oil

nuclear energy in Japan/shutterstock

Japan increased the use of fossil fuels for power generation 21% in 2012, following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident.[read more]

While there’s talk in Washington of an all-of-the-above approach to energy, there’s much to be done in applying that concept to our outer continental shelf oil and natural gas reserves.[read more]

High forecast/Shuttershock

The International Energy Agency forecasts that the United States will become the world’s largest oil producer by 2020, and will become a net oil exporter by 2030. What the forecasts ignore is the problem of diminishing returns.[read more]

Photo by Laurel Lockamy

Since BP’s catastrophic oil blowout nearly two years ago, Laurel Lockamy has gotten pretty good at photographing the dead. She’s snapped images of dozens of lifeless turtles and dolphins, countless dead fish, birds, armadillos and nutria and pretty much anything that crawls, swims or flies near the white sandy Mississippi...[read more]

On gasoline prices, President Obama is starting to learn the lesson of his predecessors. The quickest way to lower gasoline prices is by calling on Saudi Arabia.For three decades, US presidents have called on Saudi Arabia to get them out of an oil price bind. Saudi Arabia helped President Ronald Reagan get a leg up in the Cold War by...[read more]

Sheila Oliva recaps The Energy Collective's last webinar. Great for those who missed it![read more]

Yesterday the Environmental Protection Agency released its tabulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from large facilities in the US. In perusing the data I couldn't help thinking of the quote attributed to Willie Sutton concerning why he robbed banks. Even if he never actually said, "Because that's where the money is," the simple logic of...[read more]

Groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable say they speak for the country’s business interests. When it comes to the Keystone XL pipeline, they most definitely do not. Nicole Lederer explains why.[read more]

Without much fanfare, the Energy Information Agency of the US Department of Energy released a report on 2011 energy commodity prices yesterday. It confirmed that crude oil and key petroleum products set annually averaged price records last year. This largely snuck up on us, because it occurred without the kind of dramatic price spike we experienced in 2008 or in the oil crises of the 1970s. Prices rose early in the year, during the Libyan revolution, and they didn't fall much, subsequently.[read more]

One of my Top 10 Energy Stories of 2011 was the fact that the U.S. had become a net exporter of finished petroleum products such as diesel and gasoline. In fact, because gasoline and diesel prices were so high, fuel exports were valued at $88 billion, which made them the top value export in 2011 for the first time ever:[read more]

Photo by PJ Hahn

BP's newest PR salvo touting its Gulf cleanup hit a nerve with many residents still struggling to get their lives back (one ad captured this BP beach protest in the background). The oil behemoth's slickly produced pleas for Americans to “come on down” to the Gulf where the weather is warm, the...[read more]

It has been more than a year when the green blog reported about the closing of BP Solar's manufacturing facility in Maryland, US.According to several news reports last week, BP finally admitted that it can't handle the solar market and told its staff of 100 employees worldwide that it will fold its solar business after  being...[read more]

As the US Congressional representatives head home to their respective districts, some of which defy all logic in terms of that contortionist geography called gerrymandering, it’s a perfect opportunity to attend their town hall meetings to offer advice in support of Smart Grid initiatives.   Support a national energy policy...[read more]

Guest Post by Geoff Russell. Geoff is a mathematician and computer programmer and is a member of Animal Liberation SA. His recently published book is CSIRO Perfidy. His previous article on BNC was: Feeding the billions in 2050′s sauna (Part I) —————— Welcome to Part II of my presumptuously titled series on...[read more]

Late yesterday I saw a headline reporting that Chevron was being assessed more than $10 billion for a spill from its drilling activities offshore Brazil last month. The story was later revised to clarify that the amount in question was associated with a civil lawsuit being filed by a Brazilian prosecutor, rather than an actual fine by...[read more]