Category: Energy News Beat

Commentary – Lithium Prices: What They Tell Us About the Popularity of Electric Vehicles – Jim Warren

Energy News Beat The online database, Trading Economics, indicates that in June 2023 the global price for lithium had risen to $59,212 per tonne. But by November it had fallen by more than half to $27,218. Prices have continued to plummet. As of December 31, lithium was selling for just $18,242 per tonne. How could […]

Libya’s largest oil field halts production followings protests

Energy News Beat (Bloomberg) – Libya’s largest oil field halted production after protesters entered the facility, according to a person with direct knowledge of the operations. Libya’s Sharara oil field The country’s National Oil Corp. had warned earlier that a full stoppage and a force majeure were likely if the north African country was unable […]

The Needs of the Grid Are Changing — Our Infrastructure Must Change With Them

Energy News Beat When I bought my first home — a 50-year-old fixer-upper ­in a small town — I couldn’t run my hair dryer and the microwave at the same time without tripping a circuit. I had to get creative with how I used electricity; such electric use was unheard of when the house was […]

Expect Legal Challenges to New EPA Rules on Emissions

Energy News Beat The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in May 2023 published a proposed rule that would establish new source performance standards (NSPS) and existing source performance standards (ESPS) for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from new, modified, reconstructed, and existing fossil-fuel fired electric generating units (EGUs). The proposed rule, which EPA plans to promulgate pursuant to […]

Sunshine and Californication

Energy News Beat I have always thought of California as a place that is known for its tech savviness, vibrant music scene, the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, and its open values. Incidentally, it’s also the place where many of my American friends reside. Unfortunately, in recent years, the state embraced an ideological extreme becoming the center […]

In 2023, U.S. annual average retail gasoline prices were 40 cents a gallon lower than 2022

Energy News Beat  January 3, 2024 Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Gasoline and Diesel Fuel UpdateNote: Retail prices are in nominal terms and are not adjusted for inflation. U.S. retail gasoline prices in 2023 averaged $0.43 per gallon (gal) less than in 2022, according to data from our Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update. This […]

Appeals court delivers fatal blow to California city pushing natural gas ban

Energy News Beat Afederal appeals court rejected a petition Tuesday to rehear a case related to a natural gas ban proposed by the City of Berkeley, California, which the panel ruled was illegal last year. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ultimately denied Berkeley’s petition for rehearing en banc — a motion that received support […]

China tests world’s largest, 600,000-ton, coal-to-ethanol production plant

Energy News Beat The world’s largest plant that converts coal into ethanol has begun its test runs at a facility in southeastern China, local media has reported. The technology developed by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) is the only in the world to have reached the industrial level so far. The world is […]

Alejandro Mayorkas’s Designed Failure at the Border Is Disgraceful

Energy News Beat Every few months, the House Committee on Homeland Security has published a new section of a report documenting both the deliberate mismanagement and the incompetence currently sabotaging the nation’s border security and immigration system. The architect of both is Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. It is hard to think of a single appointed official […]

PG&E electric and gas monthly bills hop over $290 mark to start 2024

Energy News Beat OAKLAND — PG&E customers are ringing in 2024 by paying a fresh round of skyrocketing electric and gas monthly bills that are rising far faster than the Bay Area inflation rate. The increases in monthly PG&E charges officially became effective on New Year’s Day and are slated to begin appearing during the […]