The Twilight of Mechanized Lumpenleisure

By James Howard Kunstler Among the many wonders and marvels of American life in the twentieth century, especially after World War Two, when our country ruled much of the world economically, was the astounding rise in standards of living among social classes who had hardly known leisure or had a dollar to spare on the […]

Bye Bye Oil Crisis, Hello Uranium Crisis

The contradictions in the replace-oil-for-uranium-and-bingo! argument seem to have been overlooked somewhat by mainstream commentators. The point nobody seems to have made this week is, like oil and gas which it is expected to largely replace under the plans in the Energy Review, uranium is a *finite* resource. It was an issue studiously avoided by […]

USEC to lose sole Russian uranium rights – Rosatom

U.S. uranium trader USEC Inc. will lose its exclusive right to import Russian nuclear fuel to the United States by 2009 at the latest, Russia’s atomic energy chief said on Saturday. Sergei Kiriyenko said an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation announced by U.S. President George W. Bush and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin contained a clear […]

Coal policy imperatives: Bangla Desh

The Energy and Mineral Resources Division has sent the draft of the proposed coal policy to the Cabinet Division for approval. However, the country’s geologists and economists have serious reservations about it. Geologists and economists are of the view that energy security will be under a threat if the policy is approved as it will […]

China Confirms Natural Gas Discovery in South China Sea

China’s Ministry of Land and Resources has confirmed the discovery of huge natural gas reserves in South China Sea. In a circular released on Thursday, the ministry announced the discovery of natural gas reserves exceeding 100 billion cubic meters in a prospect well named LW3-1-1. It may be the largest offshore natural gas discovery ever […]

Meeting Energy Needs In Langtang

Langtang is the third most popular trekking destination after Everest and the Annapurna in Nepal. Tourist arrivals show that it hosts no less than 6, 000 visitors annually. One of the challenges in Langtang is that the local people as well as tourism entrepreneurs are heavily dependent on the forest to cook their meals, keep […]

The energy debate: Wind

Can we harness enough of its strength to solve Britain’s power crisis? Britain is running out of power. North Sea gas supplies are dwindling and our nuclear reactors getting old. Replacing them will take a long time, but energy shortages won’t wait. Wind farms can be built far more quickly – although they have also […]

Petrobras chief hits out at G8

The chief executive of Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned energy group, on Friday criticised the group of eight industrialised countries for failing in their quest to enhance world energy security. “I think the developed countries are failing on both ends,” Jose Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo told the FT. “We need to increase [oil and gas] supply. You […]

Santos downgrades Indonesia oil resource

Oil and gas producer Santos Ltd has been forced to downgrade the size of its Jeruk offshore Indonesian oil discovery which may now be less than half the size originally thought. Data from the third appraisal well drilled to test the reservoir has seen the height of the hydrocarbon column at Jeruk slashed to about […]

Our wasteful ways will finish us off

We must all risk becoming ‘environmental bores’. To see the crisis coming and not act would be worse than denying climate change. Actually, as George Soros made clear during a discussion at the LSE two weeks ago, the crisis is upon us. It is possible that world oil production has already peaked: no giant oil […]

Thai farmers lukewarm on oil palm

The government’s plan to expand the planting of oil palm by 700,000 rai this year, and boost the production of bio-diesel, has flopped, the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry said. Pinit Korsieporn, ministry deputy spokesman, said the promotion has attracted farmers with about 350,000 rai of land, only half the target. The farmers have registered with […]

U.S. and Russia Will Police Nuclear Terrorists

President Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Saturday will announce a new global program to track potential nuclear terrorists, detect and lock up bomb-making materials and coordinate their responses if terrorists obtain a weapon, according to administration officials who have negotiated the deal. nytimes

The new century’s growth industry: energy isolationism

US imports of oil could be eliminated by 2030, a new study by an interstate consortium asserts, if the nation turns to an aggressive program of energy efficiency and commercialization of four already-demonstrated technologies for making transportation fuels. taipeitimes

The lures (and limits) of natural gas

HERE IN NEW ENGLAND, LNG is shorthand for controversy. For years, activists and state and local politicians have been battling energy companies interested in building liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in spots like Fall River and Outer Brewster Island. Opponents argue that the terminals, and the tankers full of flammable super-cooled natural gas that dock […]

Is Oil at the Tipping Point?

