EU biodiesel output up 35 percent, capacity growing

Production of biodiesel in the European U-nion rose by more than 35 percent in 2008 and capacity will grow again this year although half the plants are idle due to poor demand, the EU producers group said on Wednesday. The Brussels-based European Biodiesel Board (EBB) said the European production of biodiesel, by far the main […]

China Warns Some Oil Companies on Work With Vietnam, U.S. Says

China told some international oil and gas companies to halt exploration in offshore areas that Vietnam considers part of its territory, an American government official told the U.S. Congress. The U.S. is “concerned about tension between China and Vietnam, as both countries seek to tap potential oil and gas deposits that lie beneath the South […]

Brazilian ethanol attracts bioplastics investors

Brazil’s highly developed sugarcane-based ethanol industry is attracting investments in bioplastics, and second-generation technologies are growing strongly too. Yet ethanol makers are grappling with market instability. Some industry players are confident that biofeedstocks have a promising future. One of the largest polyethylene (PE) producers in Latin America, Braskem, is aggressively pursuing the development of green […]

Renewable Energy Costs And FUD

FUD is a term that stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. According to Wikipedia, “FUD is generally a strategic attempt to influence public perception by disseminating negative information designed to undermine the credibility of their beliefs.” Renewable energy options such as solar power have certainly captured the public’s imagination, with many more people around the […]

Nabucco ink starts to flow

The signing this week of a transit agreement to govern the Nabucco natural gas pipeline marks an important staging post in bringing to reality the long-touted energy route, which is projected to run 3,300 kilometers from the Caspian Sea region to Europe. Yet it is important to understand what such a transit agreement is intended […]

China maps out troubled waters

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) may have strengthened its claim to areas of the East China Sea with the submission in May of its preliminary survey findings on the outer limits of its continental shelf to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). The submission, however, may also serve to […]

Past warming shows gaps in climate knowledge -study

A dramatic warming of the planet 55 million years ago cannot be solely explained by a surge in carbon dioxide levels, a study shows, highlighting gaps in scientists’ understanding of impacts from rapid climate change. During an event called the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, global temperatures rose between 5 and 9 degrees Celsius within several thousand […]

James Hansen on Climate Tipping Points and Political Leadership

In my opinion, it is still feasible to solve the global warming problem before we pass tipping points that would guarantee disastrous irreversible climate change. But urgent strong actions are needed. The obvious conclusion is that the only practical way to avoid climate catastrophe is to terminate emissions from the largest fossil fuel source: coal, […]

The End of the Age of Oil: Will It Be a Soft or Hard Landing?

Forbes magazine writer Christopher Steiner has set up a useful heuristic device–the escalation of the price of oil in two-dollar increments, from $4 to $20–to speculate about the changes in our lifestyle we might see at each stage of the price increase. At $4, some of the tougher choices might still be unpalatable, but with […]

States awash in stimulus money to weatherize homes

MONTGOMERY, Ala. That is enough to weatherize 1 million homes, instead of the 140,000 normally done each year. President Barack Obama said pouring money into the program would lower utility bills for cash-strapped families, provide jobs for construction workers idled by the housing slump, and make the nation more energy-efficient. “You’re getting a three-fer,” Obama […]

US 'concerned' on China-Vietnam sea tensions

A US official voiced concern Wednesday about tensions between China and Vietnam over the resource-rich South China Sea and pledged to defend US oil companies operating in the region. But State Department official Scot Marciel said the United States would not take sides on the myriad island disputes involving China and its neighbors including Japan, […]

Our exploding population is the gravest threat Britain faces today

For most of my professional life, I have derided the population alarmists. Those who spent the past few decades warning that there were far too many people in Britain and the wider world had always struck me as shrill, their arguments flawed at best and downright racist at worst. Back in the Seventies, it was […]

Pemex spends 38% of budget in first half

Mexico’s state-run Pemex has spent 38% of its exploration and production budget during the first half of this year as the company struggles to reverse declining oil production. Pemex said today it had spent 88 billion pesos (US$6.4 billion) on oil and natural gas exploration, field development, infrastructure and maintenance throughout the country’s oil and […]

Energy Department signs off on Ill. FutureGen site

ST. LOUIS The department now can negotiate with FutureGen developers including a consortium of big energy and utility companies, moving toward construction of the plant that would burn coal for power but store

The World Food Crisis in Historical Perspective

The “world food crisis” of 2007-08 was the tip of an iceberg. Hunger and food crises are endemic to the modern world, and the eruption of a rapid increase in food prices provided a fresh window on this cultural fact. Much like Susan George’s well-known observation that famines represent the final stage in an extended […]

