One wild card of the Middle East equation has been Hezbollah, the Iranian-inspired Shiite terror group /political party in Lebanon. Considered the most fully armed non-state actor in the world, Hezbollah possesses an arsenal...more
Amid much fanfare, in 2022, the City of Palo Alto, California, home to Stanford University, amended its building code to require that every new building within its borders be all electric. This followed the lead of the City...more
Over 50 years ago, on October 6, 1973, the Arab armies of Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel during Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
Almost exactly 50 years later, on October 7, 2023,...more
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a strong, uncompromising pro-Hamas stance in the latter’s military conflict with Israel last week. In so doing, he torpedoed any potential in the near future for possible joint...more
The right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Binyamin) Netanyahu and the left-wing government of US President Joseph Biden do not often see eye-to-eye on many issues, but both curiously have in common a...more
On May 31 the Internal Revenue Service issued its second round of guidance for those entities wishing to obtain tax credits from clean energy projects as part of the $10B program contained within the Inflation Reduction Act...more
The explosion and fire of a tanker truck just north of Center City Philadelphia, leading to the collapse of sections of Interstate 95, one of the most heavily traveled roads in the United States and the chief highway...more
Last week saw scenes of chaos never before seen in the Middle East, which is saying something given the history of that region.
In Israel, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to demonstrate, block roads,...more
One side effect of the collapse of cryptocurrency giant FTX has been to shine the spotlight on the movement that has been gaining significant traction over the last few years – that of ESG in our business affairs or the...more
Americans tend to think of Canadians as just like ourselves, only nicer, more polite, and more tolerant. We look at our own divisions and wish we could be as pleasant and accommodating as we believe the Canadians to be....more
Now less than one month before Election Day, the New York Governor's race is far closer than most had anticipated. Incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul, who succeeded Andrew Cuomo following his resignation, is being pressed by...more
10/19/2022
/ Boycotts ,
Clean Water Act ,
Energy Projects ,
Energy Sector ,
Exports ,
Fracking ,
Gas Prices ,
Natural Gas ,
New York ,
Oil & Gas ,
OPEC ,
Pennsylvania ,
Pipelines ,
Political Campaigns ,
Russia ,
Shale Gas
With energy markets already in tumult partly because of events in Ukraine and Iran, not to mention the OPEC production cut, another area of the world is now being convulsed by energy issues, with the prospect of natural gas...more
10/19/2022
/ Anti-Terrorism Financing ,
Egypt ,
Energy Market ,
Energy Projects ,
Energy Sector ,
Greece ,
Iran Sanctions ,
Israel ,
Lebanon ,
Libya ,
Military Conflict ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
OPEC ,
Terrorist Organizations ,
Turkey
Blasts were heard at the Nord Stream 1 pipeline last week, and damage to the pipeline itself was detected underwater shortly thereafter. Russian sources indicated that the damage would further delay the delivery of natural...more
10/6/2022
/ Climate Change ,
Energy Sector ,
EU ,
Exports ,
Germany ,
Green Energy ,
Marcellus Shale ,
National Security ,
Natural Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Russia
Pennsylvania is rapidly becoming the ultimate battleground state in American politics. Famously described by Democratic political operative James Carville as “Philadelphia in the East, Pittsburgh in the West, and Alabama in...more
Over the last two weeks, while news coverage in America has been fixated on the FBI’s raid on Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago, and later on the death of Queen Elizabeth II, there have been important news stories not widely...more
9/12/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
China ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
FERC ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Greece ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
Turkey ,
Ukraine ,
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)
As with many other industries, the airport industry is rushing to electrify. Nearly every airport conference contains a session on airport electrification. As nearly every commercial service airport in the United States is...more
In a startling turnaround, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he would consider allowing the operator of the State’s one remaining nuclear power plant, located at Diablo Canyon, to petition to keep the facility...more
Since the execution of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 that led to the establishment of the Euro single currency, different European Union countries have faced issues meeting the Treaty’s requirements to maintain the currency,...more
7/21/2022
/ Embargo ,
Energy Sector ,
EU ,
European Central Bank ,
Food Supply ,
Fossil Fuel ,
GDP ,
Germany ,
Greece ,
International Monetary Fund ,
Oil & Gas ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
Two new developments of enormous significance passed under the radar last week, buried by the growing threat of an outright Russia/Ukraine war and governmental encroachment on democracy in Canada. These developments, however,...more
3/14/2022
/ China ,
Climate Change ,
Coal ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Sector ,
EU ,
FERC ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
NATO ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
Shale Gas ,
Ukraine
Shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, February 23, President Biden reinstated the sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that he had waived only last year. Depending on what side of the political divide you...more
3/14/2022
/ China ,
Climate Change ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Policy ,
Energy Sector ,
Fracking ,
Germany ,
Joe Biden ,
Marcellus Shale ,
NATO ,
Oil & Gas ,
Paris Agreement ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
When Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine to go conquer that democracy, all of the abstract concepts about energy ended. While not quite a Pearl Harbor moment in terms of instantaneous ideological shift, Putin's...more
3/14/2022
/ Bad Actors ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Sector ,
Exports ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Marcellus Shale ,
Natural Gas ,
Nuclear Weapons ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
Last week, President Joe Biden warned Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky that a Russian invasion of Ukraine might be imminent. While Zelensky does not seem to share that assessment, full scale war in Eastern Europe seems...more
1/31/2022
/ Energy Policy ,
Energy Sector ,
Fracking ,
Germany ,
Marcellus Shale ,
NATO ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pennsylvania ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
If 2020 was the year of the great energy disconnect, 2021 was the year the people carrying out the energy debate appeared to be living on different planets, floating aimlessly through time and space and never intersecting...more
12/30/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Coal ,
Electricity ,
Energy Sector ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Hydropower ,
Keystone XL Pipeline ,
Natural Gas ,
Price Inflation ,
Renewable Energy ,
Russia ,
Severe Weather ,
Ukraine
May 26, 2021 was the day the energy world changed.
On the same day that a Dutch court in The Hague ruled that Royal Dutch Shell could be held liable for climate change and ordered it to reduce its greenhouse gas...more
The drive to litigate public policy over climate change took some hits the last two weeks in the United States Supreme Court. First, last Monday in the case of Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. BP P. L. C. et al.,...more
5/26/2021
/ Appeals ,
Clean Water Act ,
Climate Change ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
FERC ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Material Adverse Effects ,
Oil & Gas ,
Public Policy ,
SCOTUS