Energy Update

In my recent report on the utility business model of the future, I laid out 5 pillars of a democratic energy system. It’s hard not to notice the contrast between this vision of the future and the 15-year business plan laid out by Xcel Energy in Minnesota, the incumbent monopoly serving about half the state’s electric customers. Like those of its pe

Just over a decade ago, the state of California faced serious concerns about whether its utilities could generate and/or buy enough power to assure that the world’s seventh-largest economy could keep the lights on. The infamous California energy crisis, which affected several other western states as well, was a complex tangle of poorly structured deregulation, significant market manipulation (remember Enron?), and other causes.

ADEN, May 6 (Reuters) - At least 80 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the Yemeni port of Aden as fighting rages between Houthi fighters and local supporters of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, rescue workers and residents said.

May 6 (Reuters) - Occidental Petroleum Corp boosted its 2015 production forecast on Wednesday after reporting an adjusted quarterly profit in line with expectations as cost cuts helped balance the recent drop in oil prices.