Higher Utility Bills Face Homeowners

Despite the pleasant early autumn weather warming much of the country, sky-high heating costs are in store this winter and many of the nation’s households are in the grips of a home energy crisis, says a coalition of state officials, the AARP, and the nation’s natural gas utilities. The group is calling on the Bush […]

Jatropha: fuel for thought?

…The agriculture department, however, is sceptical about allowing the plant to flourish in the country. Spokesperson Priscilla Sehoole says that given South African climatic and environmental constraints and limited agricultural production potential, jatropha is not at the moment considered a viable option as a source for biofuels. Some see the plant

For Thruway, a rocky road

…But as motorists continue to ease up on the gas pedal, taking shorter and fewer trips than had been expected on the state’s 524-mile toll road system, revenue is expected to come up short. Looking ahead over the next five years, the authority sees potential annual budget gaps of $75 million to $90 million. Fleischer […]

SYRIA: Oil price rises could provoke unrest

DAMASCUS, 25 September 2007 (IRIN) – Over 40 years of subsidising fuel and other vital commodities have benefited the rich more than the poor, encouraged smuggling and cost the state more than it can afford, say Syrian government officials. Syria’s socialist Baath Party government, with its centrally planned economy, has subsidised commodities such as bread, […]

New study for Severn energy plan

The government has announced a fresh feasibility study into the Severn Barrage, a tidal power plan that could provide about 5% of UK electricity. Speaking at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Bournemouth, business and enterprise secretary John Hutton said the concept was “truly visionary”. …Now Mr Hutton has signalled that a multi-million pound feasibility […]

CLIMATE CHANGE: ‘Fifteen Years and CO2 Still Rising’

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 24 (IPS) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took the industrialised countries to task here Monday for their failure to take drastic actions against climate change. “Fifteen years have passed since the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was finalised,” he told an international gathering of heads of state. “Yet, the industrialised country […]

ENVIRONMENT: An Int’l Court to Try Ecological Crimes?

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 24 (IPS) – As the United Nations takes an increasingly dominant role in guiding the climate change debate, there is renewed interest in a longstanding proposal for the creation of an international court to try environmental crimes. But some diplomats and environmentalists are sceptical whether such a court will have the political […]

Brown calls for UK to be alternative energy leader

British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, called on the UK to be a leader on energy and the environment, “from nuclear to renewables.” Brown was speaking at his first Labour Party Annual Conference as Prime Minister, in Brighton. He said that his vision was for Britain to be leading the global economy “by our skills and […]

Brazil: Energy profile

Brazil has experienced rapidly expanding oil, natural gas, and electricity consumption in recent years. Brazil is the 10th largest energy consumer in the world and the third largest in the Western Hemisphere, behind the United States and Canada. Total primary energy consumption in Brazil has increased significantly in recent years. In addition, Brazil has made […]

World energy revolution needed for climate

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 24 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday the world needs a revolution on energy that transcends oil, gas and coal to prevent problems from climate change. “Ultimately, we must develop and bring to market new energy technologies that transcend the current system of fossil fuels, carbon emissions […]

Iran gets over 70pc oil income in non-US currencies

Iran has boosted the income it gets from crude oil sales in non-US dollar currencies to more than 70 percent, an oil official said. A switch in payment by Nippon Oil and other Japanese refiners to yen has helped the Islamic Republic towards its goal of maximising oil revenue in currencies other than the dollar […]

Alaska trial hints at more politics-oil corruption

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The trial of an Alaska politician accused of taking bribes from the oil industry has offered a glimpse into more widespread corruption in the state’s government. Details emerged in the trial of former state House Speaker Pete Kott about oil-friendly legislators who dubbed themselves the “Corrupt Bastards Club” and secretly taped […]

Canada: Fistfuls of cash, and spending it badly

You can’t underestimate the value of good management. Put the right people in charge, and they’ll make a decent business a great one. And a lousy business? As often as not, they’ll salvage what they can. Here’s the proof, in one word: PrimeWest, one of the country’s largest energy trusts, which yesterday sold for $5-billion […]

Multiple Studies Reveal Dire Meltdown in Arctic

… Ice-free by 2015? In another study that came out earlier this year, Stroeve compared current measurements of sea ice melt with the predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s models“We’re about 30 years ahead of where the climate models say we should be,” Stroeve told LiveScience. Stroeve, Francis and others will be keeping […]

Oil Prices Fall Sharply

As Crude Declines For Third Straight Day, Analysts See Correction Or End To Market’s Bull Run Oil prices dropped sharply Tuesday and other energy futures followed suit as investors locked in profits from the recent record-setting rally. The third consecutive day of oil price declines after eight straight sessions in which futures hit new records […]

