March 30, 2009

It had been termed the Brave New World -- the one where electricity restructuring would revolutionize business models, technology development and consumer behaviors. But it has yet to happen. With the newfound emphasis on climate change, however, the energy sector may be jolted in ways that advocates of deregulation had only dreamed.

It centers on controlling energy use, which in turn limits emissions, helps preserve the environment and increases grid reliability. It will take an holistic approach. That will entail scheduling the most economical fuels and building of a digital network that extends to meters, which can then send signals to consumers or their automated appliances so as to cut usage. High hopes now exist as the cause is supported by national public policy that is enabling pilot projects to become commercialized.

There appears to be an interesting phenomenon taking place across the country with regards to energy conservation and renewable energy. Both provide your recommended daily allowance of good, nutritious, environmental attributes, but over the past few years, attention at the breakfast table seems to be shifting towards a heavy diet of renewable energy, at the possible detriment of energy conservation.

Some may argue that we all need to increase our attention to alternative forms of energy, primarily renewable sources, in order for all of us to begin to assist our climate in doing its job of allowing us all to live each day. A noble cause by all standards, we all should be fully behind the massive swell of interest and enthusiasm generated by the Clean Green Energy wave sweeping the country. It's long in coming, and continues to blossom from all comers of the world.

March 27, 2009

It's part of the great ideological divide. And any bridge that would help close the gap will remain elusive. It's about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which has been at the forefront of a national discussion over whether to allow more oil and gas drilling in areas that are now off limits to production.

Times have changed since the issue first gained prominence in 1980. While the nation has long professed a desire to wean itself from dependence on foreign energy sources, it had little reason to do so. Oil and gas prices have been relatively cheap until this century. But now such prices are gyrating with the cost of natural gas going up from about $2.50 per million BTUs in 2000 to -- at one point -- as much as $13 per million BTUs.

March 25, 2009

If not Yucca Mountain, then what? That's the question that the nuclear energy sector is asking the Obama administration, which has effectively killed the permanent repository for spent fuel by cutting off its funding.

It had long been thought that if the nuclear sector is to make a revival, it would need a permanent place to bury its radioactive material and Yucca Mountain, 90 miles outside of Las Vegas, provided such a spot. But the site has been entangled in one legal morass after the next -- a predicament that will now force the industry to rethink its growth strategies.

March 23, 2009

A federal mandate requiring utilities to acquire increasing amounts of renewable energy could be enacted as soon as this year. President Barack Obama had it as one of his energy campaign planks and in recent years both houses of Congress have passed their own versions -- but never at the same time or ever in any final energy bill.

That is changing this year, renewable energy advocates and a key Senate committee spokesman say. A bill is expected to be passed by Congress this year and signed by Obama, though action was deferred until the economic stimulus package was passed. In recent years, either the House or the Senate has passed a mandate in deliberations of energy legislation, only to have it stripped from the final bill before it reached the White House. Some type of mandate is the law in at least 28 states, so there's widespread support for that measure.