Oil spill cleanup could impact prices

Saturday’s oil spill will complicate logistics for some Gulf Coast refineries that rely heavily on the port of Port Arthur for shipments of crude, but it’s unlikely to have much impact on oil and gasoline prices unless the port stays closed for a lengthy period. That’s because the weak economy has left the U.S. refining […]

The real holes in climate science

Researchers say it is difficult to talk openly about holes in understanding. “Of course there are gaps in our knowledge about Earth’s climate system and its components, and yes, nothing has been made clear enough to the public,” says Gavin Schmidt, a climate modeller at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and […]

Oregon gas terminals' futures hang on global supplies

Five years after energy developers started sniffing around Oregon as a likely spot to build an import terminal for liquefied natural gas, the air has come flooding out of the gas market like a whoopee cushion, making such proposals sound economically reckless. With a worldwide recession in full swing, there’s LNG to be had. More […]

Climate talks bigger threat to Saudi than oil rivals

RIYADH (Reuters) – United Nations climate talks are a bigger threat to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia than increased oil supplies from rival producers, its lead climate negotiator said on Sunday. Saudi Arabia’s economy depends on oil exports so stands to be one of the biggest losers in any pact that curbs oil demand by […]

Course creator's socioeconomic ideas gain momentum

SONORA – Chris Martenson started out by earning a Ph.D. in neurotoxicology. Then he got an MBA in finance and became a vice president first at Pfizer and then at Science Application International Corp. Yet seven years ago, he sold his five-bedroom waterfront house in Mystic, Conn., and two years later quit his high-paying corporate […]

Ammonia-energy Plan In Works In Maine

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) ― Maine has been heavily involved in generating power from wind, and now Gov. John Baldacci is drawing attention to a plan to create ammonia as a green energy source. Baldacci mentioned the Rockland-based Ocean Energy Institute’s work during his State of the State speech Thursday. While most of the attention has […]

Peak Moment 160: A Young Couple Find Freedom in Simple Living

Rather than follow the customary American dream, Tammy and Logan sold their home and car, and moved to a bikeable/walkable neighborhood in Sacramento, California. After reading Derrick Jensen While they recount the psychological challenges of facing a future of declining resources, the catalyst that continues to move them forward is a dream of living in […]

Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet by Tim Jackson

Tim Jackson states the challenge starkly: “Questioning growth is deemed to be the act of lunatics, idealists and revolutionaries. But question it we must.” And that is the core mission of this perfectly timed book. Had he published it before the financial crisis, he would probably have been dismissed as another green idealist, at best. […]

Peak Oil Rock & Roll

We are the The all-original songs were written for Dr. Atom

Why Is a Utility Paying Customers?

FOUR decades ago, when Sid Erwin began his career as an inspector at the Idaho Power Company, a string of new hydroelectric plants was pumping out power faster than locals could buy it. Soon enough, Mr. Erwin recalls, the utility began sending representatives to rural areas, urging farmers to use more electricity when irrigating their […]

Mexico crude output slide slows in 2009

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican oil production fell for the fifth year in a row last year but the pace of the slide slowed and output rose in December from November, according to data released by state oil monopoly Pemex on Friday. Mexico pumped 2.601 million barrels of oil per day in 2009, the lowest […]

Kjell Aleklett: "US raises concern over China oil policy"

Over 70% of China Small oilfields in China constitute 30% of production and the trend is for continued increased production from these. However, in a few years the production declines in the giant fields will be so great that total Chinese production will decline. In coming years we will experience aggressive bidding from China whenever […]

Collision Causes Oil Spill In Port Arthur, Texas

HOUSTON (Dow Jones)–A collision between an oil tanker bound for Exxon Mobil Corp.’s (XOM) Beaumont refinery and an outbound vessel towing barges resulted in a major crude oil spill in the port of Port Arthur, Texas on Saturday. The U.S. Coast Guard said that the towing vessel and the two barges it was pushing tore […]

Disorder in the houses of OPEC

Political turmoil in the homelands of some oil exporters is threatening the group At any other time, such a situation would already have pushed oil prices sky high. The bull run that ended in July 2008 with crude hitting US$147 a barrel was preceded by

Economides: White House Needs New Look At Energy

It was a rubbing-the-eyes-in-disbelief headline even from an administration whose energy secretary, Steven Chu, suggested that America’s energy dilemma could be solved by painting roofs white, and whose interior secretary, Ken Salazar, talked of garnering 3,000 megawatts of wind-power capacity off the East Coast. (The current total electricity capacity from all U.S. energy sources is […]

U.S. Feeds One Quarter of its Grain to Cars While Hunger is on the Rise

The 107 million tons of grain that went to U.S. ethanol distilleries in 2009 was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels. More than a quarter of the total U.S. grain crop was turned into ethanol to fuel cars last year. With 200 ethanol distilleries in the country […]

Desertification may have retarded global warming by as much as 20%

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot recently made a surprising discovery about the abilities of forests to combat global warming. In an article published on Friday in the journal Science, Prof. Dan Yakir and Dr. Eyal Rotenberg of the Environmental Sciences and Energy Research Department discuss their analysis of findings from the […]

Robert Bryce: See Why Boone Pickens Doesn

T. Boone Pickens is a pleasant guy. But the hard truth is this: he doesn Before we got into the studio to tape the segment, Pickens and I started arguing in the green room. I said that while I agreed with him about the boom in US natural gas production and that America should use […]

Pick-your-own vegetables to replace flowers in high street

Climate change and food shortage issues prompt Lancashire town to consider growing edible crops in public A Lancashire town is experimenting with using traditional floral displays, including hanging baskets and herbaceous borders, to grow slightly less colourful but more practical greens. The idea taking shape in Clitheroe