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The president of a South Dakota-based Native American tribe says it will be an “act of war” if Congress authorizes construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. “We are outraged by the lack of intergovernmental cooperation,” Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Cyril Scott said in a statement. “We are a sovereign nation and we are not being treated as such,” Scott said in response to Friday’s House vote to approve the project. “We will close our reservation borders to Keystone XL. Authorizing Keystone XL is an act of war against our people.”...

We most certainly need to "drill, baby, drill." But how much of this oil is going to be shipped elsewhere, and how much will stay in the US? While much of it will probably be refined, will it then be shipped to Latin America or other places? Why not keep it all (or at least the lion share of it) here in the United States?

The largest solar power plant of its type in the world - once promoted as a turning point in green energy - isn't producing as much energy as planned. One of the reasons is as basic as it gets: The sun isn't shining as much as expected.

Although our array was designed to generate 30% of our electricity requirements, we are pleased to report that in reality it generates more than that and on very sunny days, we become a net exporter of clean green electricity.

The market for crude oil is in veritable free fall. The price of a barrel has dropped 30 percent since June, and the ripples have only begun, with analysts warning of everything from bankruptcies of Texas oil fields to economic troubles in big oil-producing nations like Venezuela and Nigeria. If oil prices stay low or keep falling, it will be one of the most important trends shaping the world economy in 2015, which raises the question: Why is this happening? To answer that, it is useful to look at the market for another fluid that is stored in barrels, one...

U.S. airlines are saving tens of millions of dollars every week because of lower prices for jet fuel, their largest expense. So why don't they share some of the savings with passengers? Simply put: Airlines have no compelling reason to offer any breaks. Planes are full. Investors want a payout. And new planes are on order. In fact, fares are going higher. And those bag fees that airlines instituted in 2008 when fuel prices spiked aren’t going away either. …

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and other supporters of the Keystone XL oil pipeline are stuck at 59 votes — one vote shy of the supermajority they need to move their bill forward on Tuesday. Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said Monday that they would vote against moving forward with the legislation, making it unclear whether supporters had a path to the magic number of 60. Rockefeller had appeared to be one of the last possible converts Monday evening, and supporters were pressuring the retiring senator to join their side. But he told reporters on Monday that he...

Republicans have promised Bill Cassidy a seat on the Senate’s energy committee if he defeats Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu in Louisiana’s runoff election next month, potentially undercutting one of her main arguments for re-election. Landrieu has repeatedly touted the importance of her seat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in her campaign for a fourth term representing a state with a robust oil and gas industry. on Twitter

The White House on Monday essentially dared Republicans to try and stop President Obama’s climate-change agenda, with officials bragging that even after the GOP takes control of the Senate in January, there is nothing that can be done to stop a host of controversial new actions. On a conference call with reporters, White House counselor John Podesta said the administration will move ahead on the issue despite Republican efforts to stand in the way. He even called out incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell by name, saying the Kentucky Republican will not succeed in trying to slow executive action on...

Ukraine’s troubles with Russian gas imports have been grabbing headlines for years, but a new area of concern has come to the fore in the country’s energy sector following the cancellation of imports of South African coal. UK-registered Steel Mont Trading (SML) has said it will stop supplying coal from South Africa to Ukrinterenergo, Ukraine’s state energy trading company, according to an announcement by Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Prodan at a cabinet meeting in Kiev on 12 November. Rajesh Kumar Saraiya, a member of SML’s board of directors, told Bloomberg it was because the company did not...

B-I-N-G-O. They nailed it. Finally, an unbiased academic study that reiterated what we’ve been advocating all along on Powering America Radio. The University of Colorado, Boulder, by no means a bastion of pro-fracking advocacy, studied that dastardly substance that many a seasoned environmentalist have repeatedly used to demonize American Energy Independence: Frack Fluids. Their finding? What’ goes down the well is no more hazardous than what lies beneath your sink, or sits atop your laundry closet. This was the first-ever scientific report anywhere, and was conducted by a team of researchers from CU Boulder. They studied wells in Colorado, Louisiana,...

