N.Y. utility scrapping ocean wind park

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – Long Island’s utility company intends to dump plans to build a $700 million wind energy park in the Atlantic Ocean, a top official said. “It’s just too expensive,” Long Island Power Authority Chairman Kevin Law told The Associated Press. “It’s not going to work. This is an economically based decision. We […]

BP says it won’t increase pollution

BP backed down Thursday from its plans to dump more pollution into Lake Michigan, but critics want the oil giant to ensure its promises are legally binding. Responding to a month of unrelenting criticism from politicians and the public, BP pledged it will not invoke provisions of a new permit that allows the largest oil […]

GM unveils diesel-like gasoline engines

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors revealed two drivable concept cars with new engines that burn gasoline in virtually the same way that a diesel engine burns diesel fuel. The engines will get 15-percent better fuel economy than ordinary gasoline engines, GM estimates, but will not need the expensive exhaust treatment that diesel engines require. […]

Aramco sells fuel oil at record high

SINGAPORE: Saudi Aramco has sold 90,000 tonnes of September-loading fuel oil yesterday at what traders said was the highest differential on record amid stirring import demand from China in the face of falling out The 180-centistoke (cst) A961 cargo, for September 3 to 5 lifting from its Ras Tanura refinery, was sold to US-based Koch […]

The Oil Drum: Energy Grades and Historic Economic Growth

This is a guest post by Douglas Reynolds. Dr. Reynolds is an associate professor of oil and energy economics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and author of “Scarcity and Growth Considering Oil and Energy”, and “Alaska and North Slope Natural Gas”. Doug has a prior guest post on theoildrum on The Energy Utilization Chain. […]

The World’s Sole Superpower in Fast Decline

In almost every measure, the United States is past its zenith. A look at the challenges that are bringing the heyday to a halt. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States stood tall — militarily invincible, economically unrivalled, diplomatically uncontestable, and the dominating force on information channels worldwide. The next […]

Japan Seeks to Share Oil Reserves with Neighbors in Emergencies

Japan aims to implement a program that will allow countries in East Asia to share oil reserves when disaster strikes, The Nikkei learned Wednesday. As a first step, the Japanese government will begin negotiations for such a program with New Zealand. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry believes that an emergency-oil-sharing program in East […]

Sprawl exceeds reach of hydrants

SALISBURY, Md. Six out of 10 homeowners in Wicomico County, Md., a growing area between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, do not have hydrants within the recommended 1,000 feet, says Jack Lenox, county planning and zoning director. Nearly a fourth of U.S. families face the same protection inadequacies as the Webers because they […]

Lukoil reportedly cuts oil supplies to Germany by one third

Talking to Dow Jones Newswires, Grigorev later confirmed that the shortfall was from Lukoil and several smaller oil companies, adding that it was not linked to any repair of the pipeline through which the oil is exported to Germany. “Maybe they’re looking for another market,” Grigorev said. A Lukoil spokesman declined to comment, but said […]

Fuel price policy explodes in Myanmar

Public protests have broken out across Myanmar’s old capital Yangon after the military government unexpectedly removed fuel-price subsidies, resulting in a 500% spike in rationed fuel prices. The shock policy is part of the government’s emerging economic and financial reform program and notably coincided with a high-level mission to the country of International Monetary Fund […]

Japan: Trade Ministry to Spend More on Energy Next Year

Japan’s Trade Ministry plans to boost spending on energy resources in the year starting April 2008 after prices rose and because of competition from countries with booming economies like China and India. The ministry’s natural resources agency is seeking an 11 percent rise in its budget to 18.97 billion yen ($163 million) to secure supplies […]

‘Renewable energy can save Southeast Asia 2 trln usd’

Shifting to renewable energy could save Southeast Asian countries as much as two trillion US dollars in fuel costs over the next 23 years, or more than 80 billion dollars annually, environmental group Greenpeace said Thursday.However, Southeast Asian energy ministers and officials from China, Japan and South Korea who joined them later at a meeting […]

UK: Doubt cast on renewable energy targets

Renewable power is set to grow far more slowly than the government has predicted, according to a new analysis of the UK’s energy mix and greenhouse gas emissions. It will represent only 5 per cent of the country’s electricity in 2010, up just 1 percentage point from the 4 per cent recorded last year, says […]

More Bearish Economic Trend Negatively Impact Oil Demand

Despite the calls to open taps, OPEC continues to tread a cautious course. With the world oil demand projections put forward by various stake holders falling into a still more widening range, global economic woes coming to surface finally and the crude prices falling, uncertainty in the market seems steering the OPEC to maintain the […]

Coal miner’s nation

LATE IN HIS presidency, George Bush finally brought himself to lament the nation’s addiction to oil. But neither he nor leading Democratic politicians have ever rallied the country to break its addiction to a more lethal form of energy: coal, which supplies half the nation’s electricity. This month, an accident in Utah entombed six miners, […]

Europe and China Energy: A Light-Hearted Energy Relationship

Early 20th century Shanghai could easily have been mistaken for a glamorous European metropolis. A European fin-de-siecle atmosphere permeated the city, like the thick smoky haze of opium. Haussmannization hit Shanghai fast, when victory in the first Opium War won occupation rights for the French and the British at the largest trade hub of the […]

Industrial Agrofuels Have No Future; Does Food?

