Commission recommends federal gas tax increase

A panel created by Congress calls for increasing the tax by 10 cents a gallon and indexing it to inflation — and for switching by 2020 to a tax on miles driven. Broad resistance is expected. Reporting from Washington — As Washington struggles to find ways to fund highway improvements, a congressionally created commission on […]

The oil story and a glimpse at future chapters

…In the next chapter, as the global economy recovers and the demand for oil increases, supplies will once again come under pressure and the price will rise. This rising price will increase the cost of goods and services. “Given that crude oil fuels 36.4% of the world’s energy consumption, the seriousness of shortages cannot be […]

UK: The Future of Energy is renewable

In practical terms, the critical problem with fossil fuels is that in the very near future there is going to be no security of supply, as a result of their impending scarcity. Without doubt, oil has peaked. Not only is less crude being found; known deposits have for years been exaggerated. Senior Shell executives in […]

The Boomers Stop Buying

…For boomers who had experienced financial crises in their lifetimes before, seemingly decades remained in which to recover and make retirement comfortable. Now, as $40 trillion in net worth was wiped out worldwide, suddenly 65 looks like it’s coming the day after tomorrow. This time around, America can’t count on the younger generations to help […]

Inflation: the hidden factor behind the downturn

…I’m not arguing that banks and debt weren’t critical, far from it, but I wonder if we’ve forgotten something: inflation. What makes me think so is a striking parallel with an earlier crisis in the 1970s. The seventies were defined by economic chaos in the wake of two oil-price shocks. The price first doubled then […]

UN Scientists: Climate Change Evidence Unequivocal

Scientists for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, say the group’s latest findings on global warming show rapidly increasing carbon dioxide emissions and quickly shrinking Arctic ice. To compound matters, a separate study released on Wednesday finds that the melting of polar ice is more severe than previously thought. The Chairman […]

US ethanol sector faces grim prospects-USDA

WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Hard times have hit the once-robust U.S. ethanol sector amid the economic recession, with as much as 15 percent of production capacity likely standing idle, USDA chief economist Joseph Glauber said on Thursday. It was a sobering assessment of the fledging industry that was once bursting with optimism and financial […]

Peak oil means sooner or later we’ll wake up to a new normal

Don The International Energy Agency reports that the top 800 oil fields on the planet are in steady decline. The current low price of oil has not slowed this decline, but it has slowed energy investment. The IEA says flatly,

Australia fires release huge amount of CO2

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Bushfires that have scorched Australia’s Victoria state released millions of tons of carbon dioxide and forest fires could become a growing source of carbon pollution as the planet warms, a top scientist said on Thursday. Mark Adams of the University of Sydney said global warming could trigger a vicious cycle in which […]

Alternative Energy Is a Giant Capital Pit: ‘There’s No There There’

Alternative energy is one of the key pillars of Barack Obama’s budget “blueprint”, formally unveiled today. “We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century,” Obama said in his speech Tuesday night. “It is time for America to lead again.” Many green energy advocates say the annual […]

Oil nationalism diluted but far from dead

LONDON (Reuters) – Resource-rich countries hoping oil will rebound from a $100 crash will not relinquish overnight the power that came with record prices, but relations between international firms and state-run companies have begun to thaw. The price weakness of the 1990s, which culminated in a drop to around $10 a barrel in 1998, provided […]

Are We Entering a New Era for Natural Gas?

Crude oil, with its whipsaw pricing during 2008, clearly has received most of the attention given to energy over the past year. Indeed, who would have expected its per-barrel price to fluctuate from more than $145 in July to a winter levy below $35? But lest you think that natural gas is taking a decided […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: A Turning Point?

Events are moving faster all the time. Some are highly visible such as the falling stock markets, the steadily rising unemployment numbers and the drumbeat of global gloom and doom emanating from the media. Others are more subtle such as the drop in the investment needed to sustain oil production at current rates; China’s efforts […]

John Michael Greer: The investment delusion

…The economic history of the 19th century offers a good example. The rising industrial economy of the time drove a massive increase in the production of real wealth. Most industrial nations, though, inherited money systems backed by gold reserves that offered few options for expanding the money supply to match the supply of real wealth. […]

Exxon, Chevron Would Pay More Under Obama

(Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama is seeking to raise at least $31.5 billion over 10 years by raising royalty fees and imposing new taxes on oil companies. Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., and ConocoPhillips would be among companies subject to new costs under the plan. Obama

‘Next oil shock will be far worse than $147 a barrel’

