New hope for tapping vast domestic reserves of oil shale
New study concludes that oil trapped in the world's oil shale deposits exceeds the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia; an estimated one trillion barrels of oil, for instance, are in the so-called Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming; new recovery process holds promise of economically tapping these vast resources of crude oil
Analysis // Ben Frankel
Spill over? The ramifications of the financial crisis for the energy sector
Richard Stuebi offers useful, and sobering, insights into the likely ramifications of the crisis in the U.S. financial markets for the energy sector; he admits that he is a bit gloomy, and writes that "Maybe some stronger causes for optimism will emerge"; we believe the stronger causes for optimism are already here
Follow the money
Investments in algae biofuel explode
Investors --Bill Gates among them -- have turned 2008 into a record-breaking year for algae-based biofuel companies raising venture capital; in 2007 these companies raised $15 million; in the first nine months of 2008 they have already raised $180 million
Trend: Brewing food-based biofuel conflict
EU faces pressure from overseas biofuel-makers
There is a growing worry that increasing production of food-based biofuels is driving up the price of food; the EU has tilted its policy toward non food-based biofuels, and countries with large food-based biofuels sectors are angry
Analyst: Wind power can solve the U.S. oil addiction
In the next five years, the governments of the United States, China, and the European nations will plow at least $150 billion into wind power; the reason: Wind can be used to generate electricity for 6 to 8.5 cents per kilowatt-hour; the cost of nuclear power runs about 15 cents per kilowatt-hour; coal now costs north of 10 cents (without factoring in carbon capture and storage; gas-fired power costs approximately 12 cents
Wind power to bring jobs, economic benefits to Colorado
In 2005 wind energy created 25 jobs in Colorado; by 2010 that will be more than 2,600; one analyst says that "We're looking at billions of dollars of investment in '09, '10.... We're seeing not just jobs, but really strong economic growth and private investment coming into the state"
Birds, bats cause end of wind-turbine project in Pennsylvania
One problem wind power faces is the welfare of birds: if the turbines are built in the migration path of birds, the birds fly into the turbines' blades and get killed by the thousands; a Pennsylvania wind farm project is canceled because of worries about birds and bats
New process derives green gasoline from plant sugars
Sugars are an attractive basis for fuel because they are abundant; trouble is, plant sugars contain equal numbers of carbon and oxygen atoms, making it difficult to create high-octane or cetane fuels; Badgers scientist develops method to remove almost all the oxygen atoms, leaving only a few to keep the molecules reactive -- and the reactive molecules can then be "upgraded" into different forms of fuel
Deactivating radioactive waste in hundreds, not millions, of years
There is a growing interest in nuclear power generation as an answer to the rising cost of oil and environmental concerns; nuclear power means nuclear waste, and handling nuclear waste means isolating that waste from the environment for millions of years; scientists now say deactivation can be done in hundreds of years
New U.K. investment in wind and wave power
U.K. energy companies now have to source 9.1 percent of their energy from renewable sources -- a big task, since currently the United Kingdom only produces 2 percent of energy from renewable sources
Alstom in big hydropower projects in Portugal, Brazil
Hydroelectric-installed capacity in Latin America, including Brazil and Paraguay, is 143.8 GW, of which Alstom currently holds a 25 percent share
Brazil's biofuel leadership... Welsh Power in £140 million biomass project... Hydraficient announces availability of water fuel cell kit... Renewable energy resources on contaminated lands... India approves biofuel rise...
Smart meters would save consumer money
Organizations which switched to using modern metering achieved 12 percent carbon savings and 5 percent savings through reduced utility consumption; consumers would enjoy similar benefits
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Energy landscape
Introducing Energy Business Wire // Ben Frankel
Serious concern germinating
Three factors -- the rising cost of oil, the political ramifications of the fact that most of the world's oil reserves happen to be in the territories of some of the world's most unsavory regimes, and the environ-
mental consequences of reliance on fossil fuels -- have combined to create an energy crisis; some say the crisis is already here; others argue it is imminent; other yet say it is merely incipient
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The coal conundrum
Last March, James Hansen, arguably the world's leading climate scientist, and eight colleagues, claimed earth's climate system was about twice as sensitive to carbon dioxide pollution as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had found. This implies that there is already enough greenhouse gas pollution in the atmosphere to cause 2 degrees of warming, bringing about conditions not seen on earth for 2 to 3 million years and constituting, according to the authors, "a degree of warming that would surely yield dangerous climate impacts"
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Canada: Changes and opportunities — federal climate change legislation
The federal government recently announced details of a federal regulatory scheme involving a carbon cap and trade system, and carbon trading framework, as part of its "Turning the Corner" plan aimed at cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
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EU faces pressure from overseas biofuel-makers
A decision by a key European Parliament committee last week to beef up sustainability criteria for agrofuels and tilt the Union's biofuel policy towards non food-based biofuels due to concerns over rising commodity prices has irritated top biofuel-exporting nations Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil
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