OPINION: The New Case for Natural Gas

The need to dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions while enhancing energy security and providing economical energy services is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. Achieving these goals will require a transformation of the global energy economy and must be based on a robust combination of resources and technologies. Natural gas has recently […]

Unusual Arctic Warmth, Tropical Wetness Likely Cause for Methane Increase

Unusually high temperatures in the Arctic and heavy rains in the tropics likely drove a global increase in atmospheric methane in 2007 and 2008 after a decade of near-zero growth, according to a new study. Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, albeit a distant second. NOAA scientists and their colleagues […]

Precious Metal

Battery-powered electric vehicles may be heralded as the next big thing, but will lithium reserves that are already being devoured by consumer electronics be enough meet future demand? Forget peak oil, could the next burning issue be peak lithium? If the hype surrounding electric vehicles (EVs) turns into reality then huge quantities of this element […]

Cabot Oil ordered to shut fracturing ops in Penn.

(Reuters) – Pennsylvania regulators said they ordered Cabot Oil & Gas Corp to stop all hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations in Susquehanna County until it completed a number of important engineering and safety tasks. Cabot voluntarily shut down fracking operations at the Heitsman well in Dimock Township on Tuesday afternoon, following three separate spills in less […]

EU: carbon policy could leave UK in the dark

Britain’s old coal-fired power plants have only six more years to live at the most. Their death sentence has been passed by the European Union, which decreed that the most polluting stations must be retired after a fixed number of hours. But experts predict that the phasing out of these reliable but dirty old beasts […]

Nuclear Loan Guarantees Should Be Doubled -US Energy Secretary

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Federal loan guarantees for new nuclear power plant construction should be at least doubled to allow construction of four to five additional plants, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said late Thursday. If Congress were to approve this, companies such as Duke Energy Corp. (DUK) and Progress Energy Inc. (PGN) could be among […]

Behind the Furor Over a Climate Change Skeptic

WASHINGTON But a closer look at his case and a broader set of internal E.P.A. documents obtained by The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act paint a more complicated picture. It is true that Dr. Carlin

Peak Oil Not a Problem According to NY Times; Scientific American

Our Response on the Financial Aspects Recently, we have had two new articles aiming to put to rest people’s fears about peak oil. One is from the New York Times, the other is from the October Scientific American. In this post, we will look a little more at these articles, and see why peak oil, […]

China to rely on coal 'for long time': Beijing official

BEIJING (AFP) China, which according to several groups of scientists is the world’s worst emitter of greenhouse gases, relies on coal for nearly 70 percent of its energy needs. In a speech at the United Nations this week, President Hu Jintao pledged to reduce the carbon intensity of China’s economy by a “notable margin” by […]

$20 Per Gallon: Change Before Crisis Hits

Part 3: Waiting Until You’re In The Crisis Christopher Steiner, author of $20 PER GALLON, paints a sobering picture for our civilization. He’s not alone. You may view this 86 minute compelling film “Blind Spot” by Adolpho Doring and Amanda Zackem: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/blind_spot I couldn’t take my eyes off the movie as I watched it three […]

Mirkarimi Predicts Mad Max Style Future In Peak Oil Hearing

A San Francisco Board of Supervisors committee today took up the subject of dwindling worldwide oil and natural gas supplies, and what San Francisco can do to prepare for a radical shift in its energy procurement and use. The Government Audit and Oversight Committee heard from the authors of a city-commissioned report on “peak oil,” […]

Russian Oil and Gas Industry Surprises Analysts

Russia is the biggest oil producer in the world, but the Russian domestic market is not as big as the oil production. Russia’s consumption of hydrocarbons is only about 25% of the domestic oil production, so Russia exports the majority of oil it produces and whatever it refines. I think the biggest issue that concerns […]

Arctic Oil Tempts Norway to Seek Drilling at

(Bloomberg) — Norway started a push to explore for oil and natural gas in more remote regions like its Arctic volcanic island of Jan Mayen, as the country seeks to reverse almost a decade of dwindling North Sea output. Diminishing access to traditional reserves is prompting countries to turn to unconventional sources such as oil […]

'Super-typhoons' forecast for second half of century

The effects of global warming will spawn “super-typhoons” packing winds of up to 288 kph in the second half of this century, causing unprecedented damage to Japan’s coastlines, researchers warned. “If a super-typhoon lands on Japan, the high tides could bring about more serious damage than that in the Isewan Typhoon,” said Kazuhisa Tsuboki, associate […]

Kunstler: Author speaks of future oil, environmental, economic crises

The kind of society Americans know and support cannot continue, said James Howard Kunstler, author of “The Long Emergency”, a book about the issues future generations will face regarding the oil crisis, global warming and living in suburbia. Kunstler spoke on Tuesday in Lewis Lab. America does not know how to pay back its debt, […]

China, South Korea Lead In Green Stimulus Investment

South Korea and China lead the world’s 20 largest economies in the percentage of economic stimulus money they invest in environmental projects, the U.N. Environment Program reported on Thursday. Other members of the Group of 20 leading economic powers, including the United States, trail behind in percentage of green investment from stimulus money, the agency […]

CLIMATE CHANGE: Time Running Out on Vows to Act, Scientists Warn

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sep 24 (IPS) – Promises are easy to make. But promises by world leaders will not halt the heat-trapping carbon emissions that are dialing-up global temperatures and altering the climate, say critics and climate researchers meeting in this U.S. Midwestern city. As evidenced at the U.N. leader’s summit on climate change in New […]

'Capturing carbon from air only way to save earth'

Capturing carbon directly from the air is the only way to prevent dangerous climate changes, says a pioneering Canadian scientist. University of Calgary scientist David Keith says governments need to earmark more research funding for technologies to capture carbon dioxide in surrounding air to save the planet. Keith has successfully tested an air capture technology […]

Hatoyama sets global marker

The Nikkei Ecolomy, an ecology-oriented publication of Japan’s business daily, the Nikkei, on September 17 carried an article, “A 25% Cut is Both Possible and Desirable”, by Iida Tetsunari, head of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies in Tokyo. His role is almost certain to be enhanced by Japan’s recent “regime change” election, since the […]

Russia plays pipeline politics

While the United States is engrossed in Iraq and Afghanistan – even planning a troop surge in the latter – a new and bigger strategic risk looms in a much more sensitive area – Europe and Russia. The challenge is about energy and influence in the “old continent”, still the richest industrial area in the […]

Recession slows U.S. wind power growth rate

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The United States will add 6,000 megawatts in wind power this year, down nearly 30 percent from last year as the credit crisis slowed expansion of the renewable energy source, an industry group said on Thursday. Wind power has been one of the fastest growing sources of power generation, and the […]

Crude oil: A slippery commodity to deal with

The swings in the price of crude from one week to the next are not deterring punters from betting that it will rise higher than its current range of $60 to $70 per barrel in the coming weeks. After indices and commodities, oil is still the third most popular trade at spread betting firms and […]

The unkindest flush

Soft toilet paper’s hard on the Earth, but will we sit for the alternative? It is a fight over toilet paper: the kind that is blanket-fluffy and getting fluffier so fast that manufacturers are running out of synonyms for “soft” (Quilted Northern Ultra Plush is the first big brand to go three-ply and three-adjective). It’s […]

Swallowing Eco-Hype

Being a ‘locavore’ is supposed to be healthier for you and better for the planet, right? Maybe not. Among foodies, there are certain green truths that are self-evident: fruits and vegetables grown within 100 miles of your home means you’re eating fresher, better-tasting foods that help to enhance the social and physical health of your […]

Carbon Nanotubes Are Super Fertilizer

Tomato plants exposed to nanotubes grow bigger and faster, but safety concerns remain. Researchers at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Nanotechnology Center have found that exposing tomato seeds to carbon nanotubes makes tomato plants sprout earlier and grow more quickly. They write in the journal ACS Nano that these results, though preliminary, suggest […]

China starts building next phase of oil reserve

BEIJING (Reuters) – China has started building 5.4 million cubic metres of oil tanks at Dushanzi in Xinjiang in its far west as part of the second phase of strategic oil reserves, official Xinhua News agency reported on Thursday. The project will cost 2.65 billion yuan ($390 million) and will start with a first phase […]

The Northeast Passage could enable Russia to blackmail Europe

If climate change can have a silver lining, then some optimists might argue that it probably lies in the Northeast Passage. Last week two German cargo ships sailed part of its course, making their way along Russia’s Arctic coast from South Korea to Siberia, passing through the Bering Strait, with an ease that would have […]

Kurt Cobb: Oil Optimists Grow More Outlandish

As the troubling realities of future oil supplies begin to penetrate official circles, the oil optimists are making even more outlandish claims. Last month the pugnacious Michael Lynch, an independent energy analyst and perpetual oil supply optimist, told the readers of The New York Times that the world’s total endowment of oil is actually around […]

Scientists: Planet to Warm by More Than 7 Degrees This Century

Climate researchers now predict the planet will warm by more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century even if the world’s leaders fulfill their most ambitious climate pledges, a faster and broader scale of climate change than forecast just two years ago, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations […]

Climate change may trigger earthquakes and volcanoes

FAR from being the benign figure of mythology, Mother Earth is short-tempered and volatile. So sensitive in fact, that even slight changes in weather and climate can rip the planet’s crust apart, unleashing the furious might of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and landslides. That’s the conclusion of the researchers who got together last week in London […]

« 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