energy prices

wind energy and the grid

Wind only sets the market price if it is the most expensive resource on the system, and that almost never happens because wind has a zero fuel cost. If wind is setting the price, everything else in the area has been turned off.[read more]

value of oil

Why should we give so much value to oil when we have the proven technology to use other fuels? By giving value to other fuels we would reduce the value of oil, lower prices and even out the playing field in a true open market.[read more]

natural gas/shutterstock

What natural gas prices will be five, ten or fifteen years from now is unknowable. Going “long” on natural gas is a risky bet for the country. Going “long” on energy storage is not.[read more]

renewable fuel standards/shutterstock

The ineffectiveness of biofuels/ethanol mandates in advancing America’s energy security, the market-distorting aspects of top-down mandates and associated costs – all argue for scrapping the RFS.[read more]

German energy transition

Ever since the Fukushima catastrophe two years ago, Germans have redoubled their efforts to phase out of nuclear energy and fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy — called the “Energiewende” (energy transition) that began in 2000.[read more]

Recently, the folks at Grist tipped us off to some interesting new stats from the Consumer Price Index that show how prices of various commodities in the U.S. economy have changed over the past year.We think that, for companies offering home performance and energy efficiency services, the story these numbers tell should be right up...[read more]

Last week, the influential weekly news and international affairs publication, The Economist, ran an essay on the future of nuclear energy – The dream that failed: Nuclear power will not go away, but its role may never be more than marginal.[read more]

Insurance comparison websites have been around for a while and have helped consumers choose the cheapest and / or most suitable product for them without phoning a huge number of suppliers. A similar website service for household and business energy now helps people compare energy prices and features allowing them to decide which is the...[read more]

Watching oil prices is a hard habit to break, once formed. They're always moving up and down, sometimes for obvious reasons and sometimes not. It has probably escaped most observers' notice that the magnitude of this year's price moves has exceeded the total nominal price of oil that prevailed not many years ago, yet without the sort of...[read more]

This morning I posted a blog talking about how a second round of new nuclear power plants analogous to the one that the US undertook during the period from 1970-1990 might lead to a lengthy period where natural gas supplies will be greater than natural gas demand. I described how such a situation can lead to lower prices and pointed to...[read more]

My years as an operating engineer has turned me into a contrarian and a pessimist who is constantly looking for signs of trouble, especially as others get excited and focused on temporary good news. My years as a critical consumer of commercially sponsored media has also made wary of sales pitches disguised as news stories. When the...[read more]

The BBC reports UK energy regulator Ofgem has been doing some scenario planning around future energy prices in the UK, with most outcomes rapidly outpacing inflation - Fear of steep energy bill rises in UK.Domestic UK energy bills could rise by 60% by 2016 in a worst-case scenario identified by the energy regulator. However, most other...[read more]

As a long time observer of energy markets, I have maintained a continuing skepticism as many people assured the world that we were entering into a lengthy period of low, well-behaved natural gas prices. I have heard that before and watched as the fuel's natural volatility took over and prices see-sawed with great drama. Though natural...[read more]

The latest revision to the forecasted federal deficit has implications beyond the sustainability of current government spending. Reading a pair of high-profile, skeptical assessments of Peak Oil in the context of a $9 trillion deficit projection for the next decade, it occurred to me that the most serious risk of higher oil prices in...[read more]