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The world’s leading oil and gas companies are taking on debt and selling assets on an unprecedented scale to cover a shortfall in cash, calling into question the long-term viability of large parts of the industry. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said a review of 127 companies across the globe found that they had increased net debt by $106bn in the year to March, in order to cover the surging costs of machinery and exploration, while still paying generous dividends at the same time. They also sold off a net $73bn of assets. This is a major departure from...

The European Commission has referred Ireland to Europe’s highest court for failing to comply with EU laws ensuring competition and fair distribution of energy supplies, and is demanding a daily penalty of more than €20,000 ($27,400). The EU executive has set a deadline of this year to complete the regulatory framework for the single European energy market and is taking action against member states that have failed to implement existing legislation. …

Just as computer technology greatly expanded Americans' wealth in the 1990s, the clean energy market could do the same thing in the years ahead, Secretary of State John Kerry told the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday. He touted climate change as a societal challenge and an economic opportunity: ... "The energy market that we are staring at--that is the solution to the climate change," Kerry continued. "Energy policy is the solution to climate change. That market, my friends, is a $6-trillion market today with 4 to 5 billion users today, and it will grow to some 9 billion...

A federal appeals court ordered energy regulators Wednesday to consider ordering stiffer penalties for power companies that manipulated the market and caused blackouts during the 2000-2001 energy crisis. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's 2003 handling of some of the fallout from California's energy crisis was "arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion." The state has sought reimbursement for an estimated $8 billion to $10 billion paid by consumers and businesses for overpriced power. FERC ordered energy companies, including several subsidiaries of bankrupt Enron Corp., to pay about $3 billion for market manipulation....

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Although it was reworked by a Senate committee Tuesday, a bill to restructure California's electricity market survived opposition from business groups that want a return to deregulation and consumer groups who fear ratepayers will be stuck with the tab. Both sides packed a Senate Energy Committee hearing and spilled out into the hall in a scene reminiscent of the last time the Legislature took a whack at energy policy during the electricity crisis of 2001. At issue was Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez's bill to let the state's largest electricity users shop around for power - reviving a...

<p>Seven years after the dawn of electricity deregulation in California, a group of influential lawmakers is proposing a dramatic sunset.</p> <p>The state would return to regulated utilities, putting an emphatic halt to a disastrous experiment in market-based electricity, under a bill unveiled Wednesday.</p>