Falling silicon prices pressure thin-film solar

LOS ANGELES/TOKYO (Reuters) – A collapse in silicon prices threatens to put the heat on solar panel makers that use little of the material, such as Japan’s Sharp Corp and even low-cost industry darling First Solar Inc. Spot prices on the solar industry’s key raw material, polysilicon, have halved since January, giving a leg up […]

Farm groups counter call for GMO wheat

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan (Reuters) – Farm and environment groups opposed to genetically modified wheat are countering a call from other farm organizations for biotech companies to commercially develop it. Fifteen groups in the top wheat-exporting countries of Canada, the U.S. and Australia released a joint statement of opposition to GMO wheat on Monday. It follows the […]

Technology seen key to oil sands: Chu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on Monday he believes technology can solve environmental problems associated with Canada’s oil sands and that the huge nearby resource contributes to U.S. energy security. Chu told the Reuters Global Energy Summit that the balance between the environmental impact from the huge energy resource in northern […]

OPEC compliance eroding; US drivers may rev up-IEA

DARWIN (Reuters) – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members’ compliance with production curbs they reaffirmed last week is eroding as prices rise, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Monday. Richard Jones, deputy executive director of the West’s energy watchdog, also said that OPEC would not be justified in cutting output, despite still-swollen […]

U.S. gasoline above $2.50 first time since October

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. retail gasoline prices increased for the fourth week in a row, rising another 9 cents to $2.52 a gallon, the Energy Department said on Monday. It is the first time gasoline surpassed $2.50 a gallon since last October. The national price for regular unleaded gasoline jumped about 45 cents during May, […]

Workers, towns cast adrift by GM bankruptcy

Restructuring will have ripple effect on communities across the U.S. DETROIT – Pontiac. Mansfield. Spring Hill. Orion Township. All these places once thrived in the shadow of General Motors plants. But now their futures General Motors Corp., the once-mighty car giant whose plants were the lifeblood of many American communities, filed its Chapter 11 petition […]

Peak Oil: What To Do When The Wells Run Dry

During the oil crisis of the 1970s to the rapid rise of oil prices during the early part of the twenty-first century, concerns surrounding the use and availability of this non-renewable resource greatly increased in the minds of many. One theory that always seems to creep up when oil prices rise is the idea of […]

CERA sees potential oil rebound

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Current oil prices are not justified in the face of weak global demand and a glut of spare supply, but oil supplies could tighten in the next three to five years, energy analyst Daniel Yergin said on Monday. U.S. oil futures rose more than 2 percent to a seven-month high of $68.29 […]

Energy shock and oil myths

Will soaring prices crush globalization? Don This concept became Rubin

Warren Buffett: Peak Oil Apostle?

CNBC has an interview with Warren Buffett in which he seems to be admitting a belief in reasonably imminent peak oil. BUFFETT: Well, ag commodities are a little tough. You know, if I had to on KERNEN: So that goes for metals, too? You

Take foot off the gas, analysts warn

COMPANIES behind Australia’s projected $200 billion investment boom in liquefied natural gas export projects are refusing to concede the need to adjust their aggressive development timetables in response to the financial crisis and the glut in global LNG supplies. Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson agrees with them. He told an Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration […]

CLIMATE CHANGE: Four Tough Nuts To Crack

BONN (IPS) – The world is on track towards negotiating a solid deal in Copenhagen at the end of this year, Yvo de Boer, the UN’s top climate change official, told reporters at the opening of a 12-day conference in Bonn Monday. “The political moment is right to reach an agreement,” said De Boer, executive […]

India's Leaked Solar Power Plan: 200 GW By 2050

Indian newspaper, The Hindu has come across a finalized draft of a national solar power plan that aims to have 200 GW in place by 2050. The plan outlines expanding the use of small-scale solar PV panels and commercial-scale solar plants in both rural and urban areas and with both commercial and residential customers. Solar […]

Superfluous Luxuries: How science was put in the service of greed

…We take for granted those technologies that even 50 years ago would have been inconceivable. Our heightened state of consumerism has facilitated the mass development of technologies that would usually only serve the elite, had it not been for the abundance of cheap oil. Most people who are lucky enough to possess such products as […]

