May 6th, 2013 by acttesoro
Wall Street Journal
May 5, 2013
Opinion
While the shale boom lifts Texas, California sits on vast resources.
Texas and California have been competing for years as U.S. growth models, and one of the less discussed comparisons is on energy. The Golden State has long been one of America’s big three oil producing states, along with Texas and Alaska, but last year North Dakota surpassed it. This isn’t a matter of geological luck but of good and bad policy choices.
Barely unnoticed outside energy circles, Texas has doubled its oil output since 2005. Even with the surge in output in North Dakota’s Bakken region, Texas produces as much oil as the four next largest producing states combined. The Lone Star State now pumps nearly two million barrels a day, and Texas Railroad Commissioner Barry Smitherman (who is also oil commissioner) says “total production could double by 2016 and triple by the early 2020s.” The entire U.S. now produces about seven million barrels a day.
May 2nd, 2013 by acttesoro
REUTERS
By Patrick Rucker and Valerie Volcovici
An oil-rich region of the north-central United States holds more than twice the recoverable crude supplies estimated just five years ago, according to a government study that highlights the nation’s march toward energy self-sufficiency.
The Bakken Formation and Three Forks Formation, which spans parts of Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota together hold an estimated 7.4 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, the U.S. Geological Survey study said, although energy experts said those estimates likely understate the region’s full potential.
Read the full story here.
April 25th, 2013 by acttesoro
In addition to the “free RINs” sham, the ethanol lobby touts that corn ethanol is lowering gasoline prices, but they fail to account for the fuel’s lower energy content. Perhaps they’re simply not aware that ethanol contains 33 percent less energy per gallon than gasoline contains. Vehicles fueled with ethanol cover fewer miles per gallon than those running on conventional gasoline, meaning that if more ethanol makes its way into gasoline, consumers will be filling up their vehicles more often. Furthermore, when adjusted for this energy difference, AAA’s fuel gauge report shows E85 is more expensive than gasoline. On Friday, April 19, for example, nationally energy adjusted E85 at $4.13 per gallon was running 62 cents per gallon higher than regular gasoline, which averaged $3.51 per gallon.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/energy-ethanol-corn-fuel-90583_Page2.html#ixzz2RU2Ymb6w