Alternative Energy

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    ICF Forecast: Coal in Trouble, Gas Price Flat, Alternatives So-So

    ICF International, a leading provider of consulting services and technology solutions to government and commercial clients, has released its ICForecast Energy Outlook for the first quarter of 2015. The study highlights the near-, mid- and long-term future impacts of proposed U.S. federal environment regulations, including up-to-date analysis of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rules and regulation activities; gas, coal and power market prices and coal production; and renewable energy development. What does it say? Coal plants will continue to be strangled by EPA regulations, natural gas prices will remain flat/low in 2015, wind energy faces “uncertainty” ahead and solar continues to make microscopic progress…
    Read More “ICF Forecast: Coal in Trouble, Gas Price Flat, Alternatives So-So”

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    NY: Forget Shale Methane, Tap Organic Waste (i.e. Poop) Instead

    We had to pick ourselves up off the floor after laughing so hard at the latest machinations to be turned out by the in-the-tank-for-Andrew-Cuomo and left-of-Vlad-Putin Albany Times Union. The TU recently ran a commentary piece by the anti-drilling “Energy Vision” organization that, we kid you not, says forget about evil, nasty fossil fuel methane. Instead, we need to start using “renewable” methane–from poop…
    Read More “NY: Forget Shale Methane, Tap Organic Waste (i.e. Poop) Instead”

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    NY Gov. Cuomo Backs Billionaire Solar Guy Over Fracking

    New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is about to direct $750 million of taxpayer’s hard-earned money to go to Elon Musk, founder of Paypal and Tesla Motors, a man whose net worth is $11.7 BILLION. Why? It’s Cuomo’s crony capitalism move to get Musk to build a manufacturing plant near Buffalo that will produce (don’t laugh) solar panels. Can anyone say “Solyndra”? Cuomo is hoping to buy votes Upstate NY jobs with his latest sleazy move. Meanwhile, if Cuomo would only open the state for hydraulic fracturing, he wouldn’t have to spend a dime of taxpayer money to create thousands of new jobs and lift the standard of living for everyone in Upstate. Instead, he prefers to steal from already-poor taxpayers and reward the super rich. Here’s more on the latest travesty unfolding in NY…
    Read More “NY Gov. Cuomo Backs Billionaire Solar Guy Over Fracking”

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    Shale Gas vs Wind and Solar – A Few Sobering Facts

    We’re certainly not anti-wind or anti-solar. We believe those technologies hold promise for the future. But they simply can’t compete with natural gas as the most economical and even the most environmentally friendly way of supplying electricity here and now. Every form of energy has its advantages and disadvantages. The fact (not opinion) that natural gas beats so-called renewables here and now is not just our opinion. We spotted an excellent column–from an Indian professor–that points out some sobering facts in the shale gas vs wind and solar debate…
    Read More “Shale Gas vs Wind and Solar – A Few Sobering Facts”

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    12 US Companies Commit to Pay Sky High Rates for Renewable Energy

    The following public announcement is a complete and total exercise in public relations by some of America’s largest companies–not meant to be anything other than a bunch of hot air with no real results. Companies including Mars, Sprint, Walmart, GM and Facebook have allowed their brands and logos to be (ab)used by the WWF (no, not the World Wrestling Federation but the World Wildlife Fund, although they’re very similar) to say “ain’t enough renewable energy out they’a for us all to use, we need more.” Which is, of course, a lark. A sham. A scam. Renewables won’t be able to compete with fossil fuels for at least the next 50 years, maybe 100 years–and efforts to “demand” more of it are just so much hot air…
    Read More “12 US Companies Commit to Pay Sky High Rates for Renewable Energy”

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    Bloomberg: Natgas, Solar Big Winners for New Investment by 2030

    Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has just published a new report titled “2030 Market Outlook” in which they predict there will be $1.3 trillion of investment in new power generation capacity over the next 15 years. The big winner for that pile of new investment ($314 billion of it) will go to–you guessed it–natural gas-fired electric generating plants. Also a big winner, according to BNEF, will be solar ($231 billion for rooftop solar panels) and wind ($200 billion spent for onshore wind farms). BNEF also makes some gutsy predictions with respect to coal…
    Read More “Bloomberg: Natgas, Solar Big Winners for New Investment by 2030”

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    MDN Calls on NY Towns to Ban Windmills; Boycott Cooperstown

    No WindmillsThey’re noisy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They use rare earth minerals in their manufacturing process and endanger Chinese workers who have to mine the toxic metals from the ground. They kill bald eagles and bats and all manner of birds. No one wants to live next to one going whup whup whup 24/7 (drives the neighbors insane). We’re talking of commercial windmills of course. Today MDN kicks off a campaign to get 170 New York townships to ban windmills. Oh, and while we’re at it, let’s also have town boards ban big solar farms too…
    Read More “MDN Calls on NY Towns to Ban Windmills; Boycott Cooperstown”

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    NIMBYism Becomes NOMEism in MA Over Kinder Gas Pipeline

    Now that’s more like it! You may recall MDN brought you a story about Kinder Morgan’s plan to run a leg of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline across the state of Massachusetts to bring badly needed Marcellus and Utica Shale gas to New England, where five Democrat and one Republican governor from New England states say they desperately need the gas (see Reaction to TGP’s Planned Pipeline Across Massachusetts).

