Free Republic

The IEA is calling on China and India to put their climate pledges into action. The agency argues that there is a disconnect between the commitments made by both countries, and their continued reliance on coal energy. Global power generation from coal is expected to jump by nine percent in 2021 to a new high. ... The International Energy Agency has called on China and India to reduce coal power generation and put their climate pledges into action, describing both countries as “holding the key to future coal demand”. The world’s two largest coal producers – with economies that account...

U.S. coal miners, who have already benefited from rising demand from utilities this year, are in for at least another year of strong sales and cash flows.. Much higher natural gas prices are making more power generators switch to coal.. Annual U.S. coal-fired electricity generation is set to rise this year for the first time since 2014.. ... coal is making a comeback this year as high natural gas prices incentivize more coal use in electricity generation. .. U.S. coal miners, who have already benefited from rising demand from utilities ... Annual U.S. coal-fired electricity generation is set to rise...

The share of coal in U.S. power-generation is rising for the first time since 2014 amid Joe Biden’s crackdown on oil drilling and pipelines. The Energy Information Administration found coal-fired power generation has increased by 22 percent over the past year amid surging prices of natural gas and oil. The cost of coal power stands at nearly $2 per million of British Thermal Units. Meanwhile, natural gas costs almost $5 for the same amount of energy. ... The coal comeback comes despite Biden’s calls to eradicate the use of fossil fuels and a Democrat push for electric cars, which end...

America’s energy sources, like booming oil and crumbling coal, have defied projections and historical precedents over the last decade. ... unexpectedly, ... In 2010, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected that in 2019, the U.S. would be producing about six million barrels of oil a day. The reality? We're now producing 12 million barrels of oil a day. Meanwhile, EIA projected oil prices would be more than $100 a barrel. They're currently hovering around $60 a barrel. What’s happening: A pair of extraction methods — horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing — have unlocked far more oil and gas than experts...

After the API shocked markets by reporting a massive 9.3-million-barrel increase in U.S. inventories yesterday, the EIA added insult to injury, saying inventories instead went up by 14.4 million barrels in the week to October 28, reaching 482.6 million barrels. The silver lining is that the total is within the upper limit for the time of year, according to the EIA data. We suspect the markets won’t find much in the way of this silver. Last week, the authority reported a meager 600,000-barrel decline in crude oil stocks, which despite its meagre size, managed to sway the market, pushing up...

U.S. crude oil storage is filling up with unaccounted-for oil. There is a lot more oil in storage than the amount that can be accounted for by domestic production and imports. That’s a big problem since oil prices move up or down based on the U.S. crude oil storage report. Oil stocks in inventory represent surplus supply. Increasing or decreasing inventory levels generally push prices lower or higher because they indicate trends toward longer term over-supply or under-supply.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories declined by 14.5 million barrels during the week ending on September 2nd, according to the Energy Information Administration’s latest report. The American Petroleum Institute (API) report on domestic inventories anticipated a 12 million barrel draw in crude supplies, against expert predictions that inventories would increase by 905,000 barrels.

With the release of Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein’s report on the CIA’s Enhanced Interrogation program, a forty million dollar joke has been perpetrated on the American people, curtesy of the California senator. As U.S. military bases and diplomatic facilities around the world are placed on high alert for possible attacks by Muslims further inflamed by the declassified details of the report, the costs of Senator Feinstein’s ‘knock knock joke’ will continue to spiral upwards as we’re forced to ramp up additional security precautions to address the threat. Millions more will be spent, and unfortunately lives will probably be lost so...

EIA raises US oil forecasts for 2014-2015 The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) raised its estimates for U.S. oil production this year and next thanks to higher than expected production in the Gulf of Mexico COMMENTS( 0 ) In 2015, the United States will record its highest production since 1972. In its short term Energy Outlook, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said the country will produce 8.46 million barrels per day of crude oil in 2014, compared to 8.37 million barrels a day in the April forecast. For next year, the EIA estimates production of 9.24 million barrels a day...

In early 2013, the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) released their new figures for the “levelized cost” of new power plants. I just came across them, so I thought I’d pass them on. These are two years more recent than the same EIA cost estimates I discussed in 2011 here. Levelized cost is the average cost of power from a new generating plant over its entire lifetime of service. The use of levelized cost allows us to compare various energy sources on an even basis. Here are the levelized costs of power by fuel source, for plants with construction started...

Cap-And-Trade: The administration likes to defend bad policies with analogies to the post office. New studies from a business group and the administration itself confirm that cap-and-trade belongs in the dead-letter bin.Along with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Rep. Ed Markey likens the cost of the Waxman-Markey cap-and trade bill to "about a postage stamp a day," based on estimates made by the Congressional Budget Office and the EPA. But as we and others have shown, they arrive at this magical number in part by ignoring the hit on gross domestic product and employment that will occur. As Garret Vaughan, economist...

