Cellulosic Biofuels Begin To Flow

But In Lower Volumes Than Foreseen By Statutory TargetsSeveral companies combined to produce about 20,000 gallons of fuels using cellulosic biomass (e.g., wood waste, sugarcane bagasse) from commercial-scale facilities in late 2012. EIA estimates this output could grow to more than 5 million gallons in 2013, as operations ramp up at several plants. Additionally, several more plants with proposed aggregate nameplate capacity of around 250 million...

Read More

Sequester Spending Cuts

The sequester is a package of across-the-board, indiscriminate spending cuts that total $85 billion for the current fiscal year and $1.2 trillion over the next decade. The cuts are split evenly between the defense budget and non-defense discretionary spending, which includes many federal grants to state and local agencies. Mandatory programs, including Social Security and Medicaid, are spar...

Read More

LNG Exports

North American LNG Facilities Approved (FERC)North American LNG Import/Export Terminals (Proposed/Potential) (FERC)Why the Rush To ExportUnlike oil, which has international prices, natural gas is priced based on the supply in the local market. The United States, Canada, Russia, Australia and the Middle East countries have large reserves of natural gas, thus prices for natural gas in those countries are low. European and Asian countries have limited...

Read More

White House Meets With Industry & Green Groups on Fracking

The White House review of delayed federal rules for oil-and-gas "fracking" is drawing plenty of interest from energy companies and green groups.  Representatives from the biggest oil-and-gas companies — including Exxon, Shell and BP — met Feb. 21 with aides from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to discuss the rules.The newly listed record of the Feb. 21 meeting also shows participation from drilling services giant...

Read More

Gasoline Prices Have Risen Since The Start of the Year

The average U.S. retail price for regular motor gasoline has risen 45 cents per gallon since the start of the year, reaching $3.75 per gallon on February 18. Between January 1 and February 19, the price of Brent crude, the waterborne light sweet crude grade that drives the wholesale price of gasoline sold in most U.S. regions, rose about $6 per barrel, or about 15 cents per gallon. A simple calculation, which modestly understates the role of...

Read More

Canada Issuing Rules on GHG Emissions From Oil Sands

Canada is unveiling long-delayed rules on greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands, a move that could help persuade U.S. skeptics that Ottawa is serious about curbing climate change. Alberta’s existing policy includes a carbon fee of $15/ton on large-scale polluters that do not drive down their emissions “intensity” below certain thresholds.  The fee has raised $300 million for a fund that supports green energy projects.  Are American...

Read More

Renewable Electric Catamarans

 Hybrid-electric drive The E motion system is true hybrid-electric drive. It can power the drive motors solely by electricity from the batteries - which can be charged from renewable energy sources - or from a DC diesel generator feeding through the battery pack.E motion hybrids incorporate the latest in solid state electronics and permanent-magnet motor technology. One key to our system's efficiency is our motors' ability to turn...

Read More

EPA Letter Responding To Senator Mikulski on Sequestration

EPA responded to a letter from Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski that requested information on how budgetary 'sequestration' would affect the agency.  EPA responded that:"Sequestration will force us to make cuts we believe will directly undercut our Congressionally-mandated mission of assuring Americans have clean air, clean water and clean land.  I am enclosing our preliminary assessment of some of the impacts of sequestration, should it be implemented.  Our assessment highlights a number of immediate impacts to programs, people...

Read More

New Offset Protocols for California GHG Cap & Trade Program

Notice of Public Workshop on Addition of New Offset Protocols to the California Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade Program‏ ARB will hold a public workshop on new offset protocol development. Staff from the Air Resources Board (ARB) invites you to participate in a workshop as part of amendments of the California greenhouse gas (GHG) Cap-and-Trade Program. This workshop willfocus on evaluating the technical details of adding protocols for Coal Mine...

Read More

Summary of Hydraulic Fracturing Study November 2012 Technical Roundtables‏

EPA rececently posted a summary of the five technical roundtables held in November 2012 to help inform EPA's Hydraulic Fracturing Study. Each roundtable focused on a different stage of the hydraulic fracturing water cycle:Water acquisitionChemical mixingWell injectionFlowback and produced waterWastewater treatment and waste disposalTechnical roundtables are an important component of EPA’s Study of the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing on...

