Flowers in Alps, bears can’t sleep as winter waits

VIENNA (Reuters) – Flowers are blooming on the slopes of Alpine ski resorts and bears are having trouble hibernating in Siberia amid a late start to winter that may be a portent of global warming. Rare December pollen is troubling asthma sufferers as far north as Scandinavia, sales of winter clothing are down and Santa […]

EU, Kazahkstan Pact Aims to Bypass Russia

In the European Union’s growing struggle to break Russia’s grip on the bloc’s gas imports, all roads are leading to Kazakhstan. Today, the EU signs a memorandum of understanding with Kazakhstan on energy aimed at binding this vast country — which stretches from the Caspian Sea to China — closer to Europe. Yesterday, EU Energy […]

Copernicus, Darwin and the cure for autistic economics

Autistic children can spend much of their time in a world of elaborate fantasy, emotionally detached from real people and objects. Unfortunately, it is not much of a leap to substitute the words “most economists” for “autistic children” in the previous sentence. So apparent has this become that there is a burgeoning movement to establish […]

China firms struggle to get Mideast footing

BEIJING: It should be a match made in heaven China

Oil prices and exploration cycle may have ended

In 1956, with gasoline selling for 30 cents a gallon, an obscure geophysicist named M. King Hubbert predicted that U.S. energy production would peak in the late 1960s. Hubbert almost nailed it. The actual peak turned out to be 1971. Shortly thereafter, energy prices embarked on the first leg of a sporadically upward journey that […]

PayPal’s Thiel Scores 230% Gain With Soros-Style Fund

…Thiel is a proponent of a geologic theory known as peak oil, which holds that global oil production is now at or near its apex. Among his picks was Calgary-based EnCana Corp., which wrings oil from the tar sands of Canada. EnCana stock rose 54 percent in 2005. Clarium has taken some hits along the […]

Scientists’ warnings unheeded

IN 1973, the Arab oil-producing nations convulsed most of the world by tightening the spigots on their wells and sharply reducing production. Corporations, and nations including Japan, went into crisis mode and many started to think of ways to lessen their reliance on petroleum products. As the after-shock waves began to subside and black gold […]

Producers strain to supply growing wind power market

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – There is an inexhaustible supply of wind to drive their blades, but materials needed to make wind turbines are limited and the industry fears it will fail to keep pace with growing demand for the clean energy source. “We do whatever we can but it’s impossible to increase our (production) capacity overnight,” […]

OPEC frets over dollar’s fall

ABU DHABI/VIENNA (Reuters) – OPEC is worried by a fall in the dollar that is eroding member states’ oil revenue and ministers will take up the issue when they meet next week to discuss a further cut in output. The dollar is at a 20-month low against the euro — a bonus for non-dollar oil […]

Researchers discover hydrogen can form multicenter bonds

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara have shown that, under the right circumstances, hydrogen can form multicenter bonds, where one hydrogen atom simultaneously bonds to as many as four or six other atoms. Tested for hydrogen in metal oxides, the discovery could have a broad range of technological impact. physorg

The Supreme Court Oral Argument in the Global Warming Case Reveals What’s Wrong

Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Massachusetts v. EPA, which presents the question of whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violated the Clean Air Act by failing to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by motor vehicles in the United States. The stakes could not be higher. A recent […]

Bolivia: Morales signs into law contracts nationalizing natural gas

President Evo Morales signed into law Sunday contracts giving the government control over foreign energy companies’ operations, completing a process begun May 1 with the nationalization of Bolivia’s petroleum industry. The deals, signed by the companies last month, also grant Morales’ government a majority share of the foreign companies’ revenues generated in Bolivia. Companies that […]

Billion growth rate in Danish export of energy technology

The Danish export of energy and environment technology will reach EUR 7 billion this year, estimates Denmark’s export council. And it is still growing, writes Boersen. One of the growth areas is sustainable energy, and the wind mill group Vestas yesterday presented an order for wind mills and service for approximately EUR 150 million for […]

Energy Charter without Russia

The European Energy Charter is 15 years old. Russia signed a charter treaty 12 years ago, but has not ratified it up to this day. Moreover, after years of negotiations, our leaders have declared that Russia is not going to ratify its current version at all. What’s wrong with this document, which has been signed […]

