New Zealand: Fossil-fuel cost crunch to hit in 2010

Power companies will face the full cost of the carbon emissions arising from the fossil fuel they use from the start of 2010, under the emissions trading regime the Government unveiled yesterday. They will be able to buy units from the forestry sector and on the international market for credits created under the Kyoto Protocol’s […]

Canada: A bright energy future without coal or nuclear

This week, our dirty coal-fired power plants were back in the news with electoral candidates arguing the ifs and whens of their necessary shutdown. Shutting down coal plants, our guiltiest climate-change-causing beasts, seems like a no-brainer, but heels keep dragging. We’re told that spending $1.3 billion on scrubbers is the answer. Let’s be clear: Scrubbers […]

India and China struggle over Latin oil

India follows in China’s van in securing energy supplies in Latin America. Indian oil firm Reliance is closing on deal for two oil blocks in Peru. Indian interests also nosing around Colombia and elsewhere. The Oil Race is on: China signs multi-billion dollar oil contract with Venezuela but India also wants Latin American OilIt is […]

Hunt defends Iraq oil deal

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 (UPI) — Hunt Oil is defending its new deal with the Iraqi Kurdish region amid concern from Washington it could undercut a federal process. The Kurdistan Regional Government, meanwhile, says the deal gives the federal government a needed The KRG announced the Hunt deal Sept. 8. It is a production-sharing contract aimed […]

Drought puts Australia’s food bowl at risk: PM

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia’s once-in-a-century drought has tightened its grip on the country’s major food growing zone and could kill off the region’s orchards and vineyards, Prime Minister John Howard said Friday. In his weekly radio address, Howard said that the continued lack of rain meant permanent plantings, such as fruit trees and grape vines, […]

China could be top wind market in three years: Vestas

BEIJING (Reuters) – China could become the world’s top wind power market in three to five years but will grow faster if it reforms its subsidy system, executives of major wind turbine maker Vestas said on Friday. Chief Executive Ditlev Engel, in China to open the second and third in a series of seven plants […]

Arctic boom town lit up by gas development

HAMMERFEST, Norway (Reuters) – A 100-metre-high flame from a new gas plant symbolizes the rebirth of Hammerfest, which claims to be the world’s northernmost town and is seeing its fortunes transformed by fossil fuels found off its coast. The huge flame atop a 150-metre (492 feet) Snoehvit flare tower lit Hammerfest streets like a full […]

Britain has plutonium for 17,000 Nagasaki bombs

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has amassed a stockpile of more than 100 metric tons of plutonium — enough for 17,000 bombs of the size that flattened Japan’s Nagasaki in 1945, a report from the country’s top science institution said on Friday. The toxic stockpile, which has doubled in the last decade, comes mainly from reprocessing […]

37 groups call on EU to abandon plans for a 10% biofuel target

37 environmental and human rights groups have called upon the Members of the European Parliament to drop support for a 10% mandatory biofuel target during next week’s vote on the Thomsen report. They warn that biofuel targets are already linked to serious social impacts in the global South, such as rural depopulation, health impacts, land […]

Arctic ice ebbs to record level: scientists

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Arctic sea ice melted to its lowest level ever this week, shattering a record set in 2005 and continuing a trend spurred by human-caused global warming, scientists said on Thursday. “It’s the biggest drop from a previous record that we’ve ever had and it’s really quite astounding,” said Walt Meier, a research […]

The Trouble with Predictions

The trouble with predictions is that they are mostly wrong. But is there a way that forecasting can be used to help us confront climate change, world peak oil production, and other critical environmental policy issues? Predicting the path of a comet is far more likely to meet with success than predicting the future course […]

CO2 flooding could yield 2mb/d – eventually

For a senior oilman Gareth Roberts holds some fairly unusual views: peak oil is coming soon; crude oil is too precious to burn as transport fuel; and Big Oil should be investing massively in alternative energy. But then Roberts is the CEO of Denbury Resources, a rare example of an oil company whose strategy is […]

Two barrels of oil are used for each one found. $100 oil anyone?

…The economists said – and still say – there is no shortage of oil; there is just a shortage of oil at low prices. If the price, say, doubles, the reserves will rise accordingly (though not necessarily on a 1-to-1 ratio). Higher prices means expensive reserves, like Alberta’s oil sands, can be commercially produced. Higher […]

Drivers test paying by mile instead of gas tax

Beginning early next year, drivers in six states will begin testing a new way to pay for roads and transit: Commuters will be charged for the miles they drive rather than paying taxes on gasoline purchased. Researchers from the University of Iowa Public Policy Center will install computers and satellite equipment in the vehicles of […]

Counting the cost of wheat price hike

World wheat prices have risen to a 10-year high following a dramatic fall in harvests sparked by a severe drought in Australia and crop diseases across parts of Europe and the Americas. Meanwhile, demand for wheat-based produce is reaching record levels and the land once used to grow wheat is being threatened by the demand […]

