January 21, 2010
Fox Business
Here's the YouTube video of my appearance with T. Boone Pickens. Note the end of the segment when I ask Pickens if he would invest any money in wind power if there were no federal subsidies...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU54CfEdHS0

January 29, 2010
Energy Tribune
Never underestimate a politician’s willingness to pander.

That’s the obvious lesson to be had from Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Wednesday night. The speech was so predictable that it wasn’t even the most important news story of the day. That spot was claimed by Steve Jobs and Apple’s new iPad.

January 27, 2010
Energy Tribune
A couple weeks ago, after I published yet another story on corn ethanol “Yet More Outrages of the Corn Ethanol Scam,” Chris Thorne, the director of public affairs for Growth Energy sent us an email objecting to the story.

January 21, 2010
Energy Tribune
T. Boone Pickens is a pleasant guy. But the hard truth is this: he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. In fact, he doesn’t even know the most basic facts about the Pickens Plan.

January 15, 2010
Energy Tribune
In early November, during the Texas Book Festival, I ran into Mark Weston. Upon hearing he’d written a book on Saudi Arabia, I was immediately intrigued. I became more intrigued when I heard his slant on the country. Rather than following the well-worn path of trashing the kingdom for its backwardness and its support for fundamentalist Islam, Weston had a nuanced view of the Saudis and their role in the modern world.

January 11, 2010
Energy Tribune
Imagine driving into a service station. At one pump, conventional gasoline costs $3.25. Right next to it stands a pump with ethanol-blended fuel selling for $5.20. And since you are a savvy fuel buyer you are aware of the fact that numerous studies have shown that the fuel costing $5.20 is worse for the environment -- in terms of water quality, water availability, and carbon dioxide emissions -- than the fuel costing $3.25.

Given those factors, which fuel would you purchase?

January 7, 2010
Energy Tribune
When talking about energy, facts should matter. Alas, when it comes to promoting the myth of “energy independence” politicians and political operatives on both the Left and the Right are not interested in facts or reality. Their only interest is in playing to the crowd and in trying to stir emotional responses.

January 5, 2009
Energy Tribune
(Byline is Xina Xie and Robert Bryce)
China’s biomass-to-electricity industry is booming. Thanks to favorable government tax policies, subsidized energy prices and fat giveaways from the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the Chinese government has approved more than 70 biomass-to-electricity plants. More than 30 of the plants are now operating, with a total capacity of about 3,000 megawatts, or 0.37% of China’s total power capacity.

December 24, 2009
Energy Tribune
As my family and I hunker down for a few days of relaxation over the holidays, I began thinking about the many things for which I’m thankful. There’s a long list of personal items that fit that description, but an essay that Geoffrey Styles published last month called “Counting Our Energy Blessings” compelled me to compile a very short list of energy-related items that make me thankful. Perhaps your list will be different. Here’s mine.

December 18, 2009
Energy Tribune
Now that big climate confab in Copenhagen is ending, it’s time to refocus our attention on the issues that matter most when it comes to energy and carbon dioxide: physics, math, and money.

December 17, 2009
US News & World Report
Promoters of "green" energy love Denmark.
On Earth Day, President Barack Obama pointed out that the northern European country now "produces almost 20 percent" of its electricity with wind turbines. Last year, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman visited Copenhagen, where he marveled at the Danes, declaring, "Oh, if only we could be as energy smart as Denmark!" Given that world leaders are now meeting in Copenhagen to discuss drastic cuts in global carbon dioxide emissions, it's worth separating the hype about Denmark from the reality.

December 9, 2009
Energy Tribune
Danish academic Bjorn Lomborg has made famous the phrase “Copenhagen Consensus” which posits that money aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions would be better spent addressing other health and welfare challenges, like preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS.

November 30, 2009
Energy Tribune
The Los Angeles Times may be wrong about energy policy, but it is consistent. On Saturday, the paper published an unsigned editorial titled “No new nukes – plants, that is.” The piece declares that nuclear energy “is not a reasonable solution because plants take too long to build and cost far too much.”

November 20, 2009
Energy Tribune
Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger spent most of their careers working for environmental groups as political strategists. Frustrated by the movement’s focus on pollution regulations rather than public investment in technology, they broke from the pack by writing a manifesto in 2004 called “The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World.”

