Oil Price Volatility: Just Follow the News

If ever one wonders just why the price of oil can change so rapidly and by so much, a quick look at the day’s news is probably enough to find a large number of possible answers.  Medium- to long-term demand and supply projectio...

Posted Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 9:28 am | Filed in: Oil Dependence, Oil Prices

Energy Security in the Quadrennial Defense Review

On February 1, the Office of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates issued the  2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). A Congressionally-mandated review of Department of Defense (DoD) strategies and priorities, the QDR reflects the si...

Posted Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 8:10 am | Filed in: Energy Security, Environment, National Security

Weekly Political Roundup – Kicking the Can?

The push continues by a growing number of bipartisan Senators to bring the Senate Energy and Natural Resources energy-only bill brought to the floor then possibly attack carbon emissions at a later time.   The President, in a to...

Posted Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 8:01 am | Filed in: Energy Security, Legislation

Boosting biofuels; bothering enviros

Steven Mufson has a good piece in today's WaPo (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020303804.html?sub=AR) that nicely summarizes the policy debate on mandates for increased biofuels use in the tr...

Posted Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 8:02 am | Filed in: Alternatives, Energy Security, Energy Supply, Legislation, Oil Dependence, Renewables, Transportation

Energy, Climate and Jobs? Do Not Sacrifice Effective for Expedient

Yesterday, during a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, President Obama publicly acknowledged that the Senate may pass an energy bill without a cap-and-trade component.  (Moderates from both parties have been pushing the Administ...

Posted Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 7:11 pm | Filed in: Energy Security, Environment, Legislation

2011 Budget Emphasizes Energy, but Fails to Draw Connection to Transportation

Yesterday the Obama administration released its 2011 budget proposal, and as yesterday’s EPIC blog anticipated, much-needed support for new nuclear power plants is requested. There is a lot more on energy in the budget, however,...

Posted Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 10:09 am | Filed in: Energy Security, Transportation

A Nuclear Renaissance

Later today, we expect to learn that the President’s FY 2011 budget will include $54 billion in loan guarantees for the construction of new nuclear power plants. This is a critical step forward to the revitalization of the nucle...

Posted Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 4:47 am | Filed in: Electricity, Energy Supply