By Peter C Glover,
Energy Tribune
In case anyone missed it, let me repeat something that is of a magnitude of 10 on the scale of news-quakes for Joe Public USA: America’s combined energy resources are, according to a new report from the Congressional Research Service (CSR), the largest on earth. They eclipse Saudi Arabia (3rd), China (4th) and Canada (6th) combined – and that’s without including America’s shale oil deposits and, in the future, the potentially astronomic impact of methane hydrates.
The energy facts in the CRS report should be making front page news all over America. Mostly it isn’t. Given the devastating news from Japan and New Zealand, it may be right to postpone dancing in the streets. But something else is going on. Even though they are going to dominate global energy supply for decades to come the insidious war on vital fossil fuels continues apace.
Thus it perhaps falls to a friend of the US (i.e. me) to state that if the White House is in any way serious about impacting the economic Black Hole that is the burgeoning national debt, reinvigorating business big-time, creating real jobs and restoring ebbing national wealth, the best shot by a distance if you’re American ... well, you’re standing on it, or rather above it.
Europe Boosts Shale Gas Search as Nuclear Crisis May Spur Demand
By Ben Farey,
Bloomberg News
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) is among energy companies accelerating unconventional gas exploration in Europe as the region seeks to offset declining North Sea production and meet increased demand after nuclear generation was reduced.
Exxon drilled four wells in shale deposits and two in coal seams in Germany as well as its second well in Polish shale. Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) said it had “mixed” results from recent exploration in Sweden. Chevron Corp. (CVX) is looking for gas in Poland’s Lublin province while Austria, Hungary, Romania and Ukraine are also attracting interest.
Unconventional gas, trapped in shale, coal seams and impermeable sandstone, has reversed declining production in the U.S. and depressed prices. Europe may hold as much as 4 trillion cubic meters of the fuel, Wood Mackenzie Consultants Ltd. said yesterday. That’s almost twice the conventional reserves of Norway, the region’s second-biggest gas supplier.
Tata Steel fears effects of carbon tax in Budget
BBC News
Experts say the government must "wake up" to what the tax could mean for jobs
Steel giant Tata has warned that a new carbon tax announced in the Budget dealt the industry "a potentially severe blow".
The plan sets a new minimum price on carbon emissions which Tata said would make UK steelmakers less competitive.
