Oil sands engine slowing

Economic activity is slowing dramatically around the world. Analysts are rerunning financial models more frequently and every iteration produces a weaker result. These conditions are especially true for energy analysts, given the dramatic weakness in crude oil and natural gas prices. As oil sands investments are said to be the economic engine of Alberta, if […]

Global warming is ‘irreversible’

A team of environmental researchers in the US has warned many effects of climate change are irreversible. The scientists concluded global temperatures could remain high for 1,000 years, even if carbon emissions can somehow be halted. Their report was sponsored by the US Department of Energy and comes as President Obama announces a review of […]

Are Electric Cars Truly The Answer?

(LWN-Commentary) In recent months and years, there has been a great deal of talk about the need for electric cars. Electric vehicle proponents have gone so far as to call for the government to help fund their manufacture and sale. It is widely believed that electric cars provide the solution to all of the environmental […]

Britain’s energy industry is nosediving into a dark, uncertain future

Decades of denial and underinvestment have left Britain in huge energy debt and at risk of powercuts and 20% bill hikes Last week, the Guardian revealed that United Kingdom government officials are now negotiating to soften the impact of EU directives affecting the operation of fossil fuel-fired power stations and their emissions of sulphur dioxide […]

State of Cringe – James Howard Kunstler

…I’ve been skeptical of the “stimulus” as sketched out so far, aimed at refurbishing the infrastructure of Happy Motoring. To me, this is the epitome of a campaign to sustain the unsustainable — since car-dependency is absolutely the last thing we need to shore up and promote. I haven’t heard any talk so far about […]

UK: Organic lobby anger as Soil Association backs food by air

The organic food watchdog has caved in to pressure from supermarkets to allow air-freighted produce to display the organic label. The Soil Association proposed last year to ban suppliers and retailers from putting its certification label on fruit and vegetables that arrived in Britain by air, arguing that air-freighting produce generated 177 times more greenhouse […]

The great divide: Green dilemma over plans for Severn barrage

Britain’s environmental movement was yesterday presented with its starkest choice yet: whether or not to support the world’s largest-ever renewable energy project which will result in unprecedented ecological damage to one of our most important natural habitats. The giant But environmentalists fear that by blocking the Severn estuary completely, the barrage would destroy vast areas […]

Long Droughts, Rising Seas Predicted Despite Future CO2 Curbs

Greenhouse gas levels currently expected by mid-century will produce devastating long-term droughts and a sea-level rise that will persist for 1,000 years regardless of how well the world curbs future emissions of carbon dioxide, an international team of scientists reported yesterday. Top climate researchers from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Switzerland and France […]

Energy giants seek coal gas pay-off

ConocoPhillips, British Gas (BG), Shell and other major international energy companies are scrambling to gain a foothold in Asia’s and Australia’s nascent coal bed methane (CBM) business. CBM is chemically similar to petroleum natural gas and is exploited by tapping methane trapped in the aqueous surface of coal seams. Industry players say the fuel could […]

Biofuel project uses tall grass

Scientists are developing a new variety of a giant grass from Asia which could be used to power cars in the future. Aberystwyth University is working to increase the crop yield of so-called “energy grasses” such as 4m-high Asian elephant grass. It is already burnt in power stations to generate electricity, but there are plans […]

How long will the world’s uranium supplies last?

How long will global uranium deposits fuel the world’s nuclear reactors at present consumption rates? Steve Fetter, dean of the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, supplies an answer: If the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has accurately estimated the planet’s economically accessible uranium resources, reactors could run more than 200 years at current rates […]

Peak oil? Global warming? No, it’s ‘Boomsday!’

Five reasons ‘population explosion’ is world’s biggest economic problem ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Six years ago, Peter Orszag, President Obama’s new budget director, co-authored a Brookings Institution study that concluded: “Balancing the budget would require a 41% cut in spending on Social Security and Medicare, a 47% cut in discretionary spending, or a 17% […]

Facing the Oil Problem

A call for an energy policy that would spark outside-the-box basic research, end dependence on foreign oil, and reduce death and destruction on the nation’s highways. When the price of oil plummets to $50 a barrel as it did last November, it is hard to imagine it soaring to $250. But within five years, as […]

Supply-driven oil production will mean continued high prices

Oil prices of $150 a barrel now look like a distant, scary memory. But so-called As 2008 drew to a close, the market began to correct itself and the US cut oil imports by 500,000 to 750,000 barrels a day, according to the Oil Market Consultancy Service. One major reason for lower prices was expectation […]

Europe pins hope on Nabucco pipeline to end dependency on Russia

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) Ultimately, pipeline backers’ choices may be limited to a difficult one: between Russia and Iran. Iran, which has clashed with Europe and America over fears it is trying to make nuclear weapons, isn’t invited to Budapest. But despite U.S. boycott pressure and U.N sanctions, key Nabucco project officials say Iranian gas may […]

Citigroup Crude Storage Tanker Leaves Orkney for U.S. Gulf

(Bloomberg) — An oil tanker hired by Citigroup Inc.

