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Right now countries all over the world are rushing to make their green energy targets. This does include places like the UK and the United States. Right now, there is a lot of talk about what is the most efficient way to reach these targets. While countries are all coming up with new ideas, the answer to the problem may be to use all these ideas.

For example, in the United States, there are some States that are forcing state run agencies to increase their energy efficiency. This is a great idea that many other countries need to use as well. To better understand this new regulation, let’s take a closer look at it.

The Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, said that he has now issued an executive order that directs all state-owned agencies to increase the energy efficiency of their buildings by 20 percent. This has to be done over the course of seven years.

His administration said that it has an implementation plan that will help set project priorities based on energy savings per dollar spent. Thus, they will be addressing the most inefficient buildings first. Usually this means that they will be starting with older buildings as they are likely to be the least energy efficient.

In order to help with this scheme, the New York Power Authority has committed to providing at least $450 million in low-cost financing. However, according to the governor’s office, most of the projects that they will be taking on will require no capital spending upfront. Not only that, but the money that is spent is likely going to be paid back with the money that each agency saves on their energy bill.

Overall, this looks like a pretty good plan. However, there are still some areas that people think it could be improved on. One such area would be the timeline. Some people feel that seven years is way too long for agencies to drop their energy usage by 20 percent. In many cases, companies could wait years before they even start addressing this problem. This is not the kind of action that people want to see taken.

In short, the UK could use this strategy, but tweak it a bit. Make government-run businesses find ways to lower their energy bills. At the same time, don’t give them seven years to do it. By shortening the time, the UK could use this decrease in energy as a way to meet their carbon emission goals.

Recently, there has been a lot of bad news regarding the renewable energy sector in the UK. So much, in fact, that many believed that the UK would not be able to reach their targets. However, the government has recently put these fears to rest by stating that they are on track to meeting their 2020 renewable energy targets. This was thanks to the fact that low-carbon electricity generation was able to grow more than a quarter in the year ending June 2012. Most of this was due to new solar and offshore wind projects.

This report, which was released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, stated that renewable energy actually accounted for over 10 percent of the total electricity supplied in the 12 months to the end of June. As a result, renewable power output actually grew by an incredible 27 percent from July of 2011. This more than puts the UK on track to meeting its goals as long as more projects continue to be in the pipeline.

Edward Davey, who is the energy Secretary over at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, said that renewable energy is increasingly powering the UK’s grid. Not only that, but it is finally starting to help out the economy as well.  This is being viewed as a fantastic achievement, as more than 10 percent of the nation’s power now comes from renewables. This is huge when considering the fact that the UK started in a pretty poor condition.

Right now, the UK wants to produce at least 15 percent of its energy from renewable energy by the year 2020. This does include electricity, heat and transportation. Overall, that would mean that at least 30 percent of the UK’s electricity needs to come from renewable sources by the end of decade. Most likely, wind will play a huge factor in getting the country to its goal.

It’s kind of funny when people think about how it was wind power that made it possible for our forefathers to explore the new world and make a new life for themselves. Once again, the nation turns to wind to make yet another new start. There is no denying that the power of wind is great, and it can help us reach our renewable energy goals.

Essar Energy has said that the carbon price floor may force more UK refineries down the road to closure. For those who do not know, the policy is intended to boost green power generation. However, on the flipside, this new policy will mean that there is a higher minimum price for polluting carbon emissions. This higher price is likely going to put many refineries out of business. Either that or they will at least pull out of the UK, as it would be the most costly place to do business (when compared to the rest of Europe).

Volker Schultz, who is the chief executive of Essar Oil UK, said that this new measure is going to put many of Britain’s remaining refineries at a big disadvantage when compared to the rest of Europe. After all, refiners have already been struggling with a long-term trend of low margins. One example of this was the closing off the Coryton refinery in Essex just this year. Some 850 jobs were lost with its closing.

Any kind of further closures in Britain are likely to risk supply security by making the UK rely even more in imported fuels than what it already does. This is just more money the UK government cannot afford to pay.

Mr. Schultz went on to say that the extra costs from the carbon price would actually take a huge hit on profits for refineries. They would no longer be profitable, and would be forced to close down. If margins come down even just a little bit, coupled with the carbon price, that would be more than enough to cause a refinery to go under.

Reports suggest that this policy may actually add about £20 million a year in costs to refiners in the UK. Other policies, like the European Emissions Trading Scheme, could add up to £75 million to refiners. It would be hard for any industry to be hit with those kinds of increases.

