America's LargestPosts Tagged Obama Administration
Nuclear Power Part of Dr. Chu’s Green Energy Prescription
Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu was one of four ranking Obama Administration officials who recently told the Senate that the United States needs more nuclear power. Together with the secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior, plus the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Dr. Chu told the Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works that [...]
Read More »Rep. DeFazio Calls for Tax on Crude Oil Futures and Options
The Associated Press reported this month that the Obama administration is warning lawmakers that the trust fund that pays for highway construction will go broke in August unless Congress approves an infusion of as much as $7 billion to keep current projects going. Another $8 billion to $10 billion will be needed to keep the [...]
Read More »FutureGen “Clean Coal” Plant Loses Two Investors
Will the FutureGen clean coal project ever get off the ground?
Last month, as reported here on The HEAT Zone, the federal government has allocated $1 billion in stimulus package funds towards the creation of FutureGen, a proposed coal-fired power plant with carbon sequestration technology in Illinois. A conglomeration of energy and coal companies have also [...]
Federal Stimulus Funds for Weatherizing Arrive in Long Island
Out with the good air, in with the bad air…wait, that’s not right.
No, it’s not. However, it’s exactly what happens in many homes, especially older, more poorly insulated ones: warm air escapes in winter, drawing in cold air and raising heating bills. In the summer, the opposite happens. In either case, the homeowner spends more [...]
Calls for More Regulation of Energy Derivitives Trading Intensify
Due to the effects of the ongoing recession, demand for oil has dropped. At the same time, inventory supplies of oil have increased. Under the traditional laws of supply and demand, the price of oil should be plummeting. However, it’s doing the opposite.
The reason, many people say, is because of excessive oil speculation. And, because [...]
Obama Admin. Betting on Carbon Capture and Storage; Technology Still Unproven
About half of the electricity produced in the US comes from coal-fired power plants – around 500 of them – that together churn out 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, or about 36 percent of the country’s total CO2 emissions, according to the Department of Energy. If there were a way to somehow [...]
Read More »Inhofe Leads GOP Opposition to Clean Air Legislation, Predicts Emissions Bill’s Failure in Senate
It seems pretty straight forward. You make it worthwhile for industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and you get cleaner air, a better environment and slow down global warming. But getting opposing political factions to agree on how to do that, or even whether to do anything at all, is where things bog down.
Although the [...]
Energy Execs: Obama Energy Plans Unrealistic
The Obama Administration’s energy policy mixes ambition and idealism, with calls for heavy investment in green, alternative, renewable, and sustainable energy sources. One of its central pillars is a call for energy independence. During his campaign, for example, President Obama called for energy independence within 10 years. Since then, his Administration has been [...]
Read More »Editors at Richmond Times Dispatch Give Tough Analysis Obama’s Energy Speech
The Heat Zone took an cautiously optimistic position on President Obama’s Earth Day talk about energy initiatives, especially his promise that if we pull together, we can look forward to a cleaner country, a stronger economy and lower prices for petroleum products like gasoline and heating oil.
Obama’s plan, of course, hangs on reducing demand for [...]
On Earth Day, Obama Focuses on Cutting Oil Consumption, Which Could Mean Lower Long-Term Prices
At an Earth Day appearance at an Iowa plant that manufactures wind turbine towers, President Obama reiterated his Administration’s commitment to reducing US oil consumption through support of alternative technologies. If the administration’s bold new energy policies are successful, we can look forward to a cleaner country and a stronger economy as well as [...]
Read More »Obama Moves Toward Energy Goals and Supports US Auto Industry with Plan to Buy 17,000 Fuel-Eficient Vehicles
During the presidential campaign, candidate Obama expressed his hope to convert the White House fleet to battery-powered vehicles within the year. Last week President Obama took a step towards that goal: he announced that the government will buy 17,600 fuel-efficient, American-made cars and hybrids for the government fleet. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, [...]
Read More »Salazar, Facing Criticism From Right and Left, Seeks to Rebuild Interior Department and National Energy Policy
President Obama’s Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, didn’t waste any time diving into his work the moment his new job began. Offshore drilling, oil shale mining, royalty payments, land leases, and wildlife protection are all tasks that the former U.S. senator from Colorado has to face as he helps set the stage for the [...]
Read More »Making the Old Electrical Grid a Smart Grid
The US power grid is considered the largest interconnected machine on the planet, but it’s over 100 years old and hasn’t been modernized since the Great Depression. America still relies on the same centrally planned and controlled infrastructure created before cars and computers and demand for electricity is expected to grow twice as fast as [...]
Read More »The Debate Over Domestic Oil
TOP: Oil shale extraction (image: sfgate.com), BOTTOM: Oil platforms off the coast of Southern California (image: patdollard.com)
With a new president in office formulating a new energy policy that promises to be a major departure from that of his predecessor, the debate over domestic sources of crude is heating up once again. All [...]
Read More »Oil Shale R&D Continues, Despite Resistance from Gov’t and Environmentalists
The debate over oil shale as a potential solution to America’s dependence on foreign oil continues in the wake of the Obama Administration’s revocation of exploratory leases to oil companies. Under Obama appointee Ken Salazar, the US Department of the Interior appears to favor classifying oil shale resources as an environmental dead-end due to the [...]
Read More »Obama Admin Puts Brakes on Oil Shale Development, but Oil Companies Remain Interested
In a world where demand for carbon-based fuel appears poised to increase into infinity, oil companies are constantly searching for the next big thing in fossil fuel resources. One material that could fill that need is called oil shale, and there are an estimated 800 billion barrels of oil (three times the size of Saudi [...]
Read More »Obama Admin: Energy Agenda Continues to be a Top Priority
Administration officials emphasized President Obama’s dedication to his energy agenda over the weekend. The Associated Press reported this morning that Obama aides indicated that the President would be willing to give some ground on parts of his $3.6 trillion budget, but would stand firm behind budget proposals to fund energy conservation and the development of [...]
Read More »Obama Admin Wrestles with Drilling Question in Energy Plan
In the early part of his marathon campaign for president, Barack Obama talked tough when it came to the oil industry. He opposed all new offshore drilling projects while emphasizing alternative energy development. However, as oil prices began to spike last summer, political pressure arising from concern over high gas prices caused him to soften [...]
Read More »Obama Sets Ambitious Green Energy Goals, Ties them to Economic Recovery in Address to Congress
President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress last night to promote his plan for U.S. economic recovery. His speech included several statements linking the growth of clean energy and energy efficiency to economic recovery and future prosperity. He set two specific energy goals that would receive funding from the recently-passed stimulus bill: to double [...]
Read More »Crude Up, Heating Oil Down on Federal Mortgage Assistance
The price of crude rose this morning, climbing 2.7% to $34.90 a barrel as of 9:26 am eastern time. The rice of crude increased along with stock prices in reaction to news that the Obama Administration is currently working out a program to help troubled homeowners pay their mortgages, building the expectation that government action [...]
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