Talks toward an international agreement on establishing protected marine zones in Antarctica are inconclusive and may not make any headway until next July. Last month’s round of negotiations in Hobart, Australia, snagged on competing positions and proposals for protecting marine...

As part of California’s cap-and-trade program to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the state is gearing up for its first auction, set for next Wednesday, for carbon allowances. Under the cap-and-trade scheme, California will distribute annual allowances to industrial entities such as power...

Iraq’s strategic effort to become the world’s leading oil producer has taken some bad knocks, with the defection of Exxon Mobil and other majors to independence-minded Kurdistan, and Wednesday’s expulsion of Turkey’s state oil outfit from an exploration deal. But Russia...

Green is more than a team color for the Philadelphia Eagles. By the end of the year the team’s stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, will generate enough energy from 14 wind turbines and 11,000 solar panels to power every home game. “One of the uses of such a high-profile enterprise is...

Australia has issued its energy white paper considered to be the centerpiece of Australia’s future energy policy. The white paper “faces up to major challenges such as rising energy prices, pressures in Australia’s gas markets, remaining competitive in the development of our...

Strategic oil reserves will be needed if Iran seeks to close the choke point Strait of Hormuz because overland pipelines can only carry one-third of the oil supplies that move through the waterway, an Arab energy group has warned. The Tehran regime has threatened to block the 112-mile strait,...

Construction on the controversial Xayaburi Dam on the lower Mekong River in Laos has officially begun, an official said. “We held the groundbreaking ceremony today,” Rewat Suwanakitti, the deputy managing director of Xayaburi Power, the dam’s operator, was quoted as saying by...

An 85-megawatt wind farm in the Scottish highlands has been approved despite the objections of hikers who say spectacular views of the moors will be ruined. Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing announced Monday planning approval had been granted to the Beinneun wind farm, near Fort Augustus...

China has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against photovoltaic solar subsidies in the European Union. The action on Monday represents the latest wrinkle in the trade row over solar products between the two economies as well as the United States. It follows Beijing’s...

Fuel economy in automobiles sold in the United States in October reached a record high, indicating each manufacturer”s push for a broader customer base on the strength of lower costs per mile rather than looks or other performance features, new research data indicate. The University...

South Korea shut down two nuclear reactors because unverified parts were being used in the reactors, the government said. The reactors at the Yeonggwang plant about 205 miles southwest of Seoul account for about 5 percent of Korea’s national power supply, the government said. The parts,...

Energy companies cooperating with Greek Cypriot offshore drilling plans will be banned from participating in new oil and gas projects in Turkey, Ankara says. Turkey’s foreign ministry issued a statement Saturday reiterating warnings to oil companies taking part in last week’s four...

New Jersey residents are grappling with gasoline shortages in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. U.S. Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg , D-N.J., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., on Thursday called for U.S. President Barack Obama to release emergency fuel supplies to the state. “We are dealing with a...

The head of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization warned that “land grabs” of vast tracts of arable land in Africa by foreign governments and investors is like the “Wild West” and threatens the continent’s food security. Jose Graziano da...

The Falklands’ bid to enter the big league of oil producers in the South Atlantic is drawing hedge funds to what promises to be a multibillion-dollar enterprise. The Falkland, a British Overseas Territory, has been challenged by Argentina every step of the way from prospecting to...

Steps are proceeding for the controversial $3.8 billion Xayaburi dam in Laos despite assurances that the hydropower project was on hold pending further studies into possible environmental effects on the Mekong River. Austrian technology company Andritz said Thai construction company CH....

Iraq’s independence-minded Kurds have started exporting oil independently of Baghdad, fueling a political battle that will undermine the central government’s strategy of boosting oil production and possibly threaten the cohesion of the state. The move by the Kurdish Regional...

Iraq and southern neighbor Kuwait, at daggers drawn since the days of the Ottoman Empire, are again in dispute, this time over plans to build rival megaports in the northern Persian Gulf. The issue threatens to jeopardize years of painstaking diplomacy to improve relations between the two...

Japan’s Hitachi Ltd. will build up to six new nuclear reactors in the United Kingdom as part of its agreement to acquire Horizon Nuclear Power from German energy companies RWE and E.ON. The $1.1 billion deal announced this week propels Hitachi into the “new and uncomfortable”...

Chile is thinking again of meeting its future energy needs with nuclear power, after more than a year of hesitation and delays caused by the March 2011 Fukushima atomic reactor disaster in Japan. Energy Undersecretary Sergio del Campo signaled the end, at least for now, of the...

The latest bidding round for exploration rights on 20 Chinese shale gas blocks attracted a record 83 companies, the Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources said. The blocks total 7,723 square miles spread over eight Chinese provincial regions, Xinhua news agency reports. The auction is the...

The tiny South Pacific nation of Tokelau has switched to renewable energy sourced primarily from solar power. Consisting of 4,032 photovoltaic panels and 1,344 batteries with generators running on biofuel derived from coconuts, the $7.5 million Tokelau Renewable Energy Project is considered...

The United States’ first commercial oil sands mining project, in Utah, has been approved. Calgary company U.S. Oil Sands has been working since 2005 to get the green light from Utah officials to develop its proposed PR Spring project. The company anticipates that the 212-acre PR Spring...

As the oil boom in West Africa swells, pirate attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Guinea are “reaching dangerous proportions,” the International Maritime Bureau reports. The global piracy watchdog said this month that 44 pirate attacks have been reported in 2012. There were 25 in...

U.S. President Barack Obama, in a plan for his second term released this week, is touting the economic benefits of natural gas in a way he never did four years ago as a candidate. The shift reflects a new political reality — prices are down for natural gas and jobs are up —...

The energy industry in the Persian Gulf, which supplies more than one-third of the world’s oil supplies and much of its natural gas, is finding itself vulnerable to cyberattack, a form of warfare the United States, Israel and Iran are increasingly using. “Rising regional political...

Australian oil and gas company Santos Ltd. has launched the country’s first commercial shale gas well in the Cooper Basin in South Australia. South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill, who turned on the tap on the Moomba-191 well Friday, called it a “game changer” for...

The Canadian province of Alberta said it will create an “arm’s-length” agency to monitor the long-term environmental impact of oil sands development. Canada’s oil sands, the second largest reserve of oil after Saudi Arabia, are a mixture of sand, water, clay and bitumen...

Egypt increasingly views Ethiopia’s plan to build a massive 6,000-megawatt hydroelectric dam on the Nile River as a threat to its national security because it will seriously cut the Arab state’s water supplies. Egypt depends on the Nile for virtually all of its water and is...

Sa’ar 4.5-class missile ships of the Israeli navy are receiving new Advanced Lightweight Phased Array Radar systems. The Alpha units — developed and produced by Elbit Systems Ltd. — will be key components of the ships’ weapon system, capable of simultaneously performing...