“I’m calling on all Americans, Democrats and Republicans, to take a stand to defend the Arctic from future oil and gas drilling. If we’re going to subsidize any energy, it must be clean, renewable and respect the environment.” — Senator Mitch McConnell

In an stunning reversal, Senate Republicans have (more…)

The story of American energy used to be that we consumed and imported too much, that fossil fuel reserves were finite, and that a technical breakthrough in clean alternatives would save us.

How 20th century. The new narrative of American energy is this: We’ve been using less. A national (more…)

With escalating shale oil production putting the US on track to become the world’s largest oil producer, investors are challenging an increasingly common industry practice – burning off or ‘flaring’ associated natural gas from shale oil wells – as environmentally damaging, economically wasteful and a threat to the industry’s bottom line. (more…)

The fracturing of shale rock formations associated with the drilling process known as fracking might undermine future attempts to store carbon dioxide underground, according to a new study.

While many have called carbon storage a promising solution to reducing atmospheric levels of (more…)

Canada’s natural resources minister told delegates at the International Energy Forum in Kuwait that his country was on the cusp of becoming an “energy superpower.” Canada ranks No. 6 in terms of global oil production, but much of its crude exists in the form of oil sands. European leaders are considering a measure that would classify oil sands as an (more…)

Royal Dutch Shell, the fifth-largest company in the world, is suing the Sierra Club along with a dozen other environmental organizations on the off chance that we might attempt to do our job. Shell is taking us to court preemptively because we might have the audacity to say that drilling in the Arctic is risky and unsafe. Even though we haven’t seen the full plans yet and haven’t (more…)

Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson says that a drilling method that has made vast natural gas resources accessible across the U.S. has been unable to crack some shale rock formations in Europe and China.

Speaking to energy analysts, Tillerson said two attempts to tap gas-rich shale fields in Poland through (more…)

We hear the press clamoring about the price of gas. We see it when we fill up at the local gas station. Gas prices have recently skyrocketed. This is not the first time and this certainly will not be the last time. Consider this one of many downsides of globalization. Political instability, market speculators, and global demand will affect the US for many years to come. This is the world we live in (more…)

The amounts of pollution produced by tar sands excavation sites are comparable to those of a medium-sized city or a large power plant, according to a new study by Environment Canada, the nation’s environmental agency.

Using satellite remote sensing observations, scientists (more…)

The sheer abundance of recently discovered natural gas resources in the U.S. could drive down gas and electricity prices in the next few decades, yield an overall increase in energy use, and stunt the nation’s still-emerging renewable energy sector, a new report says.

Using economic modeling, researchers at the (more…)