U.S. economy got off to modest start in 2021, Fed says
The U.S. economic recovery continued at a modest pace over the first weeks of this year, with businesses optimistic about the months to come and demand for housing “robust,” but Continue Reading
Gasoline Heads Toward $3 in U.S. For First Time in Six Years
A record plunge in gasoline stockpiles last week is threatening to raise pump prices across America above $3 a gallon for the first time in six years. Inventories fell by 13.6 Continue Reading
Biden faces steep challenges to reach renewable energy goals
President Joe Biden wants to change the way the U.S. uses energy by expanding renewables, but he will need to navigate a host of challenges — including the coronavirus pandemic Continue Reading
Historic drought worsens in the Southwest
The year 2020 is going to be remembered for a lot of things, many of them not so good. Included in the not-so-good list is the drought that has plagued Continue Reading
The U.S. Grid Isn’t Ready For A Major Shift To Renewables
The blame game for the massive power outages in Texas last month continues. The dominant argument is that renewables had an ignorable part to play in the crisis, with natural Continue Reading
Energy Secretary Ready To Unleash $40 Billion In Green Energy Funds
President Biden’s new Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is ready to let loose $40 billion in Department of Energy loans, the former Michigan governor said on Wednesday at CERAWeek. Granholm has Continue Reading
Summary of Weekly Petroleum Data for the week ending February 26, 2021
U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 9.9 million barrels per day during the week ending February 26, 2021 which was 2.3 million barrels per day less than the previous week’s Continue Reading
Texas Power Regulator Urged to Halt Collections as Crisis Fallout Spreads – WSJ
Electricity retailers are asking Texas’ power regulator to suspend immediate collections on the massive bills arising from the state’s electricity outage, as energy market participants try to mitigate the threat Continue Reading
CERAWEEK: Oil, gas industry must hasten pace of decarbonization effort, Moniz says
Highlights Electricity sector ‘walking the talk’ on emissions reductions Opportunities seen for oil, gas in low-carbon world Moniz says must pick up pace in seizing those opportunities New York — Continue Reading
U.S. Companies Add Fewer Jobs Than Forecast, ADP Data Show
The number of employees at U.S. businesses rose in February by less than expected, underscoring the labor market’s struggle to recover despite a decline in Covid-19 infections in recent weeks. Continue Reading
Reversing Trump, Interior Department Moves Swiftly on Climate Change
As the Interior Department awaits its new secretary, the agency is already moving to lock in key parts of President Biden’s environmental agenda, particularly on oil and gas restrictions, laying Continue Reading
Miami Says It Can Adapt to Rising Seas. Not Everyone Is Convinced.
Officials in Miami-Dade County, where climate models predict two feet or more of sea-level rise by 2060, have released an upbeat strategy for living with more water, one that focused on elevating Continue Reading
Natural Gas Storage
Working gas operators reported the second-largest weekly net withdrawals for the Lower 48 states following a week characterized by widespread extreme cold throughout most of the country, which increased heating Continue Reading
Central Appalachia 2020 coal deliveries to US power plants drop 37.5% on year: EIA
Highlights Q4 deliveries at 3.31 mil st, down 23.8% on year CAPP barge deliveries rise to one-year high in Q4 Coal deliveries from Central Appalachia mines to US power plants Continue Reading
Kerry confident US can compartmentalize, work with China on climate
The US can compartmentalize its geopolitical tensions with China to work with the country on ambitious climate plans aimed at limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, Special Presidential Continue Reading
American Petroleum Institute move would recognize climate change, but undercut other measures
The American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s top lobbying arm, is edging closer to endorsing a carbon tax, a tool that would make fossil fuels more expensive, boost Continue Reading
Huge Gasoline, Distillate Draws Outweigh Crude Oil Build
The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a build in crude oil inventories of 7.356 million barrels for the week ending February 26. Analysts had predicted an inventory draw Continue Reading
U.S. Gasoline Demand Jumps To Highest Since Pandemic Started
U.S. gasoline demand jumped last week to the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic started, with demand this past Sunday up by 18.2 percent compared to the previous Sunday, according Continue Reading
Oil Exports from Offshore Louisiana Facility Fall to Zero
Crude exports from Louisiana’s offshore supertanker port tumbled to zero as Asian buyers limited purchases to manage high inventories that threaten to overwhelm storage facilities. The lack of shipments in Continue Reading
Biden’s Plans to Rally Allies on China Are Put to the Test
A Biden administration plan to work with allies to confront China is being put to the test as the U.S. tries to rally countries with sometimes different interests to pursue Continue Reading
Biden’s All-of-Government Climate Pledge Begins to Take Shape
The Biden Administration’s decision to throw out the Trump White House’s method for calculating the social cost of carbon was one of the first tangible actions on the president’s lengthy Continue Reading
Florida’s Flood Disclosure Rules Leave Homebuyers in the Dark
There are few places to purchase a home in the U.S. that have a greater risk of flooding than on the coast of Florida. But sellers needn’t lose sleep over Continue Reading
Rails Tout Climate Edge Over Trucks, Wooing ‘Amtrak Joe’ Biden
U.S. freight railroads are trying to take advantage of a train enthusiast president who’s concerned about global warming with a lobbying campaign depicting their industry as a solution to climate Continue Reading
Texas Blackout Bills Plunge Power Supplier Brazos Into Bankruptcy
Texas’s largest electric-power cooperative filed for bankruptcy, saying it is overwhelmed by the more than $2.1 billion in sudden bills stemming from the extreme winter weather that blanketed the state Continue Reading
Can Abandoned Oil Wells Be Used To Generate Geothermal Power?