November 13, 2009
Energy Tribune
On Tuesday, shortly after the International Energy Agency released its World Energy Outlook for 2009, the mainstream media went into overdrive with stories about the agency’s outlook for oil demand and oil prices. Lots of attention was paid to the claims by an unnamed source within the IEA who told the Guardian that the agency was downplaying the risk of declining oil supplies and that, in the words of the Guardian, the “world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit.”

November 11, 2009
Energy Tribune
It’s time for a quick fact check. Amid the ongoing maelstrom of rhetoric about how the US should quit using hydrocarbons and immediately move to renewable sources like wind and solar, there’s a widespread tendency to forget the enormous scale of America’s hydrocarbon production, consumption, and reserves.

Here are the facts: the US produces and consumes more energy than any other country. And as the Congressional Research Service reported late last month, the US also has the world’s largest reserves of hydrocarbons.

November 6, 2009
Energy Tribune
On Monday, Pavel Molchanov, a Houston-based analyst with Raymond James & Associates issued a report that should be required reading for every member of Congress. The first few lines of Molchanov’s report, “Corn Ethanol’s Slow-Motion Train Wreck: What Will Follow In Its Wake?” are classic examples of both sharp thinking and razor-sharp writing: “Finito. Kaputt. Sayonara. However you say it, we think there is no denying the fact that America’s corn ethanol industry is finished…

November 3, 2009
Energy Tribune
Last Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Pakistan telling the Pakistanis to burn more coal. Today, President Barack Obama met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House to assure her that the US will stand with the European Union on cutting emissions of carbon dioxide.

October 29, 2009
Energy Tribune
Facts don’t matter. That’s the only conclusion that can be made by looking at two of President Barack Obama’s recent speeches on energy.

It’s not just that Obama continues to repeat the fictions about biofuels. When Obama was a senator, and when he was running for the White House, he was a leading booster of corn ethanol. Now, he’s switched his rhetoric to promote what he is calling “sustainably grown biofuels” – whatever that is.

October 26, 2009
National Defense University, Institute for National Strategic Studies
(In late September, I was invited to speak at a conference at National Defense University called "Energy Security: A Global Challenge." This paper was published by NDU as part of that event.)

The phrases “energy security” and “energy independence” have become so hackneyed as to be almost useless.

October 23, 2009
Energy Tribune
A few months ago, Wesley Clark was hawking corn ethanol. Now it’s electric cars. Take your pick – ethanol or electricity. Both of them are worse for the environment than conventional gasoline.

October 8, 2009
MasterResource.org
Should the U.S. join OPEC? After all, the U.S., home of the never-ending calls for “energy independence,” is an oil exporter. A big one.

October 2, 2009
Energy Tribune
Whenever oil prices go up (or down) news outlets always provide a glib explanation for why the move occurred.

September 25, 2009
Energy Tribune
There has never been a more global, more integrated, more transparent market than the modern crude oil and oil products market. And yet, the calls for America to be “energy independent” continue to be heard from both the Right and the Left.

September 8, 2009
Wall Street Journal
On Aug. 13, ExxonMobil pleaded guilty in federal court to killing 85 birds that had come into contact with crude oil or other pollutants in uncovered tanks or waste-water facilities on its properties. The birds were protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which dates back to 1918. The company agreed to pay $600,000 in fines and fees.

August 27, 2009
Energy Tribune
The new issue of Foreign Policy magazine includes a section called “Oil: The Long Goodbye.” The issue has several good articles, but the one by Turki al-Faisal brought a smile to my face.

August 26, 2009
Counterpunch
Two years ago, I interviewed Vaclav Smil, the prolific author and energy thinker. I asked Smil, a distinguished professor at the University of Manitoba, why Americans are so easily swayed by politicians and others when it comes to energy matters. His response: scientific illiteracy and innumeracy. “Without any physical, chemical, and biological fundamentals, and with equally poor understanding of basic economic forces, it is no wonder that people will believe anything,” he told me.

August 24, 2009
Energy Tribune
In June, Babcock & Wilcox, a division of Houston-based McDermott International, announced plans to seek federal licensing for a 125-megawatt nuclear reactor that the company calls mPower. The company’s move provides yet more intrigue to the modular reactor business. Two other US companies, Hyperion Power Generation and NuScale Power Inc., also intend to produce modular reactors. (Another firm, Galvin Energy, is seeking funding).

