Jeff Rubin: A massive public investment in obsolescence

As North American taxpayers take a look at the gleaming new models on display at Detroit With GM car sales in China up over 60 per cent this year and North American sales still down from last year, I know what I

Death of rationalization

…When the consequences of peak oil start to make themselves known, it will become cheaper to hire an extra person if that reduces the energy consumption or the capital tied up in machinery. If not sooner, then it will eventually no longer be profitable to replace a machine that (finally) breaks down with a new […]

EGG-energy brings power to Africa with battery subscription service

(PhysOrg.com) — By applying the NetFlix model of movie swapping to batteries, a team of researchers and students from MIT and Harvard is hoping to provide electricity to thousands of homes in Tanzania. Their start-up company, called EGG-energy, offers a battery subscription service where individuals can return a used battery and pick up a fully […]

Australian city's hottest night in 108 years

The Australian city of Melbourne has sweltered through its hottest night since 1902, with temperatures topping 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit), meteorologists said Tuesday. Millions tossed and turned in the overnight heat in Australia’s second city, with power cuts exacerbating the problem in some areas and some people even resorted to nocturnal trips to […]

1,000m underground central heating system planned

For the first time in the UK, a team of scientists and engineers, led by Newcastle University, plan to complete a twin borehole system that will allow warm groundwater to be continually cycled through rocks as deep as 1,000m. Water at a temperature of around 30C will be brought up to the surface where it […]

Campaign to get kids walking, biking to school to fight global warming

Advocates of a Marin campaign to get more kids walking and biking to school are expanding their initiative, fueled by a $175,000 grant to combat global warming. The new Greenways to School campaign is set to launch later this month, piggy-backing off the successful Safe Routes to Schools program. “We want to find those green […]

What I Learned By Not Getting into a Car for a Year

Adam Greenfield, a 29-year-old filmmaker born in England and now residing in San Francisco, decided that for an entire year, he would not get into any sort of automobile. No SUVs, taxis, or motorcycles. Not even a ride in a hybrid or electric car. His bicycle took him nearly everywhere he needed to go. What […]

Northern forests do not benefit from lengthening growing season

Forests in northern areas are stunted, verging on the edge of survival. It has been anticipated that climate change improves their growth conditions. A study published last week in Forest Ecology and Management journal shows that due to their genetic characteristics trees are unable to properly benefit from the lengthening growing season. Furthermore, the researchers […]

You Say Offset, I Say Tax? Labels and Political Affiliation Influence Preference

Would you pay more for certain products to save the planet? That Columbia University psychological scientists David J. Hardisty, Eric J. Johnson, and Elke U. Weber wanted to see how the way in which a concept is framed (that is, how it is labeled) affects our attitude towards it. In this experiment, volunteers (who self-identified […]

Climate conditions in 2050 crucial to avoid harmful impacts in 2100

BOULDER–While governments around the world continue to explore strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a new study suggests policymakers should focus on what needs to be achieved in the next 40 years in order to keep long-term options viable for avoiding dangerous levels of warming. The study is the first of its kind to use […]

Military, Chevron confirm attack

The Joint Military Task Force (JTF) and Chevron Nig. Ltd. have confirmed an attack on the oil company A JTF spokesman, Timothy Antigha, via a statement released in Port Harcourt on Monday, confirmed the report of sabotage of Chevron pipeline was true.

Bomb Hits Gas Line In Russia's South, Disruption Small

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) – A bomb destroyed part of a main gas pipeline in Russia’s Muslim region of Dagestan, but supply disruptions are expected to be minimal, the regional division of Gazprom said. “Unknown people blew up the Mozdok-Kazimagomed pipeline at its 496th kilometre, causing a fire,” an official from the firm, who declined to […]

World's communications network due an energy diet

The internet and other communications networks could use one-ten-thousandth of the energy that they do today if smarter data-coding techniques were used to move information around. That’s the conclusion of Bell Labs, the research centre in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where both the laser and transistor were invented. The lab has launched a consortium of […]

'Peak oil' expert confronts the challenge it poses

Dr Bentley said yesterday:

Saudi craving for oil comes at a price

As Saudi Arabia Domestic Saudi consumption of oil jumped by 16.4 per cent year on year in August because of an unprecedented surge in the burning of crude, according to a report by the International Energy Agency in November. As a result, the IEA has revised up its forecasts for Saudi domestic oil consumption to […]