    We were utterly mystified that residents in Massachusetts were reacting so, well, reasonable about the prospect of a new pipeline. However, all is right in the world now–the stars have realigned. It took some time, but opposition has arisen and Deerfield, MA became the first town to pass a resolution against the pipeline. Now that’s the wacky, liberal, unreasonable Massachusetts we know!…
    Read More “NIMBYism Becomes NOMEism in MA Over Kinder Gas Pipeline”

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    New Green Investors Stock Index Rejects NatGas

    The silly fools who are today’s modern “environmentalist” movement are so convinced that carbon–the stuff you breathe out with every breath–is going to “pollute” precious Mother Earth–they’re demanding investors not put their money into “dirty” fossil fuels anymore. Hey stupid people–why don’t you purge your own bodies of carbon if it’s that bad? Oh that’s right–you won’t do it because carbon is the second most prevalent element that makes up 18% of the human body and you would kill yourselves. Maybe there’s an opportunity for a carbon-purging salon, kind of like a tanning salon except it removes carbon from the body to help out ole Mother Earth. But we digress…

    The Natural Resources Defense Council along with huge asset management company BlackRock (who famously fired the world’s best-ever mutual fund manager for their own stupidity, see BlackRock’s Screw-up with Dan Rice & Rice Energy), are creating a new stock index with FTSE Group. The new index will be for “climate-minded investors,” ya know. Oh, and because natural gas belongs to the wrong clique (the dirty fossil fuel gang from across the tracks), natgas isn’t allowed in the new green investors index. Whatever.
    Read More “New Green Investors Stock Index Rejects NatGas”

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    Feds Play Spin the Bottle with Bio Fuels, Now ‘Worse than Gasoline’

    When you live by lack of empirical scientific inquiry, you die by lack of empirical scientific inquiry. Case in point: one of the so-called alternative fuels touted by green freaks are bio fuels–making fuel from corn. A few years ago the federal Energy Department’s Argonne National Laboratory claimed “biofuels made with corn residue were 95 percent better than gasoline in greenhouse gas emissions.” Now? A new study published yesterday in the journal Nature Climate Change, funded by the same federal government, says bio fuels are “worse than gasoline for global warming,” at least in the “short term.”

    Of course the underlying research isn’t even real research–it’s the new lazy way of doing research by using “calculations” and scientific hocus pocus. It’s a “best guess” as to whether something is or is not better than good old fossil fuels. But hey, these kinds of games in making outrageous claims that are then debunked a few short years later keep the (taxpayer funded) grant money flowing…
    Read More “Feds Play Spin the Bottle with Bio Fuels, Now ‘Worse than Gasoline’”

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    MDN Interviews David Holt, President of Consumer Energy Alliance

    MDN editor Jim Willis recently had the pleasure of speaking by phone with David Holt, president of the Consumer Energy Alliance based in Houston, TX. David was a speaker at the recent Clean Frac’ing Conference in Houston. Jim spoke to David about the mission of CEA, who belongs to it and why, David’s views on natural gas and alternative forms of energy, and about his involvement with the recent Clean Frac’ing conference (what he heard and saw at the conference). The podcast interview below runs just over 20 minutes, please give it a listen!

    Below the podcast interview are notes taken by Brittany Thomas of Cabot Oil & Gas who attended and participated on a panel discussion at the Clean Frac’ing Conference. Thanks for the notes Brittany! We bring this interview with David Holt and Brittany’s notes to you as a public service to keep you informed with how the drilling industry continues to be on the cutting edge of innovation and environmental protection…
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    Natgas Jumps Thru Hoops for Bats While Solar Farm Torches Turtles

    The shale drilling industry jumps through all sorts of hoops to ensure Mother Nature doesn’t take an undue hit. For example, we’re personally aware of a Williams gathering pipeline in the South Gibson (Susquehanna County), PA area that had to radically change its pipeline digging schedule–speeding up the process by more than six months–because of bats that nest in trees. The PA DEP has a concern that knocking down a few trees for a certain species of nesting bat might affect local the bat population. Williams didn’t want to wait an entire year to dig and lay the pipeline (they have agreements in place with drillers), so they had to arbitrarily move up the digging schedule to lay the pipeline, inconveniencing several landowners (one of them a youth camp). That’s just one example of how the industry goes above and beyond each day to accommodate what are sometimes questionable (we’d call them stupid) rules and regulations–but OK, that’s the price we pay, right?

