Does Less Energy Mean More Farmers?

Among the cadre of folks who think about food systems and sustainability in the U.S., there As these authors point out, not only is the absolute number very large compared to today, but given the age of the current crop of farmers it implies that a rapid education of youth will be required to keep […]

2 Million Acres Proposed for Oil Shale

Forecaster: Next year’s drought shaping up to be even worse

ATLANTA –Georgia’s state climatologist warned Friday that without more rain over the next three months, the state could face a drought next year even worse than this year’s record conditions. David Stooksbury said the severe drought gripping north Georgia and parts of the Southeast could expand through the rest of the state and lead to […]

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela presides over oil summit in Cuba

CIENFUEGOS, Cuba: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez presided Friday at the opening of a regional petroleum summit in Cuba, pressing his efforts to counter U.S. influence in Latin America and the Caribbean by offering cheap oil. Chavez, who wants to use Venezuela’s vast oil reserves to help create a “confederation of republics” free of U.S. interests, […]

Hydrocarbons And Funny Money

Economic trends can always be seen either in terms of materials or in terms of money. One can say that the future will be one of diminishing fossil fuels, and hence diminishing gasoline, plastic, paint, asphalt, fertilizer, and electricity. Or one can say that it will be a period of stagflation: rising prices and falling […]

Argentina To Unveil Strict New Power Saving Plan Friday

BUENOS AIRES -(Dow Jones)- The Argentine government will on Friday announce sweeping new measures to reduce power consumption to head off a possible crisis in the coming summer months, an industry official said Thursday. The key elements involve strict limits on power usage in state-owned buildings and public spaces and a nationwide incentive plan to […]

It’s unfair to blame Asia for high oil prices

WHENEVER we refer to current oil prices, it is worth noting Thomas Friedman’s optimism ahead of the US-led invasion of Iraq . The New York Times columnist suggested in 2003 that a new Iraqi regime could “in short order ramp up its oil production to 5 million barrels per day (mbpd)”, and cause a crash […]

S. Korean president-elect eyes energy deal with Russia

SEOUL (AP) “It would be beneficial for both countries if Russia and South Korea work together to develop East Siberia,” Lee told the Russian envoy during a congratulatory visit, according to Lee’s office. “I want to start the project early after my inauguration. As Russia has energy resources South Korea needs, and there are other […]

The best- and worst-selling vehicles of 2007

…”The weakness in truck sales isn’t going away anytime soon,” for reasons that are rooted in the housing slump, says Dana Johnson, vice president and chief economist for Dallas-based Comerica Bank. During a downturn, penny-pinching construction companies stop building their fleets with pickups. What’s more, homeowners have a reduced ability to extract equity and make […]

Vitol ends Iran contract

Iran’s largest supplier of gasoline, independent oil trader Vitol, has decided to end its long-running contract to provide the country with the fuel from next year, an industry source said. The source said Swiss-based Vitol has made the decision because it had made a loss of an estimated $70 million for the calendar year 2007 […]

KSA set to have sustainable capacity of 12mbpd by

JEDDAH More than 500 representatives from drilling contractors, service companies, universities, research and development centres, and national and international oil companies participated in the symposium under the theme ‘Drilling Technology, Pushing the Envelope.’ Al-Saif said that rising demand, along with a decreasing supply from other producers, geopolitical tension, misconceptions about resources, and environmental concerns have […]

Bush says nuclear energy ‘best’ for greenhouse gases

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President George W. Bush said Thursday that nuclear power represents the “best solution” to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and stressed he was serious about fighting climate change. Bush said he told Nobel peace laureate and former vice president Al Gore that he takes the issue of greenhouse emissions “seriously” and that […]

China: Perfect storm of problems leaves many short of water nationwide

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) — China is no stranger to drought, having experienced severe water shortages hundreds of times during the past two millennia. Despite the country’s long experience with drought, however, it is ill-prepared to cope with the current dry spell, one of the worst in decades. The drought itself, which is affecting even […]

As West’s industry moves East, China now the world’s smokestack

In its rush to recreate the industrial revolution that made the West rich, China has absorbed most of the major industries that once made the West dirty. Spurred by strong state support, Chinese companies have become the dominant makers of steel, coke, aluminum, cement, chemicals, leather, paper and other goods that faced high costs, including […]

Russian gas deal dashes EU hopes

Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have signed a landmark deal to build a gas pipeline. The pipeline will strengthen Moscow’s control over Central Asian energy export routes, analysts said. It also deals a blow to European Union hopes of securing alternative routes that would bypass Russia.The pipeline will skirt the Caspian Sea from Turkmenistan to southern […]

