Can electric cars save Detroit?

The future of the U.S. auto industry was parading down the street. At Disney World, the place KansasCityStar

Brazil Ready to Take Seat Among World's 10 Top Oil Producers

Petrobras, the Brazilian government controlled oil and gas multinational on Friday lifted the first sub-salt oil from the massive, ultra-deep, offshore Tupi field in the Santos basin, an action Brazil’s government hopes will launch a new era for Latin America’s largest economy. “It is a historic moment, a new era,” said Brazilian President Luiz InBrazilMag

From Shortage to Glut, and Boom to Bust

In recent decades, technological advances have unlocked huge reserves of unconventional natural gas. Directional drilling and advanced seismic have been important, but many of the most critical advances have occurred in the realm of completion technologies, including hydraulic fracturing. Fracing was used half a century ago, but recent improvements have been stunning, unlocking new tight […]

OPEC April oil output falls for eighth month

OPEC oil supply fell in April for an eighth consecutive month due to disruptions to Nigerian output and as members implemented a deal to prop up prices, a Reuters survey showed on Friday. Supply from the 11 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries bound by output targets declined to 25.52 million barrels […]

Norway's oil production to drop by 28.8%

Norwegian oil production will drop by 28.8% by 2018, with output slipping steadily from an estimated 2.44 million b/d in 2008 to 1.82 million b/d within 10 years, said analyst BMI. With oil consumption forecast to decrease by 0.5%, Norway’s exports will slide from an estimated 2.22 million b/d to 1.60 million b/d during the […]

Saudi Arabia's Khurais field to start in June

The giant Khurais oil and gas field in Saudi Arabia is on schedule to start production by the end of June, according to Amin H. Nasser, Saudi Aramco senior vice-president, exploration and production. The $10 billion project will come on earlier than expected as it was originally slated for completion by yearend. Khurais is about […]

Oil Bear: Russia

After months of struggling to lift production volumes, Russia says its crude production rose in April by almost 1%. If sustained, that could bode well for global oil supplies in the event demand ever recovers. But take the latest data with a grain of salt. RussiaWSJBlogs

Bahrain, Saudi, most vulnerable to oil shock

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia topped the list of rated oil-exporting countries most vulnerable to plummeting crude prices, a leading international ratings agency said Tuesday in a report spotlighting the challenges confronting a region where crude is king. Along with OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia and its tiny neighbor, Bahrain, Azerbaijan was also part of the top […]

Why global warming could make or break south-east Asia

by Nicholas Stern and Haruhiko Kuroda In the middle of this financial crisis there is a debate taking place over whether governments can afford both massive tax-funded spending programmes needed to revive ailing economies, and the emissions cuts that are needed to combat climate change. Few regions on Earth throw this tension into sharper contrast […]

Richard Heinberg: Somebody's Gotta Do It

Hi. My job is trying to save the world, and I It

A new phase in the Gulf: Gulf of Mexico oil production could peak in 2013

Oil production in the Gulf of Mexico could peak at more than 1.8 million barrels per day by 2013 under the industry Oil production from projects the industry has currently or is committed to starting up could peak at 1.6 million barrels by 2011, according to the agency

A 'robust' new fuel supply for nuclear power plants is emerging

PIKETON, Ohio — A group of U.S. engineers and technicians sat down one day in 2001 to figure out where the nation’s future nuclear power plant fuel was going to come from. Their decision was to leap backward 30 years and re-engineer an idea perfected during the Cold War and then abandoned here in 1985. […]

Study Sees 'Alarming' Use of Energy, Materials in Newer Manufacturing

Making manhole covers is more efficient than making microchips According to a recent study, new manufacturing systems are anywhere from 1,000 to 1 million times bigger consumers of energy than more-traditional industries. In short, pound for pound, making microchips uses up considerably more energy than making manhole covers, for example. Manufacturers have usually been more […]

Obama to form interagency biofuels group

NEW YORK, May 4 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will direct the heads of three U.S. agencies to make the biofuels industry cleaner and encourage output of ethanol made from non-food crops, according to a draft memo obtained by Reuters on Monday. The Biofuels Interagency Working Group, to be headed by the secretaries of the […]

EU bioethanol producers see rising output to 2020

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe is likely to pump out increasing amounts of bioethanol over the next 10 years, posting gradual annual output rises as an EU-imposed deadline nears for boosting renewable energy, an industry official said on Monday. While wide discrepancies remain among the European Union’s 27 countries in terms of their bioethanol industries, overall […]

U.S. biodiesel output falls sharply in March: group

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. biodiesel output is down sharply, an industry group said on Monday, and it called for release of federal regulations to require use of advanced biofuels. The National Biodiesel Board said production fell in March to 30 million gallons, compared with 49 million gallons in March 2008, according to U.S. Energy Information […]

Peak oil and the end of economic growth?

