After Fargo house explosion, Xcel to replace brand of pipe statewide

FARGO The federal government issued a bulletin in 1999 warning that Century pipe installed from 1970 to 1973

Southeast Asian Nations Endorse Rice Action Plan

…The endorsement came at the 30th annual meeting of the ASEAN Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF). It was presented as part of a comprehensive food security strategy being developed for the region, home to more than 500 million rice consumers, including some of Asia’s poorest. “The message is very clear,” IRRI’s director general, Robert […]

Chavez Ambitions in Venezuela, Abroad May Shrink With Oil Price

(Bloomberg) — The same tumbling oil prices that led OPEC to slash output last week threaten to send Venezuela’s economy into a tailspin, and put an end to President Hugo Chavez’s ambitions to expand his socialist revolution at home and abroad. …“You have a country with an oil boom, that doesn’t know how to save, […]

World can halt fossil fuel use by 2090

The world could eliminate fossil fuel use by 2090, saving $18 trillion in future fuel costs and creating a $360 billion industry that provides half of the world’s electricity, the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and environmental group Greenpeace said on Monday. The 210-page study [pdf] is one of few reports “Renewable energy could provide […]

The atlas of the real world

These maps show the world through different eyes. The sizes of countries are changed according to the proportion of different resources they share, and by their contributions to human society. The maps are taken from the new book The Atlas of the Real World, published by Thames and Hudson and produced by the researchers behind […]

Barack Obama’s, John McCain’s energy policies leave Americans wanting

Ostensibly, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have very different approaches to America’s energy problems. But when some experts look at them, they see the same thing: Timidity. “We need to get away from looking for a silver bullet,” says Paul Linzmeyer, a partner in Innovation for Sustainable Organizations, an energy consulting firm based […]

Climate change ‘making seas more salty’

Scientists report changing salinity in oceans can be attributed to manmade climate change Global warming is making the sea more salty, according to new research that demonstrates the massive shifts in natural systems triggered by climate change. Experts at the UK Met Office and Reading University say warmer temperatures over the Atlantic Ocean have significantly […]

Kunstler: Easthampton Burning?

… As we discover ourselves to be a much poorer nation, one of my correspondents put it: “the bogus risk-swapping economy must be replaced by a net value-added economy.” That means actually making things, growing things, and rebuilding things, and that can only begin to happen if we do not stupidly sucker ourselves into a […]

Oil, House Prices, Credit: Three parts of the same story

The long forgotten ‘oil crisis’ of just a few months ago has been replaced by a full blown ‘credit crisis’ – related events that represent the unravelling of half a century of unsustainable trends in oil consumption and debt. These two ingredients have been used in a special ‘compound growth formula’ to finance the construction […]

A Trip Down Memory Lane With Matt Simmons

We like to wax nostalgic from time to time here at POD, and I thought you might enjoy an amusing little nugget from July 14, 2008. It features our old buddy Matt Simmons making yet another astute call on the oil market… Peak Oil Debunked

The rise (and fall?) of petro-states

Even before armed hostilities between Russia and Georgia ended in August, the ultra-nationalist mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, began investing colossal sums in changing the ethnic geography of the Georgian breakaway state of South Ossetia in favor of Russia. In one public speech to Ossetians, he exuded the confidence and chutzpah that has come to […]

Cheap Crude: A Flash in the (Oil) Pan

The biggest mistake the United States could make right now is to assume recent weakness in oil and gasoline prices means the energy crisis is over and the US can go back to our old energy habits and policies. An editorial in Friday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal inferred that high oil prices were […]

Who will run out first?

DESPITE advances in alternative energy technologies, oil remains the world Nova Scotian

The Public’s Dangerous Misunderstanding of Climate Change

As I report on climate change, I come across a lot of scary facts, like the possibility that thawing permafrost in Siberia could release gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, or the risk that Greenland could pass a tipping point and begin to melt rapidly. But one of the most frightening studies I’ve read […]

Biofuel flying will take off in three years, says Boeing

Biofuel-powered aircraft could be carrying millions of passengers around the world within three years, according to Boeing. Darrin Morgan, an environmental expert at the US jet manufacturer, said the group was expecting official approval of biofuel use in the near future. “The certification will happen much sooner than anybody thought,” he said. “We are thinking […]

One man’s garbage, another’s power plant

Nationwide, methane from 455 landfills used to power thousands of homes KEARNY, N.J. – Standing atop the 400-acre 1-E landfill, you get a panoramic view of the Meadowlands sports complex to the north and the New York City skyline to the east. You’re also standing on a critical part of New Jersey’s, and the nation’s, […]

Can smoke and mirrors ease global warming?