Plugging into electric wheels in Detroit

Focusing on alternatives to gasoline, automakers are rolling out more electric cars and hybrids at this year’s show. Audi unveiled a larger concept car with the same name in at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. Famous for all-wheel-drive, Audi’s e-tron sends power to all four of its wheels. The Blue-Will can go 40 […]

U.S. Overtakes Russia as Biggest Natural Gas Producer

(Bloomberg) — The U.S. overtook Russia as the world

The Wheels Come Off the Biodiesel Wagon

Domestic Biodiesel Production Plummets One of my Top 10 Energy Stories of 2009 involved the actions taken by the EU against U.S. biodiesel producers. U.S. tax dollars had been generously subsidizing biodiesel that was being exported out of the U.S. European producers couldn’t compete against the subsidized imports, so the EU effectively cut off the […]

Chevron Had $56 Million 4th-Quarter Refining Loss, Sankey Says

(Bloomberg) — Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil company, had fourth-quarter refining losses of more than $600,000 a day as fuel demand faltered and costs increased, Deutsche Bank analyst Paul Sankey said. Profit from refineries and filling stations was The New York analyst, who rates Chevron shares at

ANALYSIS – China's power woes give little impetus to oil prices

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s winter power supply crunch, the fourth in six years, is unlikely to trigger major oil imports like those seen five years ago. In 2004, during the country’s worst power shortage in decades, hundreds of small firms and factories in booming eastern and southern province export hubs were behind a surge in […]

Iraqi oil may rival Saudi Arabia

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Iraq’s ravaged oil industry is on the verge of a major reconstruction and experts now believe that by the decade’s end it could rival the world’s top oil producers. But major challenges lie ahead. Iraq’s success depends in large part on a mosaic of international investments. The oil ministry has awarded […]

CNBC's Kilduff: $100 Oil in Next Six Months

Network contributor says China pushing prices higher; blasts the peak oil theory as dated. It hasn

Gas Pains: The Problems with a Gas-Fired Bridge to Clean Energy

Natural gas is often seen as the “bridge fuel” to a clean-energy future—it’s abundant, reliable, and has about half the emissions of coal. Today, a couple of reminders of just how tricky it can be to really make that gas-powered energy revolution a reality. In California, state regulators are concerned that new emissions rules from […]

Firms announce big oil find beneath shallow Gulf waters

McMoRan Exploration Co. today announced what it said could be one of the largest oil and natural gas discoveries in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico in decades. The discovery was made at the Davy Jones ultra-deep prospect located on South Marsh Island Block 230 in about 20 feet of water and 10 […]

Why Investors Are Crazy For Rare-Earth Metals

For now the world is still obsessed with the price and geopolitics of oil. Every other commodity remains secondary. But while the internal combustion engine will be with us for awhile, the world is changing, and oil will slowly fade in importance.In its place, the world will increasingly focus on rare elemants that are used […]

China holds the key to cars of the future

The announcement on Christmas Eve 2009 that the final hurdles for the buy out of the Volvo brand by the Chinese Geely Motor Car Company came as no surprise to the workers on the assembly lines of plants in Gothenburg, Sweden and Gent, Belgium. What is the reason for a Chinese company to buy a […]

The Mekong River Under Threat

Since the 1980s, the character of the Mekong river has been steadily transformed by China’s dam-building program in Yunnan province. The important changes that had taken place on the course of the river since 1980 and up to 2004 were outlined in the Lowy Institute Paper, River at Risk: The Mekong and the Water Politics […]

China Power Plants May Be Forced to Shut on Snow

(Bloomberg) — China may be forced to shut 11 percent of power generators connected to the nation Supplies for 11 percent of power plants connected to China State Grid

GM's Lutz: Higher gas tax would help

DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) — Bob Lutz is generally not a close ally of environmentalists. The vice chairman of General Motors is a frequent critic of fuel economy rules and once declared that global warming was a “total crock” of excrement, although he used a more common and colorful word in that description. Lutz also declared in […]

Baby Boomer Demographics, Household Formation and the Hoax Economy

The period of wealth consumption now underway will resemble from a demographic context the period ‘67 to ‘81-’86. However, this time around the Boomer cohort is much larger as a share of the population and persisted 35-40% longer on a peak basis than the “GI Generation” whose birth peak occurred in the early to mid-1920s; […]

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