Researchers say that stopping leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is a major untapped opportunity for combating climate change. Original link Original author: JOHN

The Energy Department today announced nearly $8 million to advance research and development of next-generation heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) technologies, supporting the Administration's goal of saving money by saving energy, and phasing down the use of chemicals that have a devastating effect on the global climate. With air conditioning using large and growing amounts of energy in the U.S. and worldwide, these innovative solutions offer significant energy and cost savings in new and existing buildings. Currently, HVAC systems are the largest energy end-use in buildings, using almost 14 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) of primary energy annually, or nearly 30% of all energy used in U.S. commercial and residential buildings. Non-vapor-compression HVAC systems have the potential to use as much as 40% less energy than current systems. The selections announced today are under two major topic areas: advanced vapor compression technology and non-vapor compression technology. Advanced vapor compression systems...

Today, the Energy Department launched the $2 million Technologist in Residence (TIR) pilot to strengthen U.S. clean energy manufacturing competitiveness and enhance the commercial impact of its national laboratories . TIR will catalyze strong laboratory-industry relationships that will lead to high-impact collaborative research and development (R&D) and will develop mechanisms to help interested companies more easily connect and form relationships with the Department's national labs moving forward.  With the launch of TIR, the Energy Department has released a competitive solicitation to invite the national labs to partner with industry and apply for TIR in "technologist" pairs. The competitively selected technologist pairs will comprise one senior technical staff member from a national lab and another from a manufacturing company or consortium of companies. Over the two-year TIR pilot, each technologist pair will work together to first identify the technical challenges of interest to the participating company or consortium and the resources and...

April 21, 2015 In its recently released Annual Energy Outlook 2015 (AEO2015) Reference case, EIA expects U.S. crude oil production to rise through 2020 as oil prices recover from their steep decline, reducing net petroleum (crude oil and petroleum products) imports. AEO 2015 explores the effects of domestic crude oil production under various assumptions about world oil prices and domestic resource availability. In all AEO2015 scenarios, the United States remains a net importer of crude oil (despite increased domestic production) and a net exporter of petroleum products. As always with EIA base-case outlooks, AEO2015 assumes no changes in current laws and regulations. Thus, all cases in the AEO2015 assume that current restrictions on U.S. crude oil exports remain in place. Increasing levels of domestic crude oil production through 2020 have two effects: lower crude oil imports and higher throughput at U.S. refineries. Higher refinery throughput increases production and net exports of...

As sun and wind become bigger parts of the electricity mix, scientists are pushing to increase the capacity of battery storage. Original link Original author: HENRY

1000 Independence Ave. SW Washington DC 20585 202-586-5000 Original link

April 20, 2015 For the second year in a row, energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the United States have increased. However, unlike 2013, when emissions and gross domestic product (GDP) grew at similar rates (2.5% and 2.2%, respectively), 2014's CO2 emissions growth rate of 0.7% was much smaller than the 2014 GDP growth rate of 2.4%. Energy-related CO2 emissions are the largest component of overall U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. On March 31, 2015, the United States officially submitted its emissions-cutting target to the United Nations, committing to reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 26%-28% from 2005 levels by 2025. This follows President Obama's 2009 pledge to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. As discussed in a previous article , changes in CO2 emissions reflect changes in economic and energy-related indicators. The previous two years have largely followed the economic trends in terms of increasing population...

April 17, 2015 Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on data from various published studies Note: Click to enlarge . EIA is currently in the process of updating maps of major tight oil and shale gas plays , including the Eagle Ford and Marcellus plays, which will help to better characterize the geology of key areas of production in the United States. EIA's most recent maps focus on shale and tight oil plays, and characterize plays based on geologic characteristics, including rock type and age. Understanding geologic history and processes helps exploration and production companies reduce the risk of drilling dry, nonproducing wells and better understand hydrocarbon resource potentials. Production of crude oil and natural gas occurs in two classes of rock: source rocks and reservoir rocks. Source rocks are sedimentary rocks in which hydrocarbons (organic chemical compounds of hydrogen and carbon) form. Reservoir rocks are both porous, meaning that there...

While hydrogen-powered cars failed to gain traction in the past, they now are supported by increasingly strict California mandates. Original link Original author: LAWRENCE

The court said it would be unusual to try to block a rule before it was issued, as the battle begins over President Obama’s most far-reaching effort to slow climate change. Original link Original author: CORAL