Kunstler: Strange Days

Even while a wave of reflex nausea washed over America last week, and the unemployment rolls swelled by much more than another half million, the greatest stock market suckers’ rally in seventy years pulled in the last of the credulous. These are strange days. The earth is heaving and the buds swelling again — at […]

Carbon cap deal "very difficult": U.N. climate chief

BONN, Germany (Reuters) – It will be hard work getting rich nations to agree cuts in greenhouse gases that are deep enough to satisfy the demands of developing countries at climate talks, U.N.’s climate chief told Reuters on Monday. ` Some 175 nations are meeting this week in Bonn in one of a series of […]

Peak Oil Review – Apr 6

1. Production and Prices 2. The Clean Energy & Security Act 3. Cuba 4. Detroit 5. Briefs 1. Production and Prices After falling into the high $40s, oil prices closed out the week about where they started, at $52 a barrel. The struggle continues between bad economic news combined with pessimistic economic forecasts vs. investor […]

Can Carbon Capture and Storage Save Coal?

Capturing carbon dioxide may be the only hope to avoid a climate change catastrophe from burning fossil fuels Like all big coal-fired power plants, the 1,600-megawatt-capacity Schwarze Pumpe plant in Spremberg, Germany, is undeniably dirty. Yet a small addition to the facility To heat that boiler, the damp, crumbly brown coal known as lignite

Saudi taps dollar reserves to boost economy

RIYADH (AFP) The result should be slightly positive growth in gross domestic product even as most major global economies and some of Saudi Arabia’s Gulf neighbours endure contractions. Agence France-Presse

More states want solar power to be option on new homes

A growing number of states are moving to require home builders to offer solar electricity and hot-water systems in new homes, right alongside more traditional options such as fancy kitchen countertops and special window treatments. “It’s just like the granite countertop upgrade or the two-car garage or the larger closet In Colorado, lawmakers are considering […]

Slimed, Pt. 1: Biofuels and the Aquatic Species Program

Scores of firms, startups and Fortune 500 companies alike, are working on algae-based biofuels. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested. And so far, maybe a few thousand gallons of algae oil have been produced. The question is: Can algae be economically cultivated and commercially scaled to make a material contribution to mankind’s liquid […]

Producers look to next generation of biofuels

California – For America’s biofuel industry, these are times of incredible promise – and serious pain. The Bay Area teems with entrepreneurs trying to replace oil with new, renewable fuels. Their experiments are attracting investment despite the global recession, with venture capitalists pouring $96 million into the industry in this year’s first quarter. The federal […]

Obama official: Ocean wind could replace coal

Interior secretary touts turning blades over burning fossil fuel ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Windmills off the East Coast could generate enough electricity to replace most, if not all, the coal-fired power plants in the United States, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday. But those numbers were challenged as “overly optimistic” by a coal industry group, […]

The Energy Boom Everyone Forgot About

The LNG market is still in its relative infancy. Last year less than 90 million tonnes of natural gas were shipped globally. To put that in perspective, it An additional six liquefaction plants will come on line by the end of this year. These facilities will produce a lot more LNG. Together they will nearly […]

Oil Has Peaked: Now Begins the Transition

We have officially entered the post-oil age in which the transition to lower energy lives is inevitable. As The Oil Drum pointed out last week, oil has peaked. We have officially entered the post-oil age in which the transition to lower energy lives is inevitable. (No doubt, pundits and policy wonks will debate this ad […]

The American Suburb Is Bouncing Back

Don’t believe the urban-living fundamentalists. …When the mortgage crisis first hit, some urbanists, not surprisingly, were quick to blame the suburbs–instead of Wall Street–for the financial meltdown. With energy prices on the rise, they persuaded themselves and the ever-gullible mainstream media that the long-awaited “back to the city” jubilee was imminent. In contrast, the suburbs […]

Oil-Contango Trade Resumes as Shipping Rates Tempt Shell, Vitol

(Bloomberg) — Vitol Group, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Gunvor International BV booked supertankers to store oil at sea as plunging shipping rates made the trade potentially more profitable again after a three-month gap, a shipbroker said. Vitol, a closely held oil trader, hired three tankers at $45,000 a day each, capable of carrying a […]

Arctic sea ice thinnest ever going into spring

The Arctic is treading on thinner ice than ever before. Researchers say that as spring begins, more than 90 percent of the sea ice in the Arctic is only 1 or 2 years old. That makes it thinner and more vulnerable than at anytime in the past three decades, according to researchers with NASA and […]

