Oil Giants Loath to Follow Obama

The Obama administration wants to reduce oil consumption, increase renewable energy supplies and cut carbon dioxide emissions in the most ambitious transformation of energy policy in a generation. But the world Royal Dutch Shell said last month that it would freeze its research and investments in wind, solar and hydrogen power, and focus its alternative […]

IRAN: There will be oil, and lots of it

Iran is reporting huge new discoveries of oil that contain “billions” of barrels of reserves, state radio quoted the managing director of the country’s National Oil Co. as saying today. Seyfollah Jashnsaz said Iran has discovered seven new oil fields in unspecified locations around the country. “Billions of barrels of oil will be added to […]

Recession saps energy from ethanol industry

A year ago, the ethanol industry was riding high on spiraling gas prices that made corn-based biofuel a highly attractive home-grown supplement to costly gasoline. Federal mandates were in place to more than triple ethanol production by 2022. Since then, the bottom has fallen out of the industry. Newly built refineries are shutting down, and […]

Russia steps up gas pressure on Ukraine

Russia threatened to fine Ukraine on Tuesday for failing to buy enough gas in the first quarter, increasing pressure on its neighbour at a time when the World Bank said Kiev’s economy was contracting fast. Alexei Miller, chief executive of Russia’s state-run gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM), told Reuters the corporation was in talks with Ukrainian […]

A Cheaper Way to Draw Oil from Shale

A new ceramic-composite material that can withstand high temperatures and constant exposure to moisture could provide an economical way to unlock America’s vast oil-shale deposits. More recently, companies such as Royal Dutch Shell have developed ways to tap the oil in situ, by drilling boreholes that are thousands of feet deep and feeding into them […]

The Efficacy Of Presidential Energy Policy

From FDR to Barack Obama, occupants of the White House have at least attempted to control how we use energy sources. Keeping wheels rolling, jets flying, and factories and lights lit are great balancing acts of the modern world–balancing often incompatible and frequently subtle economic, environmental and strategic considerations. As is the prerogative of every […]

Breezy Talk: Interior Secretary Salazar

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is heavily touting the offshore wind-power potential of the U.S. Is he overdoing it? Secretary Salazar, in Atlantic City for the first of four public meetings to discuss America Let

New Report Charts Path for Energy Reform

The nonpartisan Reform Institute today released a new report that lays a clear pathway for comprehensive energy reform. The report – Reforming American Energy: Overcoming Reliance and Ensuring Reliability – outlines the benefits and limitations of each U.S. energy sector and provides specific reform recommendations. With energy and climate legislation taking shape in Congress the […]

Climate Change To Spur Rapid Shifts In Wildfire Hotspots, Analysis Finds

Climate change will bring about major shifts in worldwide fire patterns, and those changes are coming fast, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, in collaboration with scientists at Texas Tech University. The findings are reported in the April 8 issue of PLoS ONE, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal […]

Can ethanol help save the U.S. economy?

As the Obama Administration searches for ways stimulate the economy and takes some unpopular positions, such as aiding banks, automakers, and in-over-their-head mortgage-holders, there may be an opportunity in another controversial area The Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) that calls for 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022 still is in place and the industry intends […]

An End to Dependence on Middle East Oil

Over the last 40 years, the United States has become increasingly dependent on foreign oil and reluctant to develop domestic, fossil fuel resources. Today, America imports two-thirds of its oil at a cost of $300 billion per year, much of it from politically unstable, Middle East countries which control 45% of the world’s oil, overall. […]

The turning point and the new commodity bubble

Is oil at a turning point? Get ready bubble buyers as the next big oil bubble is getting inflated once again. There is 1.1 trillion dollars of global economic stimulus and a global interest rate imbalance between the United States and Europe and this is creating the same type of macroeconomic conditions that caused oil […]

Oil on the agenda as Chavez arrives in China

BEIJING (AFP) “A new world equilibrium is being born, a new world order, the multi-polar world of which we have long dreamed… with new poles like Beijing and Tokyo,” Chavez told reporters in the Chinese capital. Chavez said he was coming to China with three “concrete objectives of high strategical importance”. They are a reinforcement […]

Powerful Ideas: Wringing Oil From Algae

Algae come in all sizes and shapes: from single-celled microbes in pond scum to 100-foot-long seaweeds in kelp forests. They can live in salty, fresh and even waste water. The speed at which algae grow can overwhelm marine habitats and fish tanks, but that same productivity could make these organisms the best choice for supplying […]