Experts say that they understand that the government can do very little to influence commercial conditions for the refining sector. That is something people have come to accept. However, the European Union level and some of the UK only legislations have a cumulative impact on competitiveness. The risk that comes with this is closures. Many UK refineries will close, and this will hurt fuel prices for all in the long run.

Right now the UK is in a big push for renewable energy. That being said, the government wants companies to build as many wind turbines as they can. Thus, it would sound like the 21 wind turbines that Renewable Energy Systems Ltd is going to build would be a good thing? However, Carmarthenshire planners turned down this application just last month. Well, this is something that Renewable Energy Systems Ltd does not want to take lying down. That is why they launched an appeal with the Welsh Government.

Dan Patterson, who is a spokesman for Renewable Energy Systems Ltd, said that they believe that there is a strong case to be answered here. This is mostly because the site lies within a strategic area perfect for renewable energy that the Welsh Government has given the “OK” to develop on.

If this appeal gets accepted then the Carmarthenshire Council is going to have to defend their decision to block these turbines at a public inquiry. This could be hard to do since the people of the UK are under the impression that companies are supposed to be making a big push for renewable energy.

Mr. Patterson went on to say that the project had been in the planning process or the past two years. The appeal has already been lodged with the Planning Inspectorate for Wales. They must now wait for some kind of notification of the starting date so that the formal appeal process can start. Everyone at Renewable Energy Systems Ltd is really looking forward to hearing the outcome.

Of course, it is important to note that this is not the first application that Renewable Energy Systems Ltd filed. In fact, they have an ongoing appeal with the Carmarthenshire Council. The previous appeal was for a 12 turbine wind farm. This wind farm is on the Forestry land near Rhydcymerau and is another application that has not yet gone before the committee. However, it is very likely that this new appeal will have a huge impact on this application as well.

The Welsh Government is very likely to listen to the appeal, just for the simple fact that the government has been working so hard to get people on board with the renewable energy projects. They are not able to fund all of the renewable projects themselves and need more companies to invest in them.

Right now, governments all over the world are trying to invest more in renewable energy. That being said, there are some countries that just have more to offer in terms of renewable energy than others. Many people have been talking about what the UK could offer in terms of renewable energy, but there is another area that may be able to offer even more, and that is Norway.

Experts say that Norway is in a very good position when it comes to renewable energy. Right now, 95 percent of the energy produced in Norway comes from Hydropower. Not only that, but energy prices in Norway are the lowest in all of Europe. This is just further proof that renewable energy can be used to power a nation for cheap. All that being said, Norwegian consumers are known for using less environmentally friendly energy.

What most people do not know is that the power that is generated in Norway is typically sold to other countries. This is how many other countries in Europe are able to lower their carbon output, because they are using renewable energy. Many experts believe that Norway could be used to produce even more renewable energy if more countries and companies would invest in the area. However, not everything is as black and white as what some people would like to believe.

Take the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate. Back in June they announced an update to their energy declaration. They said that close to 45 percent of the energy that is purchased from Norway is actually coming from fossil fuels. This is a very different story than the stories which suggest that most of the energy that comes from Norway is clean.

That being said, experts still believe that Norway could be a renewable energy powerhouse, it just hasn’t happened yet. The real question is: How much money would need to be invested in the area to make the “myth” about hydropower a reality?

The managing Director of Telinet Energi, Finn Erik Arctander, said that Norway is in a special position when it comes to renewable energy. He went on to say that, because most of the electricity in Norway is produced from water, people tend to think that the power they use is green. The real problem is the fact that most of the renewable energy that is produced, although not as much as first believed, is still sold overseas.

Think that fracking is a good way to get natural gas? Well, not according to the National Trust. In fact, the National Trust has just recently joined the ranks of people who are concerned by the government’s new found support for fracking. For those who do not know, fracking is the very controversial technique used to search for natural gas that is trapped in the earth’s crust. Reports have recently suggested that minor earthquakes are being caused by the process of releasing this gas.

The National Trust has now come forward and said that the process of releasing this gas is “fools gold”. This statement actually came just days after the government poured their support behind more fracking projects in the UK.

The director of conservation at the National Trust, Peter Nixon, said that they have a presumption against fracking. This is because of the threat that it poses to the countryside. Not only that, but at the end of the day, all of this is being done for more fossil fuels. The government should not be supporting something that is going to just cause more climate change.

