Producers want higher ethanol limits for gasoline

WASHINGTON (AP) “Increasing the ethanol blend up to E15 is a common sense solution to our economic, energy and environmental challenges,” said retired Gen. Wesley Clark, co-chairman of Growth Energy, a coalition of ethanol companies. The group argued that a number of studies, including one by the Energy Department, has shown that a 15 percent […]

Nuclear waste dogs US energy policy

Yucca Mountain was supposed to be where the highly toxic material was sent. But Obama’s energy budget leaves it out. Washington – President Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2010 all but sinks prospects to store America’s nuclear waste at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. But it leaves wide open the role of nuclear power in building […]

What the Stimulus Package Does for Renewable Energy

The bad economy won’t make it easy, but the president says America is ready to change its energy ways President Obama is now turning his attention to what could be a more far-reaching and revolutionary objective than even his much-ballyhooed economic stimulus plan: transforming America into a “green” society based not on fossil fuels but […]

Oil May Rise as OPEC Cuts Curb Supplies, Survey Shows

March 6 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil may rise on speculation that OPEC production reductions are beginning to curb U.S. inventories and imports. Twenty of 40 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News, or 50 percent, said futures will increase through March 13. Eleven respondents, or 28 percent, forecast oil prices will be little changed and nine said […]

COMMODITIES CORNER: Oil’s Backed Itself Into A Corner

TOKYO (Dow Jones) — Imagine what it would be like to watch oil prices climb to a spectacular record high of $150 per barrel and then leave the planet for the next several months. That’s practically what happened to me. With much fanfare, oil hit an all-time high in July. I dropped off the face […]

Ban on fishing snapper off southeast is likely

Agency wants fishermen to hold off for six months to let species replenish SAVANNAH, Ga. – After three decades as a charter fishing guide, Steve Amick says he’s never seen red snapper as large or plentiful as he did last year off Georgia’s Atlantic coast. Soon, catching them could be illegal. Scientists for the federal […]

Senate leader offers plan for ‘green’ power grid

President would be able to create ‘renewable energy zones’ WASHINGTON – The Senate’s top Democrat on Thursday proposed new federal authority to build special power lines that carry renewable energy In unveiling the proposal, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said an increased federal role in locating power lines was needed to encourage greater […]

Adapting In Place – And When Not To

…I thought I Now some of this comes down to long vs. short term issues – and there are balances to be struck. For example, let

Face to face with T. Boone Pickens

Pickens: ‘If you don’t think that you’re gonna see a $200 barrel of oil, you’re joking.’ It’s hard not to like T. Boone Pickens. At 80 years, he could have retired many times over from a multi-billion dollar career in the old and gas industry. But this is a man on a mission, and you […]

Kansas Approves New Coal Plant

The Senate overwhelmingly voted Thursday to advance a bill opposed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius that removes regulatory obstacles to construction of a $3.6 billion coal-fueled power plant in southwest Kansas. Senators endorsed the energy bill 31-9, a margin sufficient to overcome a veto the governor promises. The House adopted a similar measure 79-44 in February, […]

Obama veers from Bush’s environmental course

WASHINGTON The Obama team has rolled out policies Bush officials delayed, such as requiring higher energy efficiency from appliances. Such moves have significant impacts and not just on the environment. They could affect electric bills, gas prices and the time it takes to build highways, dams and bridges. USA Today

From shortage to glut, oil markets struggle to stabilize

A tightening oil supply in conjunction with a surplus in gasoline reserves is an indication that the slowing demand for oil and gasoline, a consequence of the global recession, is resulting in simply a shift in where the glut in American fossil fuel markets is being stored. Eight months ago, however, we were frantically searching […]

New green strategy could create 400,000 jobs (UK)

New jobs will be created in low-carbon industries for 400,000 people – from lagging lofts to nuclear power – the government will announce today. In an interview with the Guardian, Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, said there was a global race towards creating a low-carbon economy and that Britain must not get left behind. […]

Oil Industry Eyes the Arctic

The Norwegian oil industry is focusing on winning the battle of developing the Lofoten area in northern Norway first. However, the ambitions for future development projects lie further north in the Arctic. – The areas outside Nordland and Troms county in northern Norway, are the most important to explore at present, but future development plans […]

Peak oil body calls for protection of industry’s future (Australia)

THE federal Government is being urged to introduce a flow-through share scheme to protect jobs – and Australia’s junior petroleum exploration industry. The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association — the peak industry body for Australia’s oil and gas companies — has used its pre-budget submission to exhort the federal Government to act swiftly to […]

US Energy Secretary outlines wishlist for energy research

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu yesterday made his pitch for more support for energy-related research as the new administration prepares for its first budget. Energy research is lagging behind other areas, he said. While overall R&D investment is around 3% of gross domestic product (GDP), the energy sector represents only about one-tenth of that.EnergyEfficiencyNews