August 18, 2009
Middle East Institute Viewpoints Special Edition
The Washington-based Middle East Institute has included an essay of mine in a special edition of its Viewpoints series. The piece looks at how the 1979 oil price shock has affected US energy policy. The book of essays is entitled, "The 1979 'Oil Shock:' Legacy, Lessons, and Lasting Reverberations." My essay, on the costly delusion of energy independence, begins on page 85. The entire document is available here.

August 7, 2009
Energy Tribune
On Wednesday, President Obama traveled to Indiana to announce the recipients of $2.4 billion in federal stimulus money designed to help energize the US battery manufacturing and research business. Obama said the grants are “planting the seeds of progress for our country, and good-paying, private-sector jobs for the American people.” He went on, saying that they would help in the “deployment of the next generation of clean-energy vehicles.” Obama may be right. The next generation of vehicles may be the Next Big Thing.

August 5, 2009
Energy Tribune
Texas has repeatedly been lauded as a leader in wind power development. Some of that attention is deserved. In 2008, the state installed nearly 2,700 megawatts of new wind capacity. If Texas were an independent country, it would rank 6th in the world in terms of total wind power production capacity.

July 23, 2009
Energy Tribune
Kirk R. Smith is among the world’s leading authorities on the problem of indoor air pollution. In 2007, the World Health Organization found that indoor air pollution was killing about 500,000 people in India every year, most of them women and children. The agency found that pollution levels in some kitchens in rural India were some 30 times higher than recommended and that the air pollution was six times as bad as that found in New Delhi.

July 7, 2009
Wall Street Journal
Whenever you read about ethanol, remember these numbers: 98 and 190.

They offer an essential insight into U.S. energy politics and the debate over cap-and-trade legislation that recently passed the House. Here is what the numbers mean: The U.S. gets about 98 times as much energy from natural gas and oil as it does from ethanol and biofuels. And measured on a per-unit-of-energy basis, Congress lavishes ethanol and biofuels with subsidies that are 190 times as large as those given to oil and gas.

July 3, 2009
Counterpunch
Some questions defy answers. Among the most famous of those: “What’s the sound of one hand clapping?” Over the past week, another question has been added to the answer-defying list: “how do you charge 2.4 billion people with treason?”

June 26, 2009
The Daily Beast
If only we could turn bullshit into energy. Armed with that technology, the House could skip today’s much-anticipated vote on the cap-and-trade bill, a 1,201-page grab bag of ideas that has been dubbed the “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.”

June 24, 2009
The documentary, Food Inc. has been out for a few weeks. But readers should know that there's a companion book to the movie. Published last month by New York's best publishing house, PublicAffairs, the book includes my essay "The Ethanol Scam: Burning Food to Make Motor Fuel."

June 24, 2009
US News & World Report
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has declared that Yucca Mountain, the site in Nevada where the federal government has been planning to store high-level radioactive waste, is “never going to open.” Reid may be right. President Obama’s 2010 budget nearly zeroes out federal funding for the waste site. And in March, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told Congress that Yucca Mountain was no longer being viewed as a viable option for storing waste and that the federal government would develop a new disposal plan.

June 22, 2009
Energy Tribune
Last week, as the unrest in Iran grew more heated, I emailed Peter Wells, a British-born geologist, to get his perspective. Wells has three decades of experience in the global oil industry and during his career, he has visited Iran numerous times. Given his long experience in Iran and his deep understanding of the country’s complex political situation, I asked him for his read on the situation.

June 22, 2009
Energy Tribune
I can’t get enough news about what’s happening in Iran. The power struggle fascinates me for a number of reasons:

-- The demonstrations in Tehran and elsewhere show the huge miscalculations made by the country’s theocratic leadership. For years, Iran’s leaders have claimed that the country’s biggest threats were those that were coming from the outside: the US invasion of Iraq; the Israelis’ willingness to launch airstrikes, etc. In reality, the bigger danger to the Iranian regime was its own corruption and ineptitude.

June 12, 2009
Energy Tribune
James T. Hackett has spent nearly his entire career in the energy industry, with a particular focus on the oil and natural gas business. His resume includes stints at Dynegy, Pan Energy, Duke Energy, Ocean Energy and Devon Energy. In 2003, he left his job as president and COO of Devon to take the top job at Anadarko, where he is chairman, president, and CEO.