January 05, 2009

Running for office is one matter. Governing divergent interests is quite another. That's something in which the future Obama administration is now coming to grips.

The administration has painted itself green. But it is now trying to avoid doing so at the expense of the coal industry, which provides about 50 percent of the fuel to run this country's electric generation. And while the president-elect has said that he supports the advancement of modern, cleaner coal technologies, his nomination of Steven Chu as the secretary of the Department of Energy is controversial.

January 02, 2009

President-elect Obama and his family seem to be pretty well rested after having spent the Christmas holiday season vacationing in Honolulu where he was raised. It's a good thing because in 19 days he'll be inundated with the world's problems.

Before the economy hit a tailspin last October, energy had been one of the hottest topics on the campaign trail: To implement an aggressive global warming strategy or to sit tight until things get better; to use more federal dollars to support green energy technologies or to let the private sector handle all of that; to pursue clean coal power plants or to let them idle; to drill or not to drill and to rev up the nukes or not.

December 31, 2008

Many of us have been watching the tube and trying to learn about this alleged Ponzi scheme set up by Bernard Madoff. Not many had ever heard of him until the news broke that he had been accused of swindling so many out of so much. But what has captured my thinking is how the human psyche can get so far off track.

I'm not smart enough to try and figure out what this guy has supposedly done (and neither are the regulators.) But I'll try and share some insights that I've gathered over the years from writing about similar subjects. Generally, schemers have a way of ingratiating themselves into the right circles.

December 29, 2008

Until now, to equip your home or business with solar power you had to come up with a lot of scratch up front. Unfortunately, that often left access to the technology to the financially well off, to the curious or to highly motivated tree huggers.

That appears to be changing. While the government casts about for a national energy policy, communities and utilities are experimenting with novel and more affordable ways to bring consumers and businesses into the sunlight.

The cities of Berkeley, Calif., and Boulder, Colo., are creating a national buzz with initiatives to allow property owners to install rooftop solar panels using city-backed loans. The loans are repaid over 20 years through special property-tax assessments. Utilities are also taking to the rooftops, though using a slightly different approach from the Berkeley fathers.

December 26, 2008

Power generation is likely to be the only driver for increased natural gas demand this winter as warmer weather and a sluggish economy dampen retail and industry demand, the Natural Gas Supply Association forecast in its annual winter outlook for 2008-2009.

"Gas-fired generation is an area where gas demand is expected to increase as a result of gas generating capturing most of the new power generation capacity," says Patrick Kuntz, vice president at Marathon Oil and current NGSA chairman, at a presentation of the forecast in Washington in October.