The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a new report out claiming that fossil fuel is “mispriced” and that eliminating subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and adding carbon taxes could cut greenhouse gases by 13 percent. Energy subsidies are pervasive and impose substantial fiscal and economic costs in most regions. On a pre- tax basis, [...]

The fracking boom happened so quickly that nobody had any time to deal with the consequences. Not only did politicians not anticipate regulations, allowing the industry to operate in a kind of free-fire zone, but the industry didn’t recognize the massive amounts of limited resources they would need to continue fracking in the future. Specifically, [...]

In another in a long line of weak settlements where the perpetrators of fraud don’t have to technically say whether or not they’ve committed it, the Securities and Exchange Commission reached agreement with JPMorgan Chase and Credit Suisse on a collection of violations related to the handling of mortgage backed securities. JPMorgan Chase and Credit [...]

A day after a record $4.5 billion criminal settlement in the BP oil disaster, another Gulf Coast oil rig exploded. An oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana sent four people to hospital Friday and two others were believed to be missing, Coast Guard officials said. Coast Guard spokesman Drake Foret said the fire [...]

California ushers in a new era today with one of the the first greenhouse gas emission auctions in the United States. The state passed the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2006, and six years later, the cap and trade program on carbon emissions in the law is operational and ready for action. More than six [...]

I don’t think the late-in-the-game bid for a carbon tax will come to pass, but energy policy will become critical in the coming weeks, with expiring measures and controversial subsidies up for bid. The biggest threat to our energy future in the near term – and that’s not much of a hyperbole – is the [...]

I noted yesterday that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission planned to fine Barclays Bank for its role in manipulating US energy markets. The fine came out and it was a record, a $470 million penalty. After the London market had closed, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced the scale of the fine – $435m, plus [...]

Barclays Bank, the only bank to date to settle in the Libor scandal, could face more regulatory probes down the line on a number of other issues, including an energy trading scandal in the US.

There’s an election to win, particularly in wind-rich states like Iowa and Colorado, and so now the Republican standard-bearer has changed his position on allowing the wind energy production tax credit to phase out. The tax break subsidizes wind power by 2.2 cents a kilowatt hour to bring its cost closer to that of conventional [...]

I recall hearing quite a bit from various governors that the US is the “Saudi Arabia of coal” or the “Saudi Arabia of wind,” or whatever natural resource they had in abundance. Now, according to AP energy writer Jonathan Fahey, the US verges on becoming the Saudi Arabia… of oil. U.S. oil output is surging [...]

Matt Stoller has an interesting set of charts showing the recent run up in investment in resource extraction, particularly from the oil and gas industry. Matt explains this mostly through the run-up of shale oil and natural gas extraction, which have both advanced significantly in the US. Renewables are increasing as well, but from an [...]