Australia: Overcoming car culture a bit like waiting for Godot

Western Australia has a lot to teach the nation about learning to live with rising petrol prices. But its FuelWatch – or should that be FuelBotch – scheme to be launched federally, is the least of it. Some Perthites apparently like FuelWatch – though I have yet to meet one prepared to drive out of […]

Institutional Investors: The ‘Dark Force’ Driving Oil Prices Sky High?

…I recently received an e-mail from a Wall Street friend on this very topic. He sent the powerful testimony of a money manager named Michael Masters, who appeared on May 20 before the Committee on Homeland Security. Describing himself as “a concerned citizen,” he convincingly argues that a huge amount of new money from institutional […]

In Light of Peak Oil, Financial Diversification Is a Bad Idea

For US investors, the realities of peak oil mean the following: energy prices will continue on an upward climb and therefore inflation will follow. The massive devaluation of the US dollar since Bush took office (>50%) will simply exacerbate the problem since oil is traded the world over in US dollars (at least for now!). As readers are aware, I have often commented that the US dollar has been replaced as the world’s “reserve currency” by a barrel of oil.

seekingalpha.com

In the grip of oil

THERE may be a debate about the cause but there is no doubt about the effect: the world is on the verge of an energy crisis. The signs are everywhere. This week, Qantas boss Geoff Dixon said the airline would ground planes, cancel routes, slash jobs and freeze senior pay packets to combat rising jet […]

Toyota denies decision on Prius plant in U.S.

Report: Automaker in talks with GM about using Calif. factory TOKYO – Toyota said Friday that nothing had been decided yet on using its California joint venture plant with General Motors to produce its Prius hybrid The newspaper, which did not cite sources as is common in Japanese media reports, said that adding another production […]

Why are oil prices so high?

Why are oil prices so high? The obvious answer would seem to be because we are running out of it. Peak-oil enthusiasts have argued this for years, but the idea is creeping closer to the mainstream. In the New York Times Paul Krugman argued that prices were based on fundamentals of supply and demand in […]

Alternatives to ‘distilled dinosaur juice’

(AOL Autos) — At the dawn of the automobile age, gasoline was the up-and-coming “alternative fuel” — vying with electric batteries and steam power. Gas ultimately won out, of course. But now that we’re running out of distilled dinosaur juice — or at the very least, getting sick of being at the mercy of OPEC […]

Matthew Simmons: Peak Oil Worries (video)

An outlook on fuel prices, with Matthew Simmons, Simmons & Co. international chairman and CNBC’s Joe Kernen. CNBC

Power Prices to Rise in Europe as Fuel Costs Surge

(Bloomberg) — Electricity rates are set to rise in Europe, boosting utility sales and punishing consumers, to keep pace with rising coal and natural gas costs used to fire power plants. German prices for 2009 delivery will probably climb 13 percent this year to 82 euros ($127) per megawatt hour, said UBS AG analyst Per […]

Asia Has Blown Its Chance to Destroy Oil Demand: Andy Mukherjee

(Bloomberg) — Asian governments are squirming. With crude oil near $130 a barrel, their strategy to shield consumers from high energy prices is becoming a drag on national budgets. The unsustainable subsidies and price controls must go, say economists. The problem is with the timing of any such move. The cost of living is soaring […]

Deffeyes: Oil Production, Oil Price

They finally got my full attention: Last week I paid $100.96 for a tank of gasoline. It wasn’t the most expensive grade of gas; it wasn’t at the highest-price filling station in San Diego. The crisis reached into my wallet and it hurts. In 2005, world oil production stopped growing and oil prices shot up […]

Oil Can’t Rise Forever, So It Stops

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“IF SOMETHING CAN’T GO ON FOREVER, IT WON’T.” So said the late Herb Stein, the wise economist who served as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Richard Nixon. More importantly, Stein was thought a conservative by liberals and a liberal by conservatives; in other words, someone who couldn’t be pigeon-holed ideologically. Rather than […]

Shutdowns and plunging profits cast doubt on nuclear future

British Energy, the nuclear power group, reported a sharp fall in profits yesterday – the same day a series of mishaps at its stations left more than 60% of its capacity out of action. An unexpected shutdown at Hunterston on Scotland’s west coast yesterday followed the closure of its Sizewell B station on Tuesday which […]

UK Gov Announces Two New North Sea Fields

As debate about the price of fuel taxes rages on in the UK and oil prices continue to rise, the government has announced plans to increase North Sea oil production with two new field developments. The developments – West Don and Don South West – are due to start production in the first half of […]

Case against climate change discredited by study

A difference in the way British and American ships measured the temperature of the ocean during the 1940s may explain why the world appeared to undergo a period of sudden cooling immediately after the Second World War. Scientists believe they can now explain an anomaly in the global temperature record for the twentieth century, which […]

