Category Archives: Energy

Always on a Friday

1/14/2008 – 10:17 am

I should have known and checked on Saturday. The Bush administration, top to bottom, releases bad news on Friday. This rule even applies to fairly obscure agencies like the Energy Information Administration, which updated its world oil supply and demand numbers Friday. The news is bad once again. (To see the numbers, click here scroll […]

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Welcome to the Future

1/2/2008 – 3:02 pm

Oil futures hit $100 a barrel. That didn’t take long.

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2007 By the Numbers

12/31/2007 – 2:03 pm

Not all the numbers, but some significant ones. As we ring out the year, the price of gas averages $2.98 per gallon in the US, up 64 cents from a year ago. The price of oil is $96.93 per barrel, up from $55.95 at the end of 2006. Gold is selling for $840 an ounce, […]

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The Hour of Power

12/12/2007 – 2:58 pm

The Washington Post today reports various utilities are experimenting with peak-hour pricing for electricity. The utilities use “smart meters” to report energy use in 15-minute segments and e-mail and text messages to alert customers that local power use is peaking. That’s a great idea, it’s an example of how we can use relatively unsophisticated computer […]

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News From the (Warm) Front

5/31/2007 – 11:00 am

Dr. James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the nation’s leading expert on global warming, says we have less than 10 years to significantly decrease the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases we pump into the atmosphere. He made that statement last summer, the first anniversary is coming up, […]

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The Leaf and the Niagara

5/3/2007 – 9:37 am

This week I’ve been looking at satellite photos of the Niagara River and wondering about a hypothetical leaf floating on its surface. From the pictures, it seems the leaf would only be a few hundred yards from the renowned falls before it began to pick up speed. The leaf, of course, is a metaphor for […]

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Pardon My Skepticism

3/15/2007 – 11:07 am

On March 5, the New York Times published a front-page story called “Oil Innovations Pump New Life Into Old Wells.” Getting new oil from “played out” wells was the thrust of the piece; as the price of oil rises, it becomes worthwhile investing new money into old wells. The article also indirectly took on the […]

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