Health care, peak oil and climate change are linked

Municipalities are increasingly implicated in the health of their residents. Recently, the mayor of Bas-Caraquet even gave up her office so that a clinic could expand and offer space to a new doctor. While this is an example that speaks directly to the needs of rural communities, municipalities will also be involved in health care […]

No confusion on where oil price is headed

Anyone paying attention to the noisy talking heads who populate TV biz panels is bound to come away deeply confused when the subject turns to oil prices. We keep hearing that demand is essentially flat in the developing world and shrinking everywhere else. Production isn’t moving much in any direction and inventories are piling up […]

Russia seals Cuba deal over Gulf of Mexico oil

HAVANA – Russia and Cuba signed agreements to search for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, and Moscow extended the island $150 million in credit for construction materials and farm machinery, state media said Wednesday. The credit will give Cuba more time to pay for Russian equipment shipped to areas most affected by three hurricanes […]

Energy efficiency could save U.S. $600 billion

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States could save about $600 billion in energy costs by 2020 if it hiked annual efficiency spending about five-fold, business consultants McKinsey and Co said in a report on Wednesday. Governments, businesses and the general public would have to boost annual spending on existing energy-saving measures, like insulating walls and […]

Space-Based Solar Power Beams Become Next Energy Frontier

A Pentagon report released in October could mean the stars are finally aligning for space-based solar power, or SBSP. According to the report, SBSP is becoming more feasible, and eventually could help head off crises such as climate change and wars over diminishing energy supplies. “The challenge is one of perception,” says John Mankins, president […]

Sub-Arctic timebomb: warming speeds CO2 release from soil

Climate change is speeding up the release of carbon dioxide from frigid peatlands in the sub-Arctic, fuelling a vicious circle of global warming, according to a study to be published Thursday. An increase of just 1.0 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) over current average temperatures would more than double the CO2 escaping from the peatlands. […]

Saudi Aramco's 'Smart Water' May Aid Oil Production

To capitalize on the existing water-injection facilities, a new “Smart Water” focus area was launched at the EXPEC Advanced Research Center (EXPEC ARC). At the heart of the initiative is the question: Is it possible to perform minimal chemical alteration to the injection water to help increase recovery while relying on the existing vast water-injection […]

New technology aimed at increasing oil production

HOUSTON If oil companies could recover 50 percent of the crude in their fields instead of 35 percent, it would double the world’s proven reserves of about 1.2 trillion barrels, the IEA says. Though it could take a couple of decades to reach 50 percent, even a modest increase in the amount of oil recovered […]

Fertile Crescent 'will disappear this century'

Is it the final curtain for the Fertile Crescent? This summer, as Turkish dams reduce the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to a trickle, farmers abandon their desiccated fields across Iraq and Syria, and efforts to revive the Mesopotamian marshes appear to be abandoned, climate modellers are warning that the current drought is likely to become […]

Humans 'damaging the oceans'

Mounting evidence that human activity is changing the world …

EEStor Founder Dick Weir Confirms ESUs

An extensive audio interview with the normally silent Dick Weir, founder of EEStor, has been leaked to the web. The 38 minute interview with an unknown interviewer took place in last month, and his identity has been confirmed by anonymous sources. This is the first time in history we are give such extensive public details […]

University has grand designs to build a house of straw

Could straw houses be the buildings of the future? That Straw is the ultimate environmentally-friendly building material since it is renewable and is a by-product of farming. The crop used for the straw can be grown locally, and because it absorbs carbon dioxide as it grows, buildings made from it can be seen as having […]

Were they really predicting an ice age in the 1970s?

One common trope among climate change deniers is to point out that, in the 1970s, everyone was a panic about global cooling, even to the point of predicting an imminent ice age. If they were so spectacularly wrong back then, the argument goes, why should we be listening to them today? The argument rests on […]

Game Changing Battery Technology: Is it Here Now?

