The Oil Drum: Feeding the Beast That Is Valero

The title comes from this excellent article from MyWestTexas, Valero trading room grapples with ‘Feeding the Beast’ (reprinted from the San Antonio Express News): And today we learn that the US consumption beast is not the only thing Valero is feeding. DoD awards Valero contract to ship jet fuel to Israel. So, how’s Valero doing? […]

Hydrogen fuel cells for cars ‘on track’ for 2020

The partnership among the government, thhe auto industry and energy companies to develop a hydrogen economy is making progress but still faces challenges to meet its goals, a Bush administration official said Monday. Energy Undersecretary David Garman told a Senate panel that the partnerships to develop hydrogen are “on track” to meet technical goals within […]

IEA Will Use Oil Reserves in Event of Supply Problems

The International Energy Agency is ready to release oil from its strategic reserves in the event of supply problems linked to the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, IEA executive director Claude Mandil said. “If there is a rupture in supplies, then certainly we are ready to make use of our reserves, whether […]

Mexico, U.S., and Canada Agree to Strengthen Energy Sector

Mexico, the United States, and Canada have agreed to strengthen the North American energy sector to improve efficiency and foster research and development in clean technologies, Mexico’s Energy Secretariat, or SE, announced Monday. Mexican Energy Minister Fernando Canales Clariond, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman, and Canadian Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn announced the joint […]

Reading the Vital Signs of the World

“Business as usual is harming the Earth’s ecosystems and the people who depend on them,” said Erik Assadourian, Vital Signs 2006-2007 project director. “If everyone consumed at the average level of high-income countries, the planet could sustainably support only 1.8 billion people, not today’s population of 6.4 billion.” Flavin said that although these developments in […]

Biodiesel Edges Out Ethanol

Five University of Minnesota researchers have taken a stand in the long-running debate over whether ethanol from corn requires more fossil fuel energy to produce than it delivers. Their answer? It delivers 25 percent more energy than is used (mostly fossil fuel) in producing it, though much of that 25 percent energy dividend comes from […]

Gov. Schwarzenegger Announces Bioenergy Action Plan For California

Touting the economic and environmental benefits of bioenergy, Gov. Schwarzenegger today announced the Bioenergy Action Plan which outlines ways for California to bring alternative energy into the mainstream and reduce dependency on foreign fossil fuels. Biofuels, such as ethanol, can be developed from specially grown crops such as corn and sugar cane, to produce clean, […]

Toyota ponders plug-in hybrid, flex-fuel cars

Toyota Motor North America Inc. president Jim Press said Tuesday the Japanese automaker plans to pursue a plug-in hybrid vehicle, touting the long-term potential of gas-electric hybrids on America msnbc

Peabody and Rentech Partner to Develop Major Coal-to-Liquids Projects in the US

Peabody Energy and Rentech, Inc. have entered into a joint development agreement to evaluate sites in the Midwest and Montana for coal-to-liquids projects that would transform coal into diesel and jet fuel. Projects would be sited where Peabody has large reserves and would be designed using Rentech greencarcongress

Talisman sees wind power extending oil field life

A successful test of a wind-power project near Talisman Energy Inc.’s Beatrice platform in the North Sea could extend the life of the field for a decade or more, chief executive Jim Buckee said on Tuesday. In a telephone interview from Scotland, Buckee said a 35 million pound ($64 million) pilot project to install two […]

India explores $6M coal-to-oil deal

India is considering having South Africa’s Sasol construct a $6 billion coal-to-fuel plant. Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram lauded the potential of Sasol’s investment in helping to alleviate India’s energy shortages. Johannesburg’s Business Day reported that Sasol’s petrochemical expertise would put it in an enviable position in both India and China, the two fastest-growing economies […]

Road to Recovery Sinking into Gulf

USA Today – This is the intersection of a fading Cajun dream, where French-speaking immigrants once fished and farmed sugarcane and cotton, and the jarring new reality that has transformed a deteriorating two-lane highway into an energy artery that carries crude oil and natural gas from the Gulf to the rest of the USA… Nowhere […]

SustainLane’s Top 10 Cities Least at Risk for Natural Disaster

You have signed a mortgage in Florida, and are now holding your breath through the current hurricane season. Or you commute to work every day in California, crossing over two earthquake faults, twice. You live in a major flood plain and are beginning to realize that Cities at Greatest Risk Based on these criteria, the […]

Big Oil’s pain

While record prices have produced record profits, they have also helped make crude a lot more expensive to pump. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — It’s always more expensive to go to the ends of the earth. But as oil companies chase dwindling supplies by drilling in the icy waters of eastern Russia, map deposits under the […]

The Oil Drum: How the Energy Crisis Will Help My Diet

Like many Americans I am a bit overweight and this is true even after living a year in China eating indigenous food and shedding 15% of my body mass. Coming back to the fattest city in the land of the big helping, I am concerned about regaining that weight given the fact that Americans eat […]

