Shell takes to high seas to escape oil gloom

It was a week of unrelenting gloom for the oil industry. As one boss after another revealed unprecedented plunges in profits, tens of billions of dollars were wiped off company values. They warned of savage jobs cuts to come and none ventured a guess as to when the recession might end. All is not well […]

Hydrocarbons in Deep Earth?

Washington, DC Methane (CH4) is the main constituent of natural gas, while ethane (C2H6) is used as a petrochemical feedstock. Both of these hydrocarbons, and others associated with fuel, are called saturated hydrocarbons because they have simple, single bonds and are saturated with hydrogen. Using a diamond anvil cell and a laser heat source, the […]

Laser-Powered Lightcraft "At the Cusp of Commercial Reality"

Future business travelers may literally ride a laser to work. The U.S. and Brazilian Air Forces are experimenting with Lightcraft technology that could become part of your daily commute, using plain old air to fuel 45-minute transcontinental jaunts. The design uses a ground-based laser to beam the Lightcraft skyward on a series of blast waves. […]

Coal fires up India farmers against power plants

Rajni Ramakan Patil has a message for the energy companies that want to build coal-based power stations on the land that she and two generations of her family have farmed for more than 50 years. “Even if you give us gold, we won’t leave this place. This is our land,” she said.Rajni and five other […]

Political fracture over oil extraction affects Colorado

Fight over oil, gas extraction process of “fracking” moves to Congress On a December morning in 2007, the Bainbridge, Ohio, home of Thelma and Richard Payne was blasted off its foundations by a natural-gas explosion. The incident occurred not long after a natural-gas well was drilled and “hydrofractured” nearby. The case became a poster child […]

Arctic Tundra Hotter, Boosts Global Warming: Expert

Regions of Arctic tundra around the world are heating up very rapidly, releasing more greenhouse gases than predicted and boosting the process of global warming, a leading expert said on Wednesday. Professor Greg Henry of the University of British Columbia also said higher temperatures meant larger plants were starting to spread across the tundra, which […]

Ghana: Ghanaian Invents 'Electric Cream' for Energy

Mr Paul Karikari, 55, has invented an “Electric Cream” that generates intense heat of up to 100 degrees Celsius within four minutes, intended to solve the energy problems of the country. The electric cream, a greyish lotion-like stuff has aluminium, edible oil, caustic soda and water as its active ingredients.In an interview with the Ghana […]

Are wind farms a health risk?

Living too close to wind turbines can cause heart disease, tinnitus, vertigo, panic attacks, migraines and sleep deprivation, according to groundbreaking research to be published later this year by an American doctor. Dr Nina Pierpont, a leading New York paediatrician, has been studying the symptoms displayed by people living near wind turbines in the US, […]

New Yeasts Could Help Fast-Track Biofuel Production

A new yeast that makes ethanol from both five-carbon and six-carbon sugars without needing oxygen has been developed by an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist. This could be an important breakthrough in industrial ethanol production, because it’s difficult to control oxygen levels as yeasts ferment sugars into ethanol. The new yeast strain would help alleviate […]

GERMANY: Nuclear Power Fails, And Nobody Notices

Seven German nuclear plants have failed to generate any electricity this month due to technical breakdowns. They have about half the production capacity of Germany’s 17 nuclear reactors, but Germany did not suffer any power shortages. The plants have between them a 9,000 megawatt (MW) capacity, but Germany generates more electricity than it consumes, and […]

Nissan unveils the Leaf electric car

Nissan today unveiled its upcoming all-electric five-door hatchback that seems poised to rival the ever-popular Toyota Prius (read review) and the 2011 Chevrolet Volt in attracting the most eco-conscious car buyers. The new car, dubbed “Leaf,” is set to go on sale in the U.S. late next year with a battery range of 100 miles […]

Ukraine May Get $1.7 Billion From International Lenders for Gas

International lenders will consider offering Ukraine as much as $1.7 billion in loans to support its overhaul of the natural-gas industry and increase the security of gas supplies from Russia to the European U-nion. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank may give loans to the Ukrainian […]

Soviet-Era Uranium Waste Sites Now Threaten Central Asia

Storage sites for uranium tailings that were built in Soviet times in Tajikistan are now leaking radiation into the surrounding atmosphere and ground water supplies, undermining the health and well-being of the people of a republic and a broader region that lack the resources to clean up a problem that it did nothing to create. […]

Scientists claim planet is heading for 'irreversible' climate change

CARBON dioxide levels are rising at a faster rate than the worst-case scenario envisaged by United Nations experts, with the planet heading for “catastrophic” and “irreversible” climate change by 2040, a new report claims. In their paper, Brierley and Kingsford said that a carbon dioxide level of 450 ppm was the critical threshold beyond which […]