Philippines: Betting fortunes on biofuel boom

Is the country’s nascent shift toward alternative energy sources–especially alternative fuel for motor vehicles–a long-term trend or just a passing fad? The country has been flirting on and off with the concept of alternative fuels since the 1970s and the goal of achieving a large degree of self sufficiency in fuel has been around since […]

Iraqi govt agrees on Kurds” budget, electricity and oil demands

The Iraqi government has agreed on most Kurdish demands including returning USD 482 million to Kurdistan, increasing the region’s stake in the national electricity network and holding a series of talks on the issue of oil investments, a Kurdish official said Sunday. The minister of works and construction in Kurdistan Emad Ahmed told reporters that […]

NZ: Skilled labour crisis looms for oil and gas industry

Oil and gas producers says a looming labour crisis will slow down Taranaki’s energy boom within a year unless more workers are found. The Pohokura and Kupe gasfields are being developed, as well as the Tui and Maari oilfields, and there are a number of on and offshore exploration projects. The Petroleum Exploration and Production […]

India: OIL survey: Environmentalists up in arms

Oil India Limited is surveying the Brahmaputra river for oil and this has angered environmentalists. They don’t want oil exploration carried out in the river, as it will further endanger the river dolphin.Just two decades back, the worldwide river dolphin population was about 6,000. Today this number has shrunk to under 2,000 and of these, […]

Crude oil production in EU drops by 10%

Crude oil production in the European Union dropped by 10.4% in 2005 with a total of 119 million tons. Crude oil production of the United Kingdom, which is the largest producer in the European Union, continued to fall. According to figures released recently by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, net imports of crude oil into […]

How Global Warming Threatens U.S. Businesses

One of the greatest threats to suburban America, and potentially to thousands of American companies, is global warming nysun

Rep. Salazar: Democratic Congress will focus on renewable energy

When the new Congress begins its work next year, led by Democrats in the House and Senate for the first time since 1994, there will be a strong focus on renewable energy and increased energy independence, Rep. John Salazar said. The Colorado Democrat said during a renewable energy symposium at Adams State College on Saturday […]

Need for Energy Security Links U.S., African Nations, Bodman Says

The United States and the nations of Africa are linked by the need to enhance their individual and collective energy security, U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman says. “Experience has shown that free markets are the finest way to deliver consistently favorable outcomes to producers and consumers,” he said, adding that the United States wants […]

Iran ready to meet European gas needs

Iran is ready to meet natural gas needs of Europe, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday. Energy was in the focus of attention at Ahmadinejad itar-tass

Solid Waste-to-Ethanol Process Offers Lower Life Cycle Energy Use

Researchers from the University of Toronto and the University of Michigan have concluded that ethanol derived from municipal solid waste (MSW) can deliver a life cycle total energy use per vehicle less than that of corn-ethanol and cellulosic-ethanol (derived from energy crops). greencarcongress

The Lottery: a creative & effective way to avoid economic collapse

o you remember the creepy short story called “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson? It used to be required reading in most American high school literature classes. The story is about a small village that partakes in an unusual yearly ritual. The master of ceremonies is Mr. Summers who runs the local coal company. Once a […]

Greener, cleaner … and competitive?

The last time renewable-energy entrepreneurs were this gung-ho, in the early 1980s, subsidies – not sales – buoyed their business plans. This time may be different. For example: csmonitor

Endesa Sees Clean Coal a Reality from 2015

Power plants in Europe could be burning coal with practically zero emissions at a competitive price by 2015 or 2020, a senior engineering executive at Spain’s biggest power company Endesa said on Friday. As one of the biggest coal users in Europe, Endesa is among the companies pushing forward carbon capture technology, Santiago Sabugal told […]

The Oil Drum: Canada’s New Liberal Leader – First Green PM?

In a stunning victory, Stephane Dion is the new Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and has a good chance of being the next Prime Minister of Canada. Today’s Liberal Leadership Convension was truly something to behold. Not only was it full of odd twists and drama, it produced a result that I don’t […]

Connections between Energy Descent Plans and the Oil Depletion Protocol

On the last day of Richard Heinberg Question: I

Stalled subdivisions leave homeowners on barren blocks home alone

TAYLOR — It would be easy for Christopher Lightfoot to erase the eyesore. The carpenter figures parking his Ford E150 van on the front lawn would obscure the abandoned condominium complex across Beech Daly, the one with waterproof-wrap rippling in the wind and a half-finished fieldstone chimney. But it wouldn’t fix the problem. Stalled subdivisions […]

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