Supercharged: MIT students overhaul solar car

Lithium-ion batteries key to speeds up to 80 mph, and 200-mile range BOSTON – In a dingy basement in Boston, some young scientists are putting the finish touches to Eleanor, one of the most advanced solar cars yet designed. The technology-packed, environmentally friendly, solar racing car can hit speeds of 80 mph and drive up […]

Pickens takes energy plan to UA

FAYETTEVILLE – A former wildcatter who made his fortune finding oil presented his plan for eliminating the United States’ dependence on foreign fuels to a crowd of more than 750 people Monday. T. Boone Pickens conducted a town-hall meeting explaining his “Pickens Plan” for reducing imported oil in the Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development at […]

EU: Earth warming faster

OSLO/BONN (Reuters) – Global warming is likely to overshoot a 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) rise seen by the European Union and many developing nations as a trigger for “dangerous” change, a Reuters poll of scientists showed on Tuesday. Nine of 11 experts, who were among authors of the final summary by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental […]

GM in "intense" preparations for bankruptcy: source

NEW YORK/DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Corp is in “intense” and “earnest” preparations for a possible bankruptcy filing, a source familiar with the company’s plans told Reuters on Tuesday. A plan to split the corporation into a “new” company made up of the most successful units, and an “old” one of its less-profitable units, is […]

GM, Segway to team on two-wheeled vehicle

Will be able to reach 35 mph and go 35 miles on single electric charge NEW YORK – A solution to the world The Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility, or PUMA, project also would involve a vast communications network that would allow vehicles to interact with each other, regulate the flow of traffic and prevent […]

Airlines face losses as demand drops

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The number of empty seats on planes flown by U.S. airlines is rising this year despite aggressive fare sales and capacity cuts, darkening the outlook for industry earnings in the first quarter and beyond. Airline data on March load factors, which measure how full an airplane is, showed a third consecutive month […]

Carpe Peak Oil

Rahm Emanuel Matt Simmons, energy analyst and author of Twilight in the Desert, recently told Reuters, “We are 3, 6, maybe 9 months away from a price shock… These prices now are dangerously low. The lower prices fall, the less oil will be produced and the greater the chance of an oil spike…. [And] unless […]

MARTA Officials: Cut One Weekday Of Service

ATLANTA — For the half a million people who depend on MARTA, a devastating cut could be on the way. The state legislature didn’t vote to allow MARTA to use more of its own money. Now, MARTA officials say it will have to cut a day of service during the week — and lay off […]

Dmitry Orlov: Burning our bridges to the XXI century

The future does not resemble the past As modernity runs out of resources (those photons sequestered eons ago in fossil form, now released as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere) patterns of life naturally retreat to their pre-modern forms. If there are no more sneakers from China, we sew moccasins or whittle clogs. If we are […]

Northeast Utilities plans charging stations

BOSTON The Connecticut Light & Power Company and Western Massachusetts Electric Company plan to build electric charging stations at homes, workplaces and publicly accessible sites in their service territories over the next two years. Boston Globe

Oil's time draws to a close

Oil is amazing. Those of you who know me, a climate change and Peak Oil activist, probably are surprised to hear me say that. But it is. Think about it. Here are some of the things we get from oil: plastics, fertilizers, a range of waxes (including p araffin), pesticides, herbicides , detergents, cleaners, a […]

Fighting the recession, armed with seeds

Home gardening experiences a boom as families seek to cut food costs Hoe in hand, Kate Kinne works her field on a cold March day. Kinne is part of a growing movement of Americans who are turning to their own resources to fight the economic recession, now in its 16th month. As paychecks and job […]

Japan, Venezuela sign broad oil, gas cooperation

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan and Venezuela agreed on Monday on a broad cooperation to develop oil and gas projects in the Latin American nation, deepening bilateral relations to help diversify sources of energy for the resource-poor Asian country. State-affiliate Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC), Inpex Corp and Mitsubishi Corp will pursue a […]

China eyeing Canadian assets

A state-owned Chinese oil firm is looking to pick up US$5-billion of Canadian-owned oil assets amid the fallout from the pending merger of Suncor Energy Inc. and Petro-Canada, according to reports in Asia. The assets, in Syria and Libya, are being eyed by China National Petroleum Corp., one of China’s two oil majors, local media […]

Interview with Matt Simmons, Part 1

Question: How has demand for your presentations and TV experiences moved up or down with the price of oil? Answer: The flow doesn If you saw the story in [we

Oil: No Supply Side Answer to the Coming Crisis

Rather soon, we have to find mechanisms and processes to ensure an orderly and permanent annual reduction in world oil demand at least equal to expected net loss of supply as we come out of the ‘undulating plateau’. One hangover from the neoliberal 1980s is the myth of ’supply side solutions’. For oil, the key […]

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