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Tesla Motors said Thursday it would demonstrate a way to quickly recharge electric cars by swapping drained batteries for fresh power cells. Tesla chief executive and founder Elon Musk used popular the messaging service Twitter to put out word that a "live pack swap demo" was taking place at the company's design studio in the Southern California city of Hawthorne. Video from the event was to be posted on the Tesla website about 0430 GMT on Friday, according to Musk. Making it fast and easy to restore full power to electric car batteries is seen as a big step in...

Oh, joy. Moniz put strong faith in solar power during remarks Monday at a Washington, D.C., conference. That continues the trend set forth by his predecessor, Steven Chu, who was a staunch advocate of the renewable energy source.“I would argue that I believe that the scale and time frame of impact of solar technology, I believe, again, is underestimated,” he said at the U.S. Energy Information Administration-hosted event. “There are many situations today when solar is in fact competitive.”“We are aggressively pursuing this in many dimensions,” he continued. “I think that’s an example of something we will look back on...

Chemical engineers are pulling a median salary of $120,000, a 9 percent hike since 2011, according to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. And unemployment in the field has dropped to 2.1 percent, from 3.8 percent in 2011. The trade group has released the latest edition of its biennial salary survey, which shows the employment environment has improved considerably for chemical engineers in the past couple of years. In the group’s last survey, conducted in 2011, raises for chemical engineers had declined to their lowest point in two decades. Since then, the U.S. shale boom has released an abundance of...

In Comeback: America’s New Economic Boom, author Charles Morris refers to “the new X-factor, the American energy advantage.” The “game changer”—shale oil and gas technology and production—has put the United States and Canada in the world’s leading economic saddle. Noted expert Daniel Yergin concurs. “Abundant low-cost energy is stimulating a revival of manufacturing in the U.S. as well as well as increased American economic competitiveness,” he states, countering what otherwise is “a time of stubbornly high unemployment.” Yes, technologically unlocked oil and gas has created an energy revolution and industrial bright spot in the otherwise dim Obama era. By 2020,...

The Yomiuri ShimbunIn promoting environmental measures, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it has become a challenge to have trucks, a major means of distributing goods, emit less pollution. Trucks fueled by natural gas are drawing attention in this respect, as they are superior to light oil-driven diesel vehicles in environmental performance, emitting 30 percent less greenhouse gases. They also emit far less toxic particles such as nitrogen oxide and black exhaust fumes. While Japan depends on the Middle East for as much as 90 percent of its oil imports, natural gas can be procured from many other areas. Increasing...

(Reuters) - An electricity outage that blacked out large swathes of the Philippines' main island of Luzon for up to eight hours last month has highlighted worries about a potential power crisis that could undermine Asia's fastest-growing economy. Predictions that electricity demand will outstrip government forecasts have raised fears over the impact on the expansion of industries such as call centres, tourism and gaming. A raft of private firms has rushed in recent months to put some $9 billion of new plants on the drawing board, but lead times for construction are around three years and environmental opposition to coal-fired...

Expands to Rail with GE Transportation SEAL BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (Nasdaq:CLNE) today released Vol. IV of ROAD TO NATURAL GAS, an update of its growing portfolio of customers making the switch to natural gas as a transportation fuel or expanding their current fleets. This edition includes new agreements recently signed including Clean Energy’s first railroad fuel deal with GE Transportation to provide liquefied natural gas (LNG) for its new initiative to test LNG locomotives...

Two natural gas liquids pipelines covering more than 1,500 miles have begun service to the Gulf Coast. The pipelines, owned in partnership by DCP Midstream, Phillips 66 and Spectra Energy, carry natural gas liquids from the Permian Basin, the Eagle Ford Shale and the mid-continent to the coast. The Sand Hills Pipeline is a 720-mile pipeline from the Permian Basin and the Eagle Ford Shale. The 800-mile Southern Hills Pipeline stretches from the mid-continent to the hub at Mont Belvieu. Lisa Newkirk, a spokeswoman for DCP Midstream, declined to say where in the mid-continent the pipeline originates but said the...

It’s not rocket science. If energy costs more, that means we have to make do with less of it, or make do with less of something else. Thus if the government forces everyone to pay more for electricity, companies have less spare cash to employ people. Their margins are tighter, they can’t make and sell as many products. So when we are told the clean energy revolution is creating jobs, is it virtually self-evident that’s a mythical fairy claim.I say “virtually”, because it is theoretical possible it could work, but only if this green power provided some productivity or...