UK power giant says energy industry on the brink of radical change

Britain’s second biggest gas and electricity supplier, Scottish and Southern Energy, warned today the industry stood on the brink of radical change. Centralised fossil fuel fired generation would have to give way to a combination of energy efficiency and diversity of generation. “The days of meeting an unchecked demand for energy through monolithic carbon intensive […]

Troubled Silverjet stops flights

Business airline Silverjet has suspended all flights after failing to secure essential funding. Shares in the carrier were suspended earlier this month when it failed to obtain a critical $5m ( The firm said other airlines were not obliged to honour unused Silverjet tickets and advised passengers awaiting return flights to make their own plans. […]

What a waste: dream of free energy turns into

Britain’s nuclear complex at Sellafield is Europe’s biggest single industrial site and home to what was meant to be a huge fuel reprocessing system that would produce power while reducing the legacy of radioactive waste. It was built amid enthusiasm that atomic power would be “too cheap to meter” and yet, 52 years on, its […]

Loss of biodiversity threatens livelihoods of world’s poorest

Mass extinctions of plants and animals could have a severe impact on the living standards of the poorest people on the planet and cost up to The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb) review analyses the financial impact of the loss of natural life. It is hoped that, like the Stern Review of Climate Change, […]

Fuel prices spark holiday crunch as air surcharges soar

Families are facing holiday misery this summer after big airlines sharply increased fuel surcharges on their flights, bringing the era of cheap air travel to an end. Virgin Atlantic is imposing new charges today and, from Tuesday, British Airways long-haul passengers will have to pay Other airlines, struggling to cope with fuel bills but wary […]

Climate change target is too low, say scientists

The target of halving global greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century is not enough to avoid the major impacts of climate change, scientists warned yesterday. Researchers said that the belief among political leaders that it was possible to find ways to fully avoid the serious threats of global warming was “false optimism”. […]

Europe fuel protests spread wider

Fuel protests triggered by rising oil prices have spread to more countries across Europe, with thousands of fishermen on strike. In Spain, Europe’s largest fish producer, the action is expected to bring the industry to a halt. Fishermen in France have been protesting for weeks, and their counterparts in Portugal, Belgium and Italy are also […]

German solar support seen sinking 8 pct in 2009

Germany’s ruling parties have reached a deal on reduced support for the solar energy sector which involves cuts of 8 percent in 2009 and 2010, and 9 percent in 2011, Social Democrat politician Hermann Scheer told Reuters. The cuts in support for rooftop solar panels, which supply the lion’s share of Germany’s solar-produced energy, fall […]

BA raises fuel surcharge again as sky-high oil price wreaks havoc

British Airways raised its passenger fuel surcharge for the 11th time yesterday as the soaring oil price plunges the airline industry into its worst crisis since 2001. Europe’s third-biggest airline put up its short-haul surcharge from The latest industry figures suggest that demand for air travel is waning. Air passenger demand has risen just 4% […]

Asian-Pacific Airlines Are Forced to Reduce Flights

With the rise in oil prices, airlines across the Asian-Pacific region are scrambling to cut flights and increase surcharges to stanch hemorrhaging cash flow. Fuel costs, which now typically account for as much as 40% of total operating expenses for airlines, have already jumped more than 50% since the start of the year. Analysts say […]

Medvedev reaches out to China

Moscow would have reason to worry that frictions have appeared in two areas of its ties with China, which are critical to sustaining the momentum and verve of the strategic partnership. First is the energy relationship. The implementation of the multi-billion contracts signed in 2006 for Russian energy supplies to China has run into difficulty. […]

Burning food: why oil is the real villain in the food crisis

Agricultural productivity is simply not growing fast enough. US government data shows global yields per hectare rose 2% a year between 1970 and 1990 and then fell to 1.1% over the succeeding period. Productivity enhancements over the next 10 years are expected to average less than 1% a year. Since world population growth is averaging […]

Britain announces help for fuel poor as prices boom

The British government set out on Friday extra measures to help the poor and boost energy efficiency in the face of rocketing fuel prices. Booming oil and energy prices are adding to the headaches for Prime Minister Gordon Brown whose future is under threat due to a faltering economy, a mess-up on tax changes and […]

Global Biofuel Output To Soar In Next Decade-Report

Global production of biofuels will rise rapidly over the next decade, helped by high government blending targets and subsidies, the OECD and the UN’s FAO food agency said in a report published on Thursday. These rises will boost already soaring world agricultural commodities prices and reduce their availability for food and feed, the Organisation for […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: Speculation, Subsidies & Megacities

The energy issue of the week is whether high gasoline prices are being caused by supply no longer being able to keep with demand or by speculators garnering untoward riches at the expense of hardworking motorists. The facts, economic theory, and the most knowledgeable observers such as the U.S. Secretary of Energy are telling us […]

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