'Cash for Clunkers,' household edition

In U.S. history, there may have been no better time to own a junk car, a rattling old fridge and a leaking dishwasher. On the heels of its ballyhooed “Cash for Clunkers” program for cars, the federal government is expected to finalize details in the coming weeks of another tax-supported shopping extravaganza, known as “Cash […]

Brazil: 'Gringos' must pay to stop Amazon razing

MANAUS, Brazil “I don’t want any gringo asking us to let an Amazon resident die of hunger under a tree,” Silva said. “We want to preserve, but they will have to pay the price for this preservation because we never destroyed our forest like they mowed theirs down a century ago.” AP

Walter Youngquist: Unique Times – and the Future

In various contexts throughout this volume (GeoDestinies) it is pointed out that we now live in unique times, unlike any in the past, and unlike what any will be in the future. Yet many people in developed countries do not realize the unique years we have had since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. This […]

Nuclear Energy: Safe, Clean and Efficient

Oil, oil, toil and trouble: As oil prices hover in the high $70’s per barrel, market commentators wonder how long Americans can maintain their dependence on fossil fuels. Solar, Wind, Biofuels Before we explain why, it

Monbiot: Grim reaper's role in climate change denial

…These people aren’t sceptics; they’re suckers. Such beliefs seem to be strongly influenced by age. The Pew report found that people over 65 are much more likely than the rest of the population to deny that there is solid evidence that the planet is warming, that it’s caused by humans, or that it’s a serious […]

Platinum, palladium see biggest jumps

Two precious metals have been quietly rallying to their highest levels in 15 months even though gold hogged all the limelight. Platinum has reached $1,440 an ounce and its cheaper alternative sister, palladium, has recently hit a 15-month high of $372. China and India are moving forward with large-scale plans to reduce the amount of […]

IAEA governors approve first nuclear fuel bank plan

VIENNA (Reuters) – International Atomic Energy Agency governors on Friday approved a Russian plan for a multilateral uranium fuel bank, seen as a way to stem the spread of nuclear arms. Backed by the United States, the plan would allow uranium producer Russia to set up an IAEA-supervised bank to provide low-enriched uranium to countries […]

In Greenland, warming fuels dream of hidden wealth

Global warming is melting the fringes of the frozen world where Greenland’s Inuits have hunted seal, whale and polar bear for generations. It’s thawing the permafrost on which their homes are built. It’s disrupting Arctic wildlife and fish stocks, and making hunting trips more dangerous by thinning the ice that supports their dog sleds. But […]

IEA Chief Presents Sobering View of Our Energy Future

Monday night at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Fatih Birol, Chief Economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA) presented the highlights of the recently released 2009 World Energy Outlook, which was recently completed. Mr. Birol knows his stuff- he worked for OPEC for six years, has written lots of articles about energy […]

Peak oil panic? Dubai or not Dubai?

Could the mushrooming Dubai debt crisis be a preview of what peak oil will produce among the oil-selling nations? Dubai Perhaps you recell the cause celebre in Washington when Dubai bought a British company that controlled a slew of American ports? Eventually the Dubai sovereign company sold its U.S. ports to the All-American patriots over […]

Shell says oil demand will recover in second half of next year

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s biggest oil company, expects global crude demand to pick up in the second half of 2010, after declining the most since 1980 this year, according to Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser. Demand will fall by about 2 million barrels a day this year as the recession curbs energy use, Voser […]

Nissan hatches plan to boost battery cars

CEO Ghosn stresses coolness factor, tries new model to bring down price President Barack Obama has set an ambitious goal of putting at least 1 million battery-powered cars on the road by the middle of the coming decade. Many in the auto industry have charitably called that target ambitious. Others are less polite. But while […]

Allianz fund sees opportunities in energy squeeze

LONDON (Reuters) – The world faces a potential energy supply squeeze as economic growth rebounds, offering huge investment opportunities in the oil and gas industry and in other energy companies, a fund manager said on Thursday. Christopher Wheaton, who runs two energy industry-focused funds for Allianz Global Investors, the asset management arm of insurance giant […]

"Unsustainable" cities need radical rethink

A Swiss-Singaporean team is tackling the global problem of burgeoning populations cramming into over-crowded conurbations with a multi-disciplinary research project. Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) has launched a collaboration with two universities in Singapore in an effort to produce a template for the modern sustainable city. Many of today’s cities are reaching breaking point […]

Rob Hopkins: Transition to a world without oil

Rob Hopkins reminds us that the oil our world depends on is steadily running out. He proposes a unique solution to this problem — the Transition response, where we prepare ourselves for life without oil and sacrifice our luxuries to build systems and communities that are completely independent of fossil fuels. Rob Hopkins is the […]