One can measure the dedication of the climate-change crowd in how they approach the zero-emissions technology of nuclear power. Some have realized that the only practical way to replace coal as a source for electricity is to invest heavily in nuclear power. Others, such as Harry Reid and his allies in the Senate, have done their best to shut the door on that path away from coal, which calls into question their motives in forcing cap-and-trade schemes onto the US. Investors Business Daily rips Reid and the administration for blocking the use of Yucca Mountain for safe fuel reprocessing, which...

Death Knell For Nuclear Power? August 03, 2009 Energy: A Senate vote to kill funding for the spent fuel repository in Nevada shows the Democratic Party and this administration aren't serious about energy independence, economic growth or environmental Killing the storage facility for the spent fuel rods produced by the nation's nuclear power industry has long been a dream of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama. Last week, the Senate granted their wish, voting to deny the resources needed to complete a review necessary for Yucca Mountain to open. "This is a major victory for Nevada," said Reid,...

Energy: A Senate vote to kill funding for the spent fuel repository in Nevada shows the Democratic Party and this administration aren't serious about energy independence, economic growth or environmental protection.Killing the storage facility for the spent fuel rods produced by the nation's nuclear power industry has long been a dream of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama. Last week, the Senate granted their wish, voting to deny the resources needed to complete a review necessary for Yucca Mountain to open. "This is a major victory for Nevada," said Reid, who is up for re-election next year. "I...

Last Monday, Nancy Pelosi appeared on Larry King to promote her new book (see transcript).  When the discussion turned to energy policy, she dropped a few doozies.  Not only are her talking points wrong, but they even contradict each other.  The majority of Americans favor increasing U.S. oil production, and so Ms. Pelosi has to engage in mental gymnastics to cloud the issues.When King asked her how to bring down the price of oil, Pelosi’s answer was, “We have said to the president, the fastest way to do this is—in 10 days the price can come down if you will...

Politicians have a knack for citing statistics that support their positions. Those who are opposed to increasing domestic supplies of energy are especially adept at citing statistics that make it seem as though it is “not worth it.” Government reports, while not all wrong, can be rife with such statistics. Recently, for example, some have pointed an Energy Information Administration (EIA) report that estimated the amount of oil we could produce on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) if the drilling ban were lifted. EIA estimated this to be approximately 200,000 barrels per day. 1 Unfortunately, this figure – and the...

Abu Dhabi: A new report from the Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy showed Saudi Arabia is the main beneficiary of high oil prices. But it noted the kingdom's spare capacity has sharply dwindled in the past few years because of higher output. Saudi Arabia controls nearly a quarter of the world's recoverable crude resources. "Saudi Arabia's oil export revenues increased sharply [49 per cent] in 2005 compared to 2004, and are projected to increase again [6 per cent] in 2006 before falling [-7 per cent] in 2007," it said. It noted that during 2003-2004, Riyadh benefited...

Though in constant, inflation-adjusted dollars -- the only way to measure prices over time -- a price of a barrel of oil will have to exceed $87 to reach a record high, the broadcast networks have been falsely trumpeting nominal oil prices as a "record high." On Wednesday night, for instance, CBS Evening News anchor Russ Mitchell inaccurately asserted that "oil prices hit another record high today, closing above 72 bucks a barrel." NBC's Brian Williams wrongly claimed that oil prices were "surging to yet another record high close. The gain on the day 82 cents per barrel. Closing price...

LONDON - Oil hit a record $74 a barrel Wednesday on fears Iran's intensifying dispute with the West may hit oil supplies and after U.S. gasoline stocks dropped. London's Brent crude settled $1.22 higher at $73.73 a barrel after peaking at a record $74. U.S. gasoline stocks slumped more than 5 million barrels last week, government data released Wednesday showed. It was a larger fall than analysts polled by Reuters expected, and supplies are now nearly 5 percent below last year's level. "The EIA (inventory) data are bullish in light of expectations," said Kyle Cooper, analyst at IAF Advisors in...

According to the Minerals Management Service (MMS), as of 11:30 Central Time September 2, Gulf of Mexico oil production was reduced by over 1.328 million barrels per day as a result of Hurricane Katrina, equivalent to 88.53 percent of daily Gulf of Mexico oil production (which is 1.5 million barrels per day). The MMS also reported that 7.248 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas production was shut in, equivalent to 72.48 percent of daily Gulf of Mexico natural gas production (which is 10 billion cubic feet per day). On Friday, September 2, the International Energy Agency (IEA) directed...