A new school of thought has emerged that ethanol may actually benefit from the recent fall in oil prices, to nearly half their level of a few months ago. The main exponent of this theory is Andrew Topf, writing on OilPrice.com. His logic is sound, and there are a few recent developments to back him […]
Everyone is saying that falling gas prices will ruin the market for alternative fuels and vehicles. But it isn’t time to give up on them now. Ethanol and methanol are still two liquid fuels that will easily substitute for gasoline in our current infrastructure. Ethanol is making headway, particularly in the Midwest, where it is […]
The name of the game is “the St. Petersburg Paradox,” and it proved that people are risk-averse, even when they have nothing to lose and a chance to win big from playing a game. It has become a well-established principle in economics and helps explain why people are so reluctant to switch to alternative fuels, […]
A couple of Google engineers shocked the world last week by announcing that after working on the RE<C (Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal) Initiative for four years, they had concluded that renewable energy is never going to solve our carbon emissions problem. In a widely read article in IEEE Spectrum, the prestigious journal published by […]
The lure of the oceans has always had a special appeal for advocates of biofuel. The vast reaches of the deep speak of a promise that unlimited amounts of space will be able to bring forth completely sustainable forms of energy. “Two-thirds of the globe is covered with water,” says Khanh-Quang Tran, a Norwegian researcher […]
One of the knottiest problems for people who want to reduce carbon emissions with cap-and-trade and command-and-control regulation is that it is impossible to include motor vehicles in these schemes. The Obama administration is now concentrating on coal plants and other stationary sources. This affects coal and possibly gas plants, but the oil industry gets […]
While they might not make the Late Show with David Letterman, here are ten reasons why the fall in oil and gas prices, if it is sustained for a while, is, on balance, good for the U.S. and replacement fuels. U.S. consumers are getting a price break. While the numbers differ by researchers, most indicate that […]
I began what turned out to be a highly ranked leadership program for public officials at the University of Colorado in the early ’80s, as dean of the Graduate School of Public Affairs. I did the same for private-sector folks when I moved to Irvine, Calif., to run a leadership program involving Israeli startup CEOs for […]
Methanol is a bit of a mystery. It is the simplest form of a hydrocarbon, one oxygen atom attached to simple methane molecule. Therefore, it burns. Methanol is one of the largest manufactured trading commodities after oil, and has about half the energy value of gasoline (but its high octane rating pushes this up to […]
“It’s a puzzlement,” said the King to Anna in “The King and I,” one of my favorite musicals, particularly when Yul Brynner was the King. It is reasonable to assume, in light of the lack of agreement among experts, that the Chief Economic Adviser to President Obama and the head of the Federal Reserve Bank […]
