March 5, 2008

When power outages spread 300 miles across Florida, dark visions occurred. It all seemed reminiscent of the 2003 blackout that left 50 million people in the United States and Canada without electricity -- a scenario that undoubtedly could occur again.

Utility planners have long warned that the nation's power infrastructure is not only stretched thin but also that is running on outdated technologies. Given the projected rise in electricity demand, the nation is still short generation and transmission. Improvements, no doubt, have occurred in some regions, but in others the problems are real and will ripple through their local economies.

February 22, 2008

The clean coal facility to be co-sponsored by the federal government and private enterprise may turn to dust. The plant, dubbed FutureGen, has been scrapped for now in favor of building smaller coal gasification units around the country that could minimize harmful pollutants and capture and bury carbon dioxide emissions.

The decision dismays those who say that FutureGen is further along than other coal gasification facilities that promise to be non-polluting. Those proponents say that they will first try and work with the U.S. Department of Energy to assure that the plant is built in Mattoon, Ill. But if the differences cannot be resolved, then they plan to ask Congress to force the agency's hand.

January 30, 2008

Oil companies have struck a potentially rich vein with respect to stranded national gas reserves. They no longer need to flare it. They can now bring it to market in the form of liquefied natural gas, or LNG.

But a central question is whether the oil companies and the host nations trust each other enough to allow this development to occur. Dissension from locals who fear being ripped off by Western capitalists is high. But the oil companies say that they work hard to fulfill their social compact while still honoring their investors.

January 25, 2008

Burning coal creates a sensitive waste that could ultimately become a beneficial byproduct used in building materials and cement.

Coal waste actually falls under the guidelines set for non-municipal, non-hazardous waste. The rules governing its disposal are vague, allowing the substance to be regulated by the state that establishes the appropriate rules for each site. At present, most such waste is buried in landfills. But promising technologies are emerging that allow it to be converted into other, more useful products.

January 21, 2008

Consumers respond to retail sales. And so the thinking goes they might react in kind to changing electricity prices - if they could track them. After studying this concept for one year, the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory proclaimed that, on average, participants saved 10 percent and during peak periods, they saved 15 percent.

It's never been a question of whether the tools would develop to allow such efficiencies. It's always been an issue over whether consumers would respond to the supply and demand curve that electricity follows. Researchers now conclude that by using relatively simple web-based programs, they will do so.