All Energy Voices

True energy independence is more than a supply-demand equation. For starters, energy independence should mean freedom from gasoline price spikes caused by unstable foreign nations.  

Hurricane Ivan swept away an oil production platform in the Gulf of Mexico in 2004. Nine years later, it's still leaking oil, although the company behind the project says it has reduced the leak to a trickle.

Oil prices spiked above $102 a barrel Wednesday as protesters poured into the streets of Cairo and the Egyptian military ousted President Mohammed Morsi. Egypt is critical to regional oil transportation and has investors worried that protests could spread elsewhere in the region.

Fourth of July celebrations just got a bit more festive with a recent drop in gas prices. If it lasts much beyond the Fourth of July will depend on turmoil in Egypt and across the Middle East, the economy, and especially hurricane season.

President Obama unveiled this week a $7 billion plan to improve energy access in Africa over the next five years. The "Africa Power" initiative was announced during President Obama's three country tour of Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania.

Tanzania: Obama showed off his soccer skills with a so-called Soccket soccer ball that creates and stores kinetic energy during play. The Tanzania demonstration underscores President Obama's plan to invest $7 billion in energy access programs in Tanzania and across Africa.

Offshore oil and gas drilling is moving further offshore and deeper underwater as energy companies seek to find sources of production in low-risk areas, Gagliardi writes. The added incentive is that more remote basins may hold the promise of significant deposits of hydrocarbons with 200 million barrels or more of recoverable reserves.

President Obama's plan to address climate change will at most have a slight impact, Cobb writes, but it is nonetheless a brave and even historic move towards slowing the effects of climate change. 

A heat wave scorching its way through the West is the first major test of summer's spiking energy demand, but it seems to be passing the test. Better technology and communications may be to thank for that. But utilities are still on high alert, particularly in California where two nuclear plants have gone offline.  

The increased role for natural gas consumption is obvious, Warren writes. Smart government policies can play a positive role so society benefits from this once-in-a-century boon.

It’s obvious that any attempt to ridicule UK estimates of shale gas resources as inconsequential is absurd, Grealy writes.

No matter how you look at it, cutting energy innovation doesn’t make sense, Stepp writes. If the House Energy and Water appropriators are interested in ensuring national security and economic growth, then their proposed energy budget would look the opposite it does today

Estimates of shale gas resources in the North of England are double that of previous estimate, according to a new report. Britain’s shale industry is still very young, Burgess writes, and as it has not been determined whether any gas can be economically extracted, it may never actually grow to maturity. 

Clean energy will be the second largest global source of electricity by 2016, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. Only coal will generate more electricity than clean energy within three years, the IEA projects.

In an era of high volatility in energy prices and supplies and in a country surrounded by unfriendly neighbors, one would think that Israel would want to keep this valuable energy prize all to itself, Cobb writes. Still, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is seeking approval for Israel to jump on the natural gas exports bandwagon.

Electricity from renewable energy sources is growing at an explosive rate, but clean energy comes with a caveat. So does every other form of energy, Rapier writes.

A new website from the US Department of Energy compares the energy costs of driving an electric car relative to gasoline prices. The tool might prove useful, Styles writes, but only as long as it is grounded in the best information we have about the vehicle choices that potential electric car buyers are actually considering.

We’re not going to be able to transition to a non-fossil-fuel economy overnight, Fen Montaigne, senior editor of Yale Environment 360, said in an interview with OilPrice.com. But if you keep approving tar sands projects, or massive pipelines, or drilling in the Arctic, when does it stop?

President Obama's broad climate change plan highlighted renewable energy, but the biggest near-term potential for reducing emissions is in the switch from coal to natural gas, Holland writes. Obama's plan for new EPA regulations will firmly entrench natural gas over coal as the fuel of choice for electricity generation.

Having paid off its federal loan, Tesla Motors could technically put it up for sale, according to a report in Bloomberg. The electric car company might seem a good fit for a deep-pocketed tech giant like Google, but Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has suggested he has no intention of selling the company.