Colorado's oil shale is key to ending oil imports

It is entirely possible that Colorado’s extensive oil shale deposits will ultimately prove to be the key to ending America’s need to import foreign oil. A bold statement, no doubt, but one that is nearing reality. Colorado’s oil shale deposits arecontained in thefar reaching Green River Formation found in much of northwest Colorado, southwest Wyoming […]

Slowdown's gift to Beijing: cleaner air

BEIJING The global economic slowdown is helping to accomplish what some in China’s leadership have striven to do for years: rein in the insatiable demand for coal-powered energy that has fed the country’s breakneck growth but turned it into one of the world’s most polluted nations. Beijing, China’s normally smog-choked capital, is breathing some of […]

Climate Change Ponzi Scheme

How to ward off a Madoff-like moment with intergenerational extortion SEBASTOPOL, CALIF.–A Ponzi scheme is a simple fraud. Each generation of investors is paid out by the next generation of investors. Eventually this system collapses, because the new generation of investors can’t cover the transaction of the previous generation. That sounds very much to me […]

Q: How much can West Antarctica plausibly contribute to sea-level rise by 2100?

West Antarctica A 2007 study found

Natural Drainage Systems – Seattle's SEA Street Virtual Tour

Seattle has one example of “unconventional development” already in placeSEA Streets Tour

Declaration:

Keep Adding charcoal (

The unbearable lightness of information

This decade was the one that was supposed to usher in the era when bits and bytes would replace tons and barrels as the measure of what an economy does. The information economy would eclipse the economy of blast furnaces and railcars. The allure of such an economy is that it was said to be […]

Total May Delay 230,000 Barrel Oil-Sands Project

(Bloomberg) — Total SA, Europe Total was scheduled to make a decision on Joslyn, in which it has a 74 percent interest, at the start of next year. A Total production unit within the permit that started in 2006 didn

Solar Plane Set to Soar Over Europe

Eric Raymond is flying across Europe in an aircraft powered by the sun’s rays to prove that “solar airplane” is not an oxymoron “If we can inspire people to re-examine the way they think about transportation and travel

Dubai: How not to build a city

A cross between Vegas and Mississauga, Dubai is in danger of becoming a ruin-in-waiting DUBAI To most, the image conjured up by Dubai is one of superlatives: This is the location of the world’s tallest tower (the Burj Dubai), the world’s most expensive hotel (the Burj Al Arab), the world’s richest horse race (the Dubai […]

Bad economy holds highway deaths to 1960s levels

WASHINGTON (AP) Preliminary figures released by the government Monday show that 37,313 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes last year. That’s 9.1 percent lower than the year before, when 41,059 died, and the fewest since 1961, when there were 36,285 deaths. A different measure, also offering good news, was the fatality rate, the number […]

The dam infrastructure problem

New report says over 1,800 dams pose significant risk to human life. Fixing them will cost billions, but can we afford this in addition to roads, bridges and other projects? NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Kentucky’s Wolf Creek dam has been a hazard for years. Some 150 miles northwest of Nashville, the 270-foot high, 1950s era […]

Upside to recession: Gas consumption still falling

SACRAMENTO — An economic meltdown might not be the preferred way to scale back California’s dependence on foreign oil, but it seems to be doing the trick. Gas consumption in California continues to fall, even with prices far lower than the record highs set last summer, new figures from the California State Board of Equalization […]

Michael T Klare: Signs emerge of global crime wave

…Acknowledging these risks, Chen Xiwen spoke ominously of the need for greater government preparedness to contain mass incidents and other forms of social disorder. “If a mass incident occurs, leading cadres must all go to the front line, and talk to the people directly, face-to-face, to explain things,” he urged, rather than simply rely on […]

EU Backs New Fuel Law Forcing Oil Industry to Reduce Emissions

(Bloomberg) — The European Union approved stricter clean-air rules for oil companies such as Total SA and BP Plc to supplement new emission curbs on cars and a campaign to boost the use of biofuels. The EU decided to force the petroleum industry to reduce by 6 percent, over the fuel lifecycle, emissions of gases […]

How microbes can power America's future

For millenniums, microbes have been a staunch technological ally. They have leavened our bread and cured our cheeses. Now, engineers are asking them to convert carbon dioxide into fuel and to build a new generation of batteries. Some of the smallest life forms with which we share the planet are helping us cope with the […]

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