The state-owned Chinese nuclear group that is in talks to invest in Britain’s new nuclear programme wants greater operational control of any new plants it finances, potentially creating a national security headache for the government.
China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), is in talks with EDF of France on sharing the cost of building a new plant at Hinkley Point, Somerset, which has an estimated price tag of £14bn.
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Oil prices are up to $115 a barrel for Brent crude on the basis of market fears that western governments will not be able to limit their involvement in Syria to a few missile strikes shot from warships located safely offshore and that the Sunni-Shia conflict will spread across the Middle East. The forward market is suggesting that spot prices will go even higher. Maybe. The western involvement certainly looks ill-prepared and lacking in strategic purpose. The response to what is happening in Syria from the US, in particular, reminds me of the impotent response of the dying Ottoman regime to the gradual collapse of its empire across the Middle East in the years before the first world war.
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Il mercato degli asset oil & gas nordamericano nei primi sei mesi del 2013 si è dimezzato rispetto allo stesso periodo dell’anno scorso, passando da 54 a 26 miliardi di dollari, dicono i dati di Bloomberg. Compagnie importanti come BHP e Shell hanno drasticamente ridimensionato i loro investimenti in shale gas e shale oil. La corsa a questi ‘fossili non convenzionali’ negli Usa frena bruscamente, gas e petrolio da scisti non sembrano mantenere le promesse di prosperità di poco tempo fa. Sta già scoppiando la bolla che qualcuno ha pronosticato?
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A giugno l’annuncio che il programma Desertec verrà abbandonato o ampiamente ridiscusso. I mega progetti di fonti rinnovabili, imperniati sulla ricerca del ‘consenso energetico’, sono spesso funzionali allo status quo energetico, soprattutto se gestiti con mentalità colonialista e centralizzata. Sviluppare le rinnovabili significa tenere in conto anche aspetti sociali e migliorare l’economia regionale.
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Following months of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, it appears the Senate will begin debate soon on critically important legislation which could help American consumers, businesses and the federal government to save hundreds of millions of dollars each year by using less energy. And using less energy gives us a big leg up in the fight against climate change.
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