“The decade of geothermal” is a phrase that is becoming increasingly common in media and energy industry gatherings as the international zero-emission push comes to include one of the most Continue Reading
Oil Workers Move To Renewable Jobs, But The Pay Is Lower
As thousands of oil and gas jobs disappeared during the oil price and demand crash last year, more and more former oil workers moved to jobs in the clean energy Continue Reading
Oil Trade Group Is Poised to Endorse Carbon Pricing
The oil industry’s top lobbying group is preparing to endorse setting a price on carbon emissions in what would be the strongest signal yet that oil and gas producers are Continue Reading
Iran Rejects Offer of Direct U.S. Nuclear Talks, Senior Diplomats Say
Iran rejected a European Union offer to hold direct nuclear talks with the U.S. in the coming days, risking renewed tension between Tehran and Western capitals. Senior Western diplomats said Continue Reading
Granholm tells oil companies to diversify
Jennifer Granholm, who was confirmed as secretary of energy by the Senate on Thursday, takes over a department with a $35 billion budget for an administration that has enthusiastically promoted Continue Reading
Is A Deregulated Power Grid Good For Texans?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you’ve most likely been inundated with all kinds of new stories and finger-pointing social media diatribes about Texas’ Continue Reading
U.S. Oil Production Fell To 11 Million Bpd In December
U.S. crude oil production fell in December to an average 11.063 million barrels per day, according to the Energy Information Administration’s latest monthly report . U.S. crude oil production fell Continue Reading
Who’s To Blame For The Expensive Energy Bills In Texas?
For the almost two decades of its existence as an independent system operator, only electricity wonks, neo-liberal economists and systems engineers talked about ERCOT (the Electric Reliability Council of Texas). Continue Reading
From U.S. domination to energy transition, two years that changed oil
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took the stage at the world’s largest energy conference in 2019 to declare an age of U.S. dominance after a decade of rapid Continue Reading
Texas electricity firm files for bankruptcy citing $1.8 billion in claims from grid operator
Texas’s largest and oldest electric power cooperative on Monday filed for bankruptcy protection in federal court in Houston, citing a disputed $1.8 billion bill from the state’s grid operator. Brazos Continue Reading
Coronavirus live updates: New virus cases no longer declining in the U.S. in worrisome development
A steady decline in new coronavirus cases in the United States appears to have stalled in recent days, public health officials said, warning that new, more transmissible variants could be Continue Reading
Soaring U.S. Incomes Help Drive Biggest Spending Gain Since June
U.S. personal incomes soared in January as Americans received another round of pandemic-relief checks, helping to re-charge the economy with the strongest spending advance in seven months. The 10% gain in Continue Reading
Renewable Energy Advocate Granholm Confirmed For Top Energy Post
Renewable energy ally and fossil fuel foe Jennifer Granholm was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday to lead the Department of Energy by a 64/35 vote. The former Governor Continue Reading
Texas, Midwest refiners thaw out their plants after polar vortex
US refiners are restarting their plants after the recent deep freeze stretching from the Texas Gulf Coast north through the Midwest impacted refinery operations across a broad swath of the Continue Reading
Oil Crash Pushed 2020 U.S. Output to First Drop in Four Years
U.S. crude production decreased for the first time in four years in 2020 as the pandemic crushed global oil demand. American crude output averaged 11.313 million barrels a day last year, Continue Reading
Biden’s New Energy Secretary Eyes Big Investment to Boost Clean Technologies, Harden Electric Grid – WSJ
The new U.S. energy secretary said Friday she plans to revive a $40 billion loan program for energy projects and to push for improvements to the country’s electric grid in Continue Reading
The Oil Industry Is Ready To Fight President Biden In Court
Reeling from the effects of the pandemic, the oil industry is in no mood to fool around. When newly inaugurated President Joe Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline project, refiners Continue Reading
Which Banks Are The Biggest Backers Of Oil And Gas?
About a month ago, BlackRock Inc. the world’s largest asset manager with $9 trillion in assets under management (AUM), sent shockwaves through the fossil fuel sector after it vowed to Continue Reading
The Staggering Cost Of Weather-Proofing U.S. Infrastructure
As extreme weather conditions wreak havoc on America’s largest energy producing states, can they continue to provide for their citizens? The combination of climate change and aging infrastructure could soon Continue Reading
Natural Gas Production Plunged 45% During The Texas Freeze
Natural gas production in Texas collapsed by 45 percent during the cold snap last week, primarily due to freeze-offs, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Thursday, citing estimates from Continue Reading
US jobless claims at 730K, still high but fewest in 3 months
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply last week in a sign that layoffs may have eased, though applications for aid remain at a historically high level. Jobless Continue Reading
Financial firms raise U.S. GDP growth estimates on stimulus bets
Several major financial firms have upped their forecasts for U.S. economic growth based on expectations that President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill will come to fruition and Continue Reading
Gasoline Crisis Paralyzes One Out of Every Seven Texas Stations
One in every seven Texas gas stations is without fuel a week after the historic freeze crippled refineries and trucking, prompting at least one major retailer in the second-largest U.S. Continue Reading
Texans’ Frozen Pipes Warn of Yet Another Extreme Weather Threat
At first, Amanda Fuller thought she was one of the lucky ones. Then the water stopped running. As Texas started dipping into single-digit temperatures overnight Sunday, power companies began instituting Continue Reading
Who’s Who on Biden’s Sprawling Climate Team
Past presidents—even progressive ones—have viewed climate change as a problem for the future. President Barack Obama, for example, “took the view that climate change was a moral issue,” said Jeff Continue Reading
ERCOT lost almost half of generation capacity in storm, causing 20-GW load shed
Almost half of Electric Reliability Council of Texas generation capacity – 52.3 GW in all — was forced out at the highest point during the winter storm starting Feb. 14, Continue Reading