The fracking technique is kind of extreme. It is done by drilling hundreds of meters down into the ground and then blasting water and chemicals into the rocks. This will then extract the gas that has been embedded in the ground for years.

The problem is, once the rocks crack, and the gas is released and the ground can shift. This of course causes earthquakes. Right now, fracking is very big in the United States. In fact, it is because of this process that people think the United States could become a top exporter of energy in less than 20 years.

Mr. Nixon went on to say that this is a process that involves huge amounts of water. On top of that, it has led to earth tremors in the past. The National Trust owns 50,000 buildings ranging from very small farm cottages to large mansions. The last thing that they want is for their assets to be put at risk by fracking. There are also aesthetic concerns to think about. The concern is that fracking may actually divert money away from other forms of energy, like renewables.

Every time people turn around, there is a new report about rising energy costs. Well, the press does not have to tell people, because they see it every time they get their energy bill. What people would like to know is why. They want to know why energy bills are increasing. Energy companies would have people believe that this is due to wholesale gas prices, but experts tend to disagree. They say that it is easy for energy companies to blame wholesale gas, because the average consumer has no way of disproving this theory. It is something they just have to accept.

Regardless of why energy bills are increasing, people’s energy bills have hit £1,400 for the first time. This huge sum came after energy bills increased by £250 in just two years. These figures were released by Ofgem, which is the very same organization that some MPs are blaming for this increase.

A number of MPs are now getting on the “it’s all Ofgem’s fault” bandwagon. The people need something to blame, and MPs would prefer it to be Ofgem. They state that the organization needs to do more in keeping energy companies in check. After all, that is why Ofgem is there. These same MPs say that Ofgem is nothing more than a “child’s security blanket”, if being there makes people “feel” safer. But what is it actually doing. Energy companies are not afraid of Ofgem, and when they finally do get fined by the organization, they can easily pay these finds with the millions of pounds they continue to take from homeowners.

Things are really bad for people over the age of 50. Stats show that 35 percent of people over the age of 50 are already struggling to pay their heating bills. The higher you go up in age, the harder it gets for people to pay their bills. This mostly has to do with the fact that these people are on fixed incomes. While the price of heating their home is going up, the fixed income they receive is not.

A recent study shows that 3 out of every 5 people, or 58%, are worried about the cost of heating their home. On top of that, 53% of people said that they are now wearing extra clothes around their house so they don’t have to turn the heat up.

It has recently been announced that a former British Gas senior executive has been convicted of two counts of insider trading by the New South Wales Supreme Court. The man in question, Stuart Alfred Fysh, was the former vice-president of British Gas, which is one of the biggest energy companies in the world. Now he has been sentenced to at least two terms of imprisonment. One is worth two years, and the other is worth about 18 months. This judgment was handed down on Wednesday.

Reports go on to show that this executive was able to earn more than $1.3 million a year before his employment with British Gas came to an end. His two counts of insider trading are apparently related to his purchase of Queensland Gas Company back in December of 2007. Reports say that this illegal trade made him a profit of close to $626,703.

Of course, he may not have to spend that long in jail. Apparently Justice Lucy McCallum said that Fysh can be released on December 10, 2013 if he behaves well during his 12 months in prison. During sentencing McCallum said that Fysh had co-operated with authorities and has demonstrated a very strong willingness to facilitate the course of justice. Despite this, there is no other sentence than imprisonment that will adequately reflect the seriousness of the offense that has been done.

The way the sentence was broken down is as follows: Fysh was sentenced to two years in prison for being in possession of inside information. He can be released on December 10, 2013 pending good behavior. For acquiring close to 10,000 shares in Queensland Gas Company (while in possession of said information), he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. This too will be waved pending good behavior.

Of course, there are some people who are not happy with the judgment placed on him. They feel like he is getting off easy for the crime that he committed. In fact, he is turning a more than three-year prison sentence into less than 12 months. Once again, it shows that the big dogs are able to get away with more than the little guys.

At the very least, he was found guilty of these two charges. However, it appears that he received nothing more than a slap on the wrist, and in less than a year, he will be a free man again.

Coal is not known for being a clean source of energy. Despite that fact, and although countries around the world are trying to cut back on their carbon footprint, the International Energy Agency says coal is still going to catch up to oil as one of the world’s leading energy sources by 2022. This information was released by the agency and based on an increase in demand for coal from areas like China and India.