MP urges Harper to act in Beaufort Sea dispute

A Northwest Territories MP is urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper to protect Canada’s claim to a disputed area in the Beaufort Sea, where the United States wants to drill for oil and gas. Raising the issue this week in the House of Commons, Western Arctic NDP MP Bevington said the U.S. government and the Alaska […]

Europe

(Bloomberg) — The Port of Rotterdam, Europe

Slow demand hits Gulf long-term deals

Gulf refiners are striking deals or have started negotiations on long term supply for 2010 with premiums so far at lower levels than for 2009 due to thin demand. On the spot market, fuel oil prices fell amid plentiful supply from Saudi Arabia. Aramco and Exxon Mobil sold a cargo each of high viscosity fuel […]

Next Mexican crisis could come soon

Fitch’s downgrade of Mexico’s credit rating by a notch to BBB on Nov. 23 was a warning. Mexico has too many problems to keep going as it has. Oil production from Pemex, the state-owned monopoly operator, averaged 2.61 million barrels a day in 2009, down 7% from 2008 and 22% from the 2004 peak. Although […]

Warming to hit "roads, pipelines" in Canada north

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Roads, buildings and pipelines in Canada’s north are at risk from global warming and the government must do more to protect infrastructure in the remote frozen region, an official panel said Thursday. The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) said the permafrost layer had begun to melt, a […]

Business Books: Arctic melts, but no big "Cold Rush" for oil

OSLO (Reuters) – The Arctic is thawing fast because of global warming but a big “Cold Rush” for offshore oil and gas looks unlikely because of icebergs and high costs, a new book says. …Oil companies are looking north but Anderson, a former editor of New Scientist magazine, shows huge problems of icebergs, waves, cold […]

Big Oil – A Look at The Worlds Most Powerful Companies

The term “Big Oil,” which initially was coined with derisive and derogatory connotations, has since come to designate those proverbial Now, there is an completely new line up of Big Oil

Distorted IEA oil reserve figures create biofuel opportunities

The recent revelations of a International Energy Administration whistleblower that the IEA may have distorted key oil projections under intense US pressure is, if true (and whistleblowers rarely come forward to advance their careers), a slow-burning thermonuclear explosion on future global oil production. The Bush administration In such a scenario, additives and substitutes such as […]

Climate change already a reality in Africa

NAIROBI (AFP) Residents of Turkana, a region of northern Kenya withered by severe drought, recently found respite when an NGO bought off their emaciated livestock and slaughtered them to feed the starving. “It’s the worst drought since 1969, the year when the dromedaries died,” recalled Esta Ekouam, a grandmother who has no idea how old […]

Going hungry in the land of plenty

As Americans sit down for the traditional Thanksgiving meal, it’s worth pausing to consider how some new food statistics reflect the state of our nation and our times. On one level, there’s something to give thanks for. Menu items for that classic dinner The broader picture is more sobering. Just days before Thanksgiving, the government […]

China announces plan to boost energy efficiency

China announced plans Thursday to sharply boost its energy efficiency by slowing the growth of carbon emissions as part of its contribution to the fight against global warming. The State Council announcement ahead of next month’s Copenhagen climate summit pledges that China will cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40 […]

The oil is running out: Mexican president

Mexican President Felipe Calderon says Mexico’s “is running out,” and calls the problem “very serious.” Production is falling at Mexico’s old, shallow-water offshore fields and the country has yet to exploit is potential deep-water reserves.Calderon told the Televisa news network in an interview broadcast Tuesday that he still expected to be able to check the […]

Green Energy Rush Could Crash Bulgaria Power Grid

A rush to cash in on incentives to develop renewable energy projects in Bulgaria could end up in so much new supply it could cause blackouts on the national grid, the operator told Reuters on Tuesday. Ivan Ayolov, chief executive of the state electricity system operator (ESO) said in an interview the government should impose […]

Planet approaching point of no return, experts warn

The Earth’s temperature is continuing to rise, the Greenland and the Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass at an increasing rate and the global warming could reach as high as 7 degrees by the turn of the century if greenhouse gases grow unabated, a r review of climate science over the past three years has […]

Moscow retreats from Ukraine bypass strategy

Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko declared on November 16 that the Nord Stream pipeline on the Baltic seabed would not be used for diverting gas volumes away from Ukraine’s transit pipelines to Europe. In effect, this statement acknowledges that the Nord Stream pipeline, from Russia directly to Germany, is not a Ukraine-bypass project. As if […]

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