The authors are Hail and Day, and here

How the crisis is changing you

Frugality and safety are in; bling and plastic are out. The economic meltdown has sparked a major shift in our financial values. And one that’s likely to last. …A new set of American values is emerging from the ashes of 600,000 layoffs a month, a lost decade in stocks, and the worst housing crash ever. […]

Prosperity without Growth?

The transition to a sustainable economy Every society clings to a myth by which it lives. Ours is the myth of economic growth. For the last five decades the pursuit of growth has been the single most important policy goal across the world. The global economy is almost five times the size it was half […]

Going green can cost too much green

Going green isn’t easy, especially during a recession. For two years, the city of Durango, Colo., bought electricity for all its government buildings from wind farms. The City Council ended that program this year, reverting to electricity derived from coal-burning plants and saving the cash-strapped city about $45,000. “It’s very hard for us to lay […]

Web providers must limit internet's carbon footprint, say experts

Soaring online demand stretching companies’ ability to deliver content as net uses more power and raises costs The internet’s increasing appetite for electricity poses a major threat to companies such as Google, according to scientists and industry executives. Leading figures have told the Guardian that many internet companies are struggling to manage the costs of […]

Saudi cuts oil drilling as demand slows

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia plans to release 15 oil rigs by the end of the year as it reduces drilling activity with slowing global demand, oil industry sources in the kingdom said on Monday. “We feel we have huge extra capacity,” said one. “Why do we need to drill?” By the end of 2009, […]

Mexico's symptoms signal a wider malaise

As in the 1400s, disease and climate change weaken an economy’s immune system The deepening crisis led, inevitably, to a search for scapegoats. Those deemed responsible for the toxic waste were identified and 16 were rounded up and taken to be beaten and harangued in the public square. No, this is not what lies in […]

Clean coal? Go underground, Alberta

THOMAS HOMER-DIXON AND JULIO FRIEDMANN Alberta appears to be in a box – an energy box – that constrains policy options in every direction. The province’s wealth is critically tied to exploitation of its vast hydrocarbon resources. But faced with declining reserves of conventional oil and natural gas, it has been forced to turn increasingly […]

Russian gas output at record low

Natural gas production at Russian energy giant Gazprom has hit its lowest level in a decade after falling by 28 percent. Data from the Russian Energy Ministry showed on Saturday that Gazprom’s gas output was 1.15 billion cubic meters (bcm) per day in April, 7 percent down from 1.24 bcm in March 2009 and 28 […]

Oil nears $54 on indications demand is up overseas

Signs of increasing energy demand in China, the world’s second largest consumer, pushed oil up to near $54 a barrel Monday, but concerns over the state of the economic recovery and the spread of the swine flu continue to hold prices in check. Benchmark crude for June delivery gained 37 cents to $53.57 a barrel […]

Tupi oil is 'second independence for Brazil'

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called Friday for officials to finalise new oil laws giving the country a greater stake in recent oil finds, saying the legislation was urgently needed to guarantee Brazil’s future. “This is a second independence for Brazil,” Lula said, commemorating the first crude oil pumped from the Tupi field […]

Responding to the triple crunch (UK)

Financial meltdown, climate change and dwindling energy supplies demand a newer world order When the present economic meltdown finally ends, what then? Although the turnaround may still be more than a year away, there are already very different scenarios emerging. The opt-out position, which includes the Cameron-Osborne pitch, insists the brutal, self-corrective devices of capitalism […]

Peak Oil: Global Oil Production

Dust off those survivalist manuals and brush up on your dystopias: Peak oil is back. Global production of petroleum peaked in the first quarter of last year, says analysts Raymond James, which WallStreetJournalBlogs

The Bottom (Kunstler)

Euphoria managed to out-run swine flu last week as the epidemic-du-jour, with “consumer” confidence jumping and the big bank stocks nudging up. The H1N1 virus fizzled for now, at least in terms of kill ratio, though we’re warned it might boomerang in the fall with a vengeance. No one was surprised to see Chrysler roll […]

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