Italy’s debate on alternative energy cranks up

Italian government officials took to newspapers on Saturday to promote alternative energy, including banned nuclear power, as a debate over the country’s heavy dependence on power imports cranked up. “We are not giving up on nuclear even if it’s not our immediate answer,” Economic Development Minister Pierluigi Bersani told La Repubblica newspaper in an interview.“It’s […]

A Perfect Oil Storm on the horizon

In the 2005 television docudrama “Oil Storm,” a hurricane that destroys a vital US pipeline, a tanker collision which closes a busy port, terrorist attacks and tension with Saudi Arabia lead to wild speculation, crude oil prices around USD 150 per barrel and an oil crisis that paralyses America. It’s just fiction, but not far […]

Is the $100 barrel on its way?

Speaking in Canada last week, Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, said he saw no fundamental reason why crude prices had breached such levels. “There is a lot of psychology in the price,” he said. Van der Veer has a point, but he would no doubt admit that the era of […]

Demand for bio-diesel has soared due to high price of fossil fuel

The worldwide demand for palm oil for making bio-fuel such as bio-diesel has soared worldwide because of the current high price of fossil fuels and the increasing global warming due to overuse of fossil fuels. Malaysia expects to mark a record year in terms of export of this “golden oil” judging from this current trend […]

Oil industry ’sleepwalking into crisis’

Lord Oxburgh, the former chairman of Shell, has issued a stark warning that the price of oil could hit $150 per barrel, with oil production peaking within the next 20 years. He accused the industry of having its head “in the sand” about the depletion of supplies, and warned: “We may be sleepwalking into a […]

The Oil Drum: Greenspan claims the Iraq War Was ALL ABOUT OIL

America’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.Much more after the jump to The Oil Drum.

Volvo’s plug-in hybrid

VOLVO has unveiled a petrol-electric hybrid car with the ability to top up power by plugging into the mains outlet. Most hybrids use the electric motor only for short periods to assist the combustion engine, but Volvo claims its plug-in hybrid will have battery-only range of more than 100km. It also claims the car will […]

Sorting the wood from the trees in climate change

COVERING 30 per cent of the Earth’s land surface, forest ecosystems (including live trees, dead trees, logs and litter, understorey and soil) are a significant component in the global carbon cycle. Since rising atmospheric carbon dioxide was first observed in the 1970s, scientists have discussed the potential for forests to offset emissions from burning fossil […]

Canada: McGuinty looking to hydrogen-fuelled GO trains

Discussions with Bombardier in early stages, prompting opponents to say announcement is too vague THUNDER BAY – The Ontario government is talking to Bombardier Transportation about funding the development of one of the world’s first hydrogen-powered trains, Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty said yesterday. The discussions, both Bombardier and the government said, are in the early […]

Australia: Core promise: green energy

At an isolated rig in the South Australian outback, hope is growing that a clean way to fuel the future can be drawn from hot rocks thousands of metres below the Earth’s surface. OF ALL the oil and natural gas rigs dotted through South Australia’s treeless Cooper Basin, the tallest is Habanero 3, named after […]

Only A U.S. Recession Can Lower Oil Price

US$80 a barrel level based on short supply, steady demand After OPEC agreed to boost production by half a million barrels a day this week, the cartel’s secretary-general, Abdalla el-Badri, came out and said that US$80 oil won’t last because the fundamentals don’t support it. We’ve heard that one before. Many people made that argument […]

Australia: Drought, oil send food prices soaring

IT’S called agflation and it’s coming very soon, propelled by climate change and drought. Grain prices have hit record levels, and those prices will ramify through the feed chain – beef, dairy, pork, eggs and chicken — and reach consumers. The nation’s food bowl, the Murray-Darling basin, does not have enough water in the system […]

Serious Dough

Higher Wheat Prices Drive Up Bills for Grocery Staples First it was corn. Now wheat is getting the blame. Earlier this year, corn began getting pricey because it was in high demand to make ethanol. That sent prices rising for other corn-dependent products, including milk and meat. Now wheat is costing more and more because […]

Australia: Wartime mentality needed

THE world is not about to run out of oil, according to Queensland’s new Minister for Sustainability Andrew McNamara. “But it is about to run out of cheap oil,” he said. “The degree of social dislocation, the degree of pain, will depend on how urgently we respond . . . in the end we will […]

ASPO’s Stuart McCarthy on peak oil hitting the Australian mainstream

Stuart McCarthy of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas talks to GPM’s Andi Hazelwood about Queensland’s new leadership, Andrew McNamara’s recent appointment to Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation, McNamara’s “Queensland’s Vulnerability to Rising Oil Prices” report three years in the making and today’s coverage of this landmark report in […]

Mexico and Oil–A Double Whammy for U.S. Economy?

