Investment in interstate transmission has not kept pace with the need for more electricity capacity, despite wakeup calls such as the widespread Northeast and Midwest blackout in August 2003. Transmission siting authority has become the mantra for those who claim that the “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) syndrome is driving U.S. energy policy. FERC was given the opportunity to flex their national siting authority muscle with passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), but their game plan failed to pass court scrutiny. Today, siting new transmission remains a state’s rights issue as it has always been.
Transmission siting controversies are increasing given the growing number of renewable energy projects that want to interconnect with scarce transmission capacity. Now, another layer of complexity is in play due to the potential of a national renewable portfolio standard that portends hundreds if not thousands of new renewable projects that will all seek priority for grid access.…
Continue Reading“Some commentators hope that new technology will lead to important deepwater finds. Some new deepwater areas with giant potential, such as the Perdido Trend in the western Gulf of Mexico, will no doubt be found, but generally, the geology of most deepwater tracts is not very promising.”
– Colin Campbell (founder: Association for the Study of Peak Oil), Noroil, December 1989.
The past week was a bad one for peak oil enthusiasts, as three separate announcements indicated the abundance of undiscovered petroleum.
First, BP announced that it has found a field in the Lower Tertiary basin in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, named Tiber, containing something on the order of 3 billion barrels.
Next, Petrobras announced another discovery in the pre-salt basin, this one Guara, containing about 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil.…
Continue Reading[Editor note: The post is a slightly revised version of what was posted at the Institute for Energy Research website on September 17. The primary author was Daniel R. Simmons, director of state energy affairs. Next week, Michael Giberson will evaluate IER’s defense of the Danish study at MasterResource in light of his own first impressions.]
Energy is critical for our economy and our future, and the real issues deserve to be debated. That is why we appreciated the initial response on the American Wind Energy Association’s website to the recent study, Wind Energy: The Case of Denmark. It appears that AWEA actually read the study and raised some questions related to energy.
The same cannot be said of other responses, such as this blog post from NRDC.…
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