About Social Media Today
Posts by Robert Rapier Subscribe 
“As Important as Food and Water”
When Hurricane Sandy was forecast to make landfall on the East Coast, I advised people to top off their automobiles with fuel. There were a number of reasons for that, and some people in New York and New Jersey are learning those reasons the hard...
The Facts About Canada’s Oil Sands and Climate Change
Motivated ReasoningThis week I was reading an article from the Associated Press called Some fracking critics use bad science. The gist of the article is that Gasland director Josh Fox used false information in his new film, The Sky is Pink. Among...
Poor Corn Crop Will Have Major Impact on Ethanol Market
Our brand new weekly newsletter — Energy Trends Insider — debuted this week. We had stories on the implications of the U.S. corn crop, the state of Cleantech investing, Patriot Coal’s bankruptcy, and the potential of pyrolysis oil.Interested readers...
Renewable Energy — Facts and Figures
Today’s article looks at the explosive growth of renewable energy, but also places it in the context of our overall energy demands.Rapid Rise in Biofuels Production — U.S. Takes the Lead The first graphic shows the rapid rise in global...
Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions — Facts and Figures
In the first installment of this series, I reviewed U.S. and global oil reserves according to the 2012 BP Statistical Review of World Energy. The second installment covered oil production, and the third looked at global consumption trends....
How Much Oil Does the World Produce?
In the first installment of this series, I took a look at U.S. and global oil reserves according to the 2012 BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Today, I want to examine oil production statistics since 1965. Highlights of this article and...
How Much Oil is Left in the World?
Over the next two to three weeks, I am going to post a series of short articles utilizing graphics I created from the recently released 2012 BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Because I am working on the roll-out of a new product which will...
Future Direction of Oil Prices May See a Major Shift
Steady ClimbSince I first started writing about energy in 2005, I have said many times that my view on oil prices is long-term, and that if I projected five years into the future, I foresaw oil prices being higher than they were in the present.The...
Why Gas Prices are Higher in the West
I have been traveling for the past week and have not had a chance to do an episode of R-Squared Energy TV. It will return next week. For this week, I thought I would share the video for a recent appearance I made on Insights on PBS Hawaii. The topic...
How Taxpayers Could Benefit From High Oil Prices
In last week’s post — If We Only Had a Stable Energy Policy — I mentioned three specific examples of legislation under consideration that create uncertainties within U.S. energy policy. These uncertainties increase the financial risks for those...
The First Commercial Cellulosic Plant is NOT About to Open
House Ag Committee Holds Hearings on EnergyOn May 18, 2012 the House Committee on Agriculture held hearings on retaining Energy Title funding in the 2012 Farm Bill. Written testimonies and the video of the hearing are available at Formulation...
Current and Projected Costs for Biofuels from Algae and Pyrolysis
A reader recently called my attention to a new and very interesting presentation from the Department of Energy’s Biomass Program:Biofuels Design CasesThe presentation explored the question of whether the U.S. government is spending money on the...
