All Energy Voices

Chevy Volt gets a $5,000 price cut to compete with other electric cars aimed at price-conscious customers. With a price tag of $34,995, GM hopes its Chevy Volt can better compete with the Nissan Leaf and other electric cars.

Al Qaeda threat has closed down US embassies in the Middle East this week. Details of the Al Qaeda threat made little reference to the energy sector, but past attacks in the region suggests oil is an emerging target for terrorists.  

With energy as its motor and the EU as its guide, Ukraine appears to finally be poised to break with a history of domination from the East, Belinksi writes.

Keystone XL pipeline is under scrutiny as the State Department's inspector general probes conflict of interest charges surrounding a review of Keystone XL. 

TransCanada, a Canadian energy company said Thursday it was moving forward with plans to build a 2,740-mile pipeline that would transit between 500,000 and 850,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from western to eastern Canada. Oil arriving through the Energy East Pipeline would feed refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick that at present get 86 per cent of their crude supply from the international market at much higher prices than they would pay for crude from Alberta.

The Samet Island oil spill has spread to nearby islands in Thailand, officials said Wednesday. Officials race to cleanup the oil washed up on Samet Island, a popular tourist destination in Thailand, after 13,200 gallons of oil was spilled into the sea from a pipeline. 

If urbanization trends continue, American cities have the potential to become far more sustainable, Chahar writes, rather than continuing the 20th century trend of sprawling further and further away from the city with an ever-increasing carbon footprint.

India, following in China’s lead, has been investigating the possibilities of African oil production, but its rising imports from west Africa have been threatened by the age-old scourge of piracy. 

The Canadian town of Fort McMurray is booming largely thanks to the nearby oil sands industry. Now the town needs more housing and infrastructure and has nowhere to put it, so its taking back the land it has leased to oil companies.

Climate change is not an environmental issue but an economic challenge, said newly confirmed EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in her first public speech since taking office. Ms. McCarthy outlined a vision for EPA that focused on combating climate change while spurring economic growth.

The Quebec train crash has sparked a flurry of emergency directives to increase railway safety, but there is no sign of shipments of oil by rail slowing as a result, Burgess writes. Indeed, the oil-by-rail industry is set to grow despite the catastrophic derailment, and amid a criminal investigation that has resulted in a raid on the offices of the train’s operator.

The BMW i3 is the German automaker's first mass-production electric car and offers a panoply of high-tech doodads aimed at an urbanizing global population. But it's too soon to tell if the BMW i3, or any electric car, will win wide appeal from a public slow to warm to alternative-fuel technology. 

Republicans in Alaska have long argued that only a massive tax break would give oil companies the certainty necessary to ramp up production to bolster the state economy, but citizens backed by Democrats feel this was a simple giveaway of the state’s oil wealth and that they won’t see much in return.

The increase in US oil and gas production buys some time in terms of resource scarcity and depletion concerns, Warren writes. The windfall also brings with it time to wisely reflect about what America’s energy landscape should look like for the generations that follow.

A Gulf rig fire off the coast of Louisiana underscores the dangers of offshore natural gas and oil drilling. Though no sheen was reported during initial surveys after the Gulf rig fire, federal officials said it was time the industry address safety issues in offshore natural gas and oil projects.

Developing countries are driving the consumption of inexpensive fossil fuels, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Government intervention and international exchanges of low-carbon technology could help mitigate the effects of climate change, experts say.

There is mounting evidence that fracking can cause seismic temblors thousands of miles from the site, King writes. The fracking is not the culprit but rather the disposal of the brine used to do it.

While the poles are shifting away from the Middle East in terms of oil production, global economic concerns and conditions remained anchored solidly to the region, Graeber writes. 

A rise in natural gas prices pushed wholesale electricity costs higher in the first half of 2013, according to the Energy Information Administration. While that doesn't directly translate to retail energy costs, the upward trend doesn't bode well for ratepayers in the long run.

Hydropower accounts for more electricity production than solar, wind, and geothermal combined, but gets far less press because it is a mature technology with a much lower annual growth rate than most renewables. Still, hydropower will likely continue its leading role as the world’s most important producer of renewable electricity until well into the next decade.