With a potentially striking blow to renewable mandate advocates, a recent federal court ruling calls into question the constitutionality of key components of many states’ renewable energy mandates. On Friday, June 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) against the state of Michigan (among other petitioners) in a dispute over FERC’s plan to apportion costs for new power lines to transport millions of megawatts of wind power around the Great Lakes region.

Fisker Automotive hasn't built a car in nearly a year. It fired most of its workforce, hired bankruptcy advisers and is seeking a buyer. Co-founder Henrik Fisker resigned in mid-March in a dispute with some of the directors. And despite raising $1.4 billion in private and public funds since its founding in 2007, the company is out of cash. For months, key investors have been footing the car maker's day-to-day expenses to keep it alive in diminished form. The Energy Department has repeatedly defended its handling of the Fisker loan. Nicholas Whitcombe, who previously led the DOE loan program, told...

When President Obama meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of Eight meeting this week, there should be a spotlight on our two nations’ drastically different approaches to natural gas exports. While Russia continues to export natural gas and dominate the European market, the United States continues to slow-walk approval for natural gas exports. Our slow and sluggish process is affecting U.S. economic and national security. While traveling recently to Azerbaijan, the Persian Gulf and Eastern Europe to research energy issues, I witnessed the heavy hand of Russian influence and oppression. Russia’s control of the natural gas market...

Today, The Sunday Telegraph reveals how many ''green jobs’’ the wind-power industry really generates in exchange for its generous subsidies. The figures show that for 12 months until February 2013, a little over £1.2  billion was paid out to wind farms through a consumer subsidy financed by a supplement on electricity bills. During that period, the industry employed just 12,000 people, which means that each wind-farm job cost consumers £100,000 – an astonishing figure. Regarding costs, the £1.2 billion figure is merely a starting point. According to the Renewable Energy Foundation, the subsidy is likely to rise to £6  billion by...

ModMark wrote: One of the coal plants shut down in Chicago was built ~90 years ago. While upgraded in the 1950's. it still did not meet EPA standards before Obama was elected. These plants were grandfather in when the clean air act was past. These ancient relics should have been converted to natural gas long ago.Do you really want to live next to one of these ancient plants? –in response to Obama Promise Kept: Coal Plants to go Bankrupt with New EPA Carbon Cap Dear Comrade Mark, The building was built 90 years ago, but the actual power plant generating electricity is considerably...

Palin would not have dismissed the Black Panther intimidation lawsuit that the government had already won. Palin would not have seized two auto companies and give them to her cronies in and out of the UAW. Palin and her supporters would not be claiming that her opponents were racists for disagreeing with her policies. Palin would not have tried to block Boeing from building a factory in South Carolina as a gift to her union buddies in Washington state. Palin would not have toured the world apologizing for America. Palin’s Homeland Security Department would not have classified patriots as security...

By all accounts, Shai Agassi, the founder and CEO of Better Place, Israel's bankrupt electric car company, is an extremely charismatic man. His charm had politicians, venture capitalists, celebrities and non-automotive industry reporters slobbering over him. Everyone wanted to get their picture taken with the man who would transform Israel's auto industry into the first electric powered industry in the world and transform the start-up nation into the transportation hothouse for the world. Agassi's vision was simple and easy to understand. By 2020, half of Israel's cars would be battery powered electric cars supplied by his company, Better Place. We...

Blue Dog Democrats are asking President Obama to quit stalling and approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Members of the fiscally conservative coalition sent a letter to Obama on Wednesday saying “the time to approve the Keystone XL project has come.” “Construction of the Keystone XL pipeline will provide a positive impact to a broad spectrum of the American economy,” wrote coalition co-chair Reps. John Barrow (D-Ga.) and Kurt Schraeder (D-Ore.). “An estimated 13,000 direct jobs will be created, with an additional 7,000 direct jobs needed to keep it operational. If the recent jobs report shows us anything, it’s that Americans...

Typically environmental organizations target consumers with overwrought warnings of how some everyday product or activity is destroying the world and threatening their health. Yet now, activists are turning their targets toward major retailers. These companies should reject these scare tactics, which will harm not only their businesses, but consumers too. The “Mind the Store” campaign, the latest initiative of a radical environmental organization, pressures the nation’s top ten largest retailers to remove products from store shelves that contain, in any amount, a list of one hundred chemicals the organization deems hazardous. Following the alarmism playbook, the organization claims these chemicals...

