Energy articles from September 2002

Energy archives from September 2002

CAFE is passe. (Editorial).(Corporate Average Fuel Economy)
September 22, 2002... Simple solutions are so alluring because they economize on brainwork and brainwork is hard-work. For years now, the government, the mass media and, hence, the public have been enamored of using CAFE standards to reduce the transportation...

Why drill? There isn't much recoverable oil and gas in the Western Wildlands. (Exploration).
September 22, 2002... The Wilderness Society recently ana-lyzed the economically recoverable gas and oil in national forest roadless areas in six Rocky Mountain states: Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Montana, New Mexico, and North Dakota. The analysis determined that...

What's left? USGS says there is plenty of bitumen still to be mined in the Illinois Basin. (Coal).(United States Geological Survey)
September 22, 2002... The United States Geological Survey completed a recent assessment of one of the United States' most important coal producing regions, the Illinois Basin (an area covering Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky). According to the assessment the Illinois...

Repowering inefficient plants. (Coal).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2002... The best way to increase energy efficiency in the utility sector is to retrofit existing coal-fired plants with new technologies, according to a draft report recently reviewed by the President's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology...

Control methane to reduce warming. (Coal).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2002... Both air pollution and global warming could be reduced by controlling emissions of methane gas, according to a new study by scientists at Harvard University (Boston, MA), Argonne National Laboratory (Chicago, IL) and the Environmental...

Capturing utility conservation funds. (Coal).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2002... Electric City Corp. (1280 Landmeier Rd., Elk Grove Village, IL 60007; Tel: 847/437-1666; Fax: 847/437-4969. Website: http:/ /www.electriccityeccc.com) has entered into a strategic alliance with Electro-Test, a subsidiary of Emerson Electric...

The Saudi connection: Saudi Arabia may remain the world's largest oil producer for the foreseeable future. (Supply).
September 22, 2002... During the first 7 months of 2002, Saudi Arabia supplied the United States with 1.5 million barrels per day of crude oil. That amounts to 17 percent of total U.S. crude oil imports during that period. And, of course, the oil connection is...

Oil before drugs. (Supply).
September 22, 2002... The Bush administration asserts that Colombia needs a substantial boost in U.S. military assistance to help the government eradicate the illegal narcotics trade and defeat powerful rebel and paramilitary groups that finance themselves through...

No free CAFE: mileage standards save little energy, harm consumers, increase congestion and damage the environment. (Commentary).(Corporate Average Fuel Economy)
September 22, 2002... As most readers are no doubt aware, CAFE standards have been in place since 1978. However, after the increase in petroleum prices in 1998-99, CAFE standards have arisen again as a public policy issue. This article presents a summary discussion...

Fund to fight global warming. (Outlook).
September 22, 2002... A new $100 million BioCarbon Fund carbon fund launched by the World Bank in early November will provide finance for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Fund, a public/private partnership, will help farmers and rural communities find new...

BP at forefront of China's LNG strategy. (Exploration).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2002... BP and its partners in Indonesia's Tangguh natural gas project have signed an agreement to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China's Fujian LNG terminal. The agreement now sees BP in all three legs of China's LNG strategy. Last month, China...

Activity drives finding costs higher. (Exploration).(development spending in Western Canada)(Industry Overview)
September 22, 2002... Ziff Energy Group has just released their 2002 F&D study (16th Edition), which provides an assessment of the longer-term efficiency of exploration and development spending in Western Canada. According to the report, 2001 finding & development...

Advances in "smart" oil, gas drilling. (Exploration).(IntelliPipe,)
September 22, 2002... Under a project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, an engineering team of Grant Prideco (Houston, TX) and Novatek Engineering (Provo, UT) have created a major innovation that turns an oil and gas drill pipe into a high speed data...

Video devices improve inspection. (Electric Utilities).(fiber optic video probes for steam turbines)
September 22, 2002... New remote inspection delivery devices are making it possible to look deep inside steam and combustion turbines to detect component damage without taking them apart. The devices, developed by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI); Texas...

Conductor could provide answers. (Electric Utilities).(Oak Ridge National laboratory and 3M research )
September 22, 2002... Researchers from 3M, working with ORNL, are developing a replacement conductor for conventional power lines that addresses the problem of power outages caused by sagging lines. Lines sag under the heat of high current loads. The replacement...

ISO New England needs investments. (Electric Utilities).
September 22, 2002... ISO New England Inc.'s annual transmission plan finds that almost 900 million dollars in transmission upgrades may be needed to maintain power system reliability and improve wholesale electricity market efficiency. The findings are contained in...

Foreign acquisitions lowest since 1997. (Electric Utilities).(Industry Overview)
September 22, 2002... Total foreign direct investment (FDI) acquisitions of U.S. energy assets equaled $11 billion in the year 2001, one-fourth the level of 2000 and the lowest level since 1997. FDI acquisitions are purchases, directly or indirectly, by the original...

Reactor design could mean savings. (Nuclear).(research from Sandia National Laboratories )
September 22, 2002... Sandia National Laboratories researcher Gary Harms and his team are using a new Labs-built reactor to provide benchmarks showing that spent nuclear fuel--uranium that has been used as fuel at a nuclear power plant--is considerably less reactive...

China's first coal by wire plant. (Coal).
September 22, 2002... Foster Wheeler Ltd. has completed work on a 2,100 MW (6 x 350 MW) coal-fired plant in Shanxi province, about 800 km south west of Beijing--the first coal-by-wire power plant to be undertaken in the People's Republic of China (PRC), for...

