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Articles by Michael Krancer
Michael Krancer: A threat to Pa.’s energy independence
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Michael Krancer: Clarifications to EPA’s cost-benefit analysis will protect Pa.’s environment and businesses
48 minutes ago Recent history in Pennsylvania has shown that it’s possible to grow our energy economy and make important environmental gains. During my time as secretary of our state’s Department of Environmental Protection, for example, Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry grew significantly, created unprecedented job growth and lowered costs for consumers, while harmful methane emissions dropped more than 75% over the past decade.
How renovation and upgrade of existing dams would be President Trump’s legacy
In late August 2017, the U.S. Department of Energy released its Electricity Markets and Reliability report. In May, I wrote about how the administration of U.S. President Donald J. Trump mandated the report, and I warned coal and nuclear investors not to assume it would save their bacon. It didn’t. The report blames coal’s decline on the shale gas revolution. It preaches a market-based approach where the government shouldn’t pick winners and losers through subsidies and bailouts.
Trump Administration Unveils Plan To Help Coal, Nuclear Sectors
At the end of September, the U.S. Department of Energy quietly issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that amounts to requiring subsidies for coal and nuclear power plants. The rule would be a sea change in how electricity markets have worked since competitive markets were established in the late 1990s. Some would go so far as to say that the proposal scraps competitive wholesale electricity markets entirely.
Department of Energy Files NOPR Providing for Guaranteed Profits for Nuclear and Coal Plants-Only.
The Department of Energy (“DOE”) last Friday rolled out a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) that amounts to requiring subsidies for nuclear plants and coal plants. The NOPR is made under the authority of Section 403 of the Department of Energy Organization Act, which allows the DOE Secretary to propose rules to FERC. If FERC takes the action requested by DOE it would be a sea change in how competitive electricity markets work.
FERC Responds Quickly and Decisively to D.C. Circuit Remand in Sabal Trail Matter on Downstream GHG Analysis
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) weighed in rapidly and decisively on the Sabal Trail (a/k/a Southeast Market Pipelines or “SMP Project”) case that the D.C. Circuit remanded to it on August 22, 2017.[1] As previously discussed in greater detail by Frederick M.
Trump May Not Get His Wall, But He May Make Dams Great Again
In late August, the U.S. Department of Energy released its much-anticipated Electricity Markets and Reliability report. Back in May, I wrote in Forbes about the Trump administration mandating the report, and I warned coal and nuclear investors not to assume it would save their bacon. It sure didn't.
Best Energy Companies Didn't Care Either Way About Paris | RealClearMarkets
Best Energy Companies Didn't Care Either Way About Paris The best of American business doesn't need regulations or global accords to forcibly lower greenhouse gas emissions — they're making profits from doing just that already.Read Full Article »
The Best Energy Companies Didn't Care Either Way About The Paris Accord
In an age of polarized politics, it’s sometimes hard to remember that a leader who does not share your policies can nevertheless still be right. For example, plenty of people forget amid their distaste of Richard Nixon that he brought us the Environmental Protection Agency. Today, too many people operate from a perspective of believing that everything done by President Donald Trump must be wrong, especially when it comes to energy policy.
Coal And Nuke Investors Think Trump Just Saved Their Bacon. They're Naïve.
President Donald Trump was hailed by many in the energy industry — and excoriated by environmentalists — in January when he made a great show of signing executive orders advancing the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline. (I argued at the time that both sides were misreading the orders.) Now, the administration is being hailed again by investors betting he’ll deliver a U.S. energy policy more favorable for coal and nuclear.
Political Risk: What The Oil And Gas Industry Must Learn From Trump
Donald Trump’s promise to boost U.S. oil and gas exploration and production should give the oil and gas industry a lift. Yet energy investors seem to be taking a wait-and-see approach. Since the election, they’ve nudged energy stocks up just 2% on average while the S&P 500 has leaped 10%. Investors are waiting to see if the energy industry absorbs the interesting lessons of Trump’s extraordinary campaign. That’s more urgent than any brief uptick in share prices.
There Was Way Less To Trump's Pipeline Order Than Anybody Thought
One of Donald Trump’s first acts as president was signing executive orders to advance the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and the Keystone XL pipeline. While Trump’s signing certainly drew a lot of media attention, it remains to be seen whether these pipelines are ever built and brought online. Mind you, Trump’s actions are the right energy policy and the right thing for the U.S. economy.
Trump's EPA Pick Is Just What This Country Needs
Lots of unfair knee-jerk ink is being spilled on and epithets hurled at Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s nomination as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Walking Dead? Experts Say U.S. Energy Sector Is Vulnerable To Hackers
As Halloween approaches and you ponder the stranger things that are genuine threats, experts suggest you think about a similar attack on the U.S. energy sector.
If There Were A 'Big-12' Of Energy, The University Of Houston Would Be A Star
When many of us think of universities in Texas, we think of Big 12 football. However, the University of Houston's Cougars football team isn't the only exceptional "energy" on the college's campus right now: The university is also laser-focused on meeting the needs of the evolving American energy sector.
