USABC Awards $15-Million Battery Technology Development Contract to A123Systems

The United States Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC), an organization composed of DaimlerChrysler Corporation, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation, has awarded a $15-million lithium iron phosphate battery technology development contract to A123Systems. (Earlier post.) greencarcongress

Study: Oil Transition Carries Major Environmental Risks

The increasing use of substitute fossil-based liquid hydrocarbons greencarcongress

British Government Proposing Transportation Tax Measures to Tackle Climate Chang

A pre-budget report by UK Finance Minister Gordon Brown proposes an series of tax measures designed, according to the report, to protect the environment and tackle the global challenges of climate change. greencarcongress

Ethylene developed as hydrogen storage material

Ethylene, a material used in the production of plastics, could become useful in the development of new hydrogen storage solutions for fuel cell technology applications, researchers have claimed. This allows for about 14 per cent of the weight of the material to be made up of hydrogen molecules, the researchers claim. This beats the Department […]

Mixed prairie grasses are a better source of biofuel than corn ethanol and soybe

Diverse mixtures of native prairie plant species have emerged as a leader in the quest to identify the best source of biomass for producing sustainable, bio-based fuel to replace petroleum. The is study based on 10 years of research at Minnesota’s Cedar Creek Natural History Area, one of 26 NSF long-term ecological research (LTER) sites. […]

Novel yeast could boost biofuel production

Scientists have created a new strain of yeast that radically speeds up the production of ethanol, the biofuel that can be combined with petrol or diesel to make ‘gasohol’ scidev

The Oil Drum: Scarcity Rents and Oil Prices, Again

On October 24th, Dr. James Hamilton of Econbrowser commented on The Tragic Consequences of the High Discounting of Oil Extraction in his story Is peak oil irrelevant? We’ll return below to some of Hamilton’s other observations as we consider what meaning to draw from the history of oil prices over the last several years. Much […]

Cruising for a bruising

All of us need to change our driving habits — or face up to the likelihood that we’re cruising for a bruising energy crisis like we’ve never seen before. Two recent studies indicate that U.S. drivers are making few, if any, adjustments to their fuel consumption, despite higher gas prices and five years of warnings […]

U.S. economic forecast for 2007: cooling off but no recession

…Still, oil prices are unlikely to do anything but rise in the long term as demand increases and easily pumped oilfields are drained, a phenomenon known as “Peak Oil.” “Expected growth rates in emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil would indicate that oil prices should continue to rise,” Wall said. “These countries and many […]

Can we grow our way out of an energy crisis?

OZARK – Missouri’s Mark Twain popularized the phrase, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics.” That is exactly what a prominent researcher says about the nation’s current rush to embrace corn ethanol as an alternative fuel. And, he’s not alone. New government mandates will bring ethanol to a gas station near […]

Solstice 2100: Q&A

Q: So what happened to the federal government? You mentioned there were two civil wars. I But Bonney died in

Earth is too crowded for Utopia

The global population is higher than the Earth can sustain, argues the Director of the British Antarctic Survey in the first of a series of environmental opinion pieces on the BBC News website entitled The Green Room. Solving environmental problems such as climate change is going to be impossible without tackling the issue, he says. […]

The U.S. Government Intends to Win the War in Iraq

…For the U.S. to cut and run in the age of Peak Oil would mean the death knell for the U.S. economy, and the sad truth is that Peak Oil will ultimately bring down the U.S. economy even with U.S. control of Iraqi oil and strategic petroleum distribution. But if China, Russia, India, or other […]

South Carolina: Rising sea level big concern

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Global warming and a rise in sea levels could dramatically affect South Carolina’s coast, according to scientists and environmental officials meeting at a conference in Charleston this week. The rising ocean is “going to shave off a ton of landscape along the coast,” which could drown marshes that act as buffers for […]

Congress urged to close oil royalty loophole

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – House Democratic lawmakers on Thursday urged the Republican-controlled Congress to punish oil companies that won’t renegotiate faulty drilling leases issued by the government almost a decade ago that have allowed companies to avoid paying billions in oil and gas royalties. The lawmakers want to block oil companies from getting drilling leases in […]

Russia’s East Siberia: from Gulag to oil frontier

VANKOR FIELD, Russia (Reuters) – Half a century ago, Josef Stalin banished his foes to labor camps in East Siberia. Now volunteers are lining up to drill the frozen wastelands for their vast reserves of oil. A 130-strong team of drillers, hardened frontiersmen who live in barracks set in sparse fir forests, have so far […]

