All Energy Voices

In the latest round of sanctions against Russia for its annexation of Crimea, President Obama blocked an additional 20 prominent Russians from visiting or doing business with the US. But Thursday's list largely avoids targeting a major source of Russia's revenue and influence: energy.

Russia's intervention in Crimea could provide more impetus to invest in Ukraine's shale gas resources, according to Robert Bensh, a Kiev-based energy expert with 13 years of experience in Ukraine's energy industry. The Crimea annexation should make energy independence a higher priority for Ukraine.

Sabana Grande, a small northern Nicaraguan town has leveraged solar power to transform a community once ravaged by war, Guevara-Stone writes. 

Iran nuclear talks find Russia and the West ostensibly on the same side, Cunningham writes. But Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the retaliatory steps taken by the US and the European Union to isolate Russia will certainly influence the negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

Crimean and Russian leaders signed an agreement Tuesday, annexing the Ukrainian peninsula as part of Russia. Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden promoted European energy security in Poland and Lithuania, but stopped short of aggressive US oil and gas intervention as a way to counter Russia.    

New York City's fatal pipeline blast focuses new attention on the aging pipeline infrastructure, some of it more than a century old. With the natural gas industry needing at least 29,000 more miles of pipeline to meet new demand, can the system expand and become safer at the same time?  

Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine in a controversial referendum Sunday, but the peninsula is largely dependent on Ukraine for its power and natural gas. Moscow might be willing to change that, if it means access to the Black Sea's significant oil and gas resources.

Canada is on the verge of becoming an energy superpower, according to its natural resources minister. The Canadian government is already signing trade deals and building pipelines that could help it beat the US in a race to energy hegemony, Graeber writes.

The Ukraine crisis has led many to call on the US to use its growing oil and natural gas production to help Ukraine and Europe wean itself off Russian energy. There's one very big problem with this view, Cobb writes: The US is still a net importer of both oil and natural gas.

European leaders are scrambling to reduce their exposure to the political meddling of Russia, which has demonstrated its willingness to disrupt energy supplies for geopolitical leverage.

The crisis in Ukraine has stirred support for expanded energy exports that could counter Russia's oil and gas leverage. How might expanding oil and gas exports impact US consumers? 

The terrible Fukushima nuclear accident has not stopped Japan from revamping its safety measures and restarting its nuclear reactors. Thirty-five years after its far less terrible Three Mile Island accident, the US still hesitates to embrace nuclear power

An increase in US crude oil production has strained the nation's existing pipeline capacity. The rail industry is picking up the slack but oil train accidents have raised questions about how to safely transport oil.

The world's largest concentrated solar power plant is now up and running, but the technology is losing out to cheaper photo-voltaic solar power.

Russia has a track record of using its natural gas supplies as a political weapon, Cunningham writes, but this time around the EU appears to be in better shape.

Ukraine's dependence on Russia for natural gas has long created friction between the two countries. The US could offer Ukraine and Europe an alternative supply, but exporting oil and gas has proved technically and politically difficult in a country scarred by energy shortages of its own. 

Oil prices spiked Monday on an unfolding crisis in Ukraine, while Russian stocks took a beating. Heightening tensions between Ukraine and Russia is reverberating through energy markets, making for volatile oil prices.

Ukraine crisis escalates as Russian and Ukrainian troops mobilize for a possible war in Crimea. The US and EU threaten sanctions as Russia uses its natural gas dominance as leverage over Ukraine and the West.  

A surge in US oil and natural gas production has lifted hopes about North American energy security, but that growth will plateau and will be difficult to replicate elsewhere, says Maria van der Hoeven, chief executive of the International Energy Agency, in an interview with the Monitor.

Most of us think of ammonia as a pungent household cleaning agent that disinfects and deodorizes, Cobb writes, but ammonia can also be used as a carbon-free, relatively safe form of fuel.