NC WARN, a US environmental campaign group has lodged federal allegations of scientific fraud against a Texas engineering professor who led key studies into methane leakage at shale gas drilling sites around the USA. The tests were used by the Environmental Protection Agency to give fracking the green light.  But …

Cut through all of the political and economic nonsense that passes for theory, and you find that the history of the UK economy over the last 40 years boils down to just two little words – oil and gas.  The so-called Thatcher Revolution and the consolidation under Blair and Brown was …

The growing “shareholder revolt” against Big Oil’s failure to deal with the likely result of the Paris Climate Agreement has been met by derision from oil company CEOs according to Jillian Ambrose at the Telegraph: “The words of Exxon’s Mr [Rex] Tillerson may have seemed strident in the face of …

A combination of low oil prices and rapidly depleting oil fields resulted in the North Sea losing money for the first time in 2015/6.  Last year, 10 oil and gas fields ceased production.  This year industry insiders predict that a further 50 will be abandoned – a collapse on a …

English economist William Stanley Jevons observed that the introduction of the steam engine resulted in a proliferation of steam technology rather than a decline in coal consumption due to improved efficiency.  This became known as the “Jevons Paradox” – which says that energy efficiency leads to a greater use of …

In Britain, next to the banks the ‘Big Six’ energy companies are the only ones to make large profits since the 2008 crash.  This has largely been achieved by capturing the market in energy supply.  So far, the cartel has avoided serious disruption from new energy companies – largely because …

News this week that scientists in Iceland have found a new method for storing carbon dioxide was hailed as a climate change breakthrough.  But was it really?  In fact there are very good reasons for pessimism. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology is at the heart of emissions reduction policies …

For the best part of four decades, economists have assured us that “the market” will find the best solution to climate change.  As our environment shifted, humans would simply tailor their activities accordingly.  If southern Europe becomes afflicted by drought, that is not a problem – we will simply locate …

Having already engaged in a bonfire of green energy subsidies, the UK government is to turn its fire on anaerobic digesters. There are about 300 anaerobic digesters in the UK; 200 of them on farms, where they use animal and plant waste to produce methane and fertiliser.  The methane is …

There have been signs that the US economy has been slowing for the best part of a year.  Poor retail sales in the run up to Christmas did not translate into improved sales in the New Year.  Although inventories remained high, sales were sluggish.  Manufacturing has been anaemic.  Most worryingly, …