Update: Never say never. Today, the prediction I made in 2005 that WTI would never again fall below $50 has fallen. Front month WTI as of this writing has dipped to $49.75. But it will […]
Saudi Oil Tanker Hijacked
I don’t know if this is a first, but it’s the first time I have heard of an oil tanker being hijacked: Pirates attack Saudi ‘super tanker’ (CNN) — Pirates in the Arabian Sea have […]
Seeking Reader Input for a Book Project
It should be clear that I enjoy writing. Over the past three years, I have written 665 essays for this blog, a book chapter on renewable diesel in Biofuels, Solar and Wind as Renewable Energy […]
The Energy Return of Tar Sands
When evaluating energy technologies – whether conventional fossil fuels or alternative energy – one thing that I pay close attention to is the Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI). While there are legitimate criticisms of […]
Amyris is Looking Promising
As I have said before, an ideal biofuel would be one that phases out of water, and is therefore much less energy intensive to separate. One of the big energy sinks in ethanol production involves […]
World Energy Outlook 2008 Released
Today the International Energy Agency (IEA) released their much anticipated (and previously leaked) World Energy Outlook 2008. The full report costs €150, but there is a lot of publicly available information on their website. They […]
Xethanol Now Defunct
This will be my last ever story on Xethanol. I have written a number of stories on them in the past. I wrote that their claims that they would be the first to produce commercial […]
A Critique of Obama’s Energy Policy
Listening When We Disagree Barack Obama has said that energy is going to be one of his top priorities. I believe he is completely sincere about this and that energy will get a lot of […]
Cellulosic Ethanol Politics
Last year when the Renewable Fuel Standard was established, the ethanol mandate was increased to 36 billion gallons per year. A big portion of that was to be cellulosic ethanol, but there had to be […]
Highlights of Obama’s Energy Proposals
I am working on a critique of President-elect Obama’s energy proposals. I am working to complete this before Monday, as I fly back to Europe then and will be quite busy for a few days. […]