Reading smart growth: One man’s guide to the literature of sprawl

Acouple of weeks ago my friend Charlene Lee from Alabama’s SmartCoast asked me if I would write a review recommending some good background reading for this week’s conference called “Imagine: A Region with Thriving Mixed Use Cities.” After saying I would do it, I looked again at the phrase “mixed use cities.” In truth, I […]

Hydro rates will hurt local business

Costs must stabilize, or the province risks an energy crisis, he warns. CANADA – The McGuinty government’s latest electricity rate hikes will hit London consumers especially hard, with a “devastating impact” on the city’s business community, Ontario Opposition Leader John Tory warned yesterday. “London is facing one of the highest energy rate increases in the […]

James Howard Kunstler

The good news is that we are all going to learn new skills: gardening, weaving, carpentry. The bad news is that we won The reason is simple and inescapable: cheap energy

The Price of Our Addiction

The U.S. lives in an energy trap. We fell into it gladly, dug it deeper and sit fat and happy, with blinders on. We’re fed daily meals of imported oil, from countries we pay in IOUs and think we can push around. But now we’re starting to see the costs and risks of our dependencyNewsweek

A Future Without Oil?

Spallino is part of an accelerating push toward alternative forms of energy. Researchers and investors LA Times

Britain ‘Needs More Gas Power’

The UK will need more gas-fired power stations soon to avert widespread power shortages, a group of MPs has warned. The Commons Environmental Audit Committee said the UK could not rely solely on plans for a new batch of nuclear power stations.BBC

Japan’s Cosmo Oil Closes Refinery Unit After Fire

Cosmo Oil Co., Japan’s fourth-largest refiner, said on Sunday it has closed down a desulphurisation unit near Tokyo after a fire at the plant. The fire, set off by an explosion in the early hours of Sunday, had been extinguished, there were no casualties, and refinery workers had evacuated the site, a local fire department […]

The Oil Drum: Plateau Continues

The latest IEA Oil Market Report is out. World oil supply fell 125 kb/d in March to 84.5 mb/d. OPEC, North American and North Sea production outages outstripped higher non OECD production.The Oil Drum

Iraqi Government Says It Has Thwarted Oil-Trafficking To Syria

The Iraqi government announced the seizure of 1,200 tanks of oil that were due to be trafficked to Syria through Iraq’s northern border, an Iraqi newspaper reported Saturday. State-funded al-Sabah newspaper quoted official government spokesman Adnan al-Kadhemi as saying that the Iraqi intelligence thwarted an illegal attempt to transport 1,200 tanks of oil refined at […]

Russia Output of Oil Flat

For most of the past decade, Russia, the worldPortsmouth Herald

Oil Pipeline Explosion in Iraq

A large explosion ripped through an oil pipeline north of the capital Baghdad, setting the pipeline on fire and sending a thick black smoke billowing. The blast hit a section of the pipeline in al-Fatha area, 90 kilometres (55 miles) southwest of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The pipeline is one of a network of […]

Rural motorists running on empty as pumps close

Rural motorists are having to drive farther to buy petrol as more than 600 filling stations a year close. Small independent garages are being forced out of business by fierce competition from supermarkets and the higher costs of transporting fuel to country areas. Many pay more to buy fuel from their suppliers than the price […]

Tame oil’s wild price ride with a tax

Volatile oil prices keep energy companies from investing in alternatives. CAMBRIDGE, MASS. Give it a few years, however, and the sense of urgency will fall in tandem with the price of oil and we’ll go back to business as usual. Presidents from Richard Nixon to Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush have all made similar […]

Gas stations adopt system to control gas theft

LEE COUNTY, FLORIDA – With gas prices rising so drastically in the last few months gas theft at the pump was plaguing local gas stations. Most people don Sandra Kelly has been working for Hess Oil since 1997 when, as she explained, gas theft happened often. “I had a $57 drive off,” said Kelly. Many […]

In coastal states, a revival of offshore drilling debate

Some governors and lawmakers are fighting the Bush administration’s push to expand drilling. The battle over oil and gas drilling in the US is heating up on a new front – or rather multiple fronts in coastal waters from Virginia to Florida to California to Alaska. With war in an oil-rich part of the world, […]

Sticking It To Us at the Gas Pump Because of the Iran ‘Crisis’

The price of oil is destroying the economy for the working folks of America. They have us good now. It would take a social, political, international upheaval to get the price of a gallon of gas to go below $2 again. They’ve been floating the prospect of $4 a gallon. They say prices may hit […]