'Clean-tech' start-ups are pushing the green button

…Venture capitalists, big companies including Cisco Systems Inc. and General Electric Co. and private equity firms have been pumping money into a variety of green IT initiatives, said Ron Pernick, co-founder and principal of Clean Edge Inc., an environmental research and consulting firm. A major push includes an effort to make the nation’s power grid […]

The big American gas-guzzler: Down but not out

HOUSTON (Reuters) But don’t expect many dents in the Sport Utility Vehicle fan club. Cities like Houston, where driving is at the heart of the daily routine, are proof of the American love affair with the big car. “I couldn’t get by without this thing,” said Kathy Fieldman, a mother of three who was washing […]

Oil nationalism

Latin America is a study in contrast of how countries manage their oil. In Mexico and Venezuela, state and oil industry live in a symbiosis flaunted as resource nationalism By inviting private oil companies to bid for concessions, Brazil continues to buck a regional trend: Bolivia and Venezuela have confiscated private stakes in oil and […]

Some Cautionary Thoughts about Wind

I think we think we know more about wind-power than we do. These are a few things that I have recently discovered about wind that make me think that plunging headlong into electricity is not necessarily a good idea. At this point, we don’t seem to have a plan that does much more than address […]

Apathy threatens humanity, ex-Clinton aide says

Thomas Homer-Dixon says we still don

Driving Season in U.S. May Beat Forecasts, IEA Says

(Bloomberg) — Fuel demand during the U.S. summer driving season may prove stronger than projected as consumers recover from the shock of the global financial crisis, an International Energy Agency official said. The peak U.S. gasoline consumption period lasts from the Memorial Day holiday until Labor Day in early September, as Americans take to the […]

Jeff Rubin – The recession: First, there was expensive oil

If indeed oil, and not subprime mortgages, lies at the heart of our current economic malaise, we may be sicker than we know Knowing the nature of a disease is usually a precondition for finding a cure. Similarly, identifying the cause of a recession goes a long way in defining what type of recovery is […]

Seeds of Change

These are, to put it gently, unsettling times. A triple whammy confronts us: climate change, peak oil, and a global economy in a possible death spiral. With things spinning so badly out of control, it Is it end-game time? Yes, if we

Global Storage Constraints Limit Oil Stockpiling

(Bloomberg) — Global storage constraints in the short term are limiting the ability of most countries to stockpile more oil, China Oil

Western world is faced with the crude reality of rising oil prices

Cheaper crude has delivered the world’s oil-importers By provoking inflation, high oil would also threaten our ultra-low interest rate policy

Where Is Silver Heading Next?

…Here is the background to this latest installment in the silver bull story as shown in the chart below. After a grinding bear market of 23 years, silver entered a new bull market on 21st March 2003. This bull will last 20 to 30 years as we enter an age of increasingly greater inflationary forces […]

The Impeccable Affair and Renewed Rivalry in the South China Sea

Developments in the South China Sea during the first quarter of 2009 reinforced several trends that have been apparent over the past two years. First, the Spratly Islands dispute has once again come to dominate Sino-Philippine relations, despite attempts by Beijing and Manila to move beyond it. Second, China has adopted a more assertive posture […]

Canada's Fuel Cell Sector Hungry For Help

Just as substantial sales growth seems on the horizon for their long-suffering industry, Canada’s hydrogen and fuel cell developers fear missing the wave because of lack of government support. Companies say government policies and incentives are inadequate to cement Canada’s technology lead in a sector that researchers at US-based Freedonia Group see growing to worldwide […]

China plans new energy development program

The National Development and Reform Commission says China will soon launch a plan for the development of new energy in the country. The commission says in the face of the global financial crisis, a new energy strategy is crucial to boosting the country’s energy sector and helping sustain steady growth in the national economy. The […]

Obama seeks funding cuts for wave, tidal energy research

The Obama administration has proposed a 25 percent cut in the research and development budget for one of the most promising renewable energy sources in the Northwest – wave and tidal power. At the same time the White House sought an 82 percent increase in solar power research funding, a 36 percent increase in wind […]

Iraq's Kurdish region to export oil for first time

Iraq’s self-ruled Kurdish region will begin exporting crude oil for the first time on June 1, piping up to 90,000 bpd to its neighbours in a landmark step for the area, officials said on Sunday. Companies chosen by the regional government will pump oil from two Kurdish fields via an Iraqi pipeline to Turkey with […]

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