Greening of Oil: Canadian biofuels document triggers official denials 01/17/2010
Environment Canada at odds with U.S. study claiming subsidies a waste
A spreading North American debate over the costs and benefits of ethanol and biofuel policies lends itself to easy misunderstanding. Take the case of what has been described as a "poorly worded" Cana...

Salazar ends first year vowing reforms 01/10/2010
US Interior Secretary says he'll announce reforms in how energy leases issued on federal lands, how endangered species protected
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar started on the job a year ago pledging to clean up an agency hit by scandals and assailed by critics as under the sway of the oil and gas industry. Starting his second y...

Time to take a stand on climate change? 01/10/2010
Alaska legislators want information to determine a strategy on responding to climate change actions and the use of the ESA in AK
The stakes are high and the rhetoric climbing in the debate between those who want to apply the Endangered Species Act for the protection of wildlife potentially threatened by a warming climate, and t...

Ho-ho-hold the holidays 01/10/2010
Proponents of Mackenzie gas have tight deadline to respond to 679-page report
It landed Dec. 30 with a thud on desks in the high-rise petroleum towers of downtown Calgary, spoiling whatever hopes employees working on the Mackenzie Gas Project might have had to put their feet up...

Shell goes for reduced OCS footprint 01/03/2010
Macrander says using advanced technologies to minimize environmental impacts makes business sense and protects the Arctic offshore
The use of advanced technologies that reduce environmental impacts and improve business efficiency distinguishes Shell in the oil and gas industry, Michael Macrander, Shell's Alaska lead scientist, to...

Energy policy: a neglected stepchild? 12/27/2009
The Congressional focus on greenhouse gases and climate change is pushing U.S. energy policy into the background, lawyer says
While debate in the U.S. Congress centers on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, energy policy and U.S. energy security have become somewhat neglected, Tom Roberts, a member of Washington, D....

Mining News: We've stepped through the looking glass 12/20/2009
Climate change debate accelerates society's departure from using deductive reasoning, logic; mushrooming litigation fuels trend
As I age up, the world does appear to be, as Alice would say, curiouser and curiouser. I have long been bemused by the obvious observation that logic and reason have little to do with how humanity co...

What chance now for North Slope LNG? 12/20/2009
World market is growing fast but North Slope gas would need to compete on cost with massive new supplies close to tidewater
Few subjects raise the temperature more in a room full of Alaskans on a cold winter night than the perennial debate about exporting North Slope gas in a pipeline through Canada versus exporting the ga...

On the one hand, on... 12/20/2009
Husky, Nexen on opposite sides of cap-ex fence in Canada as analysts count on largest companies sticking close to '09 spending
As Canada's leading upstream companies start to unveil their 2010 capital spending programs, some appear more inclined to bide their time than others. Analysts doubt the budgets of major players will...

Alberta opens nuke door 12/20/2009
The Alberta government is defying an uneasy public by inviting proposals to build nuclear power plants in the province. Energy Minister Mel Knight, on Dec. 14, issued the results of a telephone poll i...

Canada: Cleaning off a 'dirty' image 12/20/2009
Canadian, Alberta political, industry leaders defend record in oil sands, say they are ready to participate in any Copenhagen deal
Government and industry leaders are fighting back against a tidal wave of criticism and abuse flowing from the Copenhagen climate change summit that has Canada cast as a "corrupt petro-state" because...

Canada makes 'absolute' shift 12/13/2009
The Canadian government has entered the Copenhagen climate change summit hinting that it may be ready to make a fundamental course correction in its environmental policy by imposing absolute emission...

Unintended consequences? 12/13/2009
Balash: Without exemption cap-and-trade scheme could sink NS gas line
Without some form of exemption for the planned gas treatment plant at the Prudhoe Bay end of a future gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope, current climate change legislation working its way through...

Harper, Stelmach feel the green heat 12/06/2009
Prime minister decides against boycotting Copenhagen summit; Alberta premier ready to accept climate-change goals in step with US
There is talk of a re-branding of the two Canadian political leaders - Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach - seen as the least supportive of cap-and-trade systems as part of...

Climate change legal impacts heat up 12/06/2009
U.S. legislation, regulation and litigation will all have far-reaching impacts on the Alaska oil and gas industry in coming years
In one sense it makes no difference who is right and who is wrong in the debate over the effect of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases on the Earth's climate: The legal fallout from a broad view...

Melt could cost trillions 12/06/2009
Pipelines, roads, buildings threatened by extreme temperature swings in Arctic
A meltdown in northern Canada is endangering pipelines, roads and buildings - including C$5 trillion worth of aging infrastructure - if climate change continues unabated in the decades ahead, says a r...

Asia-bound, 'sooner rather than later' 11/29/2009
Enbridge, Kinder on verge of revealing strategies to open new markets for Alberta oil sands production, urged on by interest groups
Between now and mid-2010, the prospects of shipping bitumen from the Alberta oil sands to Asian refineries are heading toward make-or-break decisions. Enbridge anticipates submitting an application to...

Cooperation the key 11/29/2009
Mayor Itta spells out North Slope Borough expectations for OCS policy
As summer sea ice recedes and marine habitats change under the influence of a warming climate, the rapidly evolving situation in the Arctic is creating a situation where a wide variety of different gr...

Mining News: Big brains and why mining needs them 11/22/2009
With six major mines poised to come on line, British Columbia's industry is ready to challenge the best and the brightest thinkers
The first thing that makes mining a complex business is the science of finding a mine. We have over 12,000 mineral occurrences in BC and less than 20 major mines. It takes years just to locate, evalua...

Oil Patch Bits: ConocoPhillips Energy Prize winner announced 11/22/2009
ConocoPhillips said Oct. 20 that it, along with Penn State, has awarded the 2009 ConocoPhillips Energy Prize to Scott Anderson and team for their innovation, the ECO-Auger, a hydrokinetic machine that...

Beaufort expedition studies methane 11/22/2009
The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory completed a 12-day Beaufort Sea expedition Sept. 26 to gather data on changing concentrations of methane...

Copenhagen summit shrinks 11/22/2009
Pacific Rim leaders give up on '09 climate-change treaty; 'rescue' effort under way; Canada insists on moving in lock-step with U.S.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries met in Singapore on Nov. 15 to seek common ground on a new climate change treaty. They found it. Leaders of the 21 Pacific Rim nations, including the...

Oil Patch Insider: A Boone worth Pickin'? Shell denies asking for decision delay; Enstar still upbeat on bullet line 11/22/2009
Canadian investors are being given a chance to find out just how shrewd T. Boone Pickens is in reading future trends in the energy industry. The one-time corporate raider and promoter of an energy pla...

Arctic gas on the menu 11/22/2009
TransCan execs say Alaska, Mackenzie essential for NA energy supply
Alaska and Mackenzie Delta gas, along with shale volumes from the United States and Canada, could play an essential role within the next decade if North America is to meet the "big challenge" of offse...

The Explorers 2009: Alaska's energy resources - a crucial part of the answer to the nation's energy questions 11/15/2009
We Alaskans have a very special relationship to our environment. The land is our back yard. We use it for recreation and subsistence. The land has provided our livelihood, for the people and for the s...