Carolyn Baker: Dystopians On Estrogen

This past week the New Yorker published “The Dystopians” by Ben McGrath, by whom I was interviewed back in October and who allowed me to make an appearance in the article with a brief mention of my forthcoming book. Sitting with this piece for the past seven days has been unsettling, not because I personally […]

Is Oil

New presentation by Matt Simmons: Conquering Rust Will Be WorldSimmons & Co Intl (PDF)

Ruble May Drop 25%, Break Widened Trading Band, Citigroup Says

(Bloomberg) — Russia Russia drained more than a third of its foreign-exchange reserves since August to slow a 29 percent depreciation against the dollar as falling oil prices and the nation

Oil patch cuts claim Alberta’s high-paying jobs

Province’s engineers start to feel bite of plunging oil prices, global financial crisis CALGARY “Most of it has been since the New Year,” said Nair Bailey, a long-time Calgary recruiter who keeps a running tally and says engineers let go over the past two months number at least 2,200. “It’s all types, be it electrical, […]

OPEC Achieves Cuts in Output, Halting Price Slide

After months of gradually closing the oil spigot, members of the OPEC cartel have managed to stop the slide in oil prices The cuts have been led by Saudi Arabia, the world

Wind farms lying fallow in hard times

To state officials and proponents of “green energy,” Thursday’s ceremony celebrating New England’s newest wind farm was a relatively small yet symbolic step toward greater energy independence in Maine. But with a construction price tag topping $60 million, First Wind’s Stetson Mountain wind farm also highlights the fact that pollution-free energy doesn’t come cheap.Between 2006 […]

Obama Green-Energy Dream May Lag Development Pace of Bush Years

President Barack Obama may find it harder to increase renewable energy than his predecessor during a financial crisis that has sidelined Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and other financiers of alternative power, investors said. New loans to harness the wind, sun and biodegradable waste will need extra government backing in a deepening recession, said Clayt Tabor, […]

China to step up solar energy research, development

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has launched an initiative to boost the development of solar energy technology, in a bid to turn it into a major energy source in China by 2050. A CAS official said that the academy had organized academicians and experts to make an action plan and will set up a […]

Study predicts ocean ‘dead zones’

Global warming may create “dead zones” in the ocean that would be devoid of fish and seafood and endure for up to two millennia, according to a study published on Sunday. Its authors say deep cuts in the world’s carbon emissions are needed to brake a trend capable of wrecking the marine ecosystem and depriving […]

Peak Oil Production in Russia Suggests Worldwide Supplies on the Brink

Russian oil production decreased for the first time in 10 years according to Vedomosti, a Russian newspaper. The decrease was only 0.7%, while exports were reduced more dramatically year over year, down 6.2%. The fall in Russian production may be a major turning point in worldwide crude oil production. While OPEC nations like top producer […]

Mongabay: Palm oil may be most immediate threat to species

Efforts to slow the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations at the expense of natural forests across Southeast Asia are being hindered by industry-sponsored disinformation campaigns, argue scientists writing in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution. The authors, Lian Pin Koh and David S. Wilcove, say that palm oil may constitute the “single most […]

China dams reveal flaws in climate-change weapon

XIAOXI, China (AP) The dam will shortchange German consumers, Chinese villagers and the climate itself, if critics are right. And Xiaoxi is not alone. Similar stories are repeated across China and elsewhere around the world, as hundreds of hydro projects line up for carbon credits, at a potential cost of billions to Europeans, Japanese and […]

Caterpillars Devour 45 Towns in Liberia: Climate Change Possibly to Blame

In the aftermath of another extended rainy season, Liberia has experienced its worst caterpillar plague in three decades. Tens of millions of the black-haired creatures have swarmed farms, devastated crops and contaminated several major waterways with their feces. The lingering rainy seasons, which might be an indication of global warming, are the likely culprit for […]

Western govs sense chance for electric grid work

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Some Western governors say the plan for $825 billion in economic stimulus spending should spur development of energy infrastructure in their states. The Western Governors Association recently sent a letter to then President-elect Barack Obama asking him to emphasize renewable sources and expanded infrastructure in his energy policy. “An enormous national commitment […]

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