SET Energy

Federal climate policy progress will take a series of favorable events to come to fruition, especially regarding the President.

Step 1: The issue must be high enough in the positive public consciousness to win the attention and campaign promises of Presidential candidates. Check: Obama said he would set in motion a cap and trade bill to get US emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and then 80% lower by 2050 and he emphasized the potential this sustainable energy transition has to create five million green-collar jobs. (more…)

OPEC has decided to have another extraordinary meeting this month in an effort to keep recessionary demand from sending prices even further down toward $50 per barrel. The meeting will be November 29th in Cairo in conjunction with an Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries gathering. OPEC’s president, Chakib Khelil, says OPEC plans to defend the price band of $70-$90, but the key question is will Saudi Arabia (more…)

A new report today confirmed that Japan is in recession. And one of China’s leading oil companies, CNPC, says demand has fallen sharply. These declines in demand out-muscled the news of pirates taking a Saudi Arabian supertanker off Kenya coast to send prices to their lowest level since January 2007 at ~$55 per barrel. (more…)

As the EU announces they are officially in a recession and US indicators continue to fall (such as the record retail sales decline last month), gas prices continue their slide. The average pump price for gasoline nationwide has now fallen to $2.125 per gallon. We may see nationwide prices fall to ~$2 before it finally stabilizes from its two-month collapse. (more…)

The Paris-based International Energy Agency was formed during the oil crisis of the 1970s to help consumer countries best coordinate mitigation of politically-induced oil scarcity 30 years ago. They helped to spur demand reduction and supply stability that brought prices down to historical norms in the mid-1980s. But now they warn of a more serious and long-term development in the oil sector: the age of cheap oil is ending because (more…)

Earlier today, the IMF lowered its prediction of global economic growth to 2.2% in 2009, .8% below last month’s estimate and below the 3% marker they use to classify a recession. The major reduction has many banks predicting oil demand will fall next year for the first time in 26 years.

As a result, oil prices dipped toward (more…)

By Dennis Markatos-Soriano, Sustainable Energy Transition Founder

Tuesday, November 4th, brought a huge shift to the US political landscape. The Obama landslide opens up an opportunity to update our energy policy for 21st century leadership. After eight years of stagnant federal climate change engagement, the Obama Administration promises no less than (more…)

Standing in line at 5:40am this morning was exciting. My wife and I were #s 10 and 11 in a line that grew toward 100 before the polls even opened at 6am. This election is historic in so many ways, not least of which is the high turnout taking place throughout the country.
In celebration of the history unfolding, I thought a perfect followup to yesterday’s presidential climate goals blog is an offering of deployment goals for renewables industry leaders, wind and solar. (more…)

With the election on our doorstep, I think it makes sense to talk about the US future in terms of presidential terms again.
Climate change is one of the key issues of the 21st century and requires immediate presidential action. But what kind of immediate action? The current federal climate policy on the table (a cap and trade system poised to pass in 2009) targets reducing US emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. This blog describes interim goals for the first and second presidential terms (by (more…)

The EIA just released its monthly estimate of US oil consumption for August and the number is encouraging.
Our peak monthly demand was hit in August 2005 at almost 21.7 million barrels per day (Mbd). By this past August, demand had slid 11% to ~19.3 Mbd. The last time demand was this low was 1997, and it is only (more…)