According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the world’s demand for energy is going to increase by nearly 50 percent by 2035. Based on EIA projections, this graphic from API’s 2012 State of American Energy report shows that oil and natural gas is expected to supply 52 percent of that energy, only slightly less than today’s share (55 percent).

This means finding and producing oil and natural gas will remain critical to the global economy in the decades ahead. The International Energy Agency:

“Every advanced economy has required secure access to modern sources of energy to underpin its development and growing prosperity. … In developing countries, access to affordable and reliable energy services is fundamental to reducing poverty and improving health, increasin... more »

President Obama's Twitter town hall yesterday was pretty neat - the Tweeter-in-Chief fielding questions from the public on a range of issues, including some on energy. The president trumpeted renewable energies while saying America needs to reduce dependence on oil. More on that below. First, some interesting context on renewables, from a live chat held last week by the Energy Department. Dr. Arun Majumdar, director of the department's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, responded to the public's emails and Tweets for about 45 minutes. You can check out the video here. Key takeaways on renewables:

• Futuristic technologies, including biofuels, electrofuels and powerful car batteries, remain just that: in the future. "The technologies that are required to make us secure ... all of them... more »

So, just how do we get to energy security - to the point where, by 2030, 92 percent of America's liquid fuel needs is supplied by a combination of U.S. and Canadian sources? Here's how.

Start with where we are now. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States uses slightly more than 19 million barrels per day (mb/d) in liquid fuels - including oil, heating oil, diesel and biofuels. Of that total, 8.5 mb/d (45 percent) comes from U.S. sources, 2.33 mb/d (12 percent) from Canada and 7.2 mb/d (38 percent) from the rest of the world. Biofuels account for about 1 mb/d (5 percent).

With the right policies, by 2030 the U.S. can account for 62 percent of its liquid fuel needs and Canada 16 percent. Add in the EIA's projection that biofuels will grow to 14 percent, a... more »

While the administration wrestles with itself over approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, some important points to consider:

• Within a few years of its completion, Keystone XL would deliver upwards of 830,000 barrels of oil per day (b/d) from Canada's oil sands region to U.S. refiners, creating tens of thousands of U.S. jobs.
• The Energy Information Administration reports that with the additional 830,000 b/d, U.S. production and secure, reliable Canadian imports would supply 57 percent of our crude oil needs - up from 51 percent in 2010.
• In a larger context, the pipeline would be part of an access strategy that could supply 92 percent of this country's liquid fuel needs by 2035.

Given the prospect of access to that much oil from a good neighbor and ally, you'd think government approval woul... more »

"These are not your father's windmills," President Obama said this week during a visit to the Gamesa wind turbine plant outside Philadelphia. "This is the future of American energy." (italics added)

That's a strong statement coming from the President of the United States, and it has some critics shaking their heads over the administration's energy policy. As the president has stated, his goal is to reduce oil imports by a third by 2025 and produce 80 percent of America's electricity from alternative and renewable sources by 2035.

Are his objectives realistic? In an Op-Ed published in the Houston Chronicle, Robert L. Bradley Jr. of the Institute for Energy Research says the administration's proposals are not based on "an objective analysis of the facts."