If Nuclear Power Has a More Promising Future …

The president of Northern Virginia-based Thorium Power Ltd. says he has a way to make nuclear energy safer, less expensive and more effective. So why isn’t he getting more reaction? In a drab Moscow building set amid acres of Cold War architecture, Seth Grae peers down through 30 feet of water into IR-8, an old […]

Popularity, Web snafus nearly broke 'clunkers'

This was one government stimulus plan that yielded quick results. Maybe too quick. Far more drivers signed up for the “cash for clunkers” program than anyone thought, overwhelming showrooms, blowing through the initial $1 billion set aside by Congress and leaving dealers panicked over when or if the government would make good on the hefty […]

U.S. ready to issue grants for renewable energy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government on Friday said it is now accepting applications for some $3 billion in government grants to boost development of renewable energy projects around the country. The money, from the economic stimulus package, will provide direct payments to companies in lieu of tax credits to support an estimated 5,000 biomass, […]

Bewildered, big oil wants fruitful next Iraq round

DUBAI (Reuters) – Deal-makers from the world’s biggest energy firms will demand more from Iraq’s second oil deal bid round since the U.S.-led invasion after many walked away bewildered and empty handed from the first round last month. Iraq is offering ten oil and gas fields at auction in late November, another chance for international […]

U.S. petroleum growth to be uneven in better economy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fuel demand growth will be uneven as the U.S. economy recovers, with immediate strength in diesel usage from more business activity than gasoline demand, as the hard-hit American consumer will be slower to get back behind the wheel. The Energy Department’s latest forecast predicts that the U.S. economy started growing this month […]

Chevron puts land-based natural gas drilling on hold

NEW YORK With natural gas plunging to about a quarter of its value last year, “it really doesn’t make sense right now to be drilling those gas wells,” he said. Chevron, which operates one of the two refineries in Hawaii, said its net income amounted to $1.75 billion, or 87 cents a share, for the […]

US Dept of Defense – Navy Task Force Assesses Changing Climate

Rapidly diminishing sea ice, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, increased storm severity — all are possible consequences of a climate that mounting evidence suggests is changing significantly. As the scientific community works to understand the changing climate, the chief of naval operations has created a task force, headed by Rear Adm. David Titley, the Navy’s […]

Family planning a major environmental impact

CORVALLIS, Ore. The research also makes it clear that potential carbon impacts vary dramatically across countries. The average long-term carbon impact of a child born in the U.S.

Corporate Lobbyist Dick Armey: God Wouldn

Corporate Lobbyist and global warming denier Dick Armey, presented quite a novel argument against global warming on Thursday, while appearing on Capitol Hill to testify before a Republican hearing on climate change legislation. Armey suggested that global warming doesn Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), has long been a supporter of corporate polluters and […]

Climate-Derived Tensions in Arctic Security Sandia Report 1

With its mission of national security, research at Sandia National Laboratories is evaluating the impact of climate change within the Arctic. A sister study addresses the physical impacts of uncertainty on the timing and extent of climate change on Arctic security priorities.6 This report presents the implications for the underlying drivers of security within the […]

Sandia Arctic Climate and National Security Report 2

The Arctic as a Test Case for an Assessment of Climate Impacts on National Security The Arctic region is rapidly changing in a way that will affect the rest of the world. Parts of Alaska, western Canada, and Siberia are currently warming at twice the global rate. This warming trend is accelerating permafrost deterioration, coastal […]

The two blows that killed the industry

Once-promising sector never lived up to its promise No industry in history has held more promise, been more welcomed, received more favours and failed more spectacularly than the commercial nuclear power industry. When U. S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower launched a civilian nuclear program in the early 1950s, it was to universal acclaim. Not only […]

Six Crises, 2009: A Half-Dozen Ways Geopolitics Could Upset Global Recovery

…The CIA Meanwhile, Mexico ranks with Saudi Arabia and Canada as the three suppliers of oil the United States could not do without. Should things come unglued there and Pemex production shut down even temporarily, the shock on oil markets could be profound, again, sending its waves throughout the global economy. Long-term, PEMEX production has […]

The Smart Grid in 2010: Market Segments, Applications and Industry Players

A confluence of concerns including national energy security, climate change and grid reliability has ushered in a period of rapid investment and increased political will to develop and deploy Smart Grid technologies around the globe. The race to be the solution provider for one of the multitude of challenges/opportunities – from advanced metering, demand response, […]

Proof Positive Peak Oil is Here

While being a bull on the oil market has been tough for much of the last year, I maintain that we are in a secular bull market in oil due in large part to one of the most significant economic events of the 21st century Peak oil would be irrelevant if not for our continued […]

Alcoa Razes Rain Forest in Court Case Led by Brazil Prosecutors

(Bloomberg) — For four decades, Edimar Bentes and his family have survived by farming tiny clearings in the jungle near their dirt-floor shack in the state of Para in the Brazilian Amazon. On this April afternoon, Bentes, 56, squats in the driving rain and dips a glass into what just four years ago was a […]

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