Canadian effort attracts investment. (Coal).(Canadian Clean Power Coalition )
September 22, 2002... According to the Canadian Clean Power Coalition (CCPC) both EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) and the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Greenhouse Gas R & D and Clean Coal Centre Programs are participating in the feasibility study...

CAD evaluates fusion concepts. (Energy Technology).
September 22, 2002... Macintosh-based computer aided design (CAD) software is reducing the time it takes to develop and evaluate new concepts for fusion energy. To sustain conditions for fusion reactions, one must confine hydrogen that has been heated to a...

Sunlight, natural gas make energy source. (Energy Technology).(CSIRO devlops new technology)
September 22, 2002... CSIRO scientists have combined solar energy and natural gas in a novel process capable of producing large-scale energy to power Australia's future industrial and domestic needs. The innovative combination of solar thermal and natural gas has...

EIA reclassifies, improves data. (Economics).(Energy Information Administration)
September 22, 2002... The Energy Information Administration (EIA) has changed how it estimates and presents data on the fuels used to produce electricity. The purpose of these changes is to improve data quality, ensure that data are reported consistently throughout...

Zero Energy Home construction site. (Conservation).(Tucson, Arizona)
September 22, 2002... The NAHB Research Center (400 Prince George's Blvd., Upper Marlboro, MD 20774; Tel: 301/249-4000; Fax: 301/430-6180) and the John Wesley Miller Companies recently opened the Tucson-area construction site of their Zero Energy Home (ZEH) to the...

Time-of-day usage saves nothing. (Conservation).(Puget Sound Energy)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2002... In an admission that their time-of-day electricity usage program is a failure, Puget Sound Energy (411 108th Ave. NE., Bellevue, WA 98004-5515; Tel: 425/454-6363; Fax: 425/462-3444; Website: http://www.pse.com) has asked the Washington...

Windows, caulk won't lower heating costs. (Conservation).
September 22, 2002... Buying replacement windows, caulking and weather stripping are not the best ways to lower heating costs, says one Ball State University expert on building science. "Buy replacement windows to improve the look of your home or for ease of...

The power to the roof. (Conservation).(SunChoice Solar Electric Home Power Systems from AstroPower, Inc.)
September 22, 2002... AstroPower, Inc. (300 Executive Dr., Newark, DE 19702-3316; Tel: 302/ 366-0400; Fax: 302/368-6474; Website: http://www.astropower.com) has introduced a new line of residential solar electric power systems featuring solar power arrays that fully...

Studies look at energy use of PCs. (Conservation).(Energy Use and Power Levels in New Monitors and Personal Computers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
September 22, 2002... A Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study entitled, Energy Use and Power Levels in New Monitors and Personal Computers reports new research conducted in support of the EPA Energy Star Office Equipment program, whose goal is to reduce the...

Assessing alternatives: an EIA report on renewable energy finds an overall decline--but some bright spots. (Production).(Energy Information Administration)
September 22, 2002... According the EIA's Renewable Energy Annual 2001, renewable energy consumption for 2001 dropped to its lowest level in over 12 years, accounting for just 6-percent of total U.S. energy consumption. Renewable consumption was 5.7 quadrillion Btu,...

Powering pollution: as demand for electricity increases, worries about pollution grow. (Environment).
September 22, 2002... According to the latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts, electricity generation could increase by 42 percent by 2020. That will lead to a 35 percent increase in carbon dioxide emissions (about 800 million more tons per year)...

Adverse effects: there has been little benefit to consumers from the transition to retail energy competition. (Deregulation).
September 22, 2002... A study conducted the National Center for Appropriate Technology concludes that there are significant adverse impacts of electric and natural gas market restructuring on some residential consumers. The five-state study, which was funded by the...

Evergreen, NREL work on String Ribbon cells. (New Technology).(Evergreen Solar Inc.)(National Renewable Energy Laboratory)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2002... Evergreen Solar will accelerate its development of String Ribbon photovoltaic cell technology tinder a cost-shared letter subcontract from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The new effort aims to reduce String Ribbon solar module...

Lehigh seeks chip power. (New Technology).(Lehigh University research into miniature generating plant)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2002... Lehigh University scientists are developing a tiny generating plant, housed on a silicon chip that they believe can produce enough hydrogen to run power-consuming portable devices. In an experiment, the amount of hydrogen produced was small,...

Toyota reveals combo systems. (New Technology).
September 22, 2002... Toyota Motor Corp. (1, Toyota-cho, Toyota City, Aichi 471-8571, Japan; Tel: 800/331-4331) has developed a distributed power generation system by combining a fuel cell and a micro gas turbine. For its power source, the hybrid cogeneration system...

Making fuel at home. (New Technology).
September 22, 2002... According to FuelMaker Corp. (3109 Normandy Drive, McKinney, TX 75070; Tel: 972/ 542-2002, Tel: 800/898-3835, Fax: 972/542-2940: Email: usinfo@fuelmaker.com), home fueling for natural gas powered vehicles will be more convenient and affordable...

Our modern Malthusians: we are staying ahead of the curve by finding better means of applying the earth's resources. (Contrarian's View on Energy).
September 22, 2002... Back in the 19th century, Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) writing in, An Essay on Population, claimed that the capacity for food production ultimately limits the number of people Earth can sustain. His claim indeed has become so famous, it...

Calendar.
September 22, 2002... January 27-28, 2003. Advances in Deepwater TLPs, Houstonian Hotel, Houston, Texas. Contact: Fiona Wall; e-mail: fiona.wall@informa.com; Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 4023; http://www. ibcenergy.com. January 28, 2003. Market Confidence in the Energy...