Gasoline prices likely to go higher

Rare winter price rise WASHINGTON A number of analysts, including those at Wachovia and Moody’s Economy.com, say prices will likely inch higher through December. “With supplies going down and demand going up, we should still see the price go up,” Alaron Trading analyst Phil Flynn says. But that doesn’t mean prices will skyrocket. Flynn expects […]

Nigerian militants claim oil attack, threaten more

ABUJA (Reuters) – A Nigerian militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), has claimed responsibility for a raid on an oil export terminal on Thursday in which four expatriate workers were kidnapped. MEND, which staged a series of attacks on the oil industry in February that shut down a fifth […]

UK’s Brown exempts redeveloped North Sea fields from PRT

LONDON (AFX) – The UK government has exempted abandoned North Sea gas fields which have undergone redevelopment and became productive again from the petroleum revenue tax. In his pre-budget report, Chancellor Gordon Brown said: ‘The government today announces the removal of fields from the charge to petroleum revenue tax if they are redeveloped following full […]

Exxon spends millions to cast doubt on warming

The world’s largest energy company is still spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund European organisations that seek to cast doubt on the scientific consensus on global warming and undermine support for legislation to curb emission of greenhouse gases. Data collated by a Brussels-based watchdog reveals that ExxonMobil has put money into projects that […]

12 Step Programme for Breaking Oil Dependency

A useful tool for powerdown groups I want to share an exercise with you that I did with my students on the Skilling Up For Powerdown evening course that I First Step. This exercise only really works at the end of a process of suggesting a number of solutions, forming a toolkit for how a […]

Ecological Violations Halt Sakhalin-2 Work

Work was stopped at Royal Dutch Shell’s US$20-billion oil and gas project off Russia’s Pacific coast after ecological authorities on Thursday said they had revoked 12 licenses for the project. Violations of water legislation at Sakhalin-2 led to the temporary withdrawal of the licenses, all for water use, Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry said in a […]

Australia: Review of ISA’s nuclear energy balance report

Australia’s review of the nuclear industry has been published in draft form for feedback. The report takes its energy balance and GHG emissions data from a report it commissioned from ISA at University of Sydney. This article looks at the ISA report.Background In June 2006 the Australian Federal Government commissioned a report “Uranium Mining, Processing […]

Rising Interest in Nuclear Power Brings New Life to Uranium Mining

ARANDIS, Namibia — This sandy little company town, with its tree-lined streets and concrete homes set amid a vast, forbidding desert, had all the signs of terminal decline just a few years back. Both banks closed. The only gas station shut off its pumps. And employable young men, realizing the bleak future of the giant […]

UK Teenagers’ Gadgets are Big Energy Wasters – Survey

Teenagers in Britain who leave computer games and other gadgets on standby mode are wasting over 100 million pounds worth of energy a year, enough to power London’s underground train system for 12 months, according to a survey commissioned by British Gas. “Almost a third of all the electricity used by teenagers is wasted through […]

EU Eyes Binding Targets for Renewable Energy – Draft

The European Commission will propose a mandatory target next month for energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020 in an overhaul of EU policy on environmentally friendly fuels, a draft showed on Thursday.“This is a roadmap to the grave indeed for the renewables industry in Europe,” said Oliver Schaefer, policy director at the European Renewable […]

S. Africa to develop biofuel

South Africa plans to develop its biofuel industry with aims to make biofuels contributing up to three-quarters of its renewable energy needs in near future. The country’s Cabinet has approved a draft industrial strategy for biofuel, which will focus on using excess crop production and expanding the use of underutilized arable land, the government spokesman […]

Pakistan: Research on for new vegetable oil resources

Despite the fact that Pakistan has an agrarian economy it is unable to produce sufficient quantity of edible oil to meet its domestic requirements.The use of vegetable oil as a substitute for diesel fuel has already driven up the prices of palm and canola at international market, which is evident from recent price surge of […]

Canada’s oil sands industry: Made in China?

Talk about your industrial-strength outsourcing. Northern Lights, an oil sands developer in Canada, announced on Wednesday ambitious plans to outsource the construction of thirty 2000 ton “modules” that would be part of its planned tar sands mining complex in the go go oil patch of Alberta. The reason, according to Synenco Energy Co. president Todd […]

China: Oil analysts say deregulation will increase players

As China deregulates oil products and crude oil wholesaling in line with its WTO commitments, analysts foresee an accelerated opening-up of the local oil market. China’s new policies to deregulate oil products and the crude oil wholesale market will bring in new market entities, who will serve as “agents” to facilitate further reform and liberalization […]

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