Read More

Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactors (LFTR)

LFTRWork done at Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL) back in the 1950s and 60s demonstrated the feasibility of breeding U-233 from Thorium-232 as well as 'burning' U-233 in Molten Salts (ionic compounds). These molten salts  (lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride) serve as a carrier fluid for both Thorium (Thorium tetraflouride) [Blanket] and Uranium (Uranium tetraflouride) [Core]. The resulting design has been coined the Liquid...

Read More

BP Oil Spill Fines

BP has won an agreement from the Justice Department that there will be no penalties on the barrels of crude oil the company was able to recapture during the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill, effectively cutting the company’s potential Clean Water Act fines by as much as $900 million, or even up to $3.5 billion.BP has contended that the amount spilled was “at least 20 percent” less than that. Moreover, it has argued that whatever the size of the spill, it...

Read More

Why Are Gasoline Prices Increasing?

The 44-cent jump in gasoline prices over the past four weeks was the largest in well over three years, according to AAA.  Average nationwide prices were $3.75 per gallon Tuesday, the highest on record for the calendar day.  Some politicians attribute the price rise to increased global competition for oil supplies and political tensions in the Middle East are contributing to high gas prices as uncertainty swells over future supplies.AAA...

Read More

President Obama Golfed During Historic Climate Rally

Jim CraneMilton CarrollOn the same weekend that thousands gathered on The National Mall to protest construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, President Obama was golfing at the Floridian Yacht and Golf Club with electricity, oil, natural gas and pipeline players Jim Crane and Milton Carroll.  Crane owns the club, which is located on the Treasure Coast in Palm City, Florida.  The Center has partnered with a Houston-based pipeline...

Read More

EPA Finalizes 'Boiler MACT' Rules

EPA Finalizes Hazardous Air Emission Rules for Boilers and Process Heaters Affecting 90,000 Facilities EPA’s standards for hazardous air emissions from boilers and process heaters, commonly referred to as “Boiler MACT,” were formally published on January 31, 2013. Boilers and heaters that were constructed after June 4, 2010 must meet the new requirements immediately; older units must come into compliance over the next three years, unless continued...

Read More

Plug-In Hybrids & All-Electric Cars Can Get the Job Done

Most plug-in cars today are plug-in hybrids, whose drivers have no range limitations at all. If you want one car to do it all, a plug-in hybrid like the Chevy Volt, Toyota Plug-in Prius, Honda Accord Plug-in, Ford Fusion Energi, or Ford C-Max Energi, is a great option. For daily driving needs, you can drive on electricity at a price that’s equivalent to driving on buck-a-gallon gasoline, and after you’ve gone beyond the all-electric range,...

Read More

February 17th Anti Keystone XL Pipeline Rally & March

PRESIDENT'S CORNERBy Norris McDonaldAbout 35,000 people rallied on The National Mall to support climate change mitigation and to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline.  Opposing the pipeline has become the new litmus test for environmentalism, replacing the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR).  Yet hundreds of thousands of miles of hydrocarbon carrying pipelines already crisscross the United States to support the American way of life. ...

Read More

President Obama State of the Union 2013: Energy & Climate

FULL SPEECHExcerpts“For the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change.”“But the fact is the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods — all are now more frequent and more intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we...

Read More

Wind Industry Installs 5,300 MW of Capacity in December

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Annual Electric Generator Report (Form EIA-860) and U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Update to the Annual Electric Generator Report (Form EIA-860M). Note: Data are preliminaryApproximately 40% of the total 2012 wind capacity additions (12,620 MW) came online in December, just before the scheduled expiration of the wind production tax credit (PTC). During December 2012,...

Read More

EPA Invites Communities to Apply for Smart Growth Assistance

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is inviting applications from communities interested in exploring barriers to smart growth and testing innovative strategies that can create healthier, more sustainable places to live, work, and play.EPA’s Smart Growth Implementation Assistance (SGIA) program provides technical assistance to help communities grow in ways that improve the local economy, the environment, and people’s health. The program...

Read More