Memory and vision: The Apollo Alliance and eco-apartheid

…The Apollo Alliance Van Jones, leader of the Ella Baker Center in Oakland, has become one of the most effective critics of eco-apartheid, his term for the continuing failure of the environmental movement to understand the role racism and class divisions in the US play in frustrating the environmental agenda. Jones is also clear that […]

Turkey rations water as cities hit by drought

Turkey’s two major cities – Ankara and Istanbul – are suffering water shortages. Reservoirs are less than 5% full in the capital, Ankara, where rationing has started with 2 days off, 2 days on. The school year might be delayed to avert the spread of disease. People have started stockpiling water; sales of bottled water […]

A More Efficient Engine

A new version of the internal combustion engine, which could significantly cut gas consumption, might be surprisingly practical and easy to deploy, according to recent findings by researchers at MIT. Tests on a prototype based on the technology, which allows engines to switch between conventional technology and the new gas-saving type of combustion, show that […]

Food, water and oil – the hidden link

Since World War II, agricultural research and development has dramatically increased crop productivity, which along with an increase in the areas under irrigation and cultivation, has allowed us to feed an ever increasing global population. Unfortunately, regional conflicts and droughts still cause famine, and poverty is largely responsible for 850 million people still suffering malnourishment. […]

Business Books: Clean Tech Becomes Big Business

Clean technology is evolving from an environmental issue to big business, opening a world of opportunities for companies, entrepreneurs and investors who see a chance to — yes — clean up, says a new book. “Clean technology is everywhere,” write Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder in “The Clean Tech Revolution: The Next Big Growth and […]

Cereal prices remain high due to biofuel boom

An increase in the demand for biofuel will cause an increase in demand for cereals, maintaining the relatively high raw material prices, the European Commission said today. In a new report, Commission analysts said the expansion of domestic consumption and cereal exports mean supply will be able to meet demand in the medium-term between now […]

Beyond petroleum: It’s time to rebrand Alberta

It’s time for Alberta to rebrand itself, to become the “BP” of Canada by moving “beyond petroleum” and on to bio-products, and aiming to be known as a total energy producer with a significant stake in both renewable and non-renewable resources. If Alberta makes tangible investments in bio-products and smart bio-energy policies, infrastructure and activities, […]

Boost For Cars Powered By Vegetable Oil

Cars powered by vegetable oil have received a turbo charged boost after scientists came up with a way of purifying it into biodiesel. Chemists at the University of Leicester have been able to remove glycerol, a syrupy sugar alcohol, from the product by using a salty solution called an ionic liquid.If left in biodiesel glycerol, […]

Energy sector at risk from attacks: expert

Energy facilities are the new targets of extremists who are well aware of the enormous economic damage that can arise from disruptions to oil and gas production, a US expert said Thursday. “The industry that I think might get attacked is the energy industry,” said Robert Taylor, professor and chair of the University of North […]

Good news from Baghdad at last: the oil law has stalled

Glad tidings from Baghdad at last. The Iraqi parliament has gone into summer recess without passing the oil law that Washington was pressing it to adopt. For the Bush administration this is irritating, since passage of the law was billed as a “benchmark” in its battle to get Congress not to set a timetable for […]

As oil prices increase, the cost to find it is up as well

As oil prices have spiked, the costs of finding oil and natural gas grew right along with them, an industry cost expert told oil executives and engineers at a conference Thursday. But Cambridge Energy Research Associates expects such costs to soften in the next two years, said Candida Scott, director of cost research for CERA.Scott […]

Why Oil Could Be Headed Even Higher

Surging demand coupled with concerns about tight supplies are sending crude prices up, and there’s no relief in sight on either side. In addition, speculators are now betting on further price spikes. “It looks like [oil] is getting ready to do a new leg of height,” says Peter Beutel, president of the energy risk management […]

Energy futures alternate between gains and losses on government inventory data

NEW YORK — Energy futures rose slightly today as investors sorted through conflicting interpretations of data from a government inventory report. At the pump, meanwhile, retail gas prices, which typically lag the futures market, extended their declines. Analysts say energy investors are engaged in a tug of war over the meaning of yesterday’s weekly inventory […]

Coal Industry Asks Congress to Slow Down

Eastern mining states say federal, state governments need more cooperation. Representatives from nine eastern coal-producing states met with members of Congress July 26 and issued what boiled down to a simple message — slow down. Even the U.S Mine Safety and Health Administration asked federal lawmakers to reconsider new mine safety regulations before making them […]

Appalachian Power Uses Battery to Complement Service

AEP’s $2.5 million battery helps make electricity more reliable and efficient. CHARLESTON — American Electric PowerThe move was characterized as a breakthrough by Dana Waldo, president and chief operating officer of AEP subsidiary Appalachian Power.

