The great oil bubble has burst

If the trend continues into September at anything like the same rate of descent, most of the inflationary spike of the past 12 months will miraculously have been sliced away. This is a dramatic reversal, and it is worth trying to work out why it is happening and what it means. Just possibly, it means […]

EU says U.N. carbon market link to start October

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s executive Commission plans to link an EU market in carbon emissions permits with a related U.N. trading scheme in the first half of October, it said in a statement on Thursday. The connection will allow European companies to use carbon offsets, earned from funding emissions cuts in developing countries, […]

Drive For Natural Gas Vehicles Faces Big Test In California

SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- The notion of spending taxpayers’ money to help fill U.S. roads with natural gas-fueled vehicles faces a major test when voters in California, the nation’s largest auto market, go to the polls in November. Natural gas providers are spending millions of dollars on advertising to convince Californians to pass a ballot […]

Dry California OKs huge desalination plant

OCEANSIDE, Calif. – The California Coastal Commission approved a plan to build the Western Hemisphere’s largest desalination plant north of San Diego Construction on the plant could begin next year and begin delivering drinking water in 2011, according to Connecticut-based Poseidon Resources Corp., which is heading the project. MSNBC

Tropical downpours worsening, say scientists

OSLO (Reuters) – Tropical downpours are becoming more frequent and the trend seems worse than expected, bringing greater risks of flash floods, scientists said on Thursday. “As the tropics warm are seeing an increased frequency in the heaviest rainfall,” said Richard Allan of the University of Reading in England, who co-authored a study of tropical […]

Nuclear Power Less Popular Than Other Energy Strategies

PRINCETON, NJ — John McCain has ramped up his longstanding call for building more nuclear power plants — 45 new ones by 2030 — drawing the sharpest distinction between himself and Barack Obama on energy policy, but also, to some degree, throwing the political dice. According to a July USA Today/Gallup poll, the impact of […]

Iraq to resume oil exploration after 20 year pause

Iraq will resume searching for oil on Friday for the first time in two decades, the oil ministry said on Thursday, in the hope of finding vast reserves that lay undiscovered because of sanctions and war. Iraq has 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the third largest in the world, but the government believes […]

5 Years After Blackout, Power Grid Still in ‘Dire Straits’

…The US power grid – three interconnected grids made up of 3,500 utilities serving 283 million people – still hangs together by a thread, and its dilapidated state is perhaps one of the greatest threats to homeland security, according to Bruce deGrazia, the president of Global Homeland Security Advisors and a former assistant deputy undersecretary […]

Climate Resilient Cities

This Primer is a tool for city governments in the East Asia Region to better understand how to plan for climate change impacts and impending natural disasters through sound urban planning to reduce vulnerabilities. It gives local governments information to actively engage in training, capacity building, and capital investment programs that are identified as priorities […]

EPA Rejects Texas Request to Ease U.S. Biofuels Rule

U.S. officials rejected Texas Governor Rick Perry’s request to ease requirements on the use of corn- based ethanol in gasoline, saying he didn’t prove that the rules are straining grain supplies and causing “severe economic harm.” “After reviewing the facts, it was clear this request did not meet the criteria in the law,” Environmental Protection […]

Exurban – Dwellers Feel Fuel Price Pain

Long-Distance Drivers Face Monthly Gas Bills Exceeding Mortgage Payment It’s two hours before dawn when Robert Thompson turns his keys in the ignition of his F-150. The bright red truck, still cloaked by the dark, roars to a start, and Thompson rumbles down a narrow mountain road. He’ll drive an hour and 10 minutes from […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: Masking the Peak

As world oil production has never peaked before, there is no historical basis for making informed judgments as to what is going to happen. All we know is that some six billion people, living in some 200 economies on this earth are soon going to be confronted with getting by on less than the 86 […]

Peak oil adds fuel to Swiss energy debate

Switzerland, which is “above average” when it comes to oil dependence, is not doing enough to prepare for shortages. This is the key finding of a new report. The Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW) said on Thursday that oil covered 57 per cent of the country’s total energy needs. The independent umbrella organisation, which […]

Reviving the Household Economy, Part Two: The Decline and Fall of Home Economics

…Many currents of social change flowed together to launch the women As a motor for rebellion, deprivation of meaning is even more potent than deprivation of food, and so an explosion was inevitable. Many of the forms that explosion took were altogether admirable. A great many injustices were set to rights, or at least challenged, […]

UK: Retailers feel the pinch as food costs soar

The price of fresh food jumped by more than 10 per cent in the year to July as producers struggled with high oil and commodity prices. The cost of fresh produce rose by 2 per cent last month, pushing the annual rise to 10.8 per cent, according to the shop prices index from the British […]

Unpaid bills are causing more utility shut-offs

Rising prices and a sagging economy are boosting the number of customers who can’t pay their energy fees. Agencies offering financial aid report long waiting lists. WASHINGTON — Utility shut-offs for customers behind on their energy bills are increasing around the country, reaching 50% or more in some hard-hit areas, as the effects of rising […]

May 2008 EIA Oil Production Record. Will it Too be Revised Downward?

