A boom in unconventional natural gas over the next 20 years could see the United States and others benefit from cheaper energy while the importance of the Middle East declines, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday. The U.S. could be exporting 35 billion cubic metres by 2020, around 20 percent of Russia's current export levels, according to the report. The influx of cheap U.S. gas would drive competition on global gas markets and cut gas prices by 30% by 2020. --Henning Gloystein and Oleg Vukmanovic,
Reuters, 29 May 2012
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem Energy Minister, has hit out at his Tory colleagues for suggesting that fracking for shale gas will solve Britain’s fuel crisis. Mr Davey accused those on the right of the Tory party of making out the UK could rely on shale gas in order to undermine investment in alternatives such as offshore wind. “The right wing of tory party are trying to make out shale gas is the answer but I’m afraid the evidence does not bear it out,” he said. --Louise Gray,
The Daily Telegraph, 25 May 2012
The government’s draft Energy Bill is an utter disaster. It reverses the course of UK energy deregulation, which cut prices, and will lead to confusion for companies and added costs for consumers. The government bases the case for low-carbon – and more expensive – energy in large part on the assumption that gas prices will rise significantly in the future. This argument is no longer credible in the light of the growing international abundance of shale gas, including in Britain. --Benny Peiser,
City A.M. 25 May 2012
There was a time — as recently as early 2010 — when the Great and the Good, the Champions of the Conventional Wisdom and the Oracles of the Davoisie identified the UN’s forlorn climate change negotiations as the wave of the future and the last best hope of man. Let the futility and failure to which all this led be a reminder to us and to them: those who guide the world’s destiny aren’t nearly as discerning as they think they are. Between the American housing bubble, the European meltdown and the climate policy disaster, it almost begins to look as if the Establishment consists mostly of overpaid, egotistical blowhards. --Walter Russell Mead,
The American Interest, 28 May 2012
Nicola Scafetta is a scientist at Duke University and at the Active Cavity Radiometer Solar Irradiance Monitor Lab which is associated with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. He claims that "at least 60% of the warming of the Earth observed since 1970 appears to be induced by natural cycles which are present in the solar system.” As his theory is controversial, we asked him to outline it. For the near future he predicts a stabilisation of global temperature or cooling until 2030-2040. --David Whitehouse,
The Global Warming Policy Foundation, 29 May 2012
According to the latest forecasts from the Department of Energy in its latest Annual Energy Outlook, the fossil fuel (coal, natural gas and oil) share of energy consumption will fall only slightly in the future, from 83 percent of total U.S. energy demand in 2010 to 77 percent in 2035. More than twenty years from now, renewables as a fuel source are expected to provide less than 11% of total energy demand. Bottom Line: Hydrocarbon energy is America’s future, and it’s the energy treasures beneath our feet that will continue to power the U.S. economy for many generations. -Mark Perry,
Carpe Diem, 28 May 2012
Gas is going to become a key for the energy future of Europe. This was the message from the EU Energy Commissioner to the 10th Gas Infrastructure Europe Annual Conference in Krakow, Poland. Oettinger declared that the European Union would become the largest, competitive, integrated gas market in the world. In order to turn this vision into reality, at least ten years and tens of billions of euros will be needed, as the European Union will need more gas pipelines and other infrastructure. --
Natural Gas Europe, 28 May 2012
The future of nuclear power in the UK hangs in the balance after it emerged that crucial government funding deals could break EU law. Industry insiders stress that state subsidies, which guarantee financial returns for companies that invest in the technology, are essential to ensure new power stations are built – but energy firm Centrica has reportedly warned proposals to guarantee energy prices could be hampered by EU state aid regulations. EDF, which is working with Centrica to build a new reactor at Hinkley Point in Somerset, has already delayed preliminary work at the site until 2013. --
Daily Mail, 29 May 2012
Faced with mounting criticism, the State University of New York at Buffalo is distancing itself from a Marcellus Shale gas-drilling study released earlier this month by the school’s own Shale Resources and Society Institute. Its authors, including SUNY-Buffalo employee and institute Director John P. Martin, have come under increasing fire from critics who say they’ve spun figures from Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection in order to cast a favorable light on fracking and the companies that employ it. Now, the university is running away from the study, the first significant work produced by the institute, the formation of which was announced April 5. --Ben Wolfgang,
The Washington Times, 28 May 2012
