Blog

Fine Particulate Matter in the Air of China’s Cities

Posted February 13, 2012   By Philip Andrews-Speed

Recent months have seen a growth in the awareness among China’s urban residents of fine particulate matter suspended in the air. Atmospheric pollution is nothing new to the Chinese. If you lived in northern China like Beijing twenty years or more ago, you would be plagued by coal dust in the winter and desert sand in the spring.

Poland’s Flame of Hope

Posted February 9, 2012   By Corey Johnson, Tim Boersma

In late September, the Polish national oil and gas company lit a symbolically important flare of natural gas near Lubocino in northern Poland, which it called a “flame of hope.” The hope is that the layer of subterranean shale rock holds the country’s energy future.

The Political Mine Field Called European Shale Gas

Posted February 2, 2012   By Tim Boersma

Last week the European Commission published a voluminous report with the promising title ‘Final report on unconventional gas in Europe.’i

China’s Iranian Oil Dilemma

Posted January 26, 2012   By Philip Andrews-Speed

China is not only a major strategic ally of Iran but it also relies on Iran for oil imports. In the face of US sanctions, China is likely to find a middle way involving some reduction of oil imports from Iran but not a complete cessation.

China’s oil and gas relations with Iran

Moment of Grace, or Coup de Grâce? A Realist View on Hungary

Posted January 24, 2012   By András Rácz

In his Transatlatlantic Take on 20 January Pavol Demeš argued that though Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban should be aware that he cannot ‘continue bluffing the United States and the European Union forever,’ he is unlikely to ‘reset his policies any time soon.’ In fact he is doing just that, although not fully voluntarily.

Making Sense of South Stream and the Southern Corridor

Posted January 5, 2012   By Corey Johnson

A flurry of recent headlines has caused confusion surrounding the pipeline drama of the so-called Southern Corridor. Bottom line: there are no “done deals” as to which pipelines will be constructed linking Caspian/Russian sources of natural gas with European consumers.

Here is what has been reported:

The Race for Santa’s Backyard

Posted December 25, 2011   By Geoffrey Kemp, Tim Boersma, Nicholas S. Siegel

Global warming is causing Greenland’s glaciers and ice fields to melt. The extent of sea ice now found at the North Pole is decreasing year by year, and the huge permafrost areas of Russia and Canada are beginning to thaw. This has led to speculation that with the opening up of the Arctic, a scramble for its abundant resources may take place.

A New European Collision in the Making?

Posted December 21, 2011   By Tim Boersma

In late September, during an informal meeting of EU energy ministers in Poland, several prominent ministers dismissed European Commission proposals – published on 7th September – aimed at strengthening the external dimension of EU energy policy. They said it granted Brussels too much power. At November 24th the European Council meeting ministers further criticized the proposals.

Oh Canada…

Posted December 15, 2011   By Stacy VanDeveer

This week, Canadian officials formally announced what everyone has known for years: Canada will withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol and renounce the commitments and promises it made in 1997 (and many times since). In fact, Canadian federal officials plan for the country’s emissions to go up. They don’t call press conferences to announce that, of course. But there it is.

Nabucco, a Pipeline Opera in Four Acts

Posted December 15, 2011   By Corey Johnson

Nabucco was the first opera I saw in Europe. My German host family took me in the summer of 1996 to a spectacular staging under the stars in the Roman-era amphitheater in the northern Italian city of Verona. Giuseppe Verdi’s classico retells the Psalm 137 story of the exile of the Jews to Babylon by the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco in Italian).