Huricane Dean affects Mexican oil, natural gas production

MEXICO CITY, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) — Hurricane Dean has affected productivity in the oil fields of Mexico’s state oil company (Pemex) in the Gulf of Mexico and in Campeche Sound, with a reduction of 10.8 million barrels of crude oil and 10.30 million cubic feet of natural gas. Pemex informed on Thursday in a communique […]

Unimaginable technologies are coming our way

As time passes, new, wonderful technologies come tumbling onto the scene at an ever-increasing rate. As I watched a video clip of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner flying, I was amazed at just how narrow the wings are in relation to the body. It looks as if the wings are too narrow to hold the […]

Iceland phasing out fossil fuels for clean energy

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (CNN) — Iceland may be best known for world-famous musical export Bjork but there’s a new star quickly gaining this island nation worldwide acclaim — clean energy. For more than 50 years Iceland has been decreasing its dependence on fossil fuels by tapping the natural power all around this rainy, windswept rock of […]

The Right to Dry: A Green Movement

Clothesline Has Neighbors Bent Out of Shape in Bend; An Illegal Solar Device? BEND, Ore. — It was a sunny, 70-degree day here in Awbrey Butte, an exclusive neighborhood of big, modern houses surrounded by native pines. To Susan Taylor, it was a perfect time to hang her laundry out to dry. The 55-year-old mother […]

The Oil Drum: The ASPO Conference – Final Afternoon

The overlying theme of this yearAs a consequence she learned the benefits of selling problems at the local level. And the scale of the local use was large, with 495,000 gal/yr of fuel used for City Services, 525,000 gal of fuel/year for Waste pickup and recycle (they pick up 4,500 tons of trash a week […]

Analysis: Oil pollution in the Caspian

The Caspian is the worldThe Caspian is the world

Oil surges past $83

NEW YORK (AP) — Crude oil prices surged further into record terrain Thursday, breaching $83 a barrel as the weak dollar and last week’s decline in U.S. oil inventories spurred buying of futures. Light, sweet crude for October delivery gained $1.39 to settle at $83.32 a barrel on the Nymex, where it had settled at […]

The debate behind $80 oil

Industry executives say there’s no reason crude prices should be anywhere near current levels. Others say the fundamentals are there, and Big Oil is playing politics. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — To listen to Big Oil executives, there’s no reason why a barrel of crude costs $80. But others say strong demand and limited supply justifies […]

Barclays Capital ups oil forecast

Barclays Capital has raised its US oil price forecast for 2008 to $77 a barrel, up $3.10 from its previous forecast after a rally in prices this week to record highs above $82. The bank, which also raised its 2007 forecast for US crude by $2.50 to $68.80 a barrel, cited a tighter US oil […]

The Fate of Currencies Pegged to the Dollar

The US dollar represents a major economic axis in many a country worldwide. Most of them have pegged their national currency to the dollar, believing the currency of a country such as the United States would remain sturdy seeing as it has one of the strongest economies in the world. So it came to be […]

The Green-Car Domino Effect

When it comes to hybrids, the heavyweight tussle between American and Japanese automakers appears to be a hopeless mismatch. Toyota introduced its gas-electric hybrids in 1997 (when regular was $1.18 per gallon), and in June announced its 1 millionth hybrid sale. In the first eight months of this year, Toyota sold 189,945 hybrids in the […]

UK Sees Need For Global Biofuel Standards, Protections

OXFORD (Reuters) – Global standards must be developed to ensure the growth in the use of biofuels does not have damaging consequences for the environment, Britain’s Climate Change Minister Phil Woolas said on Thursday. “The global community must as a matter of urgency work towards the development of internationally recognized standards for biomass grown to […]

Fight for the Top of the World

At the end of august, a wisp of flame suddenly appeared in the Arctic twilight over the Barents Sea, bathing the low clouds over the Norwegian port of Hammerfest in a spectral orange glow. With a tremendous roar, the flame bloomed over the windswept ocean and craggy gray rocks, competing for an instant with the […]

ENVIRONMENT: Scramble for Resources Driving Sudan Conflicts

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 20 (IPS) – A U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) report released here this week emphasises strong linkages between environmental stresses and the ongoing conflict in Sudan. The new assessment of the country, including the troubled region of Darfur, indicates that among the root causes of decades of social strife and conflict are the […]

ENERGY-CANADA: Wind vs. Water in Giant Dam Dispute

VANCOUVER, Sep 19 (IPS) – A controversial hydroelectricity expansion project in Quebec has drawn sharp criticism from aboriginal and environmental organisations on both sides of the Canadian-U.S. border. Hydro Quebec’s main purpose for diverting the Rupert River in Northern Quebec is for hydro production in order to sell power to the northeastern United States.U.S. environmental […]

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