The oil and gas industry public relations organizations are spinning up in response to the New York Times pieces on the long term viability of natural gas produced by hydraulic fracturing. (See Behind Veneer, Doubt on Future of Natural Gas and S.E.C. Shift Leads to Worries of Overestimation of Reserves) Several commentaries appeared yesterday that…
Barry Brook is an Australian climate scientist who operates the well-respected forum on energy and environment called Brave New Climate. He recently published a video that takes just 2.5 minutes to summarize his view of the energy choices that face humanity. My bet is that you will want to share it with your friends and…
Though the technique of injecting large volumes of high pressure water and chemicals into shale formations will result in the trapped natural gas being released, the people quoted in the NY Times article do not agree that the technique magically produces low cost gas in unprecedented abundance. The New York Times published an article on…
Several months ago, I signed up to receive press releases from Representative Ed Markey, mainly so you don’t have to endure the pain yourself. On June 21, 2011, I received one titled Markey, Welch to GAO: No Way to Assess Integrity of Buried Pipes at Nuclear Reactors that offers some food for thought about the…
Two articles that appear in the New York Times on June 15, 2011 should help to make it more clear to more thinking people – Russia, the world’s largest natural gas exporter, stands to gain the most money by an illogical, politically driven shift away from nuclear energy. It baffles me why there is so…
During a recent discussion on a email list frequented by pro-nuclear activists, we were discussing possible advertising messages that we would like to see from nuclear companies or nuclear industry groups. There is no way that any other fuel or power source can compete with uranium or thorium fission on anything close to a level…
Platts Energy Week recently aired a short segment discussing a topic that I was dimly aware of, but had not taken the time to pursue. According to Platts, natural gas market analysts are discussing the overall impact of the expiration of something called “held by production leases”. Platts’s explanation piqued my interest, but the presenter’s…
Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that his country shares a common desire with oil consumers. They would both like oil prices to be lower. Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal indicated that the Saudis would like oil to be trading in the range of $70 to $80 per barrel instead of its current…
I deliberately chose a provocative title to discuss a theory that surprises nearly everyone. Though full of many sincere and hard working people who are trying to make the world a cleaner and more human friendly place, I believe that most of the really big and well-funded non-profit organizations that claim to be working for…
Peter Lang has published an intriguing guest post at Brave New Climate titled CO2 avoidance cost with wind energy in Australia and carbon price implications. It has attracted about 125 lengthy, mostly well-referenced comments and repeat visits from Michael Goggin of the American Wind Energy Association. I think renewable energy mythology is a clever distraction…
I have recently been introduced to a fascinating energy industry information source called European Energy Review. It is useful to find new perspectives on a topic as broad and as important as the large and lucrative energy supply business. The situation in Europe has always been substantially different from that in the US, because it…
The editors of Scientific American published an op-ed titled Coming Clean about Nuclear Power: Regulators and industry have one precious moment to recapture the public’s trust that holds nuclear energy to an unobtainably high standard of guaranteed safety, absolutely secure operations, and complete transparency. Now the toughest regulator in the federal government has to be…