The Oil Drum: Legislative Updates on The Energy Bills

This post is a continuation of The Oil Drum’s legislative effort to improve the pending House energy bills. Below the fold are links to tables of descriptions of the amendments that have been filed – but NOT YET approved by the Rules Committee for debate and votes tomorrow. Remember, the Energy Tax Bill is H.R. […]

Russia seeks to ban Exxon gas exports to Asia

MOSCOW Exxon signed a preliminary agreement in 2004 to supply 8 billion cubic metres (bcm) of Sakhalin-1 gas to China’s CNPC but it has also held talks with Japan and India, which want to import Sakhalin’s gas as liquefied natural gas (LNG). Russia’s Gazprom, which has monopoly right to export Russian gas, asked the government […]

When Environmental Writers Are Part of the Problem

SomethingSmirking Chimp

War-torn Iraq happy with high oil prices

BAGHDAD — War-torn Iraq is pleased that high oil prices will help fund emergency reconstruction work, but does not want a price bubble to cause instability, oil minister Hussein Al Shahristani said Thursday. Speaking shortly after New York oil prices hit and then retreated from a record high, the minister said that despite Iraq’s dire […]

Plan Would Harvest Energy Of Human Movement

Two graduate students at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning want to harvest the energy of human movement in urban settings, like commuters in a train station or fans at a concert. The so-called “Crowd Farm,” as envisioned by James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk, both M.Arch candidates, would turn the mechanical energy of people walking […]

Russia’s gas pipeline network faces reality check

In recent weeks Russia has announced a number of high-profile export-oriented gas pipeline projects, notably the Europe-bound Nord Stream and South Stream, the China-bound Altai route, and the Caspian pipeline in Central Asia. However, all these pipelines will be connected with the existing Gazprom pipeline network. Therefore, the successes of these ambitious projects will depend […]

Aramco’s China refinery deal in question

Sinopec Group will delay the startup of a $1.2 billion refinery in east China by at least nine months, adding uncertainties to a joint-venture and oil supply deal with Saudi Arabia, industry sources told Reuters. Sinopec, parent of Asia’s top refiner Sinopec Corp., aimed to start the 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery in the […]

West pressures OPEC to increase oil production

PARIS, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) – Western countries are turning up the heat on OPEC to ramp up oil production, analysts said Thursday, a day after crude prices soared to record heights. Analysts said OPEC, which has not commented on the record price, was now obliged to consider increasing production after consistently resisting calls from […]

Where are oil prices headed from here?

When the price of a commodity rises, economists tell us, demand eventually goes down. But with oil prices setting new records, there The latest numbers from the U.S. Energy Dept. added fuel to an already hot oil market. Weekly numbers released Wednesday showed that oil stockpiles dropped by 6.5 million barrels

Canadian oil industry profits seen tumbling in 2007

OTTAWA — Spiraling costs will cause profits in Canada’s oil industry to “plummet” almost 25% this year before recovering in 2008, a new report from the Conference Board of Canada shows. “Lower oil prices earlier in the year and rapidly rising industry costs will cut into industry profits in 2007,” said Louis Theriault, director, Canadian […]

Hybrid Vehicle Sales on Pace to Reach Record Sales in 2007

Hybrid vehicles are on course to achieve record sales in 2007, increasing by 35 percent compared with 2006, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2007 U.S. Hybrid Vehicle Forecast Second Quarter Update. According to the report, an estimated 187,000 hybrid vehicles were sold in the U.S. market through the first half of 2007, accounting […]

The Oil Drum: Why Not Nuclear Power? (The Democratic Presidential Debate)

A couple of days ago I was reading the CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate transcript. Of course I am always interested to hear what the candidates have to say about energy. There were a lot of good comments, and the usual spattering of dumb comments. But I won’t dissect them right now. What got me to […]

Oil Field Costs Crimp Supply Search

Fierce cost escalation in the oil patch is complicating the industry’s ability to respond to higher prices with new supplies, setting the stage for still-higher prices in the months and years to come. During past surges, higher oil prices pinched consumers and the economy but also made a greater amount of untapped oil economical to […]

Russia plants its flag on North Pole seabed

Russia planted its tri-colour national flag on the seabed more than 4km beneath the North Pole on Thursday, staking a symbolic claim to a vast swathe of Arctic territory believed to be rich in oil and minerals. A group of Russian explorers and scientists, carried in mini-submarines over 4,261 metres below the waves, became the […]

National Hurricane Center: Tropical Depression may form in Caribbean

… All weather models predict the system will remain south of Cuba and Haiti over the next week before slamming into Honduras, Guatemala, Belize or the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Two of the weather models show the storm crossing the Yucatan and the Bay of Campeche in the southern Gulf of Mexico before striking central […]

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