As most people know right now, natural gas offers the best hope for countries to reduce their carbon emissions quickly and with minimal investment. That being said, natural gas is not the cheapest form of energy out there. That is why a ton of other countries, who do not want to spend tons of money finding natural gas, will continue to use other sources of energy, like coal.

To make matters even worse, this announcement comes just after the European Union acknowledged the fact that they have been unable to fund one single carbon capture storage project. To put it simply, people should not expect the extra carbon made by this increased use of coal to be captured before being released into the atmosphere.

Although places like China and India will be pushing up the demand for coal, they will not be the biggest supporters. In fact, it is likely that developing countries that cannot afford to invest in clean energy will be the biggest supporters. In order to fuel their ever growing economy and give their citizens what they want, these developing countries will spur on the use of coal.

The report did go on to say that, by 2014, China will account for more than half of the whole world’s consumption of coal. Not only that, but India will take over the second place spot from the United States. This has to do with two different things. First, it has to do with the fact that India is increasing their coal usage. Secondly, it has to do with the fact that the United States is actually cutting back on its coal usage in favor of things like natural gas.

This news is kind of disheartening considering the fact that world leaders just recently had a meeting regarding climate change. They decided that they would stick to the original plan already put in motion. However, an increase in coal usage does not seem to be the answer.

There has been a lot of debate lately on where the UK should go from here in terms of energy. Some say that the country needs to focus more on renewable energy, while others think that the answer is drilling for more oil. One plan focuses more on a long-term solution, while the other focuses more on immediate gratification. Regardless of which plan people feel is right, the Department of Energy has put a lot of their eggs in one basket and of course, by eggs, we mean money.

Recently a £1 billion project has been given the go ahead. This new project is going to take place in the North Sea. Here, two new oil fields will be built.  The Department of Energy and Climate Change approved this new scheme, which will be given the name, the Western Isles Project.

Now the question is: Just how much oil is this new project going to produce? According to reports, this nine-well Western Isles development will be able to produce more than 40,000 barrels of oil. This should add more than 30,000 barrels a day to producer Dana Petroleum’s output by the year 2015. Of course, these figures are based on the assumption that there is enough oil in this area to keep up with this kind of high production.

The chief executive of Dana Petroleum, Dr. Marcus Richards, said that the Western Isles Project is at the heart of the company’s growth strategy. By unlocking the potential of these new fields, it will give a huge boost to the company. In fact, the company hopes to double their production of oil to 100,000 barrels a day by 2016. The company, of course, welcomes the announcement by the Treasury this year to offer more support to oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea. This is going to help create a very bright future for the industry as a whole.

Sajib Javid, who is the economic secretary, said that the North Sea is a very vital national asset. It has the ability to supply the country with lots of oil and gas. It could also help create a third of a million jobs. This is why the government has announced plans to help this kind of development. Not only is it going to help the job market, but it is going to help the energy crisis.

Right now rising energy bills are a big concern for many Brits. Many low-income families are trying to determine how they are going to cope with these rising prices. However, it is a much different story for people living in Australia. In fact, some 25,000 low-income households may see their energy bills reduced thanks to a carbon tax-funded scheme that should help improve energy efficiency.

Greg Combet, who is the climate change minister for Australia, said this past week that the first 11 projects to take advantage of this funding are already underway. This scheme, which is being called the Low Income Energy Efficiency Program, could translate into real savings for many low-income residents in the Australia.

The projects that this scheme takes on will be delivered by groups like the Nature Conservation Council and Environment Victoria. These groups will be attempting to tackle the many different barriers that are preventing low-income households from adopting energy efficient measures. The two biggest factors are usually time and money.

Greg Combet went on to say that the Low Income Energy Efficiency Program is funded by the carbon price. It will enable low-income families to find the capital costs to invest in energy efficient measures. In turn, this will of course reduce their energy bills and save them money.

He went on to say that this scheme would be targeting homes that have not been able to benefit from previous energy efficiency schemes. After all, there always seem to be people who don’t fit in certain schemes and get left behind.

Combet gave an example of this. He said that there are tons of people in Australia who are living in flats that do not have the opportunity to take advantage of these kinds of programs. Thus, the government has been looking for a way to deliver lower energy bills to people in these kinds of situations.

The first 11 projects will use up about $39.8 million of this scheme’s $100 million. These projects will be rolled out over the next four years. Some of the projects are going to include things like retrofitting low-income households with more energy efficient appliances and installing in-home displays to show energy consumption levels. By giving people this kind of knowledge, they can make smarter choices about how they use their energy.