Peak oil made me do it: Adrienne Langman

The idea that the world’s oil supply is going to end, and maybe not that far into the future is gaining acceptance. Experts describe it as “peak oil”, a time when the production of oil reaches a climax, then goes into a permanent decline. Peak oil had a big effect on Adrienne Langman, the author […]

Nigeria is looking to rework contracts

Oil companies may have to hand over more revenue Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp. and other foreign oil companies operating in Nigeria may soon have to give the government a greater share of revenue from deep-water oil production, Nigeria’s petroleum minister said Monday. The companies signed production-sharing contracts during the 1990s that allowed them […]

MIT teams with BP on clean energy

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has teamed up with British Petroleum to research clean coal technology. The partnership will establish an energy research program, the BP-MIT Advanced Conversion Research Project, which will investigate ways to convert coal and coal-like energies into liquid and gassified fuels and chemicals while reducing coal’s notorious carbon dioxide emissions. BP (NYSE: […]

A business that grows organically

…Monk represents the growing maturity of an industry that for decades has struggled with a reputation as being on the fringe. Although he lives on a small property on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula (with horses and chooks), he is a tertiary-trained professional who can mix with the corporate world. And in a refreshing change from the […]

The Oil Drum: The ASPO Conference – a comment

I worry that the post-peak supplies may decline faster than the long plateau that currently keeps us complacent, and which does not reflect the bell-shaped curve that some of us use when talking about the subject. I am significantly more pessimistic.The Oil Drum

Climate shift is biggest security risk: Australia

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Climate change, not war or terrorism, will be the century’s biggest security challenge with China unlikely to be able to feed its vast and growing population as a result, Australia’s top policeman has warned. With predictions climate shift could slash agricultural output in Asia, and bring more droughts and flooding, climate refugees […]

Gasoline prices still rising

Drivers took a hit at the pumps over the last week, the Energy Department said Monday, as gasoline continued its unusual September climb in most of the nation and U.S. diesel prices topped $3 a gallon for the first time in more than a year. …”Refineries have been playing catch-up on gasoline supplies. We have […]

Application is first in decades for a new nuclear reactor

NRG Energy, a partner in the South Texas Project nuclear plant, submitted the first application for a new nuclear reactor in the U.S. in nearly 30 years, the company’s chief executive said Monday. NRG is seeking a license for the construction and operation of two nuclear reactors at its existing two-unit plant southwest of Houston […]

Rebels support attackers of Mexican oil pipelines

MEXICO CITY — A Mexican rebel group that waged a short-lived armed struggle against the government 13 years ago issued a declaration Monday in support of a Marxist group responsible for recent attacks on the country’s oil and gas pipelines. The Zapatista National Liberation Army did not explicitly condone the Sept. 10 and July 11 […]

Shock and Awe – James Howard Kunstler

With gasoline prices still skulking in the neighborhood of $3-a-gallon, despite oil priced above $80-a-barrel, political and economic leaders can pretend a little while longer that things are okay on the real life American scene. But between the dollar tanking in response to the Federal Reserve’s Easy-Money-for-Big-Players policy, and the start of the home-heating season, […]

Declining net oil exports – a temporary decline or a long term trend?

To answer the question in the title of this paper, we believe, for reasons outlined below, that the current decline in world net oil exports is probably the start of a long term trend, as a result of declining production and/or increasing consumption in key exporting countries. EIA data show a small decline in world […]

Is Global Warming Drowning Africa?

Africa has always been predicted to be the continent that will be worst hit by global warming and climate change. Could those predictions be coming true? Extreme rains and floods have made for a very wet summer in Africa, and there is no end in sight to the downpours that are swallowing towns and forcing […]

Winter heating costs could rise an average 10.5%

WASHINGTON For heating oil customers the increase may be particularly dramatic. The average U.S. heating oil bill is expected to be a record $1,834 for the winter, up 28% from a year ago and double the cost seen four winters ago. Average prices are expected to top $3 a gallon, up from $2.48 last winter. […]

To Mars and Beyond

Rocket scientist Franklin Chang Diaz talks about finding the power and propulsion required to colonize space.This coming January, Ad Astra Rocket Company will test the VX-200, a full-scale ground prototype of the variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket (VASIMIR), first conceived in 1979 by the company’s president and CEO, astronaut and plasma physicist Franklin Chang Diaz. […]

India’s appetite for coal

Energy hungry India has a voracious appetite for coal. But the country’s coal companies – mostly state-owned – are unable to efficiently mine the stuff and transport them to the power plants, cement factories, steel manufacturers and other bulk consumers in a cost-effective way.India is facing a demand-supply gap in coal of a hefty 55 […]

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