GLG News by Oil Sand Experts

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway-owned MidAmerican Energy Holdings is exploring the possibility of a new nuclear power plant to be sited in Idaho.  Even more remarkable is MidAmerican's approach of building the project as a merchant plant, under the belief that permitting (expected to take a...

In the most recent round of bidding to construct a natural gas pipeline in Alaska, only one of the three big Prudhoe Bay companies (ConocoPhillips) submitted a bid, and its proposal lies outside of the state's formal application process.  Five other bidders submitted applications in the Alaska...

The Delaware Public Utilities Commission has ordered Delmarva Power to negotiate a contract with Bluewater Wind for an off-shore wind farm.  Although renewable energy is frequently the subject of mandates and quotas, it is rare for a regulator to mandate a utility to purchase from a specific project...

Calpine's latest filing with the bankruptcy court lowers its value estimate by $900 million, just days before the deadline (Nov. 30) for opposing its reorganization plan.  The merchant power company is hoping to emerge from bankruptcy before year end, but faces a Dec. 17 hearing on its reorganization...

The future still looks promising for Canadian oil sands production, despite recent increases in production costs.  The National Energy Board expects increases in oil sands production and East Coast production to more than offset declines in western conventional oil production.  Expected Canadian...

The linked article is an example of the staying power of coal in the United States' generating fleet.  With a clever use of the Coal Creek ND plant's waste heat, the plant owners are able to reduce pollutants and improve heat rates at a facility that has been around since the 1970's. ...

    Coal plants utilize high-calcium limestone as a reagent in flue gas desulphurization (FGD or “scrubbers”) to remove the sulfur from the coal rather than it going up the stack as air emissions. The usage of this limestone will increase as scrubbers are included on new coal plants...

    Many previously announced coal plants have been formally cancelled or delayed this year. This is the result of either regulatory rejections or uncertainty, cost increases because of materials and labor, or environmental (CO2 emissions) issues.     U.S. Department...

    There have been several published reports of coal plant cancellations due to lack of the perceived need by regulators, differences in cost recovery in rates to consumers, the belief surrounding CO2 emissions or other reasons, Cancellation of the coal plant projects does not...

With the recent runup in crude oil prices, demand for soybean-based biodiesel has also seen an increase.  With the USDA soybean crop estimate down slightly from the October estimate, pressure on prices is also coming from the supply side, as well.