Recently in Energy Category

As we reported earlier today, Transocean's Horizon semi-submersible sank yesterday morning and flow from the well stopped.  The investigation continues.  The Coast Guard has also called off the massive search for the missing crewmen.  All indications are that they were killed in the original blast.A friend sent me these pictures of the Horizon sinking, taken on location.  The images are graphic showing the extent of the massive destruction as the rig goes down: More as...

Sorry to interrupt the slug-fest between our Tea Party friends and our regular readers, but I felt I should address the blow out and subsequent major fire that happened this week on the Transocean Horizon, which was drilling the BP Macondo prospect in a deep- water area known as Mississippi Canyon off of Louisiana.  Reports say that they had just finished running and cementing pipe to 18,000 feet below the mudline in 5,000 feet of...

Yesterday, the President surprised both sides of the political spectrum by announcing the lifting of a decades-long moratorium on offshore oil & gas exploration along much of the Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as coastal areas north of Alaska.  When he made this announcement, reaction was strong from both sides of the political spectrum.  Environmentalists cried foul, raising the alarm about destroying our Atlantic beaches, and Republicans, their spin machine caught...

There's just no pleasing some people. President Obama proposes to open up much of the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the North coast of Alaska to offshore oil and gas drilling and what is the response of Rep. John Boehner (R-Darque Tan)? It's not enough: "President Barack Obama's plan to allow expanded offshore oil and gas exploration won rebuke from the top House Republican on Wednesday. House Minority Leader John Boehner...

December 20, 2009   Representative John Culberson, 7th District514 Longworth Building Washington DC 20515-4307   10000 Memorial Drive, Suite 620 Houston, TX  77024-3490   Dear Representative Culberson:   Thank you for your response to my letter expressing my opinion on health care reform with another of your empty, partisan, form letters written by someone on your staff. I truly appreciate the time it took one of your minions to add me to the distribution...

The Copenhagen climate talks continue, while everyone waits for world leaders, including President Obama, to arrive on Friday.  The last week at the COP 15 has not marked much progress in extending or modifying the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and the UN leadership is even having trouble keeping everyone in the boat.  African nations staged a brief walkout yesterday after demonstrations on Sunday complaining that the developed nations won't pay enough...

With the Copenhagen conference and "Climategate," the Internet and the media are abuzz with climate change.  I think more rational voices are being drowned out, though, by the bickering between those that have become polarized in the political debate.  (Gee, does that sound familiar?)  The lines between good science, good problem solving, and good policy have been blurred to everyone's detriment.  Let's try to unravel this Gordian knot a bit.First, the science.I was a climate...

I thought I would take the next week or so to talk more about energy, energy supply, and climate change.  We'll also talk about the politics surrounding these issues in the United States.COP15 is opening in Copenhagen on December 7.  COP doesn't stand for Copenhagen; it stands for Conference of Parties, annual meetings that grew out of an international treaty, called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), entered into by 192 countries...

A senior official is reporting that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has been intentionally underplaying the rate of decline of existing oil fields and overstating the chances of finding new reserves.  The Guardian UK broke the story yesterday, quoted its source as saying that the agency bowed to pressure from the US to overstate deliverability to avoid panic buying in the markets.The IEA reports on worldwide energy supplies and publishes long term forecasts of production. ...

I learn something new every day, usually from people who are younger than I am and who haven't developed the jaded or cynical or hard-headed perspective that I have as an adult. This one comes from a couple of young folks I know. We'll start with my 23-y-o highly intelligent, Georgetown graduated, extremely idealistic, somewhat pretentious, annoyingly talented, raconteur nephew who writes regularly (lately at http://www.echoditto.com/blogs/bryn-bellomy) and introduced me to a new term. See wiki definition below...