The first race in the ten-race electric Formula E series ended with a crash this past Saturday in Beijing. e.dams-Renault driver Nico Prost held the lead toward the end of the race, but as he approached the final lap, Venturi driver Nick Heidfeld passed Prost on the inside. Prost bumped Heidfeld, sending the Venturi car into a crash barrier and into the air. After landing upside down, Heidfeld scrambled out of the car and accosted Prost. Audi Sport ABT driver Lucas di Grassi passed the pair and took first place. Continue reading Formula E Opens With A Crash
Category Archives: Formats
Mexico Is Poised for Energy Boom
Mexico reopened its energy market to outside producers in August for the first time in more than 75 years. Until now, private companies could only serve as contractors to the national hydrocarbon or electricity monopolies.
Mexicans formerly took pride in keeping a major natural resource in national hands. Pemex, the state petroleum monopoly, provided almost a third of federal revenues. Yet Pemex’s production began dropping in the mid-1990s. In 2013, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicted (PDF) that by 2025 Mexican oil production would plunge by more than 50 percent from 2010 levels, despite the presence of the equivalent of 450 billion barrels of oil in Mexico, on par with Saudi Arabia’s resources. On August 25, citing the reforms, the EIA predicted a turnaround in the decline over the next few years and a return to growth by 2025. Mexico is now on the verge of an oil and gas boom. Continue reading Mexico Is Poised for Energy Boom
Hitting Rock Bottom
Fishing boats have dragged nets across the seafloor in pursuit of bottom-feeding fish and crustaceans since the Middle Ages. In recent decades, motorized fishing fleets, powered by government subsidies, have taken heavier nets deeper and farther offshore. The annual haul from international waters in 2010 was reported to be worth more than $600 million.
To see how bottom trawling is changing the ocean’s bottom, ecologist Antonio Pusceddu of the Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona, Italy, and his team took seafloor sediment samples at trawled and untouched sites off Spain’s northeastern coast between 500 and 2,000 meters below the surface. They then counted the number of individuals and species in those samples and measured the amount of carbon in the sediment. Continue reading Hitting Rock Bottom
Mexico Opens Its Grid to Competition
As part of a wider reform of its energy market, Mexico is privatizing its energy regulator and will begin allowing private companies to sell energy to, and add capacity to, its electricity grid. The country’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, enacted the laws (English summaries) on Monday, August 11th (Spanish pdf). Petroleum and electricity have been state monopolies in law since the 1917 constitution and in practice since the late 1930s, when Mexico succeeded in expropriating foreign energy firms’ holdings.