Australia: Oil firms cautioned

AUSTRALIA’S big oil companies have been warned by the Federal Government’s Petrol Commissioner that he expects prices to come down this week. Commissioner elect Joe Dimasi, in charge of the Government’s Fuelwatch scheme, said yesterday that he had watched prices for a week since the global financial turmoil and the slashed value of the Australian […]

Gulf oil producers cite new urgency for monetary union

RIYADH The states, preparing for a single currency by an unlikely 2010 deadline, emerged from the meeting with few public statements on how they would work together.

Inside an explosive situation

TOMSLAKE, B.C., VANCOUVER So she can imagine how someone might be frustrated enough by a gas operation to want to blow it into smithereens. Imagine

Crisis could trigger big public transit payments

WASHINGTON (AP) Rob Healy, vice president for government affairs at the American Public Transportation Association, said some agencies could be forced to increase fares, cut bus routes and delay long-term capital improvement projects. “You’ve got agencies struggling to meet increased demand, they are hamstrung by the higher cost of fuel … and this is exposing […]

What does oil have to do with the price of bread? A lot

LONDON We’re aware of this, usually in a marginal way, when we go to the supermarket or look at our weekly spending, but its connection to the larger crisis is elusive. We might know, on some level, that the world’s billion very poor people, who often spend up to 90 per cent of their household […]

What’s Behind (and Ahead for) the Plunging Price of Oil

It doesn’t feel like it, but we got a raise this week. The plunging price of oil, which prompted OPEC to announce a 1.5 million barrel a day production cut, has put money in the pockets of recession-worried consumers. “It follows that there’s going to be some spending effect,” said Francisco Blach head of commodities […]

Economy, politics, and oil: Neil King spills all

Yale Herald: How do you think the economic crisis contributed to the drop in oil prices and demand? Neil King: It …YH: What are some of the prevailing myths about energy that either candidate perpetuates? NK: The biggest myth of all, and it

No guarantee gas pipeline will be built

ANCHORAGE, Alaska If the company doesn’t complete the project, it could still receive up to $500 million in state subsidies, with startup costs split evenly until the company tries to secure contracts to ship gas through the supply channel. Between the time TransCanada locks in shipping commitments and files for a federal permit, the state […]

Palin pipeline terms curbed bids

ANCHORAGE, Alaska Despite Palin’s boast of a smart and fair bidding process, the AP found that her team crafted terms that favored only a few independent pipeline companies and ultimately benefited the winner, TransCanada Corp. In interviews and a review of records, the AP found: Despite promises and legal guidance not to talk directly with […]

Canada: Diesel shortage ‘dire’ for shoppers

Truck fuel crunch threatens supply of retail goods, groceries Alberta’s diesel supply crunch — expected to continue into next month — could result in a shortage of everything from produce to electronics on store shelves, warns the province’s trucking industry. Problems at Alberta refineries have put the fuel in tight supply. Two are temporarily shut […]

Deffeyes: Was It Deliberate?

Peak oil was the cause; the financial disaster was an effect. Warning: I am not convinced that the following event actually happened, but it is an important possibility to explore. The current financial crisis is clearly not simply the bursting of the housing bubble. The underlying cause was world oil production. The housing crisis is […]

Ban says global crisis threatens to undo all U.N.’s work

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned his top lieutenants on Friday that the global financial crisis jeopardized everything the United Nations has done to help the world’s poor and hungry. “It threatens to undermine all our achievements and all our progress,” Ban told a meeting of U.N. agency chiefs devoted to the […]

The Long Road Ahead – Are You Ready for the Worst the Economy Has to Offer?

Kunstler: Are we headed for a deflationary period followed by a tidal wave of inflation? …Apart from orderly prosecutions (which can certainly turn harsh and cruel), there is the possibility of sociopolitical upheaval — revolution, violence, civil war, war between nations, the whole menu of monkey-human mischief that afflicts mankind. We are not necessarily immune […]

Climate Change Poses Risks, Advantages to Insurers, Zurich Says

(Bloomberg) — Climate change poses risks to insurers as economic losses from weather-related disasters have risen 2 percent a year since 1970. Insurers, though, can turn global warming to their advantage, Zurich Financial Services AG said. Warming weather raises flood dangers and the frequency and severity of catastrophes such as hurricanes, Zurich’s Australian unit said […]

2 greenhouse gases on the rise worry scientists

It’s still early and the data are far from conclusive, but scientists say they are concerned that what they are seeing could be the start of the release of the Arctic methane. After almost eight years of stability, atmospheric methane levels — measured every 40 minutes by monitors near remote coastal cliffs — suddenly started […]

