Petroleum
- Now that oil prices have stabilized, perhaps it's time to look back and assess the carnage ... according to OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo, cartel member nations lost the equivalent of $1 trillion (USD) over the course of the three-year slump.
- Much like the world’s major oil exporters — Nigeria, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, etc. — the US has its own petro-states whose specialized economies suffer when oil prices drop; they include: Alaska, Wyoming, Louisiana, North Dakota and Oklahoma.
Natural gas
- Featured story: The US Department of State considers the spread and use of natural gas around the world a key geopolitical strategy, calling the fuel "critical to economic growth" and democracy. The department is working with national governments to put "the right investment climate in place," according to Robin Dunnigan, deputy assistant secretary of state for energy diplomacy.
Coal
- In the first half of 2016, six former Soviet countries produced 232 million tons of coal, the highest output in a six-month period since 1996. Meanwhile, China's National Developm has asked 74 coal mines to boost thermal coal output by 500,000 tons per day in order to ease supply shortages ahead of the winter; this directive will bring another 15 million tons of new supply each month to the market.
- Don Blankenship, who led Massey Energy Co. during the 2010 Upper Big Branch disaster that killed 29 miners in 2010, wrote a 68-page booklet from prison declaring that he is a victim of long-running animosity from labor unions, the Obama administration, the judiciary system and Hillary Clinton. AES Members have access to his self-published book.
Nuclear
- In 2010, Japan got 25% of its electricity from nuclear power; today, it gets .4%.
