Perpetual commotion

Huckster or genius? An Irish firm is the latest to trumpet a `perpetual-motion machine’ “Built to last.” “Lasts an extra, extra long time.” “It keeps going, and going, and going, and going …” Sure, that’s what they all say. But be it batteries or bubblegum, everything stops sometime. The only thing that goes on forever […]

Will the coming oil crisis be the end of suburbia?

Three years ago, when I started to teach Introduction to Sociology for Lamar Community College, my brother sent me the DVD, “The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream,” concerning the “coming oil crisis.” I showed it to my class to help the students better understand “social change” and what […]

The `dirty` saviour

Coal is the largest single source of fuel for the generation of electricity worldwide, as well as the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions, which is the primary cause of global warming. China, the US and India, the top three consumers of coal in the world, are also the number one, two and fourth largest […]

An Inconvenient Truth-Coal to Liquid

“The dominant reason petroleum is what we use today is, it’s the most efficient (fuel),” Burt Davis (UK Center for Applied Energy Research) notes. “It’s a matter of time, as I see it, until the two (petroleum efficiency and coal-to-liquid fuel efficiency) become equal.” That efficiency equality will result from the continuing decline of available […]

Germany to stay nuclear in Merkel U-turn

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is preparing to perform a major U-turn by scrapping plans to abandon nuclear power. The move would bring Berlin into line with many of its European neighbours, who are investing heavily in new and existing sources of atomic energy, but puts Mrs Merkel on a collision course with the country’s […]

We should explore low North Sea tax

I recently wrote that the UK’s North Sea oil production is falling by more than 10 per cent a year. At a time of growing fears about energy security, our crude output is dropping faster than any other major producer. After years of self–sufficiency, the UK is now a net oil importer. So rapid is […]

U.S. oil’s global influence wanes

Though the United States is still the world’s leading oil consumer, its might in the global petroleum business is dwindling. Developing countries are locking up a bigger share of the world’s oil and gas resources to profit from high prices and fuel industrial growth.Some experts view the shift as an emerging threat to the U.S. […]

Energy answers in the wind, sun

Bradley Collins, the executive director of the American Solar Energy Society, linked the issues in an address before the City Club of Cleveland. Collins will be in town over the next few days for the society’s 36th annual conference at the Cleveland Convention Center. The increasing U.S. dependence on foreign oil – about two-thirds of […]

Royal Dutch/Shell to start development of Arctic Ocean shelf

The European Union itar-tass

7/7/07: The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook

The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook is the official companion volume to today’s Live Earth concerts, 24 hours of nonstop concerts broadcast from around the world on 7/7/07. It’s a fun little book, meant to connect with a younger audience via tongue-in-cheek suggestions, practical advice, factual information, and imaginative, bluesky solutions for climate change. […]

If you’re serious about saving the planet, think geothermal

Current estimates put the amount of oil saved by using geothermal at about 14 million barrels a day worldwide, but that number may be about to explode. A recent MIT study predicts that with far less government help than is currently available in the development of other less reliable alternative energy sources, the percentage of […]

Save energy, save the planet

EVERY YEAR, energy efficiencies by business, industrial, and residential customers reduce the state’s demand for electricity consumption by almost a third. Now the Patrick administration wants to use conservation to stop load growth completely by 2010. It’s an ambitious goal, but it’s possible if both utilities and consumers get the right incentives. boston

No oil crisis here

Has Mr O’Malley not read the report by the Petroleum Affairs Division of the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources on Ireland’s future energy prospects? It gives real reason for optimism. Putting output from just the Dunquin oil and gas field off the Kerry coast, with our present consumption needs, we would have enough […]

The man making the world’s worst polluter clean up its act

He is not as well known as Al Gore or David Attenborough but among green campaigners, no one has a bigger role in tackling climate change than Ma Jun. As China’s economic growth races on at breakneck speed and with more dirty, coal-burning power plants coming on line each year, the world’s most populous nation […]

Oil prices may soar to 100 dpb in two years — ranking Kuwaiti figure

Dr. Imad Al-Atigi, member of the Supreme Petroleum Council, told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the oil prices have been rising since 2003, reaching USD 70 pb, before stabilizing in 2006. But now the prices of oil, a strategic commodity of global value, appear on a rising course anew and may soar to USD 100 […]

