Its been quite a while since I last posted to this blog - five months in fact. All I can plead is workload and family responsibilities. Whatever the reasons, I'm going to once again take a stab at regularly posting on energy, sustainability and occasionally, investing in sustainable energy.
When I started this blog, I was thinking a lot about investing in clean, green, sustainable, etc. energy. Oil prices were high (WTI hit US$82.51/bbl the day of my first post) and heading higher. Clean energy funds and renewable energy start-ups were being announced daily and there was a "sky is falling" tenor to the press commentaries on energy.
Energy prices are lower now (today, WTI is sitting at US$58.81/bbl) and many of the start-ups that were the focus of so much attention 18 months ago have slipped beneath the waves - likely never to be seen again. What remains is a pressing need for sustainable energy to address mounting evidence of climate change and what will be the inevitable return to concerns for peak oil.
With this iteration of my blog writing efforts, I don't expect to write as much about investing in energy - there isn't as much to talk about in that regard these days and my interests have shifted a bit. What I will try to focus on more is interesting and/or small scale technologies as well as the effects of our addiction to oil and gas and some of the solutions that appear to be emerging. Needless to say, I will also be looking at the growing momentum for climate legislation and regulation in North America.
Perhaps another way if putting this would be to highlight a quote from the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital blog. Writing today about a CERI report concerning Canada's oil sands (see Shifting Sands, May 13), Ben Casselman concludes:
It would be nice to play a small part in exploring those vast changes.
