The Oil Drum: C2C

So there I was, hiding out in the midst of some 500 entrepreneurs and business leaders (including the odd student and faculty member) who we were told would wander in and out as the Conference looked to create a pathway to Much more after the jump to The Oil Drum.

Is Oil’s Ride Almost Over?

Big oil companies are scrambling to keep their reserves up. Land wells are showing signs of depletion. And the recent surge in offshore drilling could be oil’s final frontier. “If you continue on the course you’re headed, that’s where you’ll end up.” -Chinese Proverb If worldwide consumption of oil continues growing, we’ll end up in […]

The conspiracy Of Silence On Climate Change

Heat: How to stop the planet burning; by George Monbiot …One of the most important points that comes out of the book is that, no one has seriously researched into the question of the extent of renewables any grid can accomodate. Can we have a 50% or a 80% or even a 100 % renewably […]

Bold leadership needed to avert environmental disaster

… Meanwhile, Matthew Simmons, chairman of Simmons & Co. International in Houston, a close friend of President Bush and a towering figure in the world of petroleum exploration and development, said that the world has now reached peak oil. Modern industrial civilization has been built upon cheap, abundant, highly concentrated liquid petroleum. Once on the […]

Group names top 10 polluting refineries

WASHINGTON – Environmental activists on Thursday said more stringent air-quality regulations are needed for oil refineries along the Gulf Coast, a region densely populated with petroleum industry plants. The Environmental Integrity Project blamed state-level regulations that are weaker than in other parts of the country, as well as lax oversight, for above-average levels of noxious […]

Water Rights for Sale in Alberta

The Athabasca River, running north from the Fort MacMurray area, has dropped several metres in just the short time that the tarsands operations have begun. If this five fold expansion happens– or even if the current pace remains– the agricultural farmers, never mind the nations who actually own the water or the marine life who […]

Greenhouse gas ocean burial can start Feb 10

OSLO (Reuters) – International rules allowing burial of greenhouse gases beneath the seabed enter into force on Saturday in what will be a step toward fighting global warming, if storage costs are cut and leaks can be averted. The new rules will permit industrialists to capture heat-trapping gases from big emitters such as coal-fired power […]

Leading the Way to New Food System

…Ex-journalist and author James Howard Kunstler took on the country In his 30-minute speech that was sprinkled with sarcasm and strong language, Kunstler attacked corporate farms, blaming them for creating a

No single solution to energy crisis

Q: What in your estimation is No. 1 thing the United States should do to enhance energy security? A: You fall into the old trap if you pick one thing — “Tastes great! Less filling!” For Democrats, traditionally, the one thing is increasing CAFE standards. For Republicans, the one thing is drilling. And we say, […]

Venezuela Tries to Attract More Oil Rigs, Halt Departures

Faced with a declining rig fleet in a tight global market for oil services, Venezuela is preparing a fresh licensing round to attract new drilling equipment and renew contracts for those on the ground, industry executives say. But Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PVZ.YY) is increasingly slow about paying its contractors and insists on paying in […]

Soy growers ask higher U.S. support, biodiesel aid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Congress should increase soybean subsidies and provide a biodiesel incentive payment to encourage development of the renewable fuel, the American Soybean Association said on Friday. The ASA asked for a support price of at least $5.01 a bushel and a target price of at least $6.85 a bushel. Both are higher than […]

Carmakers to Calif. attorney general: drop suit

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Six major automakers told new California Attorney General Jerry Brown that their lawyers were ready to discuss improving vehicle fuel efficiency but that he should dismiss the state’s greenhouse gas damage suit. But the automakers so far have given no indication that they will drop the industry’s suit against California’s tailpipe […]

U.S. gov’t moves to lower tailpipe pollution

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. environmental regulators issued new standards on Friday to reduce the amount of cancer-causing emissions from gasoline, vehicles operating in cold weather and portable gas cans. The regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency lower benzene in gasoline, reduce exhaust emissions from cars in cold temperatures and tighten fuel containers to prevent the […]

$70 Oil: A Spill Or A Skirmish Away

When oil was at $72, it had been driven up by low gas supplies and tension between the US and Iran over nuclear weapons. At about the same time, oil analyst Charles Maxwell told CNBC that oil would go to $105. His reasoning? “These terrible things like Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela are now happening on the […]

Putin attacks ‘very dangerous’ US

Russian President Vladimir Putin has attacked the United States for what he said was its “almost uncontained” use of force around the world. America’s “very dangerous” approach to global relations was fuelling a nuclear arms race, he told a security summit. Mr Putin told senior security officials from around the world that nations were “witnessing […]

Is Gates Stirring Up Trouble With Iran To Boost Oil Prices?

