Unexpected natural gas boom may ease U.S. energy crunch

HOUSTON: American natural gas production is rising at a clip not seen in half a century, pushing down prices of the fuel and reversing conventional wisdom that U.S. gas fields were in irreversible decline. The new drilling boom uses advanced technology to release gas trapped in huge shale beds found throughout North America – gas […]

Video & Article: A Natural Road Trip

Passing the ‘fossil fools’ in a CNG-powered car Natural gas is a relatively abundant, domestically produced fossil fuel Still, I was intrigued, especially when I found out that the only natural-gas-powered car on the U.S. market, the Honda Civic GX, sells most of its cars in California, where I am based. With the help of […]

An interview with energy expert Chris Nelder on peak oil

While covering cleantech on VentureBeat, we write often about individual technologies, but rarely about the driving forces behind the market. Global warming is an oft-cited reason for developing renewable energy, but there According to Nelder, we

Iraq oil minister sees possible oil oversupply

WARSAW (Reuters) – Oil supplies may be running slightly ahead of current world demand, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said on Thursday. “It seems for the time being what (oil) is being made available on the market meets the demand or even there is slightly more than demand,” Shahristani told reporters. Shahristani would not say […]

Energy Independence Within Reach

Energy independence is within our grasp, according to Edward Mazria, founder and executive director of Architecture 2030. Speaking at the first annual National Clean Energy Summit hosted by U.S. Senator Harry Reid, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Mazria explained that buildings are the key to phasing out […]

Our Good Earth

The future rests on the soil beneath our feet. …This year food shortages, caused in part by the diminishing quantity and quality of the world’s soil (see “Dirt Poor”), have led to riots in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. By 2030, when today’s toddlers have toddlers of their own, 8.3 billion people will walk the […]

The tempo of change

One of the lessons of history is that change, no matter how drastic it appears on the pages of history books, is rarely anything like so sudden for those who live through it. Read an account of the French Revolution, for example, and events seem to follow one another like bangs from a string of […]

Whitehouse, experts warn of local climate change effects

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and a panel of top scientists warned today that climate change will have a dramatic impact on Rhode Island’s ecosystem over the next few decades, with far-reaching implications for the state Grover Fugate, executive director of the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), said his agency estimates that Rhode Island

West Africa’s coastline redrawn by climate change: experts

Rising sea levels caused by climate change will brutally redraw a 4,000-kilometre (2500-mile) stretch of west African coastline from Senegal to Cameroon by century’s end, experts were told AFP Friday. “The cost of Guinea will cease to exist by the end of this century,” said Stefan Cramer, a marine geologist and head of German green […]

Pemex July Oil Output Falls 12% as Cantarell Declines

(Bloomberg) — Petroleos Mexicanos, the third- largest supplier of oil to the U.S., said production fell 12 percent in July from a year earlier as output declined at Cantarell, the world’s largest offshore oil field. July’s daily output dropped to 2.782 million barrels from 3.166 million barrels in the same month last year, the state- […]

Geologist: In Terms of Supply and Demand, the Oil Peak Is Past

Jeffrey Brown is an independent petroleum geologist and analyst, who also manages an exploration program in West Texas. He has a major interest in the subject of “Peak Oil” and has used mathematical models to project a very grim future for the world’s oil supply. We caught up with Jeffrey at his office outside Dallas. […]

Wikipedia Megaproject Update (August 2008)

This is an update on the Wikipedia Oil Megaproject Database maintained by the Oil Megaprojects task force (Ace, Stuart Staniford, myself and many others). The database contains now more than 440 separate entries and is growing everyday. The derived net new capacity (i.e. once depletion from existing production is included) is around 1.5 mbpd for […]

Energy Politics Proving Difficult to Master

CHEYENNE WELLS, Colo. In Kansas

Former Shell president is the man with a plan

During an appearance on CNBC early in the summer, John Hofmeister made a startling statement: “Oil isn’t a free market.” Soon after he said it, the show cut to a commercial and someone handed Hofmeister, who was about to retire as president of Shell Oil Co., a piece of paper. It was a message from […]

LNG project delays may cut 100 million tons of supply

SINGAPORE (Bloomberg) — Delays in liquefied natural gas ventures led by Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. may pare global supplies by 100 million metric tons, more than the annual demand of South Korea and Japan, the world Prices of the fuel have increased sevenfold in the last five years to a record $20 per […]

Sachs: Are Malthus’s Predicted 1798 Food Shortages Coming True?