With the sub-prime mortgage mess grabbing all the headlines, it is easy to take your eye off the ball and miss some other important investment themes lurking underneath the surface. One of these themes could provide investors with a great opportunity while at the same time, add to U.S. economic woes for 2008. The theme […]

States are closer to trimming autos’ CO2 emissions

When historians finally take stock, Vermont may look like the mouse that roared The judge’s finding

Compromise on Oil Law in Iraq Seems to Be Collapsing

A carefully constructed compromise on a draft law governing Iraq Mr. Shahristani, a senior member of the Arab Shiite coalition that controls the federal government, negotiated the compromise with leaders of the Kurdish and Arab Sunni parties. But since then, the Kurds have pressed forward with a regional version of the law that Mr. Shahristani […]

Pioneers Can Secure Our Future

By MICHAEL SHANK AND ROSCOE BARTLETT WASHINGTON Russia, Canada, and the United States are rushing to the North Pole in a pioneer-like land grab for an estimated 25 percent of the world’s unknown oil and gas reserves. One wonders when we will learn. Oil and gas are not forever. We need to change course and […]

World Made by Hand: A Novel by James Howard Kunstler

I finished a book late last night which even though is not coming out until next March I wanted to go ahead and mention. Did you know that James Howard Kunstler wrote fiction? I didn I found it fascinating partly because the author does such a good job of keeping it realistic. Whereas The Road […]

BP all but leaving South Dakota

ABERDEEN, S.D. (AP) – There will soon be a lot fewer of those green BP signs at gas stations in South Dakota. That’s because BP America says it’s leaving most of South Dakota and all of North Dakota, Wyoming, Louisiana and Texas. The company has decided to focus on areas closer to its refineries. In […]

Water needs for potential oil shale industry could complicate things

GRAND JUNCTION – America’s thirst for oil is threatening to add to the thirst for water in the West. Meeting the nation’s energy needs also is threatening water quality in the region, speakers said Friday at a seminar in Grand Junction on energy development’s impacts on water. The seminar was organized by the Colorado River […]

Arctic ice loss: Northwest Passage now open, says space agency

PARIS (AFP) – The Northwest Passage, the dreamed-of yet historically impassable maritime shortcut between Europe and Asia, has now fully opened up due to record shrinkage of Arctic sea ice, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Friday. It released a mosaic of images, taken in early September by a radar aboard its Envisat satellite, […]

The Oil Drum: OPEC’s Demand Side Fear Is Very Real

The West and OPEC have one thing in common: All of our futures could very well hang in the balance based on what happens in labs and shops around the world. And the clock is moving very, very fast.The Oil Drum

OPEC slows down global economic growth

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti economic commentator Oleg Mityaev) – On September 11, the Conference of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) met in Vienna, Austria, to discuss oil-production quotas. Most OPEC countries said the cartel should not produce more than 25.8 million barrels of oil per day, citing slackened projections for global and U.S. […]

Brazil Led Agrofuel Revolution Is Anything But Revolutionary

Agrofuel development has arrived on the global stage. Just this year, the number of declarations, dollars, and development plans that have gone to agrofuels are unparalleled in any other sector. An idea that languished for decades has suddenly become the darling of politicians, big business, international financiers, and the media. This fact alone should make […]

Analysis: Mideast turns to nukes for water

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (UPI) — The idea of using nuclear-powered desalination plants is becoming popular in the Middle East and North Africa, where tension over water rights has gone on for millennia, but it is controversial, and without significant foreign assistance it may turn out to be a mirage. During a visit to Libya by […]

Iraq: Energy profile

Iraq has the world’s third largest proven petroleum reserves and some of the lowest extraction costs, but security issues continue to hold back rehabilitation of IraqIraq

End of the Oil Age is near

IT’S not Doomsday yet, but if we don’t act now it soon will be. That’s the message from mounting evidence about the looming oil crisis confronting Australia. The bottom line is that the world’s oil production is close to peaking, with demand for the product soon to outstrip supply. The latest study on the problem, […]

Australia: Govt warns of ‘peak oil’ chaos

QUEENSLAND is heading for an oil shock. And it is not a matter of if, but when. As crude oil prices hit a record high yesterday, an as-yet unreleased Queensland Government report warns of massive social dislocation, rising food prices and infrastructure headaches because of rising oil costs. The report on the looming “peak oil” […]

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