Prior to Israel’s recent attacks on Iran, energy prices and supplies were buffeted by the continuing war between Ukraine and Russia. Following the American bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites, Iran threatened to close the...more
6/30/2025
/ Agribusiness ,
Agricultural Sector ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Policy ,
Energy Sector ,
Fertilizers ,
Food Supply ,
Geopolitical Risks ,
International Trade ,
Iran ,
Israel ,
Oil & Gas ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
Ever since the relationship between former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma became public, Ukrainian energy companies have been in the public eye. That remains the case, as the...more
As I predicted might happen in a previous article, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stopped Russia from exporting oil and natural gas pumped in Russia through pipelines traversing Ukraine to Austria, Hungary and other...more
1/8/2025
/ Energy Policy ,
Energy Sector ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Foreign Policy ,
Military Conflict ,
National Security ,
NATO ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
The collapse of the Assad Regime in Syria is the latest in a series of political and military defeats that have staggered the Kremlin. In just two short weeks, the 54-year-old Assad family dynasty fell to a collection of...more
Paradoxically, the world of the mid 2020s is a world in which countries otherwise rich in energy supply nonetheless have been having trouble keeping the lights on, both undermining their political, societal, and economic...more
Despite being at war for almost three years, Russia has continued to ship natural gas via pipelines through Ukraine to other countries in Europe. That has kept money flowing to both countries, which helps as they try to kill...more
Ever since the beginning of the Israeli assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon, France’s President Emmanuel Macron has been taking an increasingly strong public stance against the actions of the Jewish State, if not against the...more
11/6/2024
/ Energy Sector ,
Fracking ,
France ,
Investment ,
Israel ,
Liquid Natural Gas ,
Middle East ,
Military Conflict ,
Popular ,
Qatar ,
Ukraine
As the Ukraine war progresses toward its third winter, Russian President Vladimir Putin finds himself besieged on numerous fronts. During the first 30 months of this conflict, Putin used his vast energy resources to hedge...more
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it lost access to many world markets, including much of Europe. Countries like Germany, which for years had relied on Russian gas and oil, now turned sharply away and sought to...more
Statesmen hesitate to get involved in wars for numerous reasons. One key reason is that, once they are started, wars can, and often do, take on lives of their own. Indeed, at times, they produce the exact opposite result of...more
The best statesmen understand what less worldly and less experienced people often overlook: Wars are mainly political and economic endeavors, and they involve the use of brute force to obtain political and/or economic...more
Over the last two weeks, while news coverage in America has been fixated on the FBI’s raid on Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago, and later on the death of Queen Elizabeth II, there have been important news stories not widely...more
9/12/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
China ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
FERC ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Greece ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
Turkey ,
Ukraine ,
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)
Less than two years after a catastrophic explosion nearly leveled whole parts of Lebanon's capital, Beirut, plunging the country into economic disrepair and social despair, the Ukraine war and natural gas gave Lebanon a...more
Since the execution of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 that led to the establishment of the Euro single currency, different European Union countries have faced issues meeting the Treaty’s requirements to maintain the currency,...more
7/21/2022
/ Embargo ,
Energy Sector ,
EU ,
European Central Bank ,
Food Supply ,
Fossil Fuel ,
GDP ,
Germany ,
Greece ,
International Monetary Fund ,
Oil & Gas ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
Just north of Philadelphia International Airport and south of the Philadelphia sports Stadium complex lies the Port of Philadelphia, one of the largest freshwater ports in the world. So strategically located is the Port of...more
Two new developments of enormous significance passed under the radar last week, buried by the growing threat of an outright Russia/Ukraine war and governmental encroachment on democracy in Canada. These developments, however,...more
3/14/2022
/ China ,
Climate Change ,
Coal ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Sector ,
EU ,
FERC ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
NATO ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
Shale Gas ,
Ukraine
Shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, February 23, President Biden reinstated the sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that he had waived only last year. Depending on what side of the political divide you...more
3/14/2022
/ China ,
Climate Change ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Policy ,
Energy Sector ,
Fracking ,
Germany ,
Joe Biden ,
Marcellus Shale ,
NATO ,
Oil & Gas ,
Paris Agreement ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
When Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine to go conquer that democracy, all of the abstract concepts about energy ended. While not quite a Pearl Harbor moment in terms of instantaneous ideological shift, Putin's...more
3/14/2022
/ Bad Actors ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Sector ,
Exports ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Marcellus Shale ,
Natural Gas ,
Nuclear Weapons ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
Last week, President Joe Biden warned Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky that a Russian invasion of Ukraine might be imminent. While Zelensky does not seem to share that assessment, full scale war in Eastern Europe seems...more
1/31/2022
/ Energy Policy ,
Energy Sector ,
Fracking ,
Germany ,
Marcellus Shale ,
NATO ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pennsylvania ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
If 2020 was the year of the great energy disconnect, 2021 was the year the people carrying out the energy debate appeared to be living on different planets, floating aimlessly through time and space and never intersecting...more
12/30/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Coal ,
Electricity ,
Energy Sector ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Hydropower ,
Keystone XL Pipeline ,
Natural Gas ,
Price Inflation ,
Renewable Energy ,
Russia ,
Severe Weather ,
Ukraine
During a press briefing on Friday afternoon, State Department spokesman Ned Price abruptly changed the subject from the disastrous pullout in Afghanistan to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
A Russian ship, the Ostap Sheremeta,...more
8/30/2021
/ Afghanistan ,
Biden Administration ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Germany ,
Keystone XL Pipeline ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
OPEC ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
The geo-political folly that is the Nord Stream 2 pipeline – designed to convey natural gas directly from Russia to Germany in the Baltic Sea – came into sharper focus this week. As work on the highly controversial pipeline...more
The simmering dispute over waterway rights between Ukraine and Russia broke into armed conflict this week. Its implications are enormous both for the energy world as a whole and especially for us in the Marcellus Shale...more
11/29/2018
/ Energy Sector ,
EU ,
Germany ,
Inland Waterways ,
Marcellus Shale ,
Military Conflict ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Popular ,
Ports ,
Russia ,
Trump Administration ,
Ukraine ,
Water Rights