Bangladesh Faces Acute Electricity Outages in Peak Season

Entire Bangladesh including its capital Dhaka will experience nagging electricity outages as the country’s Power Development Board (PDB) is seemed unable to meet the demand of power during the upcoming peak summer season, officials said on Thursday. They said in Bangladesh during the peak summer season, usually from mid-March to mid-October, power demand goes up […]

Iraq considers US$200 million plan to reverse oil-output decline

A high-level committee set up by Iraq’s Oil Ministry to look into the causes of a sharp fall in southern oil production has presented a US$200 million accelerated action plan to try to reverse the trend amid expectations of a more than 100,000 bpd fall in production capacity from the south in 2009. A copy […]

Venezuela’s Chavez turns to confrontation in crisis

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s aggressive moves against the food industry show the socialist leader will respond to growing economic woes in the OPEC nation with takeovers and tighter controls on business. Chavez has in the last week sent troops to temporarily occupy several rice mills and nationalized another one run by U.S. food giant Cargill […]

China’s oil imports limited by storage capacity

Limited storage facilities are hampering China’s efforts to import large volumes of oil while world prices are relatively low, an official with the Guangzhou customs house told an energy conference here Friday. Zhong Yanming, head of data analysis of the statistical department of the customs office, said he reached this conclusion based on monthly import […]

OPEC rubbishes IEA on oil prices

OPEC snapped back at the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Friday over its assessment that oil prices of around 40 dollars a barrel would be good for the global economy. “The IEA has said that the world would get a trillion-dollar economic stimulus if oil prices stay at around 40 dollars a barrel through 2009,” […]

Paul Roberts – Spoiled: Organic and Local Is So 2008

Our industrial food system is rotten to the core. Heirloom arugula won’t save us. Here’s what will. A couple years back, in a wheat field outside the town of Reardan, Washington, Fred Fleming spent an afternoon showing me just how hard it’s gotten to save the world. After decades as an unrepentant industrial farmer, the […]

Demand, prices for used hybrid vehicles fade as gas costs less

DETROIT Last summer, when gas prices topped $4 a gallon, demand for hybrid cars skyrocketed. Used hybrids were selling for as much as a new hybrid’s sticker price, Flores says, and new hybrids had waiting lists and sold for well above sticker. Now, Flores says, a one-two punch of the recession and low gas prices […]

OPEC to Reduce March Shipments by 1.9%, Oil Movements Says

(Bloomberg) — OPEC will reduce crude-oil shipments by 1.9 percent in the month ending March 21 as producers use record cuts to stem falling prices, according to tanker-tracker Oil Movements. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, producer of more than 40 percent of the world The group is still as much as 30 percent short […]

Yu Koyo Peya

How much longer can industrial civilization last before it undermines the basis of its existence, imploding due to growth and complexity spiraling out of control? Why is this collapse scenario nearly inevitable? These are the questions Yu Koyo Peya attempts to answer. The opening sequence presents a frightening taste of how a desperate world racked […]

Kurt Cobb: Jeffrey Brown and the Net Oil Exports Crisis

With peak oil comes peak oil exports. Why Texas oilman Jeffrey Brown thinks the world is headed for a drastic energy downsizing and soon. Texas oilmen who advocate for 1) a massive reduction in oil consumption through the electrification of transportation, 2) large investments in energy efficiency and 3) the relocalization of commerce to reduce […]

Oil Funds Can’t Buy Fannie Bonds

Russia banned on Thursday investment of its $220 billion oil wealth funds in bonds of quasi-sovereign agencies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, citing needs of its own budget and pension system. Russia had about $100 billion of its foreign currency reserves invested in U.S. government agencies at the start of 2008 as it […]

Peak Oil Review – Mar 2

1. Production and Prices 2. Obama 1. Production and Prices By recent standards, oil prices had a pretty good week. After dropping a couple of dollars to a low of $38 a barrel, prices rebounded 6 percent on Wednesday after the weekly oil stocks report showed an unexpectedly large drop in gasoline stocks. On Thursday […]

Oil prices fall with global energy demand sketchy

NEW YORK (AP) Market watchers had hoped China would aggressively try to kickstart its economy, but in a speech Thursday Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s announced no new spending beyond the $586 billion package unveiled in November. The premier did say he expected his country to achieve a growth rate of 8 percent this year. Initial […]

Someone spent all the money

HISTORIAN IVAN Illich once commented that, when future historians look back on our contemporary period, they will likely look on it fondly as a time when an eccentric uncle blew the family fortune, and everyone was forced to go back to work. Much of our Our

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