Oil markets are operating on fear. The gap between demand and productive capacity is tiny, perhaps 1 million or 2 million barrels a day. Because oil demand is what economists call “inelastic” (meaning that consumers see fuel as essential and curb their buying only slightly as prices rise), even modest threats to supply can create […]

All eyes look to the Kurdish region and its oil riches

NORTHEAST of Baghdad, a steady stream of foreign investors is already heading for Arbil to pay tribute at the headquarters of Kurdistan timesonline

Oil: Looking at $100

As bombs fall in Beirut, pipelines explode in Nigeria and Iran shakes its fist at the West, energy traders and motorists alike are wondering one thing: How high can oil prices go? “If another major event takes place, it’s not at all unrealistic for oil to spike to $100,” said Bruce Lanni, an oil analyst […]

Scorching U.S.: First Half of 2006 Sets Heat Record

The average temperatures of the first half of 2006 were the highest ever recorded for the continental United States, scientists announced today. Temperatures for January through June were 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average. Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri experienced record warmth for the period, while no state experienced cooler-than-average temperatures, reported scientists […]

Strikes Are Called Part of Broad Strategy

Israel, with U.S. support, intends to resist calls for a cease-fire and continue a longer-term strategy of punishing Hezbollah, which is likely to include several weeks of precision bombing in Lebanon, according to senior Israeli and U.S. officials. For the United States, the broader goal is to strangle the axis of Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and […]

Bodman: Oil Suppliers Have Lost Control of the Markets

In Canada for a tour of the oil sands, US Energy Secretary Bodman remarked on Friday that the world greencarcongress

Wind, geothermal industries rap Bush administration

Federal officials vowed this week to boost renewable energy production on federal lands in the West, but wind and geothermal industry officials criticized the administration for a lack of openness and support leading to delays in some of their projects. Consumption of renewable fuels will grow about 60 percent by 2025 and renewable energy will […]

Coal to Oil: A Limited Solution

The Times of India – The price of oil hit a record high of $78/barrel last week. The energy crunch looks like going from bad to worse in coming decades. The BRIC report of Goldman Sachs predicts that between 2000 and 2050, India’s GDP will rise almost 60 times and China’s 40 times. That sounds […]

Dearth Of Offshore Rigs Pumps Up Oil Prices

The Independent – Oil companies have run out of offshore exploration rigs for the first time in almost 20 years. Projects are having to be delayed or shelved because of the shortage of rigs, while hire costs have soared up to fivefold in two years. The situation is helping to keep oil prices, which last […]

Industrialized dilemma: What to do about Russia?

For some Russians the West served as an enticing beacon of civility during Russia’s torturous journey toward democracy in the 1990s, said Sergei Karaganov, chairman of the influential Council for Foreign and Defence Policy. But that light has been snuffed out, he said, by the West’s poor behaviour in the Middle East. Like many other […]

Massive Canada-Russia LNG joint venture in the making

A massive Canada-Russia joint venture in liquefied natural gas appeared to get nudged closer to reality Saturday as Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived at the G8 conference and immediately set to work with the host president. Mr. Harper had delivered a cautionary speech on the need for open energy markets and Canada’s pre-eminent position as […]

PM brands Canada an ‘energy superpower’

Stephen Harper positioned Canada as a new The Globe and Mail

Mideast conflict impacts oil prices worldwide

There Not because Israel or Lebanon has oil, but because Iran, the world’s fourth-largest producer, supports Hezbollah’s battle against Israel. “This is also a proxy war between Israel and Iran to some extent,” says Daniel Yergin, CNBC’s global energy analyst, “and it’s a demonstration of what could happen if sanctions or a confrontation with Iran […]

What’s pushing oil prices higher?

7 reasons why crude has soared to record levels this week With oil prices rocketing higher, Gary in California wants to know why analysts don’t focus more heavily on the war in Iraq when they explain the price rise. The drop in Iraqi production since the war started certainly hasn’t helped. But there are a […]

E10 gas prices inch past regular

As summer holiday traffic hits high gear, consumers are feeling a different sort of sticker shock at the gas pump. Retailers across Iowa have started charging more for ethanol-blended gasoline than for regular gas. In some places, gasoline containing 10 percent ethanol – E10 – costs an extra dime or more per gallon, rather than […]

Russia opens door to liberalised energy market at G8

Russia has compromised with the world’s top industrial nations on the principle of opening its energy markets to foreigners in talks ahead of a G8 summit, European officials said on Friday. They said the shift in Russia’s position could be seen in its acceptance of language backing the idea of open energy markets in a […]

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