Nearly every oil observer – Simmons, Maxwell, Jeff Rubin, many others, and least of all myself – see oil prices rising in 2 – 5 years, probably to new heights, if the global economy continues to recover. That This vision of oil supply tightness is not a happy economic scenario. Very high oil prices would […]

Offshore wind finance: 3 for 3

It’s the biggest offshore wind farm to be project-financed, it’s the first to be financed that way since the credit crisis (and the third only altogether), and it’s the first time the European Investment Bank (a multilateral financial institution, and the EU’s official tool to finance large projects in and around the zone) is involved […]

Learning from Past Civilizations

While the economy is growing exponentially, the earth In our modern high-tech civilization, it is easy to forget that the economy, indeed our existence, is wholly dependent on the earth

U.S. wind power installation slows

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New installments of U.S. wind energy in the second quarter of this year fell by more than half from the first quarter as the recession helped cut contracts for new turbines, an industry group said. New installations totaled about 1,210 megawatts in the second quarter compared with about 2,790 MW in the […]

Study: Financing

The demand for solar power in the United States, while growing, still lags smaller countries like Germany and Spain, said a new report from Pike Research of Boulder, Colo. And while government subsidies for solar projects are increasing, The report predicts that the U.S. market for solar-generated power will surpass Spain

Corn as Biomass Electricity 22x More Efficient Than Ethanol

Cheap fossil fuel has allowed us to waste the majority of our energy, filling the planet with pollution and waste heat. Our car engines are only 25% efficient and coal power plants are not much better. Corn ethanol is one of the worst wastes of biomass: An acre of corn produces about 330 gallons/year if […]

National Academies: U.S. energy at a crossroads

If changing the U.S. energy supply to be more secure and sustainable is like steering a massive ship, then the direction we set it on today won’t be fully felt for 10 or 20 years. The National Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, on Monday released a report […]

FACTBOX-Oil production cost estimates by country

July 28 (Reuters) – The cost of pumping a barrel of oil out of the ground depends on a variety of factors, including the size and accesibility of the field. Oil companies are often reluctant to give precise cost information. The following provides estimates of the cost of running a field for OPEC members and […]

Electric vehicle pioneer hits more bumps

Legal battle pits former and current chief executives of Tesla Motors SAN CARLOS, California – There was a time not long ago when claiming paternity of electric car maker Tesla Motors was more of an admission than a boast. Plagued by production delays, management missteps and the worsening economy, the company laid off 10 percent […]

Iraq cabinet approves bill on national oil company

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s cabinet approved a draft law establishing a National Oil Company, the government spokesman said on Wednesday, but added the company could not be set up without passage of a package of delayed energy laws. “This law is connected to the oil and gas law, they’re all one package … It’s a […]

IEA says oil price has hit floor between $50-$60

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Volatile oil prices have reached a floor of between $50-$60 and OPEC is unlikely to announce major cuts in September, a senior IEA oil analyst said on Wednesday. Oil slid below $67 a barrel on Wednesday, extending losses from the more than $1 retreat the day before, on renewed concerns over […]

Anil Ambani- RNRL : Obsession with gas price

India – Commodities bring us into a special relationship with time. With the passage of time, the price of commodities changes to match demand and supply of commodities. For instance, in India Under the prevailing situation, let

Greenpeace report reckons we’ve hit peak oil (sort of)

If, in the runup to Copenhagen, you have a sneaking suspicion that world leaders might still be more attached to the realpolitik of energy than the green-tinged adoption of strong climate policy, a new report from Greenpeace, Platform and Oil Change International may provide a glimmer of hope. The suspicion is that whatever grand statements […]

Nissan shows off its electric car

Company vows to be ‘leader in zero-emission vehicles’ YOKOSUKA, Japan – Nissan Motor Co. showed off its super-quiet, zero-emission electric car Monday “Nissan will be a leader in zero-emission vehicles,” Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said ahead of a test-drive event at the automaker’s facility in this Tokyo suburb. “EV is the answer.” MSNBC

Green technology stifled by funding woes: experts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – American innovation needed to reduce the greenhouse gases that cause climate change could be squelched if the government drags its heels in providing incentives and funding for developers, company executives told lawmakers on Tuesday. Officials of companies involved in solar and carbon capture technologies told the House Select Committee on Energy Independence […]

Oil service firms struggle to shake off U.S. slump

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A flattened U.S. drilling market is weighing down earnings for oilfield services companies and clouding their outlook as they seek to recover from a dramatic decline in demand during the past 12 months. A plunge in oil and gas prices from record highs last July has forced exploration companies to slow […]

Dozens More Than A Quarter Past Peak Oil

The number of nations well past Peak Oil is surprisingly long. As time passes, all of them can expect more dry holes, reliance on expensive extraction techniques, cries of “Drill Baby Drill” (in new languages), messier extraction & refining processes (think Alberta Tar Sands), and, oh yeah, seriously higher prices at the pump. Oil Drum […]

« 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