OSLO (Reuters) – Backers of extreme technologies to curb global warming advocate dumping iron dust into the seas or placing smoke and mirrors in the sky to dim the sun. But, even though they are seen by some as cheap fixes for climate change when many nations are worried about economic recession, such “geo-engineering” proposals […]

Funding becoming harder to get for green startups

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Saving the planet is looking a lot less profitable than it was a few months ago, and investors once enamored with finding the next high-flying alternative energy startup are retrenching. Venture capitalists poured a record number of dollars into alternative energy companies as oil prices peaked at $147 in the third […]

Finance crunch delaying wind projects

Offshore wind power projects in northern Europe, key to reducing carbon dioxide emissions, face delays because of a shortage of bank finance. “Things are being delayed,” Maartje van den Berg, a clean-technology analyst at Rabobank International, said in an interview Oct. 22. “We are involved in several projects that were close to financial close and […]

Opec unlikely to win Russia help

VIENNA: The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries was unlikely to receive help from Russia, the world Russia meanwhile

Reality Report: Michael Klare and the geopolitics of resource consumption

Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet is the latest book from Michael Klare, Director of the Peace and World Security Studies Program of the Five College Consortium in Amherst Massachusetts. Professor Klare has written widely on U.S. defense policy, the arms trade, and world security affairs. He has authored several books, and is the defense correspondent of […]

Kuwait moves to prop up major bank

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — Kuwait’s Central Bank stepped in Sunday to prop up one of the country’s biggest banks and said it was considering guaranteeing deposits in domestic banks — in one of the first concrete signs that the global financial crisis may next hit the oil-rich Gulf. In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, the government said […]

Vermont: Douglas leading state down wrong track

You think the financial crisis unfolded quickly? That If anyone understands the relative fragility of the oil and financial sectors, it

U.S. gasoline prices in steepest drop ever – Lundberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The average retail price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States plunged more steeply than ever over the last two weeks as the economic slowdown weighed on crude oil and drove consumers off of the roads, according to the latest nationwide Lundberg survey. Prices will likely slide more, but […]

Oil Prices – A Little More of the Story

A few days ago, I wrote a post titled Why Are Oil (and Gasoline) Prices So Low? Since then, OPEC has voted to cut oil production 1.5 million barrels a day. In spite of this, the price of oil is about 5% lower. The purpose of this post is to add an update, with a […]

After oil: The future of energy

Is there a ’silver bullet’ that will take the place of petroleum as America’s primary fuel source? Energy is on everyone’s mind these days, particularly Houstonians, after we just spent weeks without electricity. Imagine doing without electricity, natural gas, gasoline and water, all at the same time! Despite the recent drop in the price of […]

David Strahan: You’re wrong, PM. We need higher oil prices

Once again Gordon Brown has got energy policy all wrong. Even before Opec announced an output cut of 1.5 million barrels per day, the Prime Minister had denounced the move as “absolutely scandalous”, fearing it would force the oil price higher just as the world slides into recession. He needn’t have worried, since the cost […]

Iran exports, oil earnings hit by world crisis

Iran is being hurt by the financial crisis because of falling oil prices and a world downturn that will damage non-oil exports, an official said on Sunday, even though Iran’s economy was relatively isolated. Iranian officials are voicing more concern about the impact of the international financial turmoil after initially brushing off the impact on […]

General Motors, Driven to the Brink

IN late May, senior executives at General Motors confronted a decision that few thought they would ever face: whether to continue developing the next generation of one of the most successful products in G.M. This was also G.M.

Tax Cuts, Lower Oil Prices Will Boost Economy

The financial crisis, economic turmoil, and the stock market sell-off have investors in the doldrums. One bright spot, however, is the recent plunge in oil prices. While this is a welcome development, it is not entirely unexpected. In recent years, easy monetary policy brought us the tech stock bubble, the housing bubble, and the commodities […]

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