Oil giants abandon plans for ‘uneconomic’ green power plant

Shell and StatoilHydro have scrapped plans to build a green power plant that would capture and store carbon dioxide because the project was found to be uneconomic. The decision to shelve the gas-fired power project, which was to be built at Tjeldbergodden in Norway, casts further doubt on the financial viability of power schemes that […]

Sakhalin sees Exxon oil output falling in 2008

An Exxon Mobil-led group developing Russia’s Sakhalin-1 oil block is likely to reduce production to around 200,000 bpd next year from the peak of 250,000 bpd in 2007, the governor of Sakhalin said on Friday. “The capital expenditures plan for Sakhalin-1 is $1.26 billion and the oil production plan on Sakhalin-1 is 10 million tonnes,” […]

Chavez oil diplomacy gains ground in Caribbean

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will assert his regional leadership at a summit in Cuba on Friday for Petrocaribe, his initiative to sell oil to Caribbean nations with soft financing. With oil prices above $90 a barrel, Petrocaribe is offering terms that few can refuse, even the best allies of the United States: deferred payment of […]

Russia, Iran tighten the energy noose

Moscow and Tehran have worked hard in recent months to successfully put behind them their squabble over the construction schedule of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran. The first consignment of nuclear fuel for Bushehr from Russia under the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards finally arrived in Tehran on Monday. “We have agreed with […]

Converting Chicken Fat and Tall Oil into Biodiesel?

Chemical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have investigated supercritical methanol as a method of converting chicken fat into biodiesel fuel. The new study also successfully converted tall oil fatty acid, a major by-product of the wood-pulping process, into biodiesel at a yield of greater than 90%, significantly advancing efforts to develop commercially viable […]

The dangers of living in a zero-sum world economy

We live in a positive-sum world economy and have done so for about two centuries. This, I believe, is why democracy has become a political norm, empires have largely vanished, legal slavery and serfdom have disappeared and measures of well-being have risen almost everywhere. What then do I mean by a positive-sum economy? It is […]

Vaporware 2007: Long Live the King

It’s time again to inhale the fumes of failure. Every December, Wired News asks its readers to nominate their choices for our annual Vaporware awards. We hand out accolades (and raspberries) to the most-prized products that were promised but never delivered. Reader votes have helped whittle the list down to the top 10 honorees for […]

US hits at Chinese oil deal with Iran

The US has complained to Beijing about a new deal between Sinopec, the Chinese state-owned energy company, and Iran, in a sign of the rift between the world’s big powers about Tehran’s nuclear programme. The contract to develop Iran’s Yadavaran oil and gas field, signed in Tehran on December 9, follows a 2004 memorandum of […]

Oil prices will swamp subprime as market driver

Here’s my fearless forecast for 2008: The subprime mortgage mess will be far less important to investors next year than the price of oil. The reason is simple: We don’t sell our homes once a week, but that’s about how often we fill up our gas tanks. The critical questions are, will consumers face a […]

Charlie Hall’s Balloon Graph

Energy researcher Charlie Hall’s balloon graph challenges the notion that alternative energy sources will provide a smooth transition to a post-fossil fuel society. Scale and energy return remain huge obstacles. Charlie Hall is one the best-known energy researchers you’ve never heard of. That’s because he puts his effort into understanding whole energy systems such as […]

Living on the Fife Diet

Food miles have become a burning issue in the climate debate as campaigners call for people to eat more local food. What happened when a family tried to survive on food only from Fife? Whether it’s avocados from Peru, green beans from Kenya or lamb from New Zealand, people are constantly being told that their […]

BG nixes plans to sell Israel natural gas

The $4 billion worth of natural gas that BG Group Plc controls off the Gaza Strip coast will not be sold to Israel as the company officially ended negotiations on Thursday, citing insurmountable differences on several key issues. “We came to a point where we had not been making any progress and it was clear […]

Plant cover in Haiti at two percent: UN official

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – Deforestation in Haiti, where trees and bushes are routinely felled for cooking fuel, is at crisis level, with just two-percent plant cover now, the UN warned Thursday. “There is a real urgency, and measures need to be taken … plant cover is down to about two percent,” UN Development Program official in […]

Crude Oil Rises on Report Showing That OPEC Shipments Will Drop

Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose above $92 a barrel after a report showed that OPEC shipments will drop in the four weeks to Jan. 5 from the previous month. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will load 24.24 million barrels a day, compared with 24.33 million barrels in the month ended Dec. 8, […]

Fire Breaks Out At Kern Oil Refinery

LAMONT, Calif. — A fire broke out at a local oil refinery causing an unknown amount of damage. Firefighters said just after 12 a.m. Thursday, a pipe carrying a flammable material at the Kern Oil Refinery near Lamont burst. The liquid inside the tube caught fire. Kern County firefighters along with Hazmat teams put out […]

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