Ike’s supply toll rises as more closures reported

HOUSTON — Assessments of Hurricane Ike’s blow to US oil supply climbed as new closure reports reached government agencies. The center of the wide storm made landfall near Galveston, Tex., in the early morning of Sept. 13, knocking out electrical power in most of Houston and many surrounding communities. Damage was widespread from a combination […]

A glut of people

THE DOMINANT ANIMAL: HUMAN EVOLUTION AND THE ENVIRONMENT BY PAUL R. EHRLICH and ANNE H. EHRLICH Paul and Anne Ehrlich explore the genetic and cultural evolution of the Earth’s dominant animal, looking at what’s gone wrong. In 1968, Paul Ehrlich’s book, The Population Bomb, created a furore with its prophesies of war, famine and disaster, […]

Brazil plans to build 50 more nuclear power plants

RIO DE JANEIRO (Xinhua) — Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao announced Friday Brazil plans to build 50 to 60 nuclear power plants in half a century, with each having capacity of 1,000 megawatts. “The general idea is to build one plant per year,” he said during a visit to the construction site of Brazil’s […]

Offshore Drilling Is Coming to a Vote

Congressional Democrats, balancing political reality against a policy they have long opposed, are on the cusp of approving legislation that would open the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to oil drilling as close as 50 miles offshore. With votes scheduled this week in the House and Senate, Democrats have essentially given up defending the current ban […]

Texas oil refineries could be down 9 days – US senator

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Texas oil refineries disabled by the massive Hurricane Ike could remain idled for up to nine days and Americans should brace for possible gas shortages, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said on Sunday. ‘We are looking at another week or eight or nine days before refineries are up and going, so refined […]

Niger Delta Militants Attack Shell, Chevron Plants

Nigerian militants declare ‘oil war’, threaten tankers and pipelines (Bloomberg) — Nigerian militants said they killed at least 22 soldiers and destroyed parts of Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Soku gas plant and Chevron Corp.’s Kula oil pumping station in overnight attacks. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said in an […]

Russian warships to help Chavez’s anti-U.S. drive

CARACAS (Reuters) – Russian warships will sail into the Caribbean later this year, helping Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to fend off perceived U.S. aggression and weaken Washington’s influence in its traditional backyard. Evoking Cold War memories, Russia said this week it would send the missile-laden, nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great and other hi-tech ships for […]

Implications of a Ten Day Refinery Outage

Where is our gasoline and diesel supply headed? Even before Ike hit, quite a few areas of the US were starting to see gasoline shortages. The impact of Ike can only make shortages worse. Most likely, it will take refineries at least a week or two to get production back to normal levels after a […]

U.S. Gulf Coast draws European gasoline imports

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Gasoline cargoes coming from Europe continue to be diverted to the Gulf Coast where a spate of hurricanes has shuttered area refineries and severely curtailed supply. “Europe is shipping out all the volumes it can,” said one trader for a Northwest Europe refinery, who said that crack spread was a 15-month […]

One green baby

Limiting your quota of offspring to one is the latest way to reduce your carbon footprint. But will it really help save the planet? THERE ARE many things Corrie Cuthbertson does because she believes they are good for the environment. She makes her own cleaning products. She grows her own vegetables. She has not flown […]

100,000 travellers stranded after U.K. company folds

The collapse of a major U.K. tour operator Friday morning has left thousands of travellers stranded around the world. XL Leisure Group, the third largest package holiday provider in the country, grounded its 21 planes at some of its 50 destinations and put 1,700 of its employees out of work. Volatile fuel prices, an economic […]

Melting permafrost may hasten global warming

Twice as much carbon is locked away in the frozen soils of the earth’s permafrost regions as had been thought, raising the concern that global warming will accelerate faster than expected once the soils start to thaw. A three-year study by an international team of researchers including Pep Canadell of the CSIRO produced the new […]

Wind farms fail to deliver value for money, report claims

Wind farms are failing to deliver value for money and distorting the development of other renewable energy sources, a report claims. Excessive subsidies make them an expensive and inefficient way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a study by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) think-tank says.The report comes amid mounting disquiet over the number of wind […]

Scotland: Staffing crisis ‘will hit green energy targets’

Scotland’s renewables sector is facing a severe staffing crisis which will throw Government targets on green energy into disarray, industry experts are warning. Renewable energy companies have raised the alarm over a chronic shortage of engineers and other staff with enough training to man Scotland’s growing army of wind farms, hydroelectric power stations and biomass […]

Why coal is still red-hot

As China and India industrialise, the demand for steel has increased exponentially. Coal is one of the important raw materials used in the manufacture of steel. Coal prices have doubled over the past year and are expected to spike even further as a power crisis in China combines with supply problems in leading exporting countries […]