Johns Hopkins University's Dismaying, Fact-Challenged Attack On Fracturing
When it comes to scientific reports, certain rules are sacrosanct, such as you cannot leap from correlation to cause without showing evidence. That's the problem with a deeply flawed report from Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health and Geisinger Health System about the so-called "associations" between hydraulic fracturing [...]
New Expert Reports Tell Us That 'LINGO' Is Bad For Our Well-Being For Now
Renewable energy had a great 2015, but fossil fuels continue to be essential.
Did Big Energy Just Make Us Safer From Terrorism Or Cyber Attacks On The U.S. Electrical Grid?
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano had some words of caution for her successor in her final days in office: A cyber attack on America’s power grid is coming and it’s not a matter of if, but when. Now, thanks to a new private sector cooperative called Grid Assurance, help is on the way. This is an existential issue for America and the free world.
Don't Expect Any Real Oil Production Freezes From Doha
When the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meet in Doha, Qatar on Sunday along with Russia, Mexico and five other non-OPEC producers, financial markets will look for any signs of an oil production freeze deal. However, that cast of characters won't agree on the shape of the table, never [...]
Final Clean Power Plan Is A Trojan Horse For American Natural Gas
It was widely acknowledged that the Clean Power Plan (CPP), the Obama administration's program to cut greenhouse emissions, was hard on coal. Now, upon closer examination, more experts say the plan could seriously undermine the country's natural gas industry. For now, the CPP is on ice. The U.S. Supreme Court stayed [...]
Scalia's Last Stand? He Helped Crush Obama's Big Paris Climate Change Deal
Will Justice Antonin Scalia's last judicial act be remembered as helping undo the White House's embrace of the most sweeping climate change accord in history? Last December, President Barack Obama and leaders from 194 other nations agreed in Paris to report their greenhouse gas emissions and spell out reduction plans.
The End Of The Crude Oil Export Ban Offers Promise And Peril
The repeal of the crude export ban, which Congress just passed and the president signed as part of the omnibus appropriations bill (read "budget"), may end up being one of those "watch out what you wished for" events. The ban goes back to 1975 when OPEC, in charge of oil [...]
The Energy Sector
Cybersecurity has been at the forefront of the news for several years. Coverage of the space usually focuses on a breach at a consumer-facing company, resulting in people's credit cards, bank and personal records being stolen. As bad as these kinds of incidents are, however, we have thus far avoided [...]
Could The EPA's Clean Power Plan Deliver More Than Just Clean Air?
In August, the EPA released its Clean Power Plan, which aims to shape the future of American power generation and consumption by reducing greenhouse gas emissions while also increasing the grid's efficiency and reliability. This comes more than a year after the EPA issued its first proposal for the CPP.
Putting a Price on Carbon Can Spur Economy and Lower Energy Costs, New Study Says
Last year at this time, I wrote on why lowering CO2 emissions will drive electricity bills down, not up. Now, a new study from Boston consultancy Analysis Group shows that controlling and lowering CO2 emissions translates into a major economic development and jobs program with continued system reliability.
EPA Report Shows (Yet Again) Fracking's Negligible Impact On Drinking Water Is Well Worth The Risks
The long awaited EPA Assessment of the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas on Drinking Water Resources has been released in draft from. There will undoubtedly be a river of ink spilled on analysis of the Assessment in the coming days, weeks and years, but from my chair, the bottom lines are these: Translation: hydraulic fracturing can be done responsibly and safely.
In Midst Of Oil Boom, Perhaps U.S. Should Look To Another Fuel: Methanol
American energy executives and policymakers are basking in the country’s newfound oil production clout. They’re reveling in the comeback story, written by improved techniques for shale oil and gas extraction, that have made the United States the largest oil producer in the world, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia. But amid the congratulations, some smart people are offering a warning.
Court Decisions Halt Momentum on Local Oil and Gas Regulations
share Thank you for sharing! Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided. Have we seen the Midway or El Alamein-style turning point in the courts on the wave of local regulation of oil-and-gas-related activities? To continue reading, become a free ALM digital reader.
Did The White House Just Signal It Wants A Major Oil-Export Deal With Congress?
The U.S. Department of Commerce set off some alarms—or cheers, depending on your perspective—in the energy industry when it published a set of new oil products export guidelines over the holidays. Some outside observers shrugged and said the new rules didn’t really change anything. A few others, however, are insisting the move was something important: a “wink and a nod” by the White House to more exports, or even an invitation to Congress to end the ban on exports of American crude oil products.
The Nuclear Gap In Obama's Clean Power Plan
If we want to arrest climate change, all we need are more renewables like wind and solar, right? Not exactly, according to a newly published Canadian report on lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions (“GHG”). In fact, the report, which is based on 246 studies covering various power generation scenarios and constraints, concluded that nuclear power beats wind and natural gas on an ‘apples-to-apples’ basis for battling climate change.
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