It remains to be seen whether his famously gloomy prediction is truly wrong or merely postponedBy Jeffrey D. Sachs In 1798 Thomas Robert Malthus famously predicted that short-term gains in living standards would inevitably be undermined as human population growth outstripped food production, and thereby drive living standards back toward subsistence. We were, he argued, […]

OPEC output rising in August – petrologistics

LONDON (Reuters) – OPEC oil output is expected to rise in August by 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) due to higher supply from Iran and Angola, industry consultant Petrologistics said on Friday. The estimate indicates the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is pumping almost 1 million bpd more than its target and comes as […]

Californians wary of costs of going green: survey

Most Californians won’t support the state’s ambitious efforts to fight global warming if they lead to sharply higher energy costs, according to a survey commissioned by a pro-business group released on Thursday. Sixty-three percent of 1,000 registered California voters surveyed this month said they supported the goal of cutting greenhouse gases, but that support fell […]

Struggling Forestries Bet On Biofuel Boom

European and North American forestry companies are increasingly investing in making biofuels out of wood residues, a market they say will be closely linked with their core paper business. Making production self-sufficient is their primary target as rising energy costs hurt their already low profit margins, but they also see bioenergy as a lucrative business […]

Chinese Build New Highway To ”Lost” Kenya

After a century of broken promises, a paved road linking Kenya to Ethiopia is no longer a mirage for a desert region choked by remoteness.In what is a now familiar sight across Africa, China’s drive to secure minerals, oil, and a place for its workers and industries to thrive is converging with Kenyan government plans […]

Russia Values Oil More Than War

One counterintuitive feature of the five-day war between Russia and Georgia is its minimal impact on the energy flows from the Caspian to world markets. There is always a legion of experts who would confidently assert that “It’s all about oil,” and no amount of hard evidence would shake this petro-geopolitical article of faith. There […]

Brazil’s Biofuel Plane Fleet Grows

Brazilian biofuel, already available for nine out of 10 cars on the roads, is also keeping a small but growing fleet of aircraft aloft, the company making them says. Some 200 single-engine, single-seat Ipanema planes made by Neiva, a subsidiary of Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer, are now burning cheap ethanol made from sugarcane for their […]

China warns on winter energy supply

China warned on Thursday that its energy supply problems were likely to last into winter as it struggles to ensure stable sources of coal, oil and power, the People’s Daily reported, citing a senior official. The pressure to secure raw materials will be “considerable”, according to the report, which quoted an unnamed official of the […]

China tells coal exporters to cut back

China has asked its coal exporters to reduce exports, as it is in the grip of its worst power crisis since 2004, largely caused by a coal shortage and high prices. The government is eager to keep more supply back for local generators, many of which have been unable or unwilling to buy expensive coal.But […]

Australia: Demand for solar through the roof

Demand for rooftop solar systems is growing so quickly that people are being forced to wait for up to nine months before they can be installed. Figures from the Department of the Environment show that applications for the Federal Government’s $8000 rebates continue to pour in at the rate of up to 700 a week, […]

India: Largest integrated solar complex set up

KOLKATA: The country’s first polysilicon solar project, which also happens to be the largest integrated solar power complex of the world, was launched here on Thursday. “The project, located at Haldia, will help in generating 250 MW of solar power annually and will be built at an estimated cost of Rs. 5,500 crore,” said Jyoti […]

Warming threatens crucial Himalayan water resources, forum told

Climate change poses a serious threat to essential water resources in the Himalayan region putting the livelihoods of 1.3 billion people at risk, experts said Thursday. The mountainous region, home to the world’s largest glaciers and permafrost area outside the polar regions, has seen rapid glacial melting and dramatic changes in rainfall, experts at the […]

Are Oil Prices Rigged?

We’ve all read that speculators are driving oil prices artificially high — a claim that gets more interesting in light of oil’s recent fall below $115. But maybe we’re looking at it from the wrong perspective. Suppose that major suppliers in the oil industry are these manipulative speculators. Is it possible that oil prices are […]

The End Of Aviation

What will happen when America can’t afford to fly? As the age of cheap oil comes to a close, it’s springtime for gloomy futurists. Visions of a brutish world marked by violent squabbles over dwindling reserves, of junkyards littered with abandoned cars, of suburban slums overrun by weeds, of the collapse of industrial agriculture–none of […]

Northern Alaskan pumps dry after refinery slowdown

FAIRBANKS, Alaska The North Pole refinery is working on resolving those issues, Cook said. “We are attempting to secure additional gasoline supply from other sources to help meet demand,” he said. Two major bulk suppliers, Big State Logistics and Alaska Petroleum, get most of their unleaded gasoline from the refinery and retail the product throughout […]

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