Yesterday, August 6, the EIA published new International Petroleum Monthly data. The new data revised downward previously published estimates, all the way back to 2002, with the biggest revisions in 2007 and 2008. With the revisions, the latest month, May 2008, shows new record-high oil production. Other recent months which had previously set records are […]

Norway’s Crude Oil Exports Likely to Cease by 2030, E24 Reports

(Bloomberg) — Norway’s oil production peaked in 2001 and exports are likely to end by 2030, Norwegian business Web site E24 reported, citing a study by Professor Kjell Aleklett at Uppsala University in Sweden. Production at larger oil fields in Norway has decreased by 13 percent a year, while annual output at other fields has […]

Britons face bigger bills as French Government caps energy prices

British families could find themselves subsidising households in France after the French Government ordered a 2 per cent cap on electricity price increases yesterday. EDF, which supplies homes on both sides of the Channel, raised its prices to British customers by 22 per cent only two weeks ago. It also put up its charges for […]

Well, so much for a future of $200 oil

With new production coming on-line, crude could be in double-digits soon Oil prices fell below $120 a barrel this week, touching levels last seen in May, as investors began to rethink the idea that crude is on an inevitable march to $200. …The pullback is vindication for analysts who for months have been saying that […]

U.S. drives 10 billion fewer miles May 08 over May 07

High oil prices equal demand destruction, as Americans drive fewer miles. From USDOT: New Federal data showing further steep declines in the number of miles Americans are driving is additional proof that the country needs new means – other than the gas tax – to finance the nation’s transportation infrastructure, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary […]

The alternative – energy bubble

What do you get when you mix Al Gore, global warming, whacky environmentalists, skyrocketing oil prices, lots of venture funding, and irrational exuberance? An alternative-energy bubble. What, you don’t believe that there’s an alternative-energy bubble? Then you’re just not paying attention. It may not be the biggest bubble in the history of technology–yet. And it […]

Are Europe’s sports cars endangered species?

BRUSSELS, Belgium – As Europe’s giant car makers do battle with environmentalists and lawmakers over emissions curbs, makers of classic European sports cars like the Aston Martin DB9, Ferrari F430 and Porsche 911 are struggling to be heard. Environmentalists say today’s supercars, with huge engines pumping out up to three times as much carbon dioxide […]

Costly oil spurs long-term change in consumers

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – High oil prices have caused “dramatic” and longer-term changes in consumer behavior, U.S. Acting Deputy Energy Secretary Jeffrey Kupfer said on Wednesday. “Oil prices continue to come down but it’s unclear what will happen with the prices,” said Kupfer while meeting with representatives of Brazil’s ethanol and automobile industry at the […]

Following Fidel’s lead, Cuba cuts ethanol plans

HAVANA, Aug 6 (Reuters) – Following denunciations of the use of food for fuel by former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, a Cuban official said on Wednesday the Caribbean island is modernizing its sugar industry but that plans to increase ethanol production have been scaled back. Luis Galvez, director of the sugar ministry’s Sugar Cane Derivatives […]

BP takes a step toward investing in nonfood biofuel

BP’s announcement Wednesday that it will invest $90 million in a U.S. biofuels company could boost efforts to bring nonfood-based ethanol out of the laboratory and into the fuel tanks of American drivers. It also may be a catalyst to other oil companies to enter the so-called cellulosic ethanol business in a bigger way. “It’s […]

Biofuel debate faces showdown in USA

25% of US corn crop already used for biofuel Texas governor wants biofuel target cut by 50% Barack Obama wants big increase to 60bn gallons The moment of truth is at hand for US biofuels this week as environmental regulators prepare to rule on one state’s request to halve the steep national target for blending […]

Will the Solution to the Energy Crisis Come From Local Power Generation?

There are two main alternatives to meet this demand. The first is to build new transmission capability (or to increase the capacity of existing transmission) and to build large new central generation facilities. This has been the most common approach for many years and is the strategy generally favored by Wall Street and most major […]

The falling price of oil explained

Only a few weeks ago, it was the soaring price of fuel that was gripping the world Some of the world’s biggest oil companies, including Total and Chevron, have cast doubt over whether global production, which stands at around 85 million barrels per day, can ever exceed 100 million barrels, despite demand projections of as […]

Jimmy Carter — the peak oil president

The timing is extraordinarily appropriate, and not just because energy is the campaign issue of the week. The wave of Republican mockery currently assaulting Barack Obama’s recommendation that Americans properly inflate their tires flows squarely within the tradition of scorn and derision that conservatives have heaped on Carter for decades — in part because of […]

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