Common Resources

LNG As A Truck Fuel Just Got Cleaner

Replacing diesel fuel in heavy-duty (18-wheeler) trucks with liquefied natural gas has been getting more attractive with every drop in natural gas prices, to the point where the time it takes to pay back a $70,000 added investment cost is under two years (as these trucks are driven 125,000 miles per year). Yet, aside from […]

Matt Damon, Energy Cassandra

In 2005’s critically acclaimed Syriana, Matt Damon plays Bryan Woodman, an energy analyst who becomes a policy adviser to a fictional Gulf emirate. In a classic scene, Woodman challenges his royal employers by speaking frankly about the country’s economy and warning that outsiders (particularly Americans) will try to exploit the emirate while keeping it in poverty.   […]

Promised Land

Unlike the documentary Gasland, the Matt Damon/Jon Krasinski “fracking movie” Promised Land is a Hollywood drama, with a plot twist that’s pretty shocking and not meant to be believable. So, be charitable when it comes to holding it to the truth. The movie is really about the trade-offs of living in a rural area vs. a […]

Can Fracking Help Achieve Climate Stabilization and Long-term Energy Independence?

In some recent posts, Joel Darmstader and I discussed aspects of North American energy independence, with a focus on oil independence. In the last post in the series, Joel looked at environmental consequences of the rapidly changing continental energy picture. I think that issue is worth a second look. The development of natural resources often […]

Does a Natural Gas Bridge Go Anywhere?

(a few very minor edits have been made since this post was written. -ed). Michael Levi has a great and provocative new paper on natural gas as a bridge fuel – that is, shifting from coal to gas generation now, with a future shift to zero-carbon renewables. At the risk of oversimplification, the main finding is […]

Energy Independence - What Then? (Part Four: The Environment)

This post is the last in a four-part series on energy independence and its significance (or insignificance). Click to read the first, second, and third installments. Note also that while earlier posts in this series were jointly authored with Roger Sedjo, this post represents only the views of its author. As we’ve explained in earlier […]

States Push EPA to Regulate Methane from Oil & Gas Operations

New York and six other eastern states announced this week that they intend to sue the EPA, seeking to force the agency to regulate methane emissions from oil and natural gas operations. Specifically, they claim EPA is required by the Clean Air Act to issue new source performance standards (NSPS) for methane emissions from wells, […]

Is the Natural Gas Revolution Real?

Is the natural gas revolution the real thing? For all the talk about revolution, at least from forecasts, you would hardly know it. In the EIA’s 2013 Annual Energy Outlook, released last week, natural gas’ share of the energy mix goes up only 1%. So what is the big deal? I see five major impacts […]

Energy Independence - What Then? (Part Three: The Broad Goal of North American Energy Independence)

This post is the third in a four-part series on energy independence and its significance (or insignificance). Click to read the first, second, and fourth installments. In its recently-issued World Energy Outlook, the International Energy Agency (IEA) underscored the likelihood and significance of North America becoming “a net oil exporter around 2030.” Here, we ponder […]

Energy Independence - What Then? (Part Two: Benefits—but Lurking Uncertainties)

This post is the second in a four-part series on energy independence and its significance (or insignificance). Click to read the first, third, and fourth installments. International Energy Agency (IEA) projections show the US overtaking Saudi Arabia as the world’s lead oil producer and, in the light of Canada’s oil sands production, North America becoming a […]