Blog Profile / R Squared Energy Blog
| URL : | http://www.consumerenergyreport.com/blogs/rsquared/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Utilities / Energy | |
| Posts on Regator: | 466 | |
| Posts / Week: | 3.6 | |
| Archived Since: | November 19, 2010 | |
Blog Post Archive
The Impact of Budget Sequestration on DOD Energy Innovation
Since 2009, DOD has invested $5 billion in clean energy research, development, testing, demonstration, and procurement, representing almost 25 percent of U.S. clean energy funding in FY2012.
Who Wins from Rising Natural Gas Prices?
Given their heavy investments in natural gas, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, along with Chesapeake, stand to benefit from the recovery in natural gas prices, writes Robert Rapier.
Climate Hawks Should Aggressively Support the America COMPETES Act
Within the climate advocacy community there are those that argue for aggressive clean energy innovation policy, and those that argue for aggressive deployment of existing clean energy technologies, writes Matthew Stepp. As a result, conflict occurs over what policy changes should be made.
Retailers Chase Energy Efficiency for a Competitive Edge
When it comes to energy efficiency, retailers are on a roll, according to Allison Asplin. Wawa, Kohl's, and Walgreen's are among major U.S. retailers who say they are saving loads of money due to energy usage upgrades.
Future of DoD’s Biofuels Program Should Not Be Sacrificed to Tight Budgets
The budget sequester should not excuse military and civilian leadership in the Department of Defense from making the important investments into the future; it is strategically important for the military to develop new sources of energy like biofuels, opines Andrew Holland.
Why Magellan Midstream Partners is a Solid MLP Stock
Lou Gagliardi likes Magellan’s outlook as an infrastructure player building pipeline capacity from main oil producing regions like the Permian and Eagle Ford. It has a good dividend distribution yield that provides a floor of support to the stock, and has very little short interest.
Estimate for Williston Basin Oil Resources is Doubled
Last week the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) provided an update of oil and gas resources in the Bakken region. This was their first update since a 2008 report that estimated mean undiscovered volumes of 3.65 billion barrels of oil and 1.85 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Bipartisan Support for Bill to Encourage Energy Efficiency
Recently Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D.-N.H.) and Rob Portman (R.-Ohio) reintroduced the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act. The bill is meant to spur the use of energy efficiency technologies in residential and commercial buildings as well as in industrial and manufacturing operations. Show More Summary
DOE Proposes Expanding High Impact Energy Innovation Incubator Program
Buried in the President’s FY2014 budget proposal is an interesting reform that could impact energy innovation without relying on Congress for any new – and hard to come by – federal investments. The idea is to create eight new research...Show More Summary
Why Oil Prices Will Remain High Despite the U.S. Oil Boom
Oil production in the U.S. has gone up by 30% since 2011, but insatiable demand from emerging economies like China, India, and even sub-Saharan Africa will outstrip the U.S. oil boom, according to Andrew Holland.
The Key to Running the World on Solar and Wind Power
Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of solar and wind power is their intermittency. In locations like Hawaii, where I live, wind and solar power are already competitive on price. My fossil-fuel supplied electricity typically costs above 40 cents a kilowatt-hour, and wind and solar power can compete with that. Show More Summary
The Energy Industry’s Production Challenge: 100 Million Barrels Per Day
With major oil basins around the world suffering a global decline rate on average of roughly 4%, the industry will be challenged to replace existing production and grow to meet future consumption levels heading toward 100 MM barrels per day, writes Lou Gagliardi.
Thomas Friedman’s Evolving Support for an Innovation Carbon Tax
Bringing together climate policy and innovation to form a cohesive carbon tax proposal reframes U.S. climate advocates’ near-myopic focus on carbon pricing, mandates, and subsidies and expands the discussion on how we can use those tools to spur innovation, writes Matthew Stepp.
U.S. – China Agreement on Climate Shows Promise
The potential for bilateral cooperation between China and the U.S. on clean energy and pollution controls is vast. Although not directly related to greenhouse gas emissions, traditional pollution in Chinese cities has risen to levels that are dangerous to human health – and probably the number one concern for the general public in China today, writes Andrew Holland.
The Biggest Energy Private Equity Deal is on the Verge of Collapse and Why it’s a Big Deal
Energy Future Holdings (EFH), the massive private equity-owned Texas electric holding company and the result of one of the largest leveraged buy-outs ever, formally warned that it might need to seek bankruptcy protection. Eli Hinckley provides details on the background, who gains and loses, and the lessons to be learned.
Test Your International Oil IQ
In last week’s column, we examined some oil production trivia involving US states. This week, we look at some international oil trivia covering the 5-year period 2007-2011, as well as some individual trivia from 2012. In this case, the...Show More Summary
Finding a New Direction in Climate Change Policy
It’s clear that the world is losing the race against global climate change. The International Energy Agency put numbers to this fact in a new report, Tracking Clean Energy Progress 2013, which finds that, “the amount of CO2 emitted for...Show More Summary
2013 Crude Oil Outlook: Supply & Demand
From 2000 the increasing industrialization of the developing world has been the primary catalyst driving the demand for global crude oil. Among non-OECD nations, China and India have led the charge, with Chinese oil demand growing at a torrid 6.7% per annum rate and India’s oil demand growing at 4.0% per annum.
Why I’m Done Talking About Energy Security
There are some very important questions about energy today – but we are doing a disservice to always talk about them in the context of ‘energy security.’ Instead, let’s have real arguments about energy affordability, the effects of energy imports on trade deficits or geopolitics, or the pollution that producing and burning energy creates, writes Andrew Holland.
Welcome to High Efficiency
Welcome to High Efficiency, a new column from Energy Trends Insider. I’m your columnist, host, and resident energy-efficiency-obsessed individual, Allison Asplin. (You might remember me from my article in Eli Hinckley’s Banking Energy column, “Why Energy Efficiency and Buildings Don’t Mix.”) First a little about who I am and what I do. Show More Summary