Energy Transport: New data show fast-rising rail shipments from North Dakota's Bakken shale formation and the need for a safer alternative to rail — like the Keystone XL pipeline. In his post-election press conference, the president noted in justifying his continual kicking of the Keystone XL oil drum down the road that "while this debate about Canadian oil has been raging ... we've seen some of the biggest increases in American oil production and natural gas production in our history." That increase is due in large part to oil recovered from the Bakken shale formation centered on North Dakota. So...

As ministers from the 12 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) prepare to fly to Vienna for their 166th meeting next week, the quiet consultations and soundings have already begun. OPEC must decide whether and how to respond to the 30 percent decline in oil prices since the middle of June, in what may be the organisation's toughest test in five years. Slower oil demand growth and rising competition from non-OPEC suppliers, especially U.S. shale producers, pose a common threat to all the organisation's members. But formulating a common response will be hard because the slowdown...

In a deal that shows just how quickly falling prices can upend the energy industry, Halliburton is buying rival oilfield services company Baker Hughes in a cash-and-stock deal worth $34.6 billion.

Gov. Jerry Brown is on a political roll. He won re-election and passage of an historic $7.5 billion water bond that contains funding for the first surface water storage projects in 50 years. But that hasn’t deterred the Little Hoover Commission, an independent state oversight agency, from sending a letter to Brown asking: “In enacting the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard in 2011: how much is it going to cost”? California’s Renewable Energy Portfolio mandates that one-third of all retail electricity sales must come from renewable energy by 2020. - See more at: http://calwatchdog.com/2014/11/06/little-hoover-questions-green-energy-costs/#sthash.2GYVhI0e.dpuf

The U.S. government has banned oil exports since the energy crisis of the 1970s, but that could change next year as Republicans take control of Congress and are backed by new studies showing that repeal of the ban would actually lower gasoline prices and be a surprising boon to consumers. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican and the expected new chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, has been the leading proponent in Congress for ending the ban, arguing that a sea change in the way oil and gas prices are determined in global markets has turned it...

The oil market has entered a new era with lower Chinese economic growth and booming U.S. shale output, making a return soon to high prices unlikely, the West's energy watchdog said on Friday. The International Energy Agency, which typically refrains from predicting oil prices, said in its monthly report that prices could fall further in 2015 after declining to their lowest levels since 2010 below $80 per barrel. "While there has been some speculation that the high cost of unconventional oil production might set a new equilibrium for Brent prices in the $80 to $90 range, supply/demand balances suggest that...

The semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government has struggled to stabilize the local economy in the face of a militant onslaught and an expensive financial dispute with the Iraqi central government in Baghdad. Negotiations between the two sides yielded some progress Thursday after Baghdad agreed to release $500 million in frozen budget payments. In return, the Kurds will provide 150,000 barrels of oil per day for Baghdad to sell. But while the cash infusion may provide temporary relief, many here say it is nowhere near enough to stabilize the Kurdish economy amid the Islamic State group insurgency, which has driven more than...

In a bold move of aggression on Saturday morning, Spanish Navy rigid-hulled inflatable boats repeatedly slammed into Greenpeace protesters off the Canary Islands. The activists were protesting against an offshore drilling campaign headed up by Repsol utilizing the Rowan Renaissance drillship.

Iraqi security forces on Sunday broke the Islamic State (IS) group's months-long siege of the country's largest oil refinery in Salahudin province, a provincial security source said. "In the early morning hours, the security forces and allied tribal fighters took full control of the sprawling Baiji refinery after they secured the roads leading to the refinery buildings and met with those troops inside who have been fighting back the attacks of IS militants for more than five months," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The army's armored vehicles deployed in the oil installation and started to expand to...