Russia’s Opec bearhug is something to worry about

As if the prospect of a global recession isn’t enough, consider the latest threat to world economic stability: an alliance between Russia and Opec, the oil-producing cartel dominated by Saudi Arabia. That’s a scary possibility, as Russia supplies one third of Europe’s energy needs, while Opec accounts for nearly 40 per cent of global oil […]

Gas Prices Rise as Industry Assesses Storm Damage

HOUSTON Flooding, blocked roads and major power shortages are bound to cause problems for the refiners. At the same time, most of the oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico have been out of commission for two weeks, starting as Hurricane Gustav made its way into the Gulf in late August. Gasoline became […]

US turns up the heat in biofuels dispute

A transatlantic trade dispute over biofuels has escalated, with the US biodiesel industry accusing European companies of hypocrisy for protesting against subsidised fuel that they are themselves importing. The European Commission launched an “anti-dumping” investigation earlier this year after European Union producers complained that they were being undercut by imports subsidised by the US government […]

Phase out coal and burn trees instead, urges leading scientist

Humanity must urgently embark on a massive programme to power civilisation from wood to stave off catastrophic climate change, one of the world’s top scientists has told The Independent on Sunday. Twenty years ago, Professor James Hansen was the first leading scientist to announce that global warming was taking place. Now he has issued a […]

Hung over from the Ethanol Party

The headache from the Ethanol Party hangover is getting worse. However, ethanolics (the drinkers at the Ethanol Party) are not the people who are feeling the pain. Like drunkards on the highway, ethanolics have disrupted traffic in the world food supply by diverting corn to ethanol plants. As a result, everybody pays higher food prices. […]

OPEC cut decision proving ineffective: Khelil

ALGIERS (Reuters) – OPEC’s decision to cut output is proving ineffective against speculators, its president Chakib Khelil said on Saturday, adding its next gathering in December would hopefully take more “practical” steps. “The current situation of the oil market is caused by speculators’ practices,” Algeria’s official APS news agency quoted him as saying. “OPEC’s decision […]

DOE talking with IEA in case emergency oil needed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Energy Department said on Saturday it was providing information to the International Energy Agency on the disruption in U.S. oil production and fuel supplies caused by hurricanes Ike and Gustav in case a drawdown in emergency petroleum stocks was needed. “We have been producing analysis for the IEA that demonstrates […]

Wind: The other offshore energy source

Visitors to Rehoboth Beach, Del., soon may be greeted by more than sand dunes, seagulls and beach umbrellas. If offshore-wind advocates have their way, scores of 140-foot blades will be spinning in the ocean breeze nearly a dozen miles away, barely visible to the sunbathers. Offshore wind has taken a back seat to offshore drilling […]

Officials say 2 drilling rigs adrift off La. coast

NEW ORLEANS (AP) She says her agency, industry experts and the Coast Guard are monitoring the paths of the rigs. Regional director Lars Herbst says the rigs have been relatively stationary for several hours. He says they expect tugs to approach to secure the rigs when sea conditions allow. AP

Water Continues To Rise After Levee Fails In Plaquemines

Parish President Says Nearby Refinery Could Be Affected The water continued to rise on the west bank of Plaquemines Parish and was moving very close to the ConocoPhillips Alliance Refinery on Saturday. Pastures across from the refinery and to the south were completely flooded. But Highway 23 was clear from West Pointe a la Hache […]

Ike’s impact to the economy not as bad as feared

Though damages could top an estimated $8B A small change in Hurricane Ike’s course just before it crashed into the Texas coast Saturday may have spared the state and the nation from significantly worse economic damage. The center of the storm appeared to miss the vital concentration of oil and petrochemical refineries in the Houston […]

Oil’s fall to $100 won’t change frugal energy use

NEW YORK – The worst oil shock since the 1970s has put a permanent mark on the American way of life that even a drop in oil’s price below $100 a barrel won’t erase. Public transportation is in. Hummers are out. Frugality is in. Wastefulness is out. Although oil prices dipped beneath the $100 mark […]

Uppsala Research makes a breakthrough in China

Professor Kjell Aleklett, (known for his research on the world

Alitalia ‘running out of fuel’

Italy’s national airline, Alitalia, may have to cancel some flights because of a lack of funds to buy fuel, a top official has warned. Augusto Fantozzi, Alitalia’s bankruptcy administrator, made the comments as he called unions to emergency talks a day after the latest session broke down. The unions earlier quoted him as saying flights […]

Lula

It was a day rich in symbolism. On an oil platform off the Brazilian coast, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva this month dipped his hands into the first crude to flow from promising reserves discovered in the country The reserves, though hard to reach, are expected to propel Brazil up the table of oil […]

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