Chemists find more efficient coal-to-diesel conversion

U.S. scientists say they have found a way to boost the efficiency of a 90-year-old method of converting coal into synthetic diesel fuel. The two-step chemical process, developed by chemists at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, converts some of the waste product from the original process […]

Venezuela tightens oil grip

The government last week seized the fields of two multinational oil giants. CARACAS, VENEZUELA “This country does not allow itself to be blackmailed,” says energy minister Rafael Ramirez. “These two multinational companies resist adjusting to our law. Our sovereignty isn’t under negotiation.” Sixteen companies – including Chevron and Shell – did agree to new terms […]

Gas Pipeline Hinges on Alaska Oil Tax

JUNEAU, Alaska – A new photograph hangs in the governor’s conference room in the Capitol. Five smiling men in suits stand in a semicircle, their arms extended as though they were about to perform a cheer. The description says the picture captures the “historic agreement” between Gov. Frank Murkowski and Alaska’s three largest oil producers […]

Iraq’s oil guardians ill-trained and sometimes treacherous

KIRKUK, IRAQ – A pillar of black smoke blocked a quarter of the sky, turning the spring sky outside Kirkuk overcast and hinting at yet another attack on the all-important pipeline to the refinery at Baiji. But no one at the Strategic Infrastructure Brigade, whose job it is to protect the buried length of pipeline […]

Gasoline Demand Shows Signs of Weakness

U.S. motorists will spend an estimated $20.5 billion more on gasoline over the next six months than they did the same time last year, the government says, because of higher prices and increased demand. But they’re not happy about the trend, and may just drive less. “That’s it? That’s it for $20 bucks?” said Laurie […]

Forecaster expects diesel demand to double by 2015

The global demand for diesel vehicles is expected to nearly double over the next 10 years to 29 million vehicles from 15 million sold worldwide last year, J.D. Power Automotive Forecasting said on Thursday. A sharp increase in demand in the US, which has been slow to adopt diesel, will help fuel the growth, the […]

G-7 to discuss financial aid for energy-saving technology

The finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the Group of Seven industrial powers will discuss setting up a financial assistance scheme for developing countries in an effort to promote the use of energy-saving technologies, it was learned Friday. Under the envisaged scheme, to be discussed at a G-7 meeting in Washington on April 21, […]

3 degrees rise in world’s temperature will put 400 million at risk

The world’s temperature is on course to rise by more than three degrees Centigrade despite efforts to combat global warming, Britain’s chief scientist has warned. Sir David King issued a stark wake-up call that climate change could cause devastating consequences such as famine and drought for hundreds of millions of people unless the world’s politicians […]

EU Utilities Rush for Renewable Energy

The 20 largest European utilities are to double investment in renewable energy generation over the coming five years, a new study by Emerging Energy Research says. Driven by high fuel prices and emissions restrictions under the Kyoto Protocol, companies are increasingly viewing renewable energy as a key component of their generation portfolios, the report says.EER, […]

The failed economics of bio-fuels

Sample this: crude oil reserves in the world are estimated to be in the region of 2,390 billion barrels. Of this, say oil and gas analysts, between 45% to 70% reserves have already been exploited leaving behind limited stocks to pump out. Adopting alternative fuel options, in such a scenario, becomes critical. Now check this: […]

Russia seen playing role in tight oil market, higher prices

The timing of Russia’s failure to expand oil production couldn’t be worse, and experts differ on why it no longer can be counted upon as a swing producer. Some say President Vladimir Putin is deliberately keeping production flat to keep prices high and expand Russian influence. Others think its more the result of inefficient state-run […]

Peak Oil Passnotes: From Iran to Chad, It’s Really Bad

If the markets could behave like a rational entity we would already be at $80 oil, no problem. Of course we know markets do not behave rationally, instead they have a kind of menopausal myopia. Fixated on one topic one minute, hysterical about another the next. Thus they have ignored a welter of events that […]

Voracious oil consumers should prepare to cut back – or pay

World oil demand is projected to reach 90 million barrels per day (bpd) before the end of this decade. The United States, non-OECD countries, Asia and other emerging economic powers are expected to keep up their thirst for energy at unbelievable growing levels, while oil extraction in the near future will not keep pace. This […]

Economists urge Kuwait to come clean on oil reserves

Independent economists yesterday urged Kuwait’s state-run oil industry to come clean on the extent of its proven oil reserves as oil accounts for about 80 per cent of the nation’s income. Economists made the call after speculation earlier this year that Kuwaiti reserves could actually be only half their current estimated 97 billion barrels. “It […]

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