are the equally commodity based stocks like miners and materials. With traders piling into oil as some sort of hedge for Kim Jung Un’s latest temper tantrum, it’s not hard to imagine the world being caught long and paying for it – as markets are wont to do -- punishing traders who even for a moment thought they’ve got it all figured out.
What I can say to readers of Oilprice Premium is that the overview of markets I’ve been providing has been a useful one, if you’ve read closely: I warned very clearly of the collapsing spreads between West Texas Intermediate crude and the European Brent Crude benchmarks and told of the likely contraction of refiner margins that could result; refiners in the midcontinent this week responded by sloughing off almost 10% of their value. ( Continue… )
Runners take part in the 37th Paris Marathon, in Paris, Sunday. (Thibault Camus/AP)
Paris Marathon captures energy of runners' footsteps
Sunday’s Paris marathon was a great success, and this year, thanks to the installation of energy-harvesting tiles, clean energy was actually generated from the event.
178 of the flexible tiles, which are able to capture the kinetic energy of footsteps, were laid out along a 25 metre stretch of the Champs-Elysees, just part of the 26 mile course.
The tiles, created by Pavegen Systems Ltd. from the UK, are made from recycled truck tyres and can generate as much as 8 watts of kinetic energy from each footfall. Pavegen announced that they would donate €60,000 to an NGO if the 40,000 runners could produce produced 7 kilowatt-hours of energy. There is still no word as to whether that target was reached. (Related article: Have Canadian Researchers Cracked How to Store Renewable Energy?)
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Laurence Kemball-Cook, the CEO of Pavegen and inventor of the technology, explained the idea behind his compay’s new product. “Imagine if your run or walk to work could help to power the lights for your return journey home in the evening. A viable new type of off-grid energy technology that people love to use and which can make a low-carbon contribution wherever there is high footfall, regardless of the weather.”
Pavegen have been unwilling to release the current cost of the tile, but did mention that they have reduced the cost by half over the past year and area aiming to lower it further to around £50 per tile, similar to other high-spec floor tiles.
Original source: http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Paris-Marathon-Generates-Energy-from-Runners-Footsteps.html
A wind turbine is seen in Sheffield, Vt. Compliance with potential new clean energy standards in Colorado would cost hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, Tracey writes, having a potentially devastating effect on many Colorado communities. (Toby Talbot/AP/File)
Clean-energy standards could cost Colorado consumers billions (Sponsor content)
In this tough economy, Colorado’s electricity must be produced at a price that families and small businesses can afford. Which is why SB 13-252, being considered by the Colorado State Legislature, is a step in the wrong direction. The bill would require some utilities to increase energy from renewable sources by 150%, which would result in higher electricity costs.
Interestingly, SB 13-252 was introduced without consulting the consumers that will pay for this mandate, and the cost of compliance would be hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars—having a potentially devastating effect on many Colorado communities.
According to the Pueblo Chieftain: “Colorado’s rural electric cooperatives are currently required, by the year 2020, to provide 10% of their power using select renewable resources – a reasonable standard these not-for-profit, consumer-owned utilities agreed to in 2007. With co-ops aggressively adding new renewable resources in an effort to meet and even exceed this standard, new mandates are neither fair nor necessary.
And yet Senate Bill 13-252, sponsored by Colorado Springs Senator John Morse – along with Senator Gail Schwartz from Pitkin County – would increase the standard to 25% – more than doubling the current requirement while keeping the 2020 deadline for compliance in place.”
As we learned last year during a visit to western Colorado, in two small towns, cutting even 150 jobs would be devastating. Just ask the residents of Nucla and Naturita, Colorado. These towns rely heavily on the jobs from a nearby coal mine and coal-fueled power plant for their livelihood.
If you live in Colorado, click here to ask your legislator to support affordable and reliable electricity and tell them that government should not mandate higher electricity costs without considering economic impacts this bill would have on Colorado families and small businesses.
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