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A handful of lawmakers in the Senate and House have been trying to block the EPA from regulating global warming pollution. This is largely a... Frances Beinecke http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frances-beinecke/

A new study by University of Missouri Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (PDF) reveals that the current corn ethanol tax credit is effectively costing... Nathanael Greene http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathanael-greene/

Ontario's Liberal government, citing growing water demand and limited supplies, is angling to make the province a clean-water technology powerhouse.

In order to develop a green and sustainable economy, we need efficient and non-fossil fuel based energy production and consumption systems. A number of technological... Steven Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-cohen/

We live in a far too complex and interconnected world to expect there is an easy way out in solving our environmental crisis. We can't... James Boyce http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-boyce/

Join the Audubon Society of Central Arkansas for its monthly meeting, tonight at 7 p.m. at Fletcher Library in Little Rock. Nao Ueda, Outreach Coordinator with Audubon Arkansas, will discuss steps you can take to reduce your environmental footprint, and the importance of green living to bird conservation.

As the Outreach Coordinator for Audubon Arkansas, Nao coordinates grassroots efforts regarding environmental policy. Prior to joining Audubon, she worked for a local foundation with a mission to advance education, economic development, and social justice in Arkansas. In 2006, she co-founded the Arkansas Sustainability Network and helped organize the first ever green expo in Arkansas. In her spare time, Nao writes a blog, GreenAR by the Day, where she discusses steps she has taken to reduce her environmental footprint, as well as various environmental topics around the state and the country.

For more information, visit the website at www.ascabird.org.

Happy hour with a “green” twist! Come to the first Green Drinks Washington County on Thursday, March 11! Drop by between 5:30-7 p.m. at Greenhouse Grille in Fayetteville. The Bicycle Coalition of the Ozarks will be hosting the event, providing information on their activities and initiatives. For more information, visit http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=358284321933.

A Colorado company says ethanol is fine, but isobutanol is better.

(This post appeared at Gregor.us.)

EIA Washington produces a ton of energy data that’s very current and detailed on global energy production. But what’s harder to come by is Non-OECD oil and oil product consumption. As the calendar turns to March, alot of the annual data starts to complete for the prior years, and I found my way deep into some EIA caverns tonight, and drew up the following chart:

The chart shows total oil product use for Brazil, India, and California in quadrillion BTU. Oil products are best measured in BTU–not barrels–as it strips out the vagaries of different products like Jet Fuel, Gasoline, Diesel, and Heating Oil. Also, BTU can be a better way to compare countries that import barrels, with states that generally import oil products. Here, I wanted to compare California with fast growing Brazil and India over a twenty year period. The trajectories are fairly unsurprising. Fuel efficiency standards have helped to keep California consumption relatively in check, in its path from 3.543 quadrillion BTU in 1988 to 2007’s 3.946 quadrillion BTU.

With regards to Brazil and India, a friend chatting to me from China tonight remarked that Brazil’s consumption growth might have been somewhat restrained by its ethanol program. If that’s true, it’s intriguing to conjecture what Brazil’s demand would look like without ethanol’s roughly 17% contribution to total Brazilian liquid fuel use. And in regards to India, one can’t help but note the big spike from 2004 -2007 as demand moved from 4.950 to 5.869 quadrillion BTU and not recall India’s push to complete their Quadrilateral Highway.

An ongoing project of mine relates to per capita consumption of energy in the developing world–yet another difficult area where data can be hard to secure on a current basis. There are a number of issues at play on that topic. Not least of which is the very different marginal utility of liquid energy in the developing world, compared to the developed world. As I look at today’s chart, however, I am struck by something simpler: the differences in population. India’s population is 1.139 billion, and Brazil’s 191.9 million. California is lilliputian by comparison, at 36 million. But it’s oil consumption is not. This only confirms my view that we (continue to) underestimate the demand reduction for oil that’s inevitable in the developed world, and the awesome potential for further demand increases in the developing world.

Get more energy market analysis at Gregor.us >

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At a recent Cambridge Energy Research Associates conference, Exxon executive Tom Walters made it unflinchingly clear that his company believes natural gas is in for a long-term growth phase in North America.

Rig Zone:

Walters joined a group of industry leaders to address a global gas plenary on "The Role of Natural Gas in the Future Energy Mix." He noted that despite the effects of the recent economic downturn, the long-term outlook for natural gas is positive. "We expect global energy demand to increase nearly 30 percent in the next 20 years. By 2030, global gas demand will be around 140 billion cubic feet per day higher than 2009," he said.

The major driver of this demand is power generation, which will account for more than half of the gas demand growth, Walters said. He also emphasized the environmental benefits of natural gas as a source of power generation. "Natural gas is a cleaner burning source of fuel and power generation that over the next 20 years will continue to form an increasingly important role in the global energy mix. This can be attributed to its advantages of lower carbon emissions and greater flexibility into power generation."

For anyone investing in the space, it's good to see large energy names like Exxon betting on North American natural gas alongside you.

The author owns shares of Chesapeake Energy (CHK), a natural gas play.

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See Also:

• Oil Is A Snooze, The Energy World Is Totally Obsessed With Natural Gas
• Gazprom Thinks It Will Steal 10% Of The U.S. Gas Market Since The American Shale Gas Revolution Will Fail
• Does This Mean Natural Gas Is A Raging Buy?

It took a while for the United Nations to acknowledge errors by its climate panel and order an independent review. But the study will not tackle past mistakes and probably not change many minds. Evelyn Leopold http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evelyn-leopold/

Why did America's leading environmental groups jet to Copenhagen and lobby for policies that will lead to the faster death of the rainforests -- and runaway global warming? Johann Hari http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/

The Avenue of the Giants runs through the greatest remaining old-growth forest of redwood trees on Earth. Last weekend, one of the giants fell: former Sierra Club President Dr. Edgar Wayburn. Carl Pope http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-pope/

What seems dangerous often is not--black snakes, for example, or clear-air turbulence. While things that just lie there, like this beach, are loaded with jeopardy.... Andrea Chalupa http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrea-chalupa/

Big move from the energy world.

WSJ:

British oil giant BP PLC is the leading candidate to buy a big swath of oil assets from U.S. independent oil and gas producer Devon Energy Corp. in a $5 billion-plus deal that would vault BP into the hot new oil region off the shores of Brazil, people familiar with the matter said.

The deal would also reinforce BP's dominant position in the Gulf of Mexico and give it a stake in Devon's operations in Canada. It is expected to be announced in the next several days, said people familiar with the matter.

Read the whole story at WSJ >

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See Also:

• OPEC Forced To Hike Oil Demand Forecasts Due To A Global Recovery Surprise
• Oil Is A Snooze, The Energy World Is Totally Obsessed With Natural Gas
• Peak Oil Demand Is Coming, But Here's Why It's Not Good News

With America facing a new race to dominate the high-tech fields of the 21st century, the federal government will ultimately need to secure massive investments to keep the nation's competitive edge. Jesse Jenkins http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-jenkins/

Thanks to the Recovery Act, there are hundreds of thousands of teachers in classrooms, police on the beat, construction workers fixing our infrastructure, engineers building the the smart grid, and much more. Jared Bernstein http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jared-bernstein/

If there is one clear message coming out of the ECO:nomics Conference, it's that we need to assign a price or cost to carbon emissions, and soon Jennifer Schwab http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-schwab/

"The failure to extend and expand the ecoENERGY program will slow wind energy development and reduce our ability to compete with the United States," a wind industry representative said.

We recently climbed Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro to bring awareness to the world's clean water crisis, a plague that kills 1.8 million people each year worldwide. Elizabeth Gore http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-gore/