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President Obama has announced his choices to replace the outgoing energy and environment Cabinet members: Ernest Moniz, Director of the MIT Energy Initiative, has been nominated as Secretary of Energy; Gina McCarthy as head of the EPA, where she is currently the assistant administrator for air and radiation; and Sally Jewell, CEO of REI, for Interior Secretary. If confirmed, how would you expect these new officials to approach major policy issues from domestic oil and gas exploration to hydro-fracturing to climate change to nuclear energy, and more, both absolutely and in comparison to their predecessors? What would you recommend for… [more]
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Sequestration’s $85 billion automatic spending cuts began going into effect on Friday, but the timeline and full extent of the cut’s impacts are still somewhat vague. So what’s at stake for energy and environmental programs and the energy industry at large? Here’s what major department leaders have said about the likely effects of sequestration: In a letter to the Appropriations Committee, outgoing energy secretary Steven Chu highlighted a concern with the structure of the $2.4 billion in DOE budget cuts, explaining that “The effects of sequestration are particularly damaging because, by law, they apply equally to each program, project, and… [more]
View Insight“Our National Energy Policy: Post-Election Prospects and Challenges” December 14th, 2012 National Press Club, Washington, DC See below for an abridged version of the transcript and a full video recording of the event. You can view or download the full transcript here. Opening Remarks: WILLIAM SQUADRON, President, OurEnergyPolicy.org Speakers: JAMES CONNAUGHTON, Executive Vice President and Senior Policy Advisor with Exelon Corporation and Former Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality GENERAL JAMES L. JONES, USMC (retired), Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Senior Advisor to the American Energy Innovation Council with the Bipartisan Policy Center, and Former… [more]
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Last year, significant growth in natural gas production combined with low demand – due to a warm winter – caused natural gas prices to plummet below US$2 per thousand cubic feet. This benefited consumers, but forced some energy companies to abandon gas drilling programs and put significant pressure on their budgets, most notably Chesapeake Energy Corp. The decade-low prices also facilitated a transition in electric power generators from coal to gas, and in some cases nuclear to gas. However, according to EnergyWire, some analysts, like James Sullivan of Alembic Global Advisors, believe that this short-term electricity fuel transition has maxed… [more]
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Proponents of algae biofuels have stressed its low environmental impact, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, reduced dependence on foreign oil, and utilization of marginal lands. However, a recent report from the U.S. National Research Council has found that algae biofuels cannot currently be produced on a large scale without using unsustainable amounts of energy, water, and fertilizer – exactly the kinds of impacts algae biofuel production was intended to avoid. Notwithstanding this, the report’s authors do not write off the technology. Jen Stutsman of the Department of Energy said in a statement “[The] report outlines the need for continued research and… [more]
View InsightOn March 15, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters to the Treasury and Energy departments requesting information on the number of energy jobs created by a tax grant program authorized by Section 1603 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The letters received no response, leading House Speaker John Boehner to say on March 29 that “More than $10 billion – that’s with a ‘b’ – $10 billion has been spent on this, and [Energy] Secretary Chu said it created ‘tens of thousands of jobs,’ except there’s no evidence to support that.” (The Hill) An NREL… [more]
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