Volatility prompts a pause for breath

Oil prices have gyrated so violently in the past six months that the industry …The effects of all this will be so profound that some people believe they will outweigh the investment cutbacks by oil companies, heralding the arrival of

Book Review: 'Game Over' by Stephen Leeb

…Leeb is obviously a believer in peak oil and now proposes the concept of Absolute Peak Oil. He defines this as the point in which we But that policy won

Growing Pains

Goosing growth is the only way out of this mess. …Lester Brown, founder and chief visionary of the Earth Policy Institute, goes Krugman one better. In an article in Scientific American, Brown raised the specter of food shortages that destroy civilization. Rising populations and rising incomes, he warned, mean rising food prices, falling water tables, […]

Green Camo: Seeing Through the Military

As the single largest consumer of energy in the world, the U.S. military is poised at the center of two of the most life-altering issues of our time: climate change and the height of oil production ( Before the antiwar movement rejoices in the end of U.S. hegemony and environmentalists celebrate the move toward sustainability, […]

Warming will make Scotland the bread basket of Europe

Climate change is poised to transform Scottish farming, boosting yields of oilseed rape, wheat, barley and oats by 30% within 40 years, according to a new report. A study by the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) and the Rothamsted Research centre in Hertfordshire predicts that rising temperatures and levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in […]

Exxon Mobil facing green squeeze

As President Barack Obama continues pushing his environmental agenda, Exxon Mobil But some influential proxy advisory firms note that such proposals have steadily gained investor support, and the perception that Exxon Mobil has no use for renewables continues to damage its reputation.

Economist: Pricier Oil Means Less Globalization

Just last summer, oil was surging toward $150 a barrel and gas prices were hitting $4 a gallon. The recession brought those prices crashing down, and today it may seem like high oil prices are one of the few economic problems that we don’t have to worry about. But Canadian economist Jeff Rubin says what […]

Entrepreneur pushes idea of air-powered cars

Most car companies are racing to bring electric vehicles to the market. But one startup is skipping the high-tech electronics, making cars whose energy source is pulled literally out of thin air. Zero Pollution Motors is trying to bring a car to U.S. roads by early 2011 that’s powered by a combination of compressed air […]

China says lower energy use signals economy changing, not slowing further

China is defending the quality of its economic data, arguing that figures showing declines in energy use mean the economy is changing, not contracting. Data on China’s electricity consumption have long been used as a benchmark for industrial activity, given the often haphazard nature of other measures. But as the economy shifts toward services and […]

In Ecuador, an Unusual Carbon-Credit Plan to Leave Oil Untapped

Beneath the tropical jungles of northeastern Ecuador lies a vast pool of oil, representing one-fifth of the small Andean country’s petroleum reserves and potentially billions of dollars in revenue. Directly above that pool, the Yasuni National Park is home to a diversity of wildlife that is among the richest on the planet, Ecuadoran and U.S. […]

Saudi Arabia's March 2009 Oil Production Rises By 300,000 Bpd

Saudi Arabia raised its oil production by nearly 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March 2009 in spite of a collective agreement by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut crude supplies to support prices, official figures revealed. The country produced 8.358 million bpd in March 2009, compared with around 8.056 million bpd […]

National oil companies: Price fall highlights investors' favourites

As oil prices fell in the second half of last year, oil companies’ shares suffered. But few were as badly bruised as the partially-listed national oil companies that had been investors’ favourites until the end of the commodity’s decade-long climb. National oil companies’ shares fell 64 per cent in 2008, as investors moved away from […]

Can OPEC save the world economy? …Cheap oil? …Not for long!

After the Peak Oil plateau, from 2010, we will move into the post-plateau down-slope in world oil availability. Average annual long-term loss will likely run at about 4% by volume, and about 6% annual for export volumes, specially due to the immoderate appetites of oil producer countries — who actually use the stuff themselves! According […]

Arab nuclear ambitions embolden spurs nuclear renaissance

The most volatile region in the world is going nuclear. In the Arab world, at least thirteen nations, both oil-rich and oil-thirsty, are collaborating with world powers to build nuclear energy programmes with unprecedented determination. As energy and water needs grow, they are confronting the inevitable depletion of oil and natural gas. The nuclear option […]

Exxon Mobile to develop solar, biofuel and coal gasification technologies

Is oil giant Exxon Mobile preparing itself for the beginning of the end of oil? It indeed looks like it. In its 2008 Corporate Citizens Report released Friday the company promises to battle greenhouse gas emissions by increasing energy efficiency in the short term, advancing emission-reducing technologies in the medium term, and developing technologies such […]

