Answering Reader Questions 2009: Part 2

In this installment, I continue to work my way through the list of questions recently submitted by readers. This post picks up where Part 1 left off, and covers coal-to-liquids, technology hype, green gasoline, refining […]

Answering Reader Questions 2009: Part 1

Before I took a recent trip to Canada, I opened up the floor for questions. Getting them answered has taken longer than I intended. Fortunately, other readers answered a lot of them in the comments […]

King Corn and Big Oil

Over the weekend, I watched the documentary King Corn. It was released in October 2007, but I just now got around to watching it online at Netflix. The premise is that a pair of college […]

Engineering Rules

Average Starting Salaries for This Year’s Graduates From a CNN story this week, that graphic represents a landslide. To the person who asked in the recent Q&A (OK, the “A” is still pending) what they […]

The Gold in the Oceans

There was an announcement this past week that Solix Biofuels has started oil production at a facility in Colorado:Solix Biofuels begins production of oil made from algae Solix Biofuels Inc. said Thursday it has started […]

Looking for Help After a Difficult Week

I am coming to the end of the most difficult week of my career, which is why I haven’t written much for the past few days. I had to sit across the table from some […]

China Tightens Grip on Africa’s Energy Resources with Stake in Offshore Field

Today a topical post the latest from Money Morning, which as I previously explained will be featured here whenever they have relevant material to offer. As always, normal caveats apply: I am not an investment […]

Behind the Costs of CNG Conversions

In my recent post – How Much Natural Gas to Replace Gasoline? – I mentioned that it is quite expensive to convert a gasoline-powered vehicle to natural gas. If you drive a tremendous number of […]

Overview of Electricity Storage Technology and India’s Renewable Energy Goals

There is a good overview in today’s Guardian regarding the status of affairs with respect to electricity storage technologies: The challenge for green energy: how to store excess electricity So with grid parity now looming, […]

An Extended Conversation with POET

Today (July 17th) I spent some time on the phone with POET‘s VP of Science and Technology Dr. Mark Stowers. (I was invited up for a visit, but I couldn’t swing that just now). Dr. […]