December 21, 2010

New York's governor has signed an executive order stopping the process by which natural gas developers drill for shale until the state completes a study. What then does that portend for "hydraulic fracturing" and the shale gas industry?

Fracking - as it is called - is now controversial because of its alleged effects on drinking water supplies. Industry says that the process is safe, although both national and state regulators want to take a closer look. While New York has taken the most pronounced step, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has also begun an intensive investigation into the matter.

December 20, 2010 

Can the Courts Order Carbon Cuts

Various sources have estimated that approximately one half to two thirds of annual anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are removed from the atmosphere by natural processes, primarily by absorption into the world's oceans. Some have suggested that global annual anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions would therefore have to be reduced by roughly one third to one half to halt the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. However, the history of the increase in global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations suggests that the percentage reduction in global annual carbon dioxide emissions would have to be far greater, arguably total, to halt the accumulation of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Others have reached similar conclusions based on modeling of CO2 in the atmosphere.

December 17, 2010 - The world war on renewables is on. China. India. And the United States - along with Denmark and others - are out to battle for supremacy in what will be the next turn in the industrial revolution.

China is on its way to dominating the global wind generation business after a strong early assist through the adoption of policies that favored Chinese wind turbine manufacturers - and probably violated international trade rules. In the process, the New York Times reported this week, Chinese companies now control half the global $45 billion annual wind turbine market.

December 16, 2010

Companies interested in kick-starting coal to the forefront of American energy generation have some solid backing: The U.S. Department of Energy, which is plowing in about $1.1 billion or 80 percent of the cost of a potential zero-emissions coal-fired facility capable of capturing and burying carbon emissions.

FutureGen 2.0 is expected to be a 200 megawatt facility that will retrofit an oil-fueled unit in Meredosia, Illinois that is owned by Ameren Corp. The plan is to use oxygen to help burn the coal in such a way that it would nearly eliminate harmful emissions regulated under the Clean Air Act. It would also help concentrate the carbon dioxide so that it could be captured. The whole process is known as oxy-combustion.

December 15, 2010

After lots of fanfare, electric cars have finally pulled into town. They power-up from a wall socket or charging station that will connect to the grid, enabling the potential to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But, for now, they depend on fossil-fired electricity - and whether utilities can meet the demands to be imposed upon them.

Advocates of the modern-style plug-in vehicles say that electric cars are more efficient than those that run on gasoline. That is, the emissions from traditional combustion engines exceed those that would be fueled by coal. If the utilities were to derive their power from other, alternative sources of power, the releases would fall accordingly.