Economic growth

…The trajectory of the US economic growth path ranges from the early pioneers who went west to raise cattle, plant grain etc., to the innovators who now inhabit the likes of Silicon Valley. This trajectory we see being repeated in South Korea, China, India, Singapore, Brazil. The further uncertainty challenge that faces us is that […]

Visualizing The U.S. Electric Grid

The U.S. electric grid is a complex network of independently owned and operated power plants and transmission lines. Aging infrastructure, combined with a rise in domestic electricity consumption, has forced experts to critically examine the status and health of the nation’s electrical systems. NPR (Flash)

Shiite rebellion in Yemen raises concerns in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is concerned by the Shiite rebellion taking place just over the border in Yemen, prompting security officials from both countries to consult on the sudden flare-up in violence, Saudi officials said Tuesday. Saudi Arabia, a staunchly Sunni country with the world Because of the sensitivity of the issue, Saudi officials have been reluctant […]

Ford plans vehicles to interact with power grids

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday its future electric cars will “talk” to power grids across the country, part of an effort to drive interest in alternative energy vehicles. The nation’s second-largest automaker released details of a two-year collaboration with about a dozen utility companies as well as the Department of Energy […]

The Most Important Aspect that most Economists and Analysts fail to Recognize

Some Basic EROI ratios 1) Hunter Gatherer = 10:1 2) Farmer, Horse & Plow & Pre Industrial transportation= 10-20: 1 3) High Tech Farmer & Modern Distribution-Transportation = 1:16 If you look at the ratios you will realize that men gathering and harvesting food in the good ole days were much more productive than the […]

Russia Oil Output Rising But Decline May Follow

MOSCOW (Dow Jones) But this may prove unsustainable, with a steep drop in drilling this year pointing to lower production ahead, industry observers say. Dwindling output in Russia, which pumps around 20% of non-OPEC oil supply, could buoy global prices.

Falling oil revenue pushing Mexico to raise taxes

The Mexican government said Tuesday its 2010 budget will include new taxes to compensate for a decline in oil revenues that is expected to leave a $23 billion hole in the public finances. “The future caught up with us. We have always had in mind the possibility that oil revenues were going to become exhausted, […]

Coming Soon: $2 a Gallon Diesel From Algae?

Rapidly growing algae and streamlined processes could mean $2 diesel by 2011 or 2012. But hurdles await. Aurora Biofuels says it has a species of algae that breeds like a rabbit. The Alameda, Calif.-based company has identified and optimized a genetic pathway in a species of wild algae that effectively turbocharges the growth and breeding […]

USMC Energy Summit Office of Naval Research Presentation

Presentation at the USMC Energy Summit August 13, 2009 Wash, D.C. on new technologies in the pipeline The Office of Naval Research is investing in a wide range of technologies across the full range of USMC Power and Energy needs of the future, and leveraging the Science & Technology of other organizations wherever feasible in […]

Department of Defense Goes Green

WASHINGTON – Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James T. Conway along with the honorable Raymond E. Mabus, Secretary of the Navy, hosted and headlined a one-day Energy Summit at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Washington, August 13. Many other stories about how the military is going green. DefenseLink.mil

Oil insecurity

BAGHDAD Parliament recessed last month until after Ramadan ends mid-September without passing a U.S.-like security deal with Britain, forcing all its troops out of the country by July 31. Both the Oil Ministry and key Parliamentarians expressed concern the Iraqi Navy isn

Extinction hits 'whole families'

Whole “chunks of life” are lost in extinction events, as related species vanish together, say scientists. A study in the journal Science shows that extinctions tend to “cluster” on evolutionary lineages – wiping out species with a common ancestor. The finding is based on an examination of past extinctions, but could help current conservation efforts. […]

Scrubbing sulfur

RICHLAND, Wash. Harmful gases such as carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide are called “acid gases”. The new scrubbing process uses acid gas-binding organic liquids that contain no water and appear similar to oily compounds. These liquids capture the acid gases near room temperature. Scientists then heat the liquid to recover and dispose of the acid […]

Garrett concedes: extinction inevitable

THE Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, has warned that money to save endangered wildlife is limited and some species may have to be abandoned when funding decisions are made. In one of the strongest speeches of his ministerial career he told an international conference of ecologists in Brisbane that the Government will shift its focus to […]

Sea Power, Part 2

In theory, ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) could meet all of today’s electricity needs. But does the world need OTEC? Solar and wind energy have long track records and are already fast-growing industries. However, as OTEC supporters are quick to point out, those sources have a major limitation: so far, there’s no easy or cheap […]

