Will The End of Oil Mean The End of America?

In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig tells the story of a South American Indian tribe that has devised an ingenious monkey trap. The Indians cut off the small end of a coconut and stuff it with sweetmeats and rice. They tether the other end to a stake and place it in […]

Gas-Guzzler Sales May Be Hit By New China Rules

Most American cars and half of European models do not meet new fuel consumption standards that China will introduce at mid-year, a European Commission official said on Friday. But car industry officials played down any concerns that their sales in a crucial market might be at risk. “China plans to introduce next summer tough environmental […]

Oil Prices Fall on OPEC Rumors

World oil prices fell yesterday on rumors that OPEC could again raise its oil production ceiling soon, but remained supported by the threat of a strike in the Nigerian energy sector. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, fell 37 cents to $56.35 per barrel in early deals, after earlier peaking […]

Indonesia to have nuclear power plant

Indonesia is moving ahead with plans for a civilian nuclear power programme, Jakarta’s Ambassador to the UN atomic agency, Mr Thomas Aquino Sriwidjaja, said here yesterday. … like Iran, which the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is investigating on US charges that it is secretly developing nuclear weapons, Indonesia is a major oil producer. […]

US exporters fail to reap benefits of lower dollar

Even assuming that the full effects of the dollar’s fall have not yet come through, rising US exports are unlikely to be enough to narrow the deficit.
The conclusion, says Ray Attrill, director of research at 4Cast, is that unless US consumption slows considerably, a much greater fall in the dollar is necessary to narrow the trade gap. “It appears that we have got only half the fall that we need in the dollar in order to help close the deficit,” he says.

Yahoo!

China’s economic boom unsustainable as eco-costs skyrocket

BEIJING (AFP) – China’s booming economic miracle is expanding at a highly unsustainable rate, creating tremendous pressures on resources while bankrupting the environment, a leading environmentalist warned. “I have a feeling we are on the edge of big changes. It is still difficult to see how this will develop but we are clearly pushing the envelope in so many ways and all at the same time,” Lester Brown, the US-based director of the Earth Policy Institute, told AFP. “It could be runaway oil prices, climate change, there are so many things that can happen, food stocks could fall, grain prices could rise, water scarcities increase.”

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050322/wl_asia_afp/chinaeconomyenvironment_050322070844

Step closer to replacing platinum as catalyst in fuel cells

“This is an exciting early step in developing a sustainable system for producing electricity from hydrogen” said Professor Chris Pickett (Associate Head of the Biological Chemistry Department at JIC). ”In Nature iron–sulphur enzymes catalyse a range of important chemical reactions that industry can only do by using precious metal catalysts and/or high temperatures and pressures. Based on Nature’s blueprint we are a step closer to building an iron-sulfur catalyst for reactions fundamental to a sustainable hydrogen economy”.

http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life_sciences/report-40161.html

IEA: How to Save Oil in case of emergency

The IEA has made available a draft version of the forthcoming book “Saving Oil in a Hurry: Measures for Rapid Demand Restraint in Transport” (pdf file, 739 KB). In this document, compiled by the AIE in response of the unprecedented oil price levels in the last year, the agency remembers its role as a watchdog of energy security, and that all IEA member countries are obliged to “not only to maintain emergency oil reserves, but also to apply voluntary and mandatory measures for reducing oil consumption on very short notice during an oil supply disruption”. Citing historic cases like The British fuel protests of 2000, the Australian industrial dispute of 1981 or the 1970’s fuel crises, the AIE has come up with a list of measures to decrease oil consumption very fast in case of oil supply disruptions and the accompanying hike prices. Some of those measures are car pooling, driving bans, and reduction of maximum speed. The agency says that if we would limit the speed in Europe to 90 km/h, we would save half a million barrels a day.

Americans See Fuel Efficient Cars as ‘Patriotic’

Even 67 percent of NASCAR racing fans concurred that fuel-efficiency and patriotism go hand in hand, the poll said. Reuters Americans See Fuel Efficient Cars as ‘Patriotic’ Thu Mar 17, 2005 05:26 PM ET DETROIT (Reuters) – Most Americans believe it is “patriotic” to buy a fuel-efficient vehicle to help wean their country off Middle […]

Gas Prices Hit Record Highs

LOS ANGELES (March 21) – Nationwide gas prices soared more than 12 cents during the past two weeks to reach a record high, and an analyst predicted more sticker shock at the pump in the days ahead. Prices should continue to rise in the next few weeks on strong demand and supply problems caused by […]

UK debt is at ‘time bomb’ levels

UK personal debt levels are a “time bomb” that pose a threat to millions of households, a report commissioned by the Conservative Party has found. Personal debt levels of more than £1 trillion mean that about 15 million people are exposed to external shocks such as a sharp rise in the oil price. In its […]

Peak Oil Phenomenon

Monday, March 21st 2005 by Mary King In August 2004 I wrote a series of articles that discussed the impending world wide peak in oil production. These articles were triggered by the continuing debate on the size of our natural gas reserves, the rate at which they are being depleted and the lagging rate of […]

