It’s tough to tell what’s more newsworthy from a Nuclear Regulatory Commission release describing its order that Schlumberger Technology Corp. take some corrective actions: that the company lost a “gauge containing radioactive material,” or that a federal agency would promote a $3,250 fine against of unit of the world’s largest oil field services company. From [...]  More »

NRG, the second largest electricity generator in Texas, has inked a deal with eSolar to develop up to 500 megawatts of power in California and the Southwest with solar technology. The company is putting $10 million into three projects that at peak capacity could power up to 400,000 homes. The first plant in California is [...]  More »

James Carville, the outspoken Democratic political strategist and regular commentator on CNN, was in Houston Wednesday to speak at Microsoft’s Global Energy Forum. After a quip-filled keynote address, which also featured his wife and renowned Republican strategist Mary Matalin, Carville took a few minutes to talk with the Chronicle about the politics of energy. Q: [...]  More »

The last day of CERAWeek 2009 will be focused on power, with a focus on “The Carbon Conundrum” and nuclear power (after breakfast, of course). He’s the run-down: Opening Address: The Carbon Conundrum 9:00 – 10:00 AM Lawrence J. Makovich, Vice President and Senior Advisor,CERA Philippe Joubert, Executive Vice President, Alstom; President Power Systems Sector, [...]  More »

It’s a boom-bust world, Harvard University economics and public policy professor Kenneth Rogoff says. When asked what caused the worst recession to grip the globe in decades, Rogoff said history shows the pattern. Recessions follow booms. “We had a huge boom. It was aggravated by the fact that the U.S. was ground zero. We can [...]  More »

Get three top economists together in this climate and there’s one place they really agree: The outlook is gloomy, at least through this fall if not into next year. That was so obvious the experts kept a knowing silence for a few seconds after Daniel Yergin, chairman of the Cambridge Energy Research Associates, started off [...]  More »

By the first Power Day at CERA much of the media horde has died out, but the stories continue to roll out. Here are some of them. The New York Times declares that The Oil Industry Ready to Work on Global Warming: “Confronted with a sharp change of priorities in Washington, international oil executives are [...]  More »

It’s hard to talk about the future of the oil and gas industry without allowing for the inevitability that biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel will be part of the equation. This week at CERA, however, there were a range of views concerning how big a role biofuels will play. On Tuesday, BP’s Chief Executive Tony [...]  More »

If electric cars take hold among American drivers, electricity infrastructure will need to adjust to handle the extra load. Andrew Tang, senior director of Pacific Gas & Electric’s Smart Energy Web, said utilities can craft programs to urge consumers to plug in their electric cars and hybrids during off-peak hours or the grid will need [...]  More »

OK, that electric car won’t spit emissions from the exhaust pipe, and a hybrid spits less. But when they’re plugged in to recharge, don’t they just add that many more emissions from the power plant providing the electricity, effectively switching the emissions from the tailpipe to the smokestack? A little, says Andrew Tang, senior director [...]  More »

Although Nissan is cutting 20,000 jobs and expects to report a loss of nearly $3 billion next month, the Japanese automaker isn’t backing down on plans to roll out an all-electric car next year and mass-market it by 2012. That’s the word today from Mark Perry, director of product planning for Nissan North America. Nissan [...]  More »

The logo for this year’s conference is a group of skydivers forming a circle as they fall through wisps of white clouds. The joining of hands during a freefall is clearly a symbol for the theme this year of “Risk and a Rebuilding of Confidence.” During a morning panel on the challenges the power business [...]  More »