Manila Says Renewable Energy Investments May Reach $10 Billion

The Philippines hopes to attract $9-10 billion in investments in renewable energy projects over the next 10 years as a law giving investors fiscal incentives takes effect next month, a top official said on Monday. “Our objective is to double the power being generated from renewable energy sources, from 4,500 MW to 9,000 MW in […]

Japan: Government to embrace 'Green New Deal'

The government will promote “Green New Deal” policies to expand the nation’s markets related to environmental conservation and build a society where environmental policies will not hamper economic growth, according to a draft of the 2009 white paper on the environment. The annual report on the environment, recycling society and biodiversity, penned by the Environment […]

Switching Horses on Oil Strategy

Thunder Horse turns 10 next month. BP’s billion-barrel oil field, discovered in 1999 in the Gulf of Mexico, is a source of pride. It also is a reminder of what ails the oil majors. Thunder Horse, which started up in 2008, will provide 42% of BP’s incremental upstream production over the next three years, according […]

The Big Question: Is America finally getting real about climate change?

Barack Obama has launched a policy revolution which will ensure that, if successful, his presidency will be a watershed in US history. Nothing however is as consequential as his attempt to change America’s energy habits and fight global warming. The US may have been overtaken by China as the planet’s biggest current polluter. But it […]

UK: Eco-vandals take on the gas-guzzlers

Police are searching for a gang of radical environmental activists after a series of attacks on 4×4 vehicles. The gang, who claim to have targeted up to 80 vehicles across South Manchester, let down tyres and leave notes accusing the owners of adding to global warming and increasing the chances of road deaths. In the […]

The new millennium

This global collapse is seen as the result of the sub-prime financial fiasco. It is often overlooked that the incredibly high prices of energy, driven by the peaking in global production of oil, forced up, among others, food prices, and caused eventually the destruction of demand for energy, i.e. a departure from economic growth as […]

Peak Oil Review – May 25

1. Production and Prices 2. Washington 3. Briefs 1. Production and Prices Oil prices had a bullish week, increasing steadily from $57 a barrel, at one point getting above $62, and then closing at $61.67. Once again the fundamentals of supply and demand had less to do with the price increase than financial considerations. On […]

Amazon hit by climate chaos of floods, drought

Experts suspect global warming may be driving wild climate swings SAO PAULO – Across the Amazon basin, river dwellers are adding new floors to their stilt houses, trying to stay above rising floodwaters that have killed 44 people and left 376,000 homeless. Flooding is common in the world’s largest remaining tropical wilderness, but this year […]

Solar power could surge by 2050 in deserts: study

PARIS (Reuters) – Solar power plants in deserts using mirrors to concentrate the sun’s rays have the potential to generate up to a quarter of the world’s electricity by 2050, a report by pro-solar groups said on Monday. The study, by environmental group Greenpeace, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association (ESTELA) and the International Energy […]

Nigeria militant attack on Chevron shuts 100,000 bpd

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigerian militants launched their first major strike against the oil industry since the start of a 10-day old military offensive late on Sunday, bombing a Chevron (CVX.N) pipeline and shutting 100,000 barrels per day of output. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in an email it had […]

Russia assures Europe on stable gas supplies

ROME (Reuters) – Russia’s energy minister on Monday assured Europe that it would receive stable gas supplies from his nation despite problems with transit country Ukraine and falling output in Russia. Russia, which supplies a quarter of Europe’s gas, much of it via Ukraine, has twice cut supplies in recent years due to pricing disputes […]

Oil investment fears rise as Saudi predicts new spike

ROME (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia warned oil prices could spike to beyond the near $150 record high of 2008 within three years as it joined other energy leaders on Monday to call for more investment to boost production over the long term. Energy ministers and officials at the Group of Eight energy summit wrapped up […]

Are Wall Street speculators driving up gasoline prices? (Again?)

WASHINGTON Meanwhile, although refiners are operating at less than 85 percent of capacity, leaving them plenty of room to churn out more gasoline if demand rises during the summer driving season, the price of gasoline at the pump has climbed 28 cents a gallon from a month earlier to $2.33. This time, Wall Street speculators

Goodbye, globalization

The global economy, which has been propelled over the 20th century by cheap oil, is about to get a nasty slap in the face Is there life after serving as one of Canada’s most well-known and controversial bank economists? Jeff Rubin is going to find out. The former CIBC World Markets guru made quite a […]

The Global Food Crisis: The End of Plenty

It is the simplest, most natural of acts, akin to breathing and walking upright. We sit down at the dinner table, pick up a fork, and take a juicy bite, obliv Last year the skyrocketing cost of food was a wake-up call for the planet. Between 2005 and the summer of 2008, the price of […]

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