The Energy Department has $9 million more taxpayer dollars to spend on projects that may make a very expensive car less expensive and more acceptable to consumers. The latest round of funding is intended to accelerate the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, backup power systems, and hydrogen refueling stations. … Ironically, the Energy Department credits cheaper fossil fuel with reducing the cost of producing hydrogen fuel cells: “Recent development of the United States’ tremendous shale gas resources has not only helped directly cut electricity and transportation costs for consumers and businesses, but is also helping to reduce the costs...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Delays in approval of more natural gas export projects are costing U.S. companies millions of dollars a day and giving a leg up to rival countries also looking to boost exports, the chief of Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) said on Thursday. The comments by Exxon's Rex Tillerson came hours after new U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told lawmakers he hopes to "expeditiously" begin evaluating the more than a dozen applications awaiting approval to export liquefied natural gas (LNG). "It's a very competitive marketplace. It's not like people are just going to stand at our door like panting...

European Parliament – Brussels, 3 June 2013 The scope of the workshop was to make the European community aware of the "state-of-the-art" of the studies on the Fleischmann-Pons Effect (FPE) phenomenon. This effect is the appearance of excess energy when a Pd cathode is electrolyzed in heavy water. Energy densities measured during FPE are orders of magnitude larger than the maximum energy associated to any known chemical process. NetworkingThis effect was first discovered in 1989 by two electrochemists Prof. Martin Fleischmann and Dr. Stanley Pons, by loading palladium with deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen). This excess energy is not associated...

A report has revealed that 2012 saw the largest single-year increase in US oil production ever recorded. US production grew due to an increase in techniques such as fracking, a method for extracting shale oil and gas, the report by oil giant BP said. Overall, global energy consumption grew by 1.8% in 2012, a smaller increase than in 2011. China and India accounted for almost 90% of that growth.

The Obama administration is facing scandals everywhere -- using the IRS to punish political enemies, seizing the phone records of Associated Press and Fox News reporters, monitoring phone and email accounts of millions, and making up stories about what happened in Benghazi. In other words, the sort of government overreach that hardly raises eyebrows in Russia, China and most of Africa and Latin America is felonious here in the most free society in the world. Because of America's unique Constitution, and especially the Bill of Rights, for over two centuries Americans have taken as their birthright privacy and free expression,...

U.S. oil production growth was the largest in the world last year, showing that despite some suggestions to the contrary, crude is plentiful, BP Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said Wednesday. He added that the real challenge for the industry is how much money and where in the world to invest to reap the greatest rewards from the changing landscape. “The supply of energy is coming from an increasing diversity of sources as the world’s energy market continues to adapt, innovate and evolve,” Dudley said. During a presentation in London that was broadcast on the Internet, Dudley outlined the British...

New transmission lines linking portions of West Texas to the Dallas-Forth Worth region will be completed by the end of this year, transmission line officials said at a Tuesday conference on electricity issues sponsored by Platts. The transmissions line project, known as the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone, is a project that will add 2,200 miles of new transmission lines in West Texas. There will be lines stretching from Lubbock to Austin. It also will link portions of the Panhandle with the Dallas-Forth Worth area. The project has cost about $7 billion. “The primary power flows were from west to east,...

For frack fans out there. Russia rules the roost on shale, but those reserves are useless until it learns how to pull that stuff out of the rock.

Arc flash, a release of heat energy that includes molten metals, hot metallic oxides and toxic burning smoke, is often violent, resulting in serious injury and sometimes death, according to GE's Industrial Solutions business. Arc flash temperatures exceed 35,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than the sun's surface, with 700 miles per hour projectile-producing pressure, which can throw a person across a room. An estimated five to 10 arc flashes occur each day in the United States, according to a report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. One arc flash incident can cost up to $15 million, including healthcare...

I somehow managed to completely miss this from a couple of weeks back, but it’s an especially interesting and kind of epic piece of news from a state that’s home to some of the largest, most cultishly do-or-die green interests in the country and a legislature currently dominated by a liberal supermajority. When I first caught wind of the fact that Californians were getting ready to introduce a proposal to ban fracking, I suspected that they would definitely have a fighting chance of getting the thing passed — but it turns out that enough of California’s legislators are at least...

NRG Energy plans to fire up the mothballed SR Bertron natural gas-fired generation plant to help meet the growing electricity need as the Texas summer heats up. The plant, in Deer Park, Texas, had been in mothball status since last summer and required about 45 days of preparations to return online. The SR Berton plant, comprising four units built in the late 1950s and early 1960s, can generate about 750 megawatts – additional capacity that NRG expects to add to the grid on the hottest days of the summer, when demand typically peaks. One megawatt can serve about 200 typical...

But that software is vulnerable. A September 2012 policy report from the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, says “The potential for a real cyberattack capable of physically impacting electricity generation and transmission as well as upstream and downstream oil and gas operations has moved from hypothetical to possible,” according to the report.

