Energy & Fuel

"On June 16th something very peculiar happened in Germany’s electricity market. The wholesale price of electricity fell to minus €100 per megawatt hour (MWh). That is, generating companies were having to pay the managers of the grid to take their electricity."

"The handling of an oil spill in North Dakota is raising questions, after a state agency waited to tell the public it had taken place. A wheat farmer was the first to recognize the spill had happened; it became public knowledge nearly two weeks later."

"A Tesoro Logistics LP pipeline has spilled more than 20,000 barrels of crude oil into a North Dakota wheat field, the biggest leak in the state since it became a major U.S. producer."

"A progressive activist group's online petition seeks to stop oil and gas drilling in national parks while the areas are closed to the public during the government shutdown."

"WASHINGTON -- As costs and competition from cheap natural gas force more old nuclear plants to shut down, their owners have a new complaint: the electricity market is rigged against them."

"More than 450 natural gas compressor stations and processing plants have been built in Pennsylvania since 2008, when Marcellus Shale gas development kicked into another, higher gear."

"WASHINGTON -- The oil industry Tuesday filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenging the government’s estimate of how much ethanol must be blended into the U.S. fuel supply this year."

"RICHMOND, Va. — Opponents of opening the George Washington National Forest to fracking for natural gas released a report Tuesday that they say proves the drilling practice would be harmful to the largest federal forest on the East Coast."

"BOSTON -- A Massachusetts power plant recently cited by federal regulators as one of the state's heaviest polluters is planning to shut down."