Category Archives: Energy

The U.S. energy revolution is not confined to a single fuel or technology: oil and gas production, renewable energy, and fuel-efficient automobile technologies all show great promise. To best position the country for the future, U.S. leaders should capitalize on all these opportunities rather than pick a favorite; the answer lies in ‘most of the above.’ – Michael Levi

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by Judith Curry

The U.S. was the largest emitter carbon dioxide (CO₂) until 2006 when China’s emissions exceeded the U.S.  U.S. CO₂ emissions from the consumption of fossil fuels peaked in 2007 and have declined significantly over the past five years.  - John Miller

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by Rud Istvan and Brandon Shollenberger

Comments on the previous Climate Etc post on Maggio and Cacciola’s paper, When will oil, natural gas, and coal peak? motivated an analysis of the World Energy Outlook produced annually by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

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by Rud Istvan

Fossil fuel availability affects how much CO₂ will be emitted, which might or might not affect climate much. Hubbert’s 1956 insight suggests total peak oil is near (around 2020), and that gas and coal will peak by midcentury.

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by Judith Curry

Whether the benefits of alternative energy outweigh its drawbacks depends on the policy context. – Ed Dolan

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by James Stafford of Oilprice.com

We were fortunate enough to speak with the well known economist Ed Dolan on various energy and economic issues.

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by James Stafford

Reposted with permission from oilprice.com.

We were fortunate enough to have some time with Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond where we discussed a broad range of topics from Scotland’s ambitious renewable energy targets and North Sea oil & gas to Scottish independence and Donald Trump.

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by David Rutledge

Judy Curry has provided a remarkable forum for climate science and policy, and I appreciate the opportunity to continue the discussion on energy supplies that Rutt Bridges started with his post Wednesday on natural gas. In this post, I will consider the limited impacts of climate policy on fossil-fuel production and discuss ways to estimate fossil-fuel production in the long run.

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by Rutt Bridges

Let me start by admitting that the future of natural gas is especially difficult to predict. Commodity forecasting is always a pseudo-science at best. At times it seems that its primary function is to make astrology look respectable.

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by Judith Curry

THE LIGHTS ARE not going off all over Japan, but the nuclear power plants are. Of the 54 reactors in those plants, with a combined capacity of 47.5 gigawatts (GW, a thousand megawatts), only two are operating today. A good dozen are unlikely ever to reopen . . .  (from the Economist)

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by Judith Curry

A few articles that I’ve collected on energy policy.

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by John C.K. Daly of Oilprice.com

Ever since the global recession began in 2008, suggestions of an imminent trade war erupting between China and its trading partners have been increasingly rising.

Now the first shot in trade disputes has been fired.  By China.

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by Judith Curry

In pondering what might happen in 2012 in terms of energy and climate policy, oilprice.com suggests that stove-piped analysis of individual strategic sectors (e.g. energy) is inadequate, and we need to consider the broad global strategic environment.

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by Judith Curry

Producing energy uses water, and providing freshwater uses energy. Both these processes face growing limits and problems. In most power plants, water cools the steam that spins the electricity-generating turbines. Refining transportation fuels requires water, as does producing fuels—for example, mining coal, extracting petroleum, or growing crops for biofuels. Using water in our homes and businesses requires getting it there, treating it, heating it, and more.

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by Jonathan Huddleston

Current attempts by national governments worldwide to control industrial CO₂ emissions following the recommendations of the IPCC could be viewed within the scientific paradigm as the projection of a large scale experiment on the earth’s climate system to validate the hypothesis that anthropogenic CO₂ emissions through the burning of fossil fuels and land use changes (inter alia) are a major factor driving climate change. If such policies are to be effective,  it is hypothesized here that periodic global economic and industrial fluctuations in activity of sufficient magnitude should be capable of producing a signal detectable by atmospheric CO₂ monitoring programmes.

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by Allen Green

What options do consumers have for choosing renewable energy?

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by Roger Caiazza

The lead statement to the IPCC press release announcing their renewables report stated “Close to 80 percent of the world’s energy supply could be met by renewables by mid-century if backed by the right enabling policies a new report shows.” I believe that the only way this could happen is if there were multiple miracles but don’t take my word for it.  Do you your own analysis.

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by Judith Curry

David Roberts at Grist has a really interesting post entitled “The gobsmackingly gargantuan challenge of shifting to clean energy.”  The post is based upon an excellent presentation by Saul Griffith.   Griffith considers a target  of 450 ppm.  The punchline of his analysis:

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