The world is breathing easy, now that oil prices are below $40 a barrel, down sharply from $147 a barrel in June. But, in fact, the current financial crisis and recession could accentuate the severe supply-side constraints that drove up prices last year to record highs, cautions Mikkal Herberg, research director of the energy security […]

Obama Rejects Nuclear Waste Site in Nevada After 20-Year Fight

(Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama will block the 20-year-old project to store U.S. nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada and devise a new solution, the Energy Department said. Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu

Law must decide Arctic ownership: Russia

MOSCOW — The battle for the Arctic’s vast reserves of oil and gas can only be decided by international law, Russia and Denmark said after talks on Thursday. Five countries with an Arctic coastline — Russia, the United States, Canada, Norway and Denmark through its control of Greenland — have competing claims to the region. […]

Ignoring trains puts U.S. on the wrong track

NEW YORK: Every morning I have the pleasure of taking the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan, and in many ways it is a pleasure. My train, known as the Q, lumbers over the Manhattan Bridge, providing a view of the Brooklyn Bridge just to the South, and beyond it, through its latticework of cables, you […]

Ice in east Antarctica a bigger threat long term

TROLL RESEARCH STATION, Antarctica …The report doesn’t forecast immediate Antarctic disasters because of global warming. Scientists point out, however, that if the western ice sheet ever collapsed completely, it would add some 7 meters to sea levels worldwide. East Antarctica’s ice appears more stable than the west’s

Greenwash: Why ‘clean coal’ is the ultimate climate change oxymoron

Next week, Americans are being invited to take part in what could become the largest act of civil disobedience against global warming in the country’s history. People are protesting at the coal-fired power plant that powers legislators on Capitol Hill in Washington DC. Cynics may say it’s about time Americans joined the action. The fact […]

Dvorkovich Says Russia to

(Bloomberg) — The Russian government has sufficient oil fund reserves to Russia is bracing for its first recession in a decade, with the Economy Ministry predicting negative growth of 2.2 percent this year and a budget deficit of 8 percent of gross domestic product. The ruble has declined 34 percent against the dollar since August. […]

Oil: How Low Can It Go?

…As OPEC cuts output and oil companies shelve expansion programs, an oil shortage is coming, says Matthew Simmons. He is founder of Simmons & Co, an investment bank catering to the energy industry. “Within the next few months, we’ll have a sharp rebound in price,” he said. “[Oil companies] don’t have projects in the mill […]

Downturn may green oil patch, GE chief says

General Electric Co., which provides everything from financing to high-tech machinery to the global oil and gas industry, including Canada’s oil sands, believes the crashing economy and reduced budgets in the oil patch will give green technology in the energy sector a boost. GE’s theory runs counter to conventional wisdom, which argues green issues will […]

StatoilHydro plans more than 2-mth Snoehvit halt

OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s StatoilHydro said on Wednesday that it would stop production at a processing plant for its offshore Snoehvit gas field in the Arctic in mid-August for at least two months and possibly around 80 days. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing plant on Melkoya island outside of Hammerfest on Norway’s far-northern coast […]

Costa Rica

(Bloomberg) — Costa Rica A 72 percent decline in oil prices since July has cast doubt upon Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez

Space Solar Power Crowd Bets on Obama

WASHINGTON – Advocates of using satellites to beam solar power from space to Earth hope U.S. President Barack Obama’s campaign promise to develop alternative energy sources will help resurrect NASA’s interest in the technology. NASA has been without an official space solar power program since 2002, although a coalition of government and private industry volunteers […]

How to survive the coming century

ALLIGATORS basking off the English coast; a vast Brazilian desert; the mythical lost cities of Saigon, New Orleans, Venice and Mumbai; and 90 per cent of humanity vanished. Welcome to the world warmed by 4 … Imagine, for the purposes of this thought experiment, that we have 9 billion people to save – 2 billion […]

Salt solution: Cheap power from the river’s mouth

STAND on the banks of the Rhine where it flows into the North Sea, near the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and you’ll witness a vast, untapped source of energy swirling in the estuary. According to Dutch engineer Joost Veerman, it’s possible to tap this energy without damaging the environment or disrupting the river’s […]

CO2 rise in atmosphere accelerates in 2008

LONDON (Reuters) – Increases in the amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere accelerated last year, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) told Reuters on Wednesday. The new data may dampen hopes that a slowdown in industrial output and carbon emissions, which started at the end of last year, will […]

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