Category Archives: oil
Knowing Your Supply Chain from a Hole in the Ground
A new standard of accountability and traceability for supply chains is emerging. Companies are increasingly faced with the need to be able to trace their supply chains back to the hole in the ground their raw materials came from. This … Continue reading
Filed under oil, Supply chain
Assessing the Tone of ExxonMobil’s Environmental Reporting
I’ve been spending some time with corporate sustainability reports for a new research project. ExxonMobile’s 2009 Corporate Citizenship Report offers some interesting examples of rhetorical style that are worth considering if you are responsible for your company’s sustainability reporting. ExxonMobil is bound … Continue reading
Filed under hydraulic fracturing, oil, sustainability, water
Oil Spills and Market Crashes
The current news cycle links continuing coverage of the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, whose cause remains uncertain and whose solution so far elusive, with puzzlement about the cause of a recent 1,000-point plunge in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. … Continue reading
Where is Clean Tech Heading in 2010?
Sorry, I can’t say I know yet where clean tech is heading in 2010. I’m still getting reoriented after the holiday. But early signs are that, as usual, both the hype and the backlash against the hype, are a bit … Continue reading
Filed under emissions, natural gas, oil
My Clean, Green, Sustainable Reading List
Over the last few months I’ve been reading through the literature on clean tech, energy and sustainability. In case you are looking for suggestions, I can recommend any or all of these. If you have any reactions or suggestions for … Continue reading
Filed under biofuels, carbon, coal, efficiency, emissions, energy prices, energy storage, grid, illumination, natural gas, oil, solar, sustainability, transportation, water
Energy Price Volatility Dampens Growth; Can Renewables Help?
The New York Times today reported that recent extreme volatility in oil markets has “is puzzling government officials and policy analysts…” It is also “hobbling businesses and consumers … as they try in vain to guess where prices will be … Continue reading
Filed under energy prices, oil
How Energy is Like Web 2.0
Web 2.0 and Alternative Energy Sometimes Share a Stage If you travel in Internet circles and are tracking developments in clean tech or alternative energy, you have noticed that Web 2.0 and energy have sometimes shared a stage. We had, … Continue reading
Filed under energy storage, grid, oil, solar, transportation
Lessons from the History of the Oil Industry
This blog documents my efforts to educate myself about energy, clean tech and sustainability. I’ve been doing a lot of reading and thought I would share, from time to time, my assessment of the books and articles I read. In … Continue reading
Oil and Geopolitics: Comments From a Reader
Chris Townsend of Forrester commented on my blog but I overlooked it for a week since WordPress thought it was spam. Here’s Chris’s comment and my response. Thanks for reading!
Filed under oil, Uncategorized
Can the U.S. Eliminate Its Dependence on Foreign Oil?
In the presidential debate last Friday, Sen. Obama called for eliminating the United States dependence on Middle Eastern oil within 10 years. It sounds like a desirable policy goal–the less we are dependent on unstable or unfriendly regimes, the better … Continue reading
Filed under oil