Defense Chief Robert Gates knows well what the effect of escalating rhetoric against a major oil-producing nation like Iran can have on the price of oil. After he gave up his CIA chiefdom, Gates spent part of his time engaged in an event in 2005 called ‘Oil Shockwave.’ Shockwave’ was a joint project sponsored by […]

Iran: At long last, the soft underbelly is revealed

For the first time in four years, the US has a good card to play in threatening Iran. But its decision this week to try to sever Iran’s links with financial markets is revealing how successful Tehran has been in building those ties and how many friends it can claim.In the past two months, Iran […]

Living in a state of exponential delusion

Why is it that our planners and politicians understand so little of basic mathematics and its implications? Let me explain how serious the consequences of not understanding some basic mathematical concepts can be. Let us take economic growth, the basic premise of conventional economics, and the assumption that without it our economic model falls apart. […]

From Greener Production to Carbon Trading: Sustainable Energy Careers

Energy is big right now. The most important fuel of the last century or so–oil–is being used up; the only question is how soon it will be gone. The energy supply may be the limiting factor on how many people can live at a high standard–especially if they consume energy at the prodigious pace Americans […]

Ethanol’s Boom Holds Hidden Costs: Higher Food Prices

Demand for corn as the raw material for an alternative vehicle fuel is creating unintended consequences throughout the global food chain.The Agriculture Department predicts that by Sept. 1 U.S. farmers will have less corn on hand than at any time since 1996, when inventories were their lowest in 50 years and prices rose above $5 […]

Ethanol may fuel inflation

Forget about oil as the inflation bogeyman we should fear the most. The surging price of corn is the latest threat to American wallets, and where it hits them might go beyond the supermarket. The issue really starts with the government’s push to increase the use of alternative fuels like ethanol to reduce reliance on […]

Qatar ‘to consider selling gas in euros’

QATAR, the world’s largest shipper of natural gas, will consider selling gas in euros, instead of dollars, HE the Finance Minister Yousef Hussain Kamal said, reducing global demand for the US currency. Qatar would consider selling gas in euros if a customer requested a “special contract,” Kamal, who is also in charge of the Economy […]

Gazprom forms power firm with russian coal miner

OAO Gazprom, the world’s biggest natural-gas producer, will become Russia’s largest coal miner once it completes a deal to pool assets with OAO Siberian Coal Energy Co., also known as SUEK. The agreement, announced yesterday, makes Gazprom the main supplier of fuels to Russian power plants, as the gas monopoly diversifies into the oil, nuclear […]

Russia: Energy-Based Economy Tries To Diversify

Russia’s economy, the cliche goes, rests on two pillars: oil and gas. Now President Vladimir Putin says it’s time for that to change. Putin, meeting with the country’s top business leaders on February 6, said Russia needs a more diversified economy with a stronger manufacturing sector. But making Russia’s market more flexible and dynamic means […]

2007: A record year for oil mergers?

Spring is less than six weeks away, but love is in the air again in the nation’s oil and gas industry. Fueled by last year’s record highs for crude oil, low interest rates and a sea of private equity money, 2006 brought 485 mergers in the energy patch, the most in 16 years – deals […]

Solar to Electricity in Glass Windows is Patent Pending

Octillion Corp., through a sponsored research agreement with the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, is developing new nanosilicon photovoltaic (PV) solar cell technology that could adapt glass windows to be able to generate electricity from sunlight. renewableenergyaccess

Reactor upgrades help researchers study nuclear fusion as energy source

For about six months of the year, bursts of a hot, electrically charged gas, or plasma, swirl around a donut-shaped tube in a special MIT reactor, helping scientists learn more about a potential future energy source: nuclear fusion. physorg

America goes to the top of renewable energy league

The United States has extended its lead as the most attractive location in which to invest in renewable energy projects. The country timesonline

Pelosi: Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cuts Needed

The United States cannot effectively tackle global warming without enacting mandatory restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today. “Scientific evidence suggests that to prevent the most severe effects of global warming, we will need to cut global greenhouse gas emissions roughly in half from today’s levels by 2050,” Pelosi said. “We […]

Leading Climate Change and Energy Experts Map Out Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan

An assembly of leading Canadian experts on sustainable development, energy and global warming is calling for aggressive government action on climate change. Panelists in the Developing Sustainable Energy Policy Workshop produced a series of recommendations to get Canada on the fast track to greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. The recommendations include tax measures to spur technology […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy