January 18, 2011 

The divide that separates the energy producers from those of the environmental movement won't be bridged anytime soon. The latest flare-up pertains to Shell Oil Co. and is off the shores of Alaska and near the Arctic slope - long a symbol in the debate over whether to allow more drilling rights.

With the Obama administration focused on economic health and investment in clean technology, drilling in the Arctic has gotten the cold shoulder. It has become even truer in the aftermath of the BP oil spill. At a time of divided government, though, the area might become a place for compromise. But don't bet on it.

January 14, 2011

America is up for the challenge of leading the world in energy technology, says a leading expert in business and energy innovation. Nicholas M. Donofrio, a senior fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, says that the United States will be able to assert its technological leadership developing the next generation of safe, reliable nuclear power plants.

Nuclear power plant construction is undergoing a global resurgence, particularly in China. A program of federal loan guarantees is intended to spur a nuclear renaissance in America. But many industry experts say that for nuclear to take off a business case must be made for it free of government supports.

January 13, 2011
 
Dynegy's hard past will soon have a new beginning. Carl Icahn has agreed to take the independent power producer private at a price of $665 million in cash plus the assumption of $4 billion in debt - unless the company can attract a better all-cash deal in the coming weeks.

Luring capital is no small task. As such, power companies have to consider all options -- including those beyond the traditional debt and equity markets. Private equity firms are good prospects: They have the cash and they seek productive assets. Utilities, meantime, are short generation and transmission and need solid partners. The two have already met and time has shown they work well together.

January 12, 2011

Duke Energy is vowing to buy Progress Energy in what would become the largest utility in the country. But would the mega-merger create excessive market power? Regulators will decide.

It's not a surprise that two contiguous power companies would want to unite. Any company with a solid financial and pot of cash has its eye on others. Simply, merging could potentially improve earnings and thereby help to bankroll future projects. The secret, though, is to make buys that are reasonably priced and that are synergistic - all to gain size and scope while increasing cost savings.

January 11, 2011

The Middle East is long synonymous with oil production. But the region will soon have a new power broker and one that specializes in finding natural gas: Israel.

Last month, Texas-based Noble Energy and its Israeli partners discovered the world's largest natural gas deposit in 10 years that is roughly 80 miles off the shores of Haifa, Israel. Leviathan, as it known and which is said to 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, could at least allow the small nation to replace much of its oil-and- coal- based electric generation with that of the cleaner burning natural gas.