The E.U. has set absurdly high targets for agrofuels in its transportation fuel mix. By 2020, the E.U. intends to sate 10 percent of its transportation demand with agrofuels, and it is counting on cellulosic ethanol for most of that new fuel. It wonThis is clearly not the case. The positive energy return proposition assumes […]

Shanghai Cooperation for Oil

A colleague of mine once suggested that I write a book called Peering in from just outside of the clubhouse are India, Pakistan, Iran, Mongolia and Turkmenistan. Though the first of this group of

The Depauperate World of 2049

And what an equitable, just and ecologically sustainable society will look like The Earth, human society and those species with who we share creation are on a crash course with global ecological collapse characterized by horrific death and destruction. Human populations have exploded and in sum have become a disease consuming the ecological systems which […]

Rule to Expand Mountaintop Coal Mining

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 The new rule would allow the practice to continue and expand, providing only that mine operators minimize the debris and cause the least environmental harm, although those terms are not clearly defined and to some extent merely restate existing law. […] All mining generates huge volumes of waste, known as excess spoil […]

A question of living

Is it more sustainable to live in the middle of a city or in the middle of the countryside? It’s time to press the big red button marked “Activate broad averages and sweeping generalisations”. It is a fascinating question – but one that is hands-tied by enormous variables. For example, are we comparing someone who […]

Clean energy solutions still face obstacles

Fossil-fuel burning power plants are still the cheapest source for electricity, but industry experts say that, in the near future, residents and businesses will depend on a combination of alternatives – many of which are still under development and come with a high price tag – to meet energy demands and environmental concerns. Less-expensive, cleaner […]

More diesels are on the way

Diesel passenger vehicle engines have been largely ignored in North America although they have long been a standard in long-haul and industrial applications as well as in larger pleasure boats, motor homes and pickups. In a bit of irony, they have also been a stalwart in the Mercedes-Benz lineup of expensive, luxury vehicles. Volkswagen has […]

Blackout threat looms over Tokyo as Japan turns up the air-con

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) was forced to take emergency power-cutting measures yesterday to prevent the Japanese capital plunging into blackout amid a nuclear energy shortage and a record heat wave. As much of Japan sizzles, demand from air conditioners in the so-called The deals, which have been made in secret, are expected to […]

Dale Allen Pfeiffer: A Closer Look at Escape From Suburbia

I was asked to review Escape from Suburbia, the latest effort by the team that made The End of Suburbia. Now, I could have offered up a bit of saccharine dripping prose and let it go at that. It would have pleased everyone connected with the film without making waves. But it would not be […]

Immunize Yourself Against Future Hype

It almost goes without saying that a genius for technology is a large part of human nature. Everyday life offers the proof. We have automobiles, the internet, gene splicing, cell phones Does ExxonMobil’s argument hold water? Answering that question requires examining the pace and nature of technological change both inside and outside the oil & […]

Jordan to resume importing Iraqi oil

AMMAN, Jordan – Jordan’s energy minister said Thursday his country expects to resume Iraqi oil imports in the coming days, ending a four-year hiatus sparked by the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein, the official Petra news agency reported. Khaled al-Shraydeh said the supply would eventually cover Jordan’s daily need of 100,000 barrels and would […]

Change in hottest year fuels global warming skeptics

A tweak to NASA But does this mean that all the concern about global warming being a relatively recent phenomenon tied to carbon-belching power plants and hulking SUVs is a bunch of Al Gore hooey? Climate change skeptics and their cheering section among conservative bloggers and radio shoutmeisters think so

The Oil Drum: EROEI Short #1: Boundaries & Calculations

Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI)* is a problematic concept. As Cutler J. Cleveland has noted, The Oil Drum

Natural Gas (LNG) For Electricity Generation Environmentally Worse Than Coal

A team of Carnegie Mellon University researchers report that the choices U.S. officials make today could limit how the nation’s future energy needs are met and could cost consumers billions in idle power plants and associated infrastructure systems. In the upcoming Sept. 1 edition of the journal Environmental Science and Technology, Carnegie Mellon researchers Paulina […]

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