The Most Potent Unknown Greenhouse Gas Revealed

A gas used in manufacture of flat panel televisions, computer displays, microcircuits, and thin-film solar panels is 17,000 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and it is far more prevalent in the atmosphere than previously estimated. The powerful greenhouse gas nitrogen trifluoride, NF3, is at least four times more widespread than scientists […]

Cheaper oil, poorer Canada

Consumers and manufacturers are reaping the benefits of OPEC’s inability to prevent the slump in global crude oil prices, but the lower energy price is also eroding the wealth of Canadians right across the country. In the clearest sign of that decline, the Canadian dollar has retreated dramatically, closing the week at 78.8 cents (U.S.), […]

Norway Should Make Oil Fund Greener – Minister

Norway should earmark some of its $295 billion oil fund for long-term investments in environmental stocks, Environment Minister Erik Solheim said on Thursday. He said that clearer support for renewable energy and other green technologies by big sovereign wealth funds — Norway alone owns about 1 percent of European equities — could help stabilise the […]

Iraq’s Farm Sector Crumbling As Drought Bites

A severe drought will force Iraq to import 40 percent more wheat in 2008/09, the agriculture minister said, even as the country struggles to revive a sector crippled by decades of neglect and decay. “In 2007, average rainfall was just 40 percent of the normal level in Iraq, falling more than half and severely affecting […]

Kenya: Biofuels Boom and Bust

The Kenyan government has hailed bio-diesel as an innovation that combines green politics with poverty reduction. But recent drops in biofuel prices have caused concern about the sustainability of alternative fuel production. Rural farmers who have invested all their savings into growing oil seeds now fear they have opted for the wrong venture.Over the last […]

Climate Change Seeps into the Sea

Good news has turned out to be bad. The ocean has helped slow global warming by absorbing much of the excess heat and heat-trapping carbon dioxide that has been going into the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution.All that extra carbon dioxide, however, has been a bitter pill for the ocean to swallow. […]

Africa: Growth of Oil Exporting Countries to Decline – IMF

International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that the economic growth of Africa’s oil exporting countries was expected to fall by half a point to an average 8 percent in 2008. This, it said, is due to the “lower-than-expected output in the Niger Delta and Equatorial Guinea plus weaker non-oil growth in Chad due to insecurity […]

Big Oil, the big survivor

“The tyranny of oil” powerfully encapsulates the feelings not only of Americans, but of people the world over. Without viable and accessible alternatives, entire economies suffer when increasing proportions of national budgets must be used to purchase oil. And on an individual level, families, facing the same lack of alternatives, forgo basic necessities when gasoline […]

Ethanol no longer seen as big driver of food price

CHICAGO, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Heavy demand for corn from ethanol makers was seen as a key driver of corn futures to record highs in June, but since then the sharp decline of corn along with other commodities shows that belief was mistaken. Corn is down about 50 percent from its record high in June, […]

California gets ‘next generation’ solar plant

Calling it a sign of things to come, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday helped unveil a demonstration facility that concentrates the sun’s rays via mirrors to produce electricity. “This next generation solar power plant is further evidence that reliable, renewable and pollution-free technology is here to stay,” Schwarzenegger stated. “Not only will this large-scale […]

Battle over coal mining gets a windy twist

Mine critics: Why not use windmills instead of blowing up mountaintops DOROTHY, W.Va. – Coal is the most reliable and affordable energy source in the United States, with some 52 billion tons of reserves still underground, the West Virginia Coal Association says. That’s enough to ensure a productive future for nearly 50,000 people who depend […]

Wanna get your hands on an all-electric Mini?

500 to be leased next year, but only in 3 states and at $850 a month BMW is jumping into The specs aren’t bad: a lithium-ion battery range of 150 miles, a top speed of 95 mph and 0-60 mph in 8.5 seconds. MSNBC

Greenhouse gas 4 times higher than thought

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Levels of a powerful greenhouse gas are four times as high as previously thought, according to new measurements released on Thursday. New analytical techniques show that about 5,400 metric tons of nitrogen trifluoride are in the atmosphere, with amounts increasing by about 11 percent per year. Ray Weiss of the Scripps Institution […]

Cuba oil claims raise eyebrows in energy world

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba’s announcement last week that its still untapped offshore oil fields may hold more than 20 billion barrels of oil has raised eyebrows among outside oil experts who say the big number is hard to believe but not out of the realm of possibility. They said Cuba has excellent geologists, but they […]

Canada oil sands plans get revamped as oil falls

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Companies developing Canada’s oil sands, one of the world’s largest deposits of crude oil, said on Thursday they aim to cut spending on multibillion-dollar projects in response to tumbling oil prices and the financial meltdown. Petro-Canada, operator of the proposed C$21 billion-plus ($17 billion-plus) Fort Hills project, said it may first […]

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