Jim Kunstler on The Long Emergency

Speaking about his new book The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil Age, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century.Jim Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere, speaks with Els Cooperrider of The Party’s Over on KZYX about his forthcoming book The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil […]

Negroponte’s Time In Honduras at Issue

By Michael Dobbs, Washington Post Staff Writer It has been two decades since John D. Negroponte left his post as ambassador to Honduras, but the man President Bush (news – web sites) has chosen to become the United States’ first intelligence czar is still being hounded by human rights activists such as Zenaida Velasquez. Their […]

Russian oil-Current Status

Presentation on current oil outlook for Russia by T. Felder (IHS Energy).

pdf

Mapping the Oil Motive

What role did oil play in the U.S. decision to invade Iraq? If oil did play a significant role, what, exactly, did President Bush and his associates hope to accomplish in this regard? To what degree did they succeed? These are questions that will no doubt occupy analysts for many years to come, but that […]

Unconvential Gas Plentifiul

Conventional wisdom that US natural gas production is on a steady downward spiral was challenged Mar. 7-8 at a Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) natural gas conference in Calgary. “Rumors of a terminal decline in gas production have been greatly exaggerated,” the speaker concluded.” Oil & Gas Journal

A brave new oily world

Consider this point from Mr. Terranova as well. He says that last week the spot month oil contract rose by $2.29, while the further out months, for example, December of 2008, climbed from $46.22 last week to $50.76 this week — a $4.54 rally in one week, double what the spot contract did. Think about it folks. This is why when we journalists keep dutifully reminding you that in inflation-adjusted terms the price of oil was the equivalent of eighty dollars a barrel back in the early 80’s it’s in some ways a misleading comparison.

CNN

Nuclear Energy May Be Back in Vogue, UN Says

Expectations of a sharp rise in energy demand and the risk of climate change are pushing many countries to return to the idea of nuclear power, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Monday. Even the most conservative estimates predict at least a doubling of energy usage by mid-century, Mohamed ElBaradei, director […]

Free parking is costly investment

By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY There is no such thing as free parking, unless you’re driving around a Monopoly board, according to a book released today by the American Planning Association. Cities and taxpayers are wasting billions of dollars subsidizing parking on valuable land that could be used for housing or parks, says The […]

Crude Oil Gains on Concern Nigeria Oil-Workers’ Strike May Reduce Supplies

A good article from Bloomberg, covering a planned Nigerian oil-workers’ strike, OPEC quotas, gasoline prices, worldwide oil demand, and stockpiles. March 21 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose, approaching a record, on concern an oil-workers’ strike in Nigeria next month may lower exports from the country, Africa’s largest producer. “Oil production has to be affected,” Fadakinte […]

After ANWR

by Jim Kunstler Now that President Bush has got permission to open up the Arcitic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, it will be interesting to see what else he has in mind to counter America’s imminent collision with the Peak Oil predicament. My guess: absolutely nothing. The period after ANWAR is settled will be […]

High price of oil may force lifestyle changes

The dramatic increase in global demand for oil, and the resulting price spiral in the last couple of months, may be early warnings of a fundamental change in the economies of industrialized nations. “If you believe America has been built on cheap resources – oil, gas and coal – and think the nation will not […]

It’s back to the farm

Imagine that world, where each individual must supply for their own needs, using their own hands to provide for their own water, food and shelter, their only source of energy coming from the digestion of food. The importance of careers would be lost, and materialism would have no place. Globalisation would not exist. Instead, belonging […]

From Russia… with geopolitics

U.S. Using Anti-Terror War to Gain World Oil Reserves – Soviet Intelligence Chief

On the pretext of fighting international terrorism the United States is trying to establish control over the world’s richest oil reserves, Leonid Shebarshin, ex-chief of the Soviet Foreign Intelligence Service, who heads the Russian National Economic Security Service consulting company, said in an interview for the Vremya Novostei newspaper.

Mosnews

$3 +

Saudis say oil supply fears overdone

Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali Al-Naimi has said his country can increase oil production by 1.5 million barrels a day to help ease rising world crude prices. Naimi was speaking to reporters in Manila in the Philippines, where he is on a three-day visit. RTE

Iraqi oil ministry signs contracts with international companies

The Iraqi Ministry of Oil signed contracts with three international oil companies to conduct a study on drilling in the Suba-Luhais oil fields in southern Iraq, sources at the ministry said Sunday. The sources did not disclose the cost and timetable of the project. The sources whom preferred to remain anonymous, said the three companies […]

When the rain stops falling…

WE only seem to talk about the weather when things go wrong — and things can really go wrong. Even as you read, wells and rivers across Southeast Asia are drying up and crops are withering in the blistering heat. In the last decade, more than a half a million people died in natural disasters […]

Iraq invasion may be remembered as start of the age of oil scarcity

Instead of inaugurating a new age of cheap oil, the Iraq war may become known as the beginning of an era of scarcity. Two years ago, it seemed likely that Iraq, with the world’s third-largest petroleum reserves, would become a hypercharged gusher once U.S. troops toppled Saddam Hussein. But chaos and guerrilla sabotage have slowed […]

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