MIT study: Heavier rainstorms ahead

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Heavier rainstorms lie in our future. That’s the clear conclusion of a new MIT and Caltech study on the impact that global climate change will have on precipitation patterns. But the increase in extreme downpours is not uniformly spread around the world, the analysis shows. While the pattern is clear and consistent […]

Coordination needed to support green-fingered youths

The project, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), found that many young volunteers travelled long distances from cities to short-term projects in rural areas and felt they were being punished for being disruptive or naughty at school. They saw the conservation work as having no relevance to their future employment, […]

They're alive!! Megacities breathe, consume energy, excrete wastes and poll

WASHINGTON Charles Kolb, Ph.D., reports that the concept of urban metabolism has existed for decades. It views large cities as living entities that consume energy, food, water, and other raw materials, and release wastes. The releases include carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas; air pollutants, sewage and other water pollutants; and even excess heat that […]

Protesters Descend on Chevron's Richmond Refinery For Climate Justice

Richmond, CA

Methane seeps from Arctic sea bed

Scientists say they have evidence that the powerful greenhouse gas methane is escaping from the Arctic sea bed. Researchers say this could be evidence of a predicted positive feedback effect of climate change. As temperatures rise, the sea bed grows warmer and frozen water crystals in the sediment break down, allowing methane trapped inside them […]

Producer prices fall almost 1%

PPI falls 0.9% in July – a record annual decline – as prices at the pump sank. WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. producer prices fell by a larger-than expected amount in July and notched a record decline compared with a year earlier as gasoline prices plummeted, government data Tuesday showed. The Labor Department said the seasonally […]

Lessons Learned from 2008

The year 2008 may go down in history as the year of many lessons learned but soon forgotten. For the oil industry, it is important to reflect on what in fact those main lessons were and what their relevance is to the future. One answer should not surprise most oil professionals. The industry discovered that […]

Political turmoil slows big oil moves in Iran

DUBAI (Reuters) – Political upheaval in the aftermath of Iran’s disputed presidential election has slowed international oil firms’ efforts to find a way through sanctions to invest in the world’s second-largest oil and gas reserves. Just a few months ago, overtures to Tehran from the United States under President Barack Obama had the world’s most […]

Farmers kidnap 13 cops, 4 civilians in Peru

LIMA, Peru …Enersur, a French-Belgian company that operates the power station, said the dam’s electricity output was under 40 percent of normal because of damage inflicted by the farmers. It said a control room was destroyed a floodgate damaged. AP

Is there any point in fighting to stave off industrial apocalypse?

An exchange of letters: The collapse of civilisation will bring us a saner world, says Paul Kingsnorth. No, counters George Monbiot – we can’t let billions perish. Dear George On the desk in front of me is a set of graphs. The horizontal axis of each represents the years 1750 to 2000. The graphs show, […]

Uncounted For Source Of Greenhouse Gas Could Promote Global Warming

Scientists at the University of Calgary have found that methane emission by plants could be a bigger problem in global warming than previously thought. A U of C study says that when crops are exposed to environmental factors that are part of climate change — increased temperature, drought and ultraviolet-B radiation — some plants show […]

Uganda: Karuma Heralds Era of Abundant Power

The 700 Megawatt Karuma hydropower project kicks off this week after the successful selection of a consultancy firm to carry out feasibility studies. And in more good news, the Standard Bank Group and Canada-based Lonsdale have expressed an interest in joining a public-private partnership to bring the project online.The 250 MW Bujagali hydroelectric project is […]

BP, Iraq officials meet over Rumaila oil deal

A technical team from oil major BP has met Iraqi oil engineers as part of preparations to sign a deal to develop Iraq’s giant Rumaila field, senior Iraqi oil officials said on Monday. Dhiya Jaafar, acting chief of Iraq’s South Oil Co., said there were still some “technical issues” that needed to be resolved before […]

Brazil Seeks More Control of Oil Beneath Its Seas

Faced with the world’s most important oil discovery in years, the Brazilian government is seeking to step back from more than a decade of close cooperation with foreign oil companies and more directly control the extraction itself. The move is part of a nationalistic drive to increase the country’s benefits from its natural resources and […]

Australia targets 20 pct renewable energy by 2020

Australia’s government will ask the Senate Tuesday to approve plans to produce 20 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020 after the house rejected a proposed carbon trading scheme. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s centre-left Labor government passed the ambitious proposal to use green power to generate a fifth of the country’s electricity in parliament’s […]

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