Presenting a program to stimulate robust coal-gasification technology deployment at low federal cost.
Federal loan guarantees and other incentives can clear the hurdles to near-term deployment of gasification technologies.
Windpower is caught in a vicious cycle of Washington politics. Escaping the cycle will require visionary leadership in Congress and the utility industry.
Frontlines
Can utility executives find happiness in back-to-basics?
We've read the pitch a number of times in these very pages. Top investment bankers have told us that a "back-to-basics" strategy will never produce a high-enough return to please electric utility stockholders; that the only solution to bridge this "earnings gap" would involve a rash of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) between utilities.
The Geopolitical Risks of LNG
To many energy-industry analysts, 2005 is a make-or-break year for the U.S. gas market. If we don't have at least several liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in construction by the end of the year, the country arguably will face serious gas-supply shortages and price spikes beginning in about 2008.1
Meeting tomorrow’s power needs will pose tough choices.
Commission Watch
The AGs' Global Warming Suits:
A recent lawsuit filed by eight state attorneys general will take the industry to the place where bad policy meets with bad economics.
Russia resurrects the Kyoto Protocol and the prospect of either mandatory CO2 emissions cuts for U.S. utilities, or the start of a global trade war.
In June 2001, the Bush administration withdrew an earlier campaign pledge to support the Kyoto Protocol, claiming that the treaty was fatally flawed in not requiring China and India to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and that the science underpinning the treaty was not yet definitive enough to justify the costs of compliance.1
Interviews
For Public Utilities Fortnightly's 75th Anniversary CEO issue, the magazine looked to the horizon and asked these new captains about the planned course for their companies, and for an entire industry.
Benchmarks
Where will the next development opportunities occur?
With the current surplus of generating capacity across most power markets in the United States, what are the more attractive regions for power generation development around the world? Potential near-term opportunities exist in Latin America and the countries of the former Soviet Union based on critical infrastructure needs, but Asia, driven by China's explosive growth, is expected to be the largest source of turbine orders over the next decade.