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JUST three years ago, with oil trading at a seemingly frothy $66 a barrel, David J. O'Reilly made what many experts considered a risky bet. Outmaneuvering Chinese bidders and ignoring critics who said he overpaid, Mr. O'Reilly, the chief executive of Chevron, forked over $18 billion to buy Unocal, a giant whose riches date back to oil fields made famous in the film "There Will Be Blood."

Billionaire T. Boone Pickens brought is traveling energy road show to the Salt Palace Convention Center on Thursday, and hundreds of Utahns came to hear what he had to say. The oil tycoon and mega-successful hedge-fund manager promoted his strategies for alternative fuel development. The Pickens Plan urges Americans to break their reliance on foreign oil by using clean alternatives, including natural gas, wind, solar and nuclear power.

Drill, drill, drill. Suddenly, oil and gas exploration is all the rage on Capitol Hill. With energy prices a red-hot political issue, the Democratic-controlled Congress, in the midst of its final, three-week legislative sprint before the presidential elections, can't get enough of drilling bills. Not that most Capitol Hill watchers seriously believe that - in the absence of a major supply disruption - any substantive energy legislation will actually emerge from this frenzy and become law. "You don't pass energy bills in the heat of the campaign season," noted Frank Maisano, an energy specialist with Bracewell & Giuliani. Still, there should be plenty of action.

Der Spiegel has an interview with Boeing's "chief environmental strategist", Billy Glover, on prospects for biofuel use in air transport (he's very optimistic, but short on detail) - Algae Could 'Supply Entire World with Aviation Fuel'. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Glover, given the current low price of oil, why would airlines still even be interested in biofuels? Glover: Indeed, the oil price has changed rapidly. But it has done that many times before and it will continue to do so. Even today, the highest operating expense for an airline is fuel. It remains a priority to find a way to mitigate that situation. That is why Boeing is trying to open up this avenue of alternative fuel. It can help that situation while having a better environmental performance at the same time.

I've got another guest post from Neil Howes up at TOD, this one proposing a rough plan for North AMerica to obtain 50% of its power from wind by 2030 - A North American Wind Energy Scenario. Would a "50% of electricity generated by wind scenario" work in North America by 2030? In this post, I make a rough cut estimate of what might be required to make such a transition in about 20 years time. Most proposals that are being made rely on a very big increase in carbon free energy, both to charge electric vehicles (EV's) and to replace oil and natural gas (NG) presently used for hot water and space heating. In this post, I lay out a path by which 50% of North American energy might come from wind by 2030, including replacement of a large share of oil and natural gas use by electricity. ... High quality wind resources (wind speeds greater than 6.9m/sec) in the US are estimated to be >5,500GWa, about x10 all of N America's present electricity production of 550GWa. Canada's potential appears to be similar or greater than the US, while Mexico's wind resources are more limited (these figures do not include deep offshore resources that could be harnessed by floating wind turbines or higher altitude wind resources that could potentially be harnessed by airborne wind turbines).

Oil spills in the Baltic Sea have continued to drop off in recent years as a result of various authoritative measures, revised legislation and improved aerial and satellite surveillance. Ross Davies takes a closer look at the region's success story Some years back, the Baltic Sea had something of a reputation as being a cradle for Oil spills.The figures speak for themselves.

Surmont Phase 2 Oil Sands project involves the expansion of the Surmont steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) plant to increase its production capacity from the existing 27,000 barrels of bitumen a day to 136,000 barrels of bitumen a day. The Surmont site is located approximately 60km south-east of Fort McMurray, Alberta, in the Athabasca Oil sands region.

Five of the world's ten richest oil and gas billionaires are from Russia; two are based in the US, while surprisingly only one hails from the Middle East. Offshore-technology.com profiles the world's richest oil and gas tycoons based on Forbes' calculations of net worth as of the end of July 2014.

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the release of two Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) for up to $84 million to support the development of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). Geothermal energy technologies use energy from the earth to heat buildings and generate electricity. Enhanced Geothermal Systems offer the potential to extend geothermal resources to larger areas of the western United States, as well as into new geographic areas of the entire country. These projects will help support the Administration's efforts to invest in clean energy technologies, create millions of new jobs, end our addiction to foreign oil, and address climate change. "President Obama has laid out an ambitious agenda to put millions of people to work by investing in clean energy technology like geothermal energy," said Secretary Chu. "The Administration is committed to funding important research like this to transform the way we use and produce energy and reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil."

#Five Reasons Why Oil Companies Get Away With Overblown Field Esimates We've all seen the big headlines over the few past few years proclaiming various new Oil fields. These stories often go on to claim how the Age of Oilquarius is now upon us and we will swim and bath in seas of energy until the sun explodes and the universe ends. We are often showered with numbers and statistics that upon closer inspection don't mean anything useful at all.

OBAMAS GREE CZAR UNTIL PEOPLE FOUND OUT HE WAS A COMMUNIST AND OBAMA HAD TO LET HIM GO.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS REALLY CARE MORE ABOUT POLITICS THAN THEY DO ABOUT ENVIRONMENT

WHY THE LIBERAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS STAYED QUIET ON BP OIL SPILL THAT HAPPENED ON OBAMAS WATCH.

Is it ok to be gay in the oil and gas and engineering industries? Officially, yes. However, the serious lack of lesbian, gay and bisexual representation in these industries suggests the answer is far more complex and needs to be addressed. Former BP CEO Lord Browne refers to it as living in the 'glass closet'.

ou can get a reduction on your busfare in Scotland if you hand over your cooking oil to a recycling plant making biofuels. Stagecoach, Scotland's largest transport company, booked so much success with this green scheme in the past six months, it's now embarking on a drive to become completely carbon neutral by the end of this year.