Classified Arctic Images Should Be Made Public To Help Climate Scientists

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of images derived from classified data that could be used to better understand rapid loss and transformation of Arctic sea ice should be immediately released and disseminated to the scientific research community, says a new report from the National Research Council. The committee that wrote the report emphasized that these Arctic images […]

Virtually Engineering Power Plants

Photovoltaic and wind energy plants, hydroelectric power stations and biogas plants supply energy without polluting the environment. However, they are complex to design and maintain. Virtual reality (VR) makes planning and operation easier. The design engineer This will get easier in the future. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF in […]

GE Announces Zero Energy House Project

GE says it’s possible to make houses that produce as much energy as they consume, and that the technology to do this will only add 10 percent to the price of the house. The statement came as part of a symposium on the smart grid held today at GE Global Research in Niskayuna, NY. The […]

A Costly and Unnecessary New Electricity Grid

A national interstate system for distributing power may prove an expensive boondoggle. Energy experts generally agree that the electrical grid in the United States needs to be upgraded if the country is to increase its use of renewable-energy sources like wind power and significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. But plans to string new high-voltage […]

Australian oil warning

Professor Laurie Sparke, a leading Australian automotive engineering expert, has warned of an energy crunch that could make the 1970s oil crises seem small-time. He says that in coming years Australia may not be able to buy oil, at any price. The solution he says is gas, and he’s making the case that all Australians […]

Bill McKibben – Environment: race against time

As Earth becomes hotter and public awareness rises, scientists have dismissed “out-of-date” prior predictions for climate change. Though last month’s G8 summit of the world’s most advanced nations addressed the issue and saw groundbreaking plans made, questions rise as to how long we have left. Former New Yorker writer Bill McKibben describes the difficulties of […]

Turbine rules may foil wind ventures

Dozens of projects, billions in investment at risk, energy group says A majority of “construction ready” wind projects in Ontario won’t go forward if the province passes regulations that keep wind turbines a minimum distance from residences, roads and railway lines, warns Canada’s wind energy association. Association president Robert Hornung, in a lengthy letter to […]

US, China Announce Clean Energy Research Center

BEIJING (AP) — The United States and China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters, announced plans for a joint clean energy research center Wednesday as the American commerce secretary appealed to Beijing to avoid imposing trade barriers on green technology. The research center is an effort at compromise between the two governments, which disagree on […]

Nigeria

(Bloomberg) — Nigeria MEND said the military had dispatched seven gun boats in the direction of one of its camps in the Delta region, home to Nigeria

A Son of Portland, Ore., Tries to Puncture the Myth of 'Smart Growth'

Randal O’Toole thinks riding the train damages the climate more than driving an SUV. And he thinks his numbers prove it. It’s just one of the nuggets that have made O’Toole a regular gadfly for the “smart growth” movement. When gas prices spiked last year, drivers flocked to mass transit, and urban planners took note. […]

Oil industry profits expected to fall sharply

Earnings could be off 50 percent over last year due to lower barrel prices HOUSTON – Big Oil is set for another big flop. For the second straight quarter, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and most of the world’s largest oil companies are poised to report quarterly earnings that pale in comparison to a year […]

Michael T. Klare: Will Iraq Be a Global Gas Pump?

Has it all come to this? The wars and invasions, the death and destruction, the exile and torture, the resistance and collapse? In a world of shrinking energy reserves, is Iraq finally fated to become what it was going to be anyway, even before the chaos and catastrophe set in: a giant gas pump for […]

Venezuela oil workers warned

Venezuela’s oil minister Rafael Ramirez threatened to oust oil-industry employees who refuse to support President Hugo Chavez, or who do not embrace his socialist plans. “No single PDVSA institution can do without a socialist [workers’] committee,” Ramirez said in a televised speech during a meeting with thousands of oil workers. The committees are expected to […]

Despair flows as fields go dry and unemployment rises

Reporting from Mendota, Calif. — Water built the semi-arid San Joaquin Valley into an agricultural powerhouse. Drought and irrigation battles now threaten to turn huge swaths of it into a dust bowl. Farmers have idled half a million acres of once-productive ground and are laying off legions of farmhands. That’s sending joblessness soaring in a […]

U.S. asks Supreme Court to hear oil royalty case

WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a legal decision between the Interior Department and Anadarko Petroleum Corp (APC.N) that, if allowed to stand, could cost the government billions of dollars in lost oil royalties from energy companies. Justice, on behalf of the Interior Department, is […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy