US coal peak production: Point and counterpoint

A timely debate on “United States Coal Peak Production” will enliven the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Portland, Oregon, today. Highly regarded experts David B. Rutledge of the California Institute of Technology and Robert C. Milici from the U.S. Geological Survey will be keynote speakers presenting opposing views. Coal peak production […]

Looming oil supply crunch threatens climate and global stability

There is an imminent oil supply crunch that governments have failed to acknowledge or act upon, the impacts of which will be felt throughout every aspect of modern society which is heavily reliant on oil, according to a new report published by campaign group Global Witness today. Governments have not taken on board the four […]

Transcript: Energy, Security & The Long War of the 21st Century

The series is sponsored by the Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD/AT&L), Ken Krieg, and by the Office of Force Transformation under its acting director, Terry Pudas. Keynote remarks by Jim Woolsey on the current situation …Oil stands out. There

PetroChina adds 1.5m cu m of oil storage capacity

China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the country’s leading oil and gas producer, added 1.5 million cu m of oil storage capacity in the first three quarters of this year, the company said yesterday. CNPC had also completed early-stage works for 24 oil storing projects from January to September, the company said in a statement on […]

UK: Key report aims to tackle global peak oil crisis

The Bristol Partnership and Bristol City Council have welcomed the report of the Peak Oil Study, presented at the Partnership board meeting on Thursday 15th October. The study was commissioned by the Bristol Partnership and the city council to consider the implications for Bristol once global oil production has peaked and production is in decline. […]

Greer: The Ecotechnic Future (book excerpt)

…From the standpoint of the far future, in fact, modern industrialism may turn out to be a primitive and vastly inefficient form of the technic society. Like other human ecologies, the technic society can be defined by its energy sources. A hunter-gatherer society uses energy in the form of food, firewood and raw materials taken […]

Byron King: Can the Oil Market Keep Up With Oil Prices

It might be a comforting thought to believe that world oil output can increase. Indeed, many policymakers in the U.S. and Europe apparently dream themselves to sleep at night pondering how the current oil volume of about 85 million barrels per day could move upward to, say, 95 million barrels per day But much of […]

The GOOD 100: The Oil Drum

We’re running out of oil, but search for the phrase “peak oil” on the websites of 31 major U.S. newspapers, and you’ll get a mere 941 hits, total. That’s the kind of thing the Oil Drum would like to address. The online think tank, launched in 2005, is filling that void with grounded writing on […]

Nuclear Power Renaissance?

The nuclear industry faces tremendous risks, though their nature has changed since 1979. As the possibility of an accident that panics or injures the neighbors has diminished, the likelihood has grown that even a properly functioning new reactor will be unable to pay for itself. And changes in the utility industry since 1979 mean that […]

Considering Thorium as an Alternative Fuel for Nuclear Energy

PARIS The United States is estimated to have 400,000 tons of thorium, Turkey 344,000 tons and India 319,000 tons, according to a 2008 joint report by the Nuclear Energy Agency, a body linked to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the International Atomic Energy Agency. There are no commercial thorium reactors in operation. […]

The Oceans are Coming

By Keith Farnish and Dmitry Orlov …And what of that lodestone, global sea level? This happens to be a very interesting question, because ocean levels are set to rise dramatically. According to UCLA scientists, the last time carbon dioxide levels were as high as they are today was 15 million years ago. At that time, […]

Five Technologies That Could Change Everything

It’s a tall order: Over the next few decades, the world will need to wean itself from dependence on fossil fuels and drastically reduce greenhouse gases. Current technology will take us only so far; major breakthroughs are required. What might those breakthroughs be? Here’s a look at five technologies that, if successful, could radically change […]

A tale of how it turned out right

Western governments, including the UK’s, are desperate to restore the global economy along “business as usual” lines. But, argues Andrew Simms, that is a short-sighted approach; a radical, green-tinged redevelopment would bring much bigger environmental, social and economic benefits. If someone offered you a plan that would get rich countries on to a radical path […]

Fuel-Thirsty U.S. Navy Pledges 50% Cut in Oil Use by 2020, and More

The United States Navy is taking a big leap forward in “greening” its 50,000-strong, gas-guzzling fleet of vehicles, committing to a 50 percent cut in oil use by 2015, the Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus declared in a speech at the Naval Energy Forum. That’s not all. Mabus said the Navy will attempt to […]

EU officials warn of disappearing cod

BRUSSELS The European Commission said recent studies showed cod catches in some areas are far outstripping the rate of reproduction. It is calling for up to 25 percent cuts in some areas. “We are not that far away from a situation of complete collapse,” said Jose Rodriguez, a marine biologist with the environmental group Oceana. […]

Some State Senators Ready to Take on Oil Lobby

TALLAHASSEE | The aggressive push for oil drilling off Florida’s shores is backed by a coalition of powerful, well-financed business interests who are determined to succeed where they failed before: the state Senate. But even as proponents insist they’ll corral the votes they need, Senate skeptics are multiplying – including the chamber’s presiding officer and […]

The Dilemma of Aging Nuclear Plants

PARIS A large part of the world

Obama May Go to Copenhagen as Polluters Narrow Gaps

(Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama may attend the December climate summit in Copenhagen aimed at forging a new treaty to reduce greenhouse-gas pollution, U.S. envoy Todd Stern said today in London. Stern made the remarks at the Major Economies Forum meeting after U.K. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said the world

Oil prices hit high but report warns of supply crunch

Analysts have been surprised at the recent resilience of oil prices given the impact on energy demand of the global recession. In spite of this year’s volatility in the oil price, the underlying trend for a decade has been for it to rise steadily. A report from the non-governmental organisation Global Witness – famous for […]

Reflections from Colin Campbell on Peak Oil and ASPO

Question: Please reflect on the evolution of ASPO and your evolution of peak oil thinking. Maybe you can start by touching on your studies while in the industry. Campbell: My interest in peak oil goes back a long time. Of course it was not initially identified as peak oil. I was asked by the company […]

Act now if you don

The big energy companies are ready to change. But we We need a more diverse energy mix

Profile of an Oil Producer: Brazil

The largest and most populous country in South America, Brazil boasts more than just beautiful beaches and beautiful people, though it does have its fair share of both. Notwithstanding large disparities in income levels and high crime rates, Brazil stands as South America’s leading economic power, supported by its new and challenging role as a […]

China May Stumble in Race With Rivals for African Oil

China’s plans to buy into oil fields in Africa may suffer a third setback in as many months if Exxon Mobil Corp. succeeds in snapping up drilling rights in Ghana, one of the continent’s newest oil nations. Closely held Kosmos Energy LLC said last week it agreed to sell its stake in Ghana’s Jubilee oil […]

BP Wins Huge Oil License in Iraq

Iraq’s cabinet has approved a deal with BP to develop the huge Rumaila oil field in the country’s first international energy deal since the American-led invasion in 2003. The agreement, which was brokered in June during the first round of tendering for licences to exploit Iraq’s enormous and largely untapped hydrocarbon resources, should also send […]

Why Levitt and Dubner like geo-engineering and why they are wrong

Many commentators have already pointed out dozens of misquotes, misrepresentations and mistakes in the Levitt was on NPR at the weekend discussing this chapter (though not defending himself against any of the criticisms leveled above). He made the following two points which I think go to the heart of his thinking on this issue:

Montana town revels in oil boom

…Dotted around the farmland are hundreds of nodding-donkey oil wells which are strangely reminiscent of the kind of pumps you’d have seen in action during oil booms in Texas, California or Oklahoma a century ago. The similarity is deceptive. The oil boom up on the Northern Great Plains is based on dramatic changes in drilling […]

China begins resettling 330,000 for water project

BEIJING (AFP) Under the project, waters from a tributary of the Yangtze river, the country’s longest, will be diverted to arid northern China. The canal is part of the central line in a projected 400-billion-yuan (58-billion-dollar) project originally envisioned as a three-line system of canals and pipes. AFP

VT willow harvest promises cheap biomass fuel

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. Willows, which grow faster than other trees and branch out when pruned, may be the answer

Start planning for Pacific warming refugees: scientist

MAJURO (AFP) Nunn is chairing the Pacific Climate Change Roundtable meeting in the Marshall Islands capital Majuro opening Monday where 14 Pacific countries and territories are devising their strategy for the December conference. New scientific projections show the pace of sea level is faster than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected in its 2007 […]

$4 a gallon gas? Peak-oil experts say yes

Gas prices will soar as oil production peaks, then falls. Get ready for $4-a-gallon gasoline. That So what about all those new oil finds

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