China Reports Fastest Growth in a Decade

Yahoo! News – China reported its fastest economic growth in a decade on Tuesday and warned that booming construction and bank loans could fuel inflation, raising expectations that Beijing might nudge up interest rates and possibly the value of its currency. The 11.3 percent growth in the second quarter compared with a year ago exceeded […]

Peak Oil: Keep Off the Grass

Chew on this — roughly 580,000,000 gallons of gas is used in lawn mowers annually! That’s an average of over 1.5 million gallons a day spent on just keeping grass short. And really, that’s just the beginning of how much petro is used on lawn care. Homeowners in the U.S. spend over $25 BILLION a […]

Cars heavier, faster but US fuel economy unchanged

Hybrids don’t make a dent as fuel efficiency increases but is offset by weight and power. WASHINGTON (Reuters) — New vehicles in the United States are the fastest and heaviest in three decades, with the fleet’s fuel efficiency no better than the figure for 1994 — about 21 miles per gallon, the government said on […]

ENERGY: EXPERTS DEBATE ON WHEN OIL WILL RUN OUT

Rome, 17 July (AKI) – Scientists, geologists and energy experts who study the lifespan of oil and gas reserves are gathering in the Tuscan village of San Rossore for a two day conference dedicated to the vexed question of when the earth’s fossil fuel reserves will start running out and what the world will do […]

Traffic jams are bad, but what’s next could be worse

Gaso-lunacy! It’s a dreary Friday afternoon, raining. I’m in the company van headed for my last delivery, trying to make my way through the nightmare intersection at South Franklin and Cambria streets in Christiansburg. The line I’m in stretches so far I can’t even see the red light. I begin to think of traffic and […]

Ford first to offer clean-burning hydrogen vehicles

DEARBORN, United States (AFP) – Ford became the first automaker to begin production of a commercially viable hydrogen engine, which emits little but clean water vapor into the air. The hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines are destined for shuttle buses and will be ready for delivery later this year, said Ford Motor Co. spokesman Nick Twork. […]

Oil spike: a surmountable challenge?

The politics of the Middle East are so incendiary that energy analysts are not sure how high prices will rise. NEW YORK The higher crude oil prices will probably mean higher prices at the pump – possibly as much as 20 to 25 cents a gallon. The politics of the region are so incendiary that […]

Repair of post-Katrina wetlands may hinge on oil

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Louisiana is focusing its hopes for restoring coastal wetlands that could help protect it from another Hurricane Katrina on an unexpected savior: oil. Oil and the environment are rarely seen mixing well but the debate over how to pay for natural barriers that slow monster storms has moved into the Gulf […]

Loooong distance commuters

When you think of the commuter belt around London you don’t immediately think of Barcelona, Marrakech and Tallinn. But a future-gazing report suggests that we could see a new type of commuting – where large numbers of people work in the UK but live overseas. High house prices, cheap flights, flexible working hours and e-mail […]

The Oil Frontier

Don’t expect the scarcity of fossil fuels to drive us toward alternative energy sources anytime soon: we’re getting smarter about finding and extracting oil.The easy oil is gone. To get to the new oil, you board a yellow Bell 407 helicopter outside New Orleans and fly south, touching down 140 miles offshore, on a ship […]

Coal: a clean energy source for the future?

Coal is making a comeback as a cheap and reliable source of energy. With global energy demand rising at an unprecedented rate, the world’s vast coal reserves are attracting growing interest from governments in Europe, the US and Asia. But while the efficiency and cleanliness of coal-fired power stations is improving, coal remains the dirtiest […]

The climate-change deniers have now gone nuclear

Murderous mayhem in the Middle East sends oil prices through the roof – $78 a barrel and climbing. Electricity prices are up 35% in two years, gas prices up 53%. So the government launched its energy review last week in a turbulent market. With no certainty on price, all estimates of the costs of various […]

Prodi Says Ukraine Gas Is a Worry

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi urged Ukraine on Monday to fill its gas reserves to avoid repeating January’s supply crunch, when Russia cut its gas supplies to Ukraine and disrupted European imports. “We didn’t talk about Ukraine in the G8 [group meetings]. I discussed the problem extensively in my bilateral with Putin because we Italians […]

Was the break-up of the railways such a disaster that it needs to be reversed?

Too many passengers, not enough trains. Launching a review of the rail industry yesterday, the Conservatives summed up the most likely scenario if the network stays as it is: “More and more passengers, on more and more overcrowded trains, and with constant upward pressure on fares to try to take the sting out of overcrowding.” […]

Atomic balm – a nuclear renaissance? (excerpts)

…Over the past year, the debate over nuclear power has increasingly been framed as an environmental one, as several commentators … have stepped forward to assert that global warming requires an embrace of new nuclear plants, because unlike gas- or coal-powered plants, nuclear reactors produce electricity without emitting greenhouse gasses. The nuclear industry, in turn, […]

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