Robert Rapier

Latest articles from Robert

• Biofuel Breakthrough: Production Jumps 64%

  Published 03 May 2016 | viewed 24,211 times

  A few people have asked if I can reproduce more of my Forbes columns here, because they don’t like wading through the ads there to…

• What Was The Primary Cause Of The Coal Crash?

  Published 14 April 2016 | viewed 7,914 times

  Today, as had been expected, Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) — the largest coal producer in the United States — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy…

• How Leonardo DiCaprio’s Carbon Footprint Clashes With His Climate Claims

  Published 09 March 2016 | viewed 22,127 times

  Leonardo DiCaprio recently won the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in The Revenant. I saw the movie, and to my layman’s eye it…

• The Billion Dollar Biofuel That Fell 2.7 Billion Gallons Short

  Published 17 February 2016 | viewed 15,575 times

  Ten years ago a visionary named Vinod Khosla gave a presentation called Biofuels: Think Outside the Barrel. It seems to have disappeared from his Khosla…

• OPEC’s Trillion Dollar Mistake

  Published 26 January 2016 | viewed 18,453 times

  A few days after Christmas I appeared on CNBC Asia’s Squawk Box to discuss the volatility in the oil market. Bernie Lo asked a question…

• Renewables Take Center Stage In Paris, But How Feasible Are The Plans?

  Published 02 December 2015 | viewed 9,200 times

  Energy on the Edge Along with the OPEC meeting that takes place late this week, the biggest story in the world of energy is the…

• Keystone XL Might Prove A Pyrrhic Victory For Environmentalists

  Published 19 November 2015 | viewed 6,968 times

  A Long-Awaited DecisionEarlier this month, after a debate that spanned nearly the entire duration of his presidency, President Obama finally rejected the proposed Keystone XL…

• How Shale Oil Will Survive The Crude Carnage

  Published 07 November 2015 | viewed 25,525 times

  It’s Not That SimpleIn my previous article Why the Bakken Boomed, I discussed the shale oil boom that has had such a dramatic impact in…

• Little Hope For Crude Oil Exports If Clinton Is Elected

  Published 08 October 2015 | viewed 6,065 times

  Another Clinton Administration Likely I know some people cringe at the idea, but Hillary Clinton is the current favorite to win not only her party’s…

• Peak Oil Has More To Do With Oil Prices Than You May Think

  Published 18 September 2015 | viewed 25,786 times

  The Origins of Peak Oil AwarenessThe scientific study of peak oil began in the 1950′s, when Shell geophysicist M. King Hubbert reported on the evolution…

• Why $20 Oil Won’t Happen

  Published 21 August 2015 | viewed 18,010 times

  Déjà vu As the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) retests the $40 per barrel (bbl) mark, some pundits are again calling for WTI to…

• The Link Between Oil Reserves And Oil Prices

  Published 06 August 2015 | viewed 27,546 times

   Last December the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its latest estimate of U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Proved Reserves. Although natural gas reserves rose,…

• This Is Why The U.S May Actually Not Be The No.1 Oil Producer

  Published 21 July 2015 | viewed 7,083 times

  According to the recently-released BP (NYSE: BP) Statistical Review of World Energy 2014, the U.S. was the world’s largest and most diverse energy producer in…

• Don’t Believe The Hype On U.S. Shale Growth

  Published 13 June 2015 | viewed 17,343 times

  The OPEC Free FallThere is a popular narrative going around that I want to address in today’s article. Last November, after several months of plummeting…

• A Rundown Of The EIA’s Latest Energy Predictions

  Published 27 April 2015 | viewed 8,045 times

  Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its Annual Energy Outlook 2015 (AEO2015). The report presents updated projections for U.S. energy markets through 2040…

• The Truth About U.S. Crude Storage

  Published 13 March 2015 | viewed 42,212 times

  Despite the popular narrative that we keep hearing, the U.S is not running out of crude oil storage. Yet there are those who are predicting…

• Obama Called Out On Keystone Lies

  Published 05 March 2015 | viewed 9,806 times

  I will preface this article with my standard disclaimer on the Keystone XL Pipeline project: I have no vested interest in the pipeline either way.…

• Nigeria’s Future Depends On Electricity

  Published 25 February 2015 | viewed 16,044 times

  Africa’s most populous country will head to the polls on March 28th in the closest elections in Nigeria’s short democratic history. While security has dominated…

• Despite The Risks Oil Shipments By Rail Have To Continue

  Published 21 February 2015 | viewed 8,970 times

  By now you have probably heard that a CSX (NYSE: CSX) train carrying Bakken crude from North Dakota’s shale oil fields derailed and caught fire.…

• Why Oil Won’t Go Below $40

  Published 05 February 2015 | viewed 17,481 times

  When I made my energy predictions for 2015, I made some very aggressive predictions. Perhaps the most aggressive was that the closing price of West…