SRNL Hits Milestone in Nuclear Hydrogen Production

The US Department of Energy greencarcongress

Global Warming Sparks New Look at Nuclear Power

Nuclear power is getting another look in the United States because of growing concerns about global warming and the plumes of greenhouse gases pumped into the atmosphere by coal-fired plants. That’s because greenhouse gas caps would make burning coal more expensive npr

AA warns of petrol at

World oil prices shot to a 10-month high yesterday, bringing warnings from the AA that petrol could soon reach guardian

Lights Out: The Electricity Crisis, the Global Economy and What It Means to You

For anybody who believes that electricity will always be easily available with the flip of a wall switch, Jason Makansi’s book “Lights Out” provides an important education. Makansi worries about the availability of electricity Makansi’s business is electricity. Ever since earning an engineering degree, he has been involved in the electricity industry, much of the […]

Iran to stop making gasoline-only cars – report

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran, the Middle East’s biggest carmaker, will stop producing cars that only run on gasoline this month and will instead ensure all new vehicles run on gas too, an official said in remarks published on Saturday. The announcement follows Iran’s move last month to start rationing gasoline to curb expensive imports the […]

Rationing looms in Africa energy crisis

MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) – Sub-Saharan Africa must urgently impose power rationing on companies and populations to limit the effects of a worsening energy crisis, industry and government experts said. Decades of underinvestment in electricity networks and growing populations mean the poorest 20 percent in the region has no access to electricity. Even in wealthier African […]

BP Reaches $18M Settlement

BP PLC has agreed to pay $18 million to settle claims that it manipulated power markets during the 2000-2001 California energy crisis, federal energy regulators said Friday. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a settlement reached in April between BP and PG&E Corp.’s Pacific Gas & Electric Co. utility, Edison International’s Southern California Edison and […]

Peak Oil Passnotes: $80 Oil Beckons

The price of a barrel Brent crude is working its way back up to its records of $78.64 set last August 7. A steady and sure combination of factors has pushed it over $75 per barrel. But when it pushes up against levels of $78 per barrel, which way is it going to go then? […]

Transforming Civilization: Gods, God, Emergence, and Transcendence

The course of human history from the dawning of agriculture in the Near East about ten thousand years ago, to the present, can be understood as embodying the progressive development of ever more complex political economies. Developing this complexity has required coordinating the actions of ever larger groups of humans together for collective purposes. After […]

Ford, utility join to promote plug-in vehicles

DETROIT (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co and power utility Southern California Edison will announce an unusual alliance on Monday aimed at clearing the way for a new generation of rechargeable electric cars, the companies said. Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally and Edison International Chief Executive John Bryson are scheduled to meet with reporters at Edison’s […]

Governor: Idle Coffeyville plant won’t raise gas prices

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius discounted Friday the necessity of gasoline price hikes at Kansas retail pumps in response to the flood-induced shutdown of Coffeyville’s oil refinery. The 600-employee plant in southeast Kansas may be silenced until September, and industry analysts say production losses could prompt cost increases in Great Plains states. The refinery was responsible for […]

Non-OPEC peak oil threat receding

Non-OPEC peak oil, or the point of maximum production of oil, will not occur before 2014, according to analysts Wood Mackenzie. The company has disputed views that a pinnacle may be in sight and contends strong supply growth will prevail in the short term. Barring unexpected disruptions to production, Wood Mackenzie expects total global capacity […]

Experts: Withdrawal no reason to doubt Shell’s oil shale technology

Oil shale experts say their confidence in Royal Dutch Shell Shell

A message from the melting slopes of Everest

Fifty-four years after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to scale Everest, their sons have said the mountain is now so ravaged by climate change that they would no longer recognise it. On the eve of the Live Earth concerts this weekend, Peter Hillary and Jamling Tenzing yesterday issued a timely […]

High oil prices are here to stay, analysts warn

Crude oil is unlikely to give up its almost 20pc gains in price this year and the risks are tilted toward it moving higher, leading oil analysts have warned. Brent crude traded in London jumped to $76 a barrel, while oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped more than 1pc today to beyond $72 […]

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