As the North American natural gas boom continues, state legislators across the country have targeted hydraulic fracturing for new regulations, proposing a range of 50 bills involving bans, moratoriums and increased disclosure requirements, according to a new Colorado State University study. Much of the new legislation tries to address issues such as water use, air and water quality monitoring and fluids disclosure, as many non-industrial communities grapple with the impacts of hydraulic fracturing and the changes it brings. For example, Illinois passed new rules in May requiring drillers to publicly disclose the chemicals they use, and on water testing. And...

The majority of the world’s shale oil and gas resources are concentrated in only a handful of countries, and the United States is near the top in both categories, a new study shows. The study released Monday, sponsored by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, found that more than half of the identified shale oil resources outside the United States are in Russia, China, Argentina, and Libya. It also found that more than half of the non-U.S. shale gas resources are in China, Argentina, Algeria, Canada, and Mexico. The U.S. ranks second after Russia for shale oil resources and fourth after...

...Already, a raft of global players have opened their wallets to invest in the early stages of the dozen or more planned Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export facilities, which chills methane gas to -260 degrees to move it as a liquid in ships. International owners include China Investment Corporation, BG Group from the United Kingdom, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, Mitsui from Japan, Osaka Gas from Japan, Qatar Petroleum, RRJ Capital from Hong Kong and Singapore , RWE from Germany, Temasek from Singapore, and Tokyo Gas . Midstream Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) are the logical owners of LNG export facilities,...

Last week Florida Governor Rick Scott signed HB 4001, repealing the state’s Renewable Fuel Standard. This has researchers seeking handouts at the expense of everyone else in a tizzy. For example, the Biotech Industry Organization (BIO) says Repeal of Florida’s Renewable Fuel Standard Will Stifle Innovation, Investment and Jobs. “Florida’s repeal of its RFS sends a chilling message that companies developing advanced biofuel and other biotechnology innovations are unwelcome in the state,” said Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO’s Industrial & Environmental Section. “Companies have invested more than $215 million in Florida over the past five years to develop...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina is joining a growing number of states exploring new fees for hybrid and electric car owners to help make up for revenue those drivers aren’t paying in gas taxes on their fuel-efficient vehicles.

Friday’s jobs numbers from the Labor Department show that President Obama needs to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Even with 175,000 jobs created in May, there are 2.4 million fewer jobs in America than at the start of the recession in December 2007.Approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, to bring oil from Canada to our refineries near the Gulf of Mexico, would create jobs, both for constructing the pipeline and for refining the oil. But President Obama has delayed the pipeline’s approval, citing safety concerns.Pipelines have been used to transport natural gas and oil, including from Canada to the...

Few issues divide Democrats more than energy policy, as we've learned as unions and environmentalists fight over the Keystone XL pipeline. More evidence now comes from California, where greens have lost an attempt to ban oil and gas hydraulic fracturing. Democratic leaders brought their fracking moratorium bill to the Assembly floor last week, and their rank and file revolted. The bill lost 37-24, with 12 Democrats joining 25 Republicans to defeat it. Another 18 Democrats abstained, and it's a good bet they were "no" votes who didn't want to publicly cross their leadership. This was a rare rout of the...

Though Ratih, a 44-year-old resident of East Jakarta, felt fortunate to find a 3-kilogram gas cylinder for her stove, she was alarmed at how much the price had gone up since she last purchased one. “It’s difficult to find [these] cylinders … I went quite far to find one. The price is going up, though. I paid Rp 18,000 [$1.83] this time, whereas I paid Rp 15,000 last time,” she said on Saturday. Another East Jakarta resident, Wanah, was in the same boat. Though the price of a 12-kg gas cylinder went up by Rp 20,000, she had no choice...

A corn-based bubble is building on the horizon, with expectations of a large oversupply of high-priced ethanol that has nowhere to go. The phenomenon is a product of environmental requirements and subsidies that are currently leading refiners to buy ethanol at record prices, according to analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Refiners and other parties that produce fuels are required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to buy supplies of ethanol to blend with their gasoline. For each gallon of ethanol they blend into their fuel, refiners get a credit, also known as a Renewable Identification Number, or RIN....

My last article about thorium as an alternative nuclear reactor fuel drew way more readers than I expected. I intentionally glossed over the complexities of specific reactor designs for the sake of simplicity, but in this article I want to go deeper. This article explains some of the differences between traditional uranium reactors and molten salt thorium reactors (MSRs).

The potential for social unrest in European Union countries is higher than anywhere else in the world and the already yawning gaps between rich and poor, a major trigger, are likely to widen globally, the International Labour Organisation said on Monday. Those most vulnerable, the report said, were Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. However the risk of social unrest had declined in Belgium, Germany, Finland, Slovakia and Sweden since 2010. Overall, the risk of unrest in the EU "is likely to be due to the policy responses to the ongoing sovereign debt crisis and their impact...

UK shale gas finds could mean US-type energy boom Liza Jansen Posted date: June 05, 2013 In: Business, Europe, Latest News | comment : 1 New estimates show there is a massive amount of untapped shale gas in the Northwest of England. Evidence that the UK might be close to experiencing the energy revolution that has transformed the US market continues to mount. IGas, an energy company awarded shale gas licences in Northern England by UK authorities, has announced it has found enough gas reserves to meet the UK’s needs for 60 years. IGas says there may be up to...

North Dakota experienced the largest increase in real gross domestic product (GDP) out of all the U.S. states in 2012 thanks to oil and gas exploration and production activity, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported Thursday. North Dakota's real GDP grew 13.4 percent last year, higher than the U.S. real GDP by state growth of 2.5 percent in 2012 and 1.6 percent increase recorded in 2011. The mining industry, which includes oil and gas, contributed 3.26 percentage points to the state's real GDP growth, BEA reported. Although mining was not a major contributor to real GDP growth for...

Southern California Edison, a unit of California power company Edison International, decided to permanently retire the San Onofre nuclear power plant, forcing California to find other electric sources to help keep the lights on in the future.

Broad, bipartisan support is building among lawmakers at the state and federal levels for expanding access to offshore oil and gas drilling and development, said Erik Milito, American Petroleum Institute director of upstream and industry operations. Speaking to reporters during a June 5 conference call from Washington, DC, Milito said increased offshore access would mean increased jobs and revenue for the states of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. “The United States must pursue smart federal policies” that would expand the Outer Continental Shelf program, Milito said. “Developing our offshore resources is vital.” Drilling off Virginia and other Atlantic states...

Canada’s oil production will hit a record 6.7 million barrels per day by 2030, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said Wednesday, increasing its estimate from last year by 500,000 barrels per day. Almost all the oil will come from Western Canada, with Alberta’s oilsands producing 5.2 million bpd and the rest coming mostly from Alberta and Saskatchewan conventional and tight oilfields. “While the oilsands in situ production (from chiefly SAGD — steam assisted gravity drainage) will increase by 400,000 barrels, we will see a decrease of 200,000 barrels from mining projects that have been deferred (since last year’s report),”...

Exxon Mobil Corp. is launching a push to recruit and educate thousands of new workers in Houston for expanding chemical operations along the Texas coast. The nation’s largest energy company is coordinating with programs at nine Houston-area community colleges and organizations, including Houston Community College, Lee College and Lone Star College, to share expertise and curricula as it tries remedy a huge shortage of workers who are trained and ready to fill positions, said Steve Pryor, president of Exxon Mobil’s chemical division. Exxon Mobil on Friday will announce a $500,000 commitment to coordinate the programs and recruit prospective workers through...

It was late 2010 when a chipper agent for Kenoil, Inc., a drilling company in Eastern Ohio, drove to the nearby hamlet of Millersburg to visit Lloyd Miller. His car slithered down the hill overlooking the Millers's home and white farm buildings, past a set of pine green drums, pipes, and gauges—a shallow oil well that Kenoil had drilled on the Millers’s property many years ago—and stopped in front of the aluminum barn where the family, who are Amish dairy farmers, lodges its horses and buggy. The agent had an unexpected business proposition for Lloyd and his wife, Edna: Kenoil...

Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) will have access to a credit line of $1 billion from China's Export-Import Bank to buy vessels and offshore oilfield equipment, the company announced Tuesday after signing the agreement with the bank. PEMEX stated that this loan is an important financing option for the renewal of its fleet and the modernization of its marine equipment in its exploration and production division. The loan is valid for three years. The agreement will back about $1.2 billion in the U.S. exports for projects that include the Cantarell oil field, new exploration and production development, and a new gas development...

TOKYO - Three Japanese energy companies jointly said Wednesday they have confirmed natural gas and condensate reserves in exploration blocks offshore in Vietnam. Idemitsu Kosan Co., JX Holdings Inc. and Inpex Corp. have drilled three wells in two blocks located 300 kilometers southeast of Ho Chi Minh, they said in a statement. The three companies will further explore the blocks to gauge the size of the reserves and conduct test drilling on other prospective structures in the blocks, the statement said.