    However, if you’ve been able to get environmentalists to call your project “green,” it doesn’t matter what kind of local wildlife you squash and kill. Example: the world’s largest solar thermal power plant, built by NRG Energy, was dedicated this week. The “plant” is five square miles of mirrors, each the size of a garage door. It’s located in an old, dry lake bed in the Mohave Desert (along the Nevada/California border). Five square miles of desert and its wildlife were confiscated, displacing tortoises and coyotes, killing Mojave milkweed and other indigenous plants. But that’s OK–it’s green! The Western Watershed Project is suing the federal agencies involved in “green lighting” the “green” project, saying they didn’t consider alternative sites. The point of all this, is, of course, that NO source of energy is without trade-offs and problems and sacrifices. The twin point is that just because something is called “green” doesn’t mean it’s better than other clean sources of energy–like natural gas…
    Read More “Natgas Jumps Thru Hoops for Bats While Solar Farm Torches Turtles”

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    BP’s Annual Energy Outlook Through 2035 – Fool’s Errand?

    Yesterday BP, a huge driller with a sizable acreage position in the Utica Shale (84,000 leased acres), issued its annual BP Energy Outlook 2035 (full copy embedded below). The 96-page report sets out BP’s view of the most likely developments in global energy markets to 2035, based on up-to-date analyses. BP experts expect global energy demand to rise 41% from now until 2035 with 95% of that growth coming from “emerging economies.” According to BP, gas as a source of energy is growing fastest among the fossil fuels and by 2035 gas is expected to be at parity with coal–each providing about 27% of power needs in 2035. BP says shale gas will make up 68% of U.S. gas production by 2035.

    Of course, all of this speculation is fun to read, but frankly is just so much folly. MDN editor Jim Willis heard Charif Souki, CEO of Cheniere Energy address the predictions game at the Platts Global Energy Forum in New York City last December (see Energy Industry Leaders Gather at Platts Forum in NYC). At that forum, Souki said any kind of prediction beyond 2-3 years in the rapidly changing energy industry is meaningless. He said if you go back 20 years and look at those predictions about today, none of them predicted shale and how the industry would change so dramatically. We concur with Souki–making these kinds of predictions is a fool’s errand. Still, it’s fun to read and muse about what might be…
    Read More “BP’s Annual Energy Outlook Through 2035 – Fool’s Errand?”

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    Natural Gas’ “Unfair Advantage” over Wind and Solar

    Yet another novel argument is being trotted out by the militant green left–natural gas an an “unfair” advantage. You see, it’s just too darn easy to build a pipeline–compared with putting up an electrical transmission line. That’s the cockamamie argument now being made by renewable energy zealots like Jaafar Rizvi, writing in Grist Magazine.

    As MDN has shouted for years now–the shale drilling debate is not really about water contamination, truck traffic and “fugitive” methane–it’s really about a few misguided people who want to pick your energy source for you–and for everyone else too. They irrationally hate fossil fuels because fossil fuels, including natural gas, threaten to slow the adoption of so-called renewable sources of energy, like wind and solar. How do wind and solar energy get to market? Via high voltage electricity transmission lines. According to Mr. Rizvi, it’s not a fair playing field between natgas pipelines and electric transmission lines…
    Read More “Natural Gas’ “Unfair Advantage” over Wind and Solar”

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    Some Icebergs are Flammable! Does Josh Fox Know?

    Hey Josh, this one is sure to land you an Emmy… head on up to the North Pole and light an entire iceberg on fire! Quit faffing around with a little water tap and go for the thing that’s sure to put your fading name in lights forever. Just one problem Josh, you don’t have to frack the ice in order to get the methane out. Bummer, dude.

    We’re referring, tongue-in-cheek, to the serious news that methane is hiding–it’s hiding inside ice crystals at the bottom of the ocean and under the Arctic permafrost. And wonder of wonders, in the next 5-10 years the technology will be available to retrieve that ice-bound methane–enough methane to make shale supplies look like a thimbleful. It likely will not be economically feasible for the U.S. to go after these “methane hydrates” in ice since we have cheap, abundant natural gas all around us that can be safely fracked, but for countries like Japan and India without their own sources of natural gas, this may be the answer to their energy prayers–especially since we seem to be reluctant to export any of our shale gas to them…
    Read More “Some Icebergs are Flammable! Does Josh Fox Know?”

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    Poor Biofuels are Feeling Picked-on…Boo Hoo

    The biofuel industry is in a pout. So-called biofuels have long been known to be way more expensive than other forms of energy, like fossil fuels. Biofuels also drive up the price of food staples like corn, creating shortages in poor countries like Mexico. Feeling picked-on by others who point out such inconvenient truths, the biofuel industry has just launched a propaganda advertising campaign called “You’re no Dummy” in Youngstown, OH and in other markets across the U.S. It’s an attempt to smear the oil and gas industry which has taken off like a rocket over the past few years because of shale drilling.

    The new ad campaign from “advocacy group” Growth Energy is truly rich…
    Read More “Poor Biofuels are Feeling Picked-on…Boo Hoo”