Smart grid's global reach is expected to draw spending in excess of $46.4 billion by 2015, a report said Monday. Smart metering of electricity consumption, pioneered in North America and Europe, has caught on worldwide and the latest estimates put annual shipments of smart meters for new...

China has expanded its oldest nuclear power plant. With the addition of a new pressurized water reactor power-generating unit, the Qinshan nuclear power facility near Shanghai has a total capacity of 4.32 million kilowatts, from its previous capacity of 650,000 kilowatts, said operator China...

The opening of a new Russian oil terminal on the Baltic Sea, seen as a new direct link to Europe, is having an effect on world crude markets, analysts say. Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin last month celebrated the opening of the Ust-Luga terminal along the Gulf of Finland, west of St....

An unidentified country in Latin America has contracted Harris Corp. for an integrated, wireless digital voice and data network. Harris said that under the $12.4 million order for a communications for government agencies and the military, it will provide its OpenSky land mobile radio system,...

The political upheavals that have swept Africa in recent months, especially Libya's civil war, have accelerated a food crisis in the Sahel, a drought-plagued, semi-desert region that spans the continent. The Sahel runs for some 4,000 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea and...

Leading U.S. automobile manufacturers are forecasting higher car sales amid research that shows fuel efficiency gains in new vehicles over five years. The upbeat outlook on car sales was helped by economic performance figures but fuel efficiency gains, cited in a University of Michigan report,...

The U.S. Energy Department said it is preparing to approve more federal loan guarantees for green energy projects. The development comes amid controversy over the Obama administration's clean energy investments, after California solar-panel firm Solyndra, recipient of a $535 million U.S....

What does one say about Beirut — a colorful, booming, blossoming city, with traffic like nowhere else, warm hospitality, burgeoning political tensions that keeps the government on a tight wire act; lingering animosities amid incredible cultural diversity, but ultimately, a city and...

Over the past decade, Ford Motor Co. has set out to reduce the amount of an important natural resource it uses in the production of its vehicles. What precious liquid has the automotive company set its sights on? The humble three-atom compound H2O. “World Water Day is March 22,”...

Tensions between Baghdad and Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish enclave have intensified after the Kurds halted oil exports in a payment dispute and the government signed a deal with BP to develop the Kirkuk oil fields the Kurds claim are theirs. “Oil is obviously at the forefront of...

Fukushima, the prefecture where Japan's nuclear power plant disaster occurred, could host the country's largest geothermal power plant. The proposed plant would have an electricity generation capacity of 270,000 kilowatts, roughly one-quarter of what a nuclear plant can generate,...

The Indian government issued a rare presidential directive ordering Coal India Ltd. to sign fuel supply agreements with power plants. The presidential order follows an order issued to Coal India in February through the prime minister's office, also to sign supply agreements with power...

The competition for energy between China and India, the world's two largest expanding economies, is likely to encompass the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, a vital artery for oil and gas to Asia from the Persian Gulf. As the United States switches its strategic focus from the Middle East...

China's agricultural security is at risk from climate change and the selling of arable lands. “Food security remains the weakest link in China's national economic security,” Han Jun, deputy director of the State Council's Development Research Center told China...

New oil discoveries and prospects for further exploration are drawing investors to Latin America despite heightened tensions triggered by Argentina disputing British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and its energy-rich deep water. Amid renewed saber rattling over the Falklands, a British...

Uruguay is considering offering Iran rice shipments in return for oil in apparent disregard of U.S.-led sanctions regarding Iran's disputed nuclear program. Uruguayan officials said they expected Iran to consider the offer that would save the Latin American country hard-earned cash from...

The government of Nepal has given the green light for China Three Gorges Corp.'s $1.6 billion hydropower project on the West Seti River. “We have decided that the project should go ahead after due corrections in the agreement between the government and the company,” said...

There's no need for panic in Scotland amid concerns that tanker drivers in the United Kingdom are planning to go on strike, the government announced. The British government last week was criticized for advising motorists of a potential fuel shortage because of a looming strike by tanker...

The U.S. government is reportedly blocking Iranian moves to siphon oil from disputed oil fields on the border with Iraq to get around tightening international sanctions that threaten its energy industry, Iran's economic backbone. Tehran's strategy appears to have been to extract...

The Canadian government said it plans to streamline the environmental assessment process for major energy projects. Under its new budget proposal, Canada will “implement responsible resource development and smart regulation for major economic projects, respecting provincial jurisdiction...

France is willing to release oil from its strategic reserves to help tamp down the soaring world price of crude oil, Energy Minister Eric Besson says. The official, speaking after a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, said France is open to releasing some of its strategic reserves in coordination with...

Strife-torn Syria has historically had a strategic position in the Middle East as the crossroads of empires and as Iran threatens to close the Persian Gulf's oil shipping route some see Syria as an alternative gateway for pipelines to the Mediterranean. But for that to happen, Syria,...

Mexico, buoyed by success in wind energy expansion, is launching a giant solar energy project that sees a U.S. firm's role in its primary development. Soaring crude oil prices have skewed national budgets throughout Central and Latin America and the ongoing row between Argentina and...

As the U.S. Senate voted 51-47 against a bill that would remove billions of dollars in oil company tax breaks, members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources pressed a panel of experts on the nation”s rising gas prices. “Most who are really feeling the pain at...

The future of Australia's massive Solar Dawn solar research and power plant is uncertain following the election of Queensland's new premier. Campbell Newman, sworn in as premier Monday, plans to cut green programs started by his predecessor Anne Bligh, who was ousted in...

Mining giant Xstrata has received the go-ahead for its $6.3 billion Wandoan mine in Australia, potentially the largest thermal coal mine in the southern hemisphere. The proposed open cut mine in Queensland's Surat Basin would produce 30 million tons of coal a year for the next 30...

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda urged world leaders not to be lulled into a “myth of safety” regarding nuclear power. Speaking Tuesday at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, Noda shared Japan's lessons learned from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which was knocked...

Global oil supplies are being increasingly squeezed, pushing up prices, because of an Iranian threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic Persian Gulf oil artery. A sharp drop in output by Iran, long the second-ranked producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, due to...

BP will explore for shale oil and natural gas in northeast Ohio after it acquired lease on thousands of acres of potentially energy-rich land in the state. BP said Tuesday its exploration program will focus on the Utica/Point Pleasant shale formation, which its experts say is “very...

A 6-magnitude earthquake rattled the eastern coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island, Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. No tsunami warning was triggered. The quake's epicenter, about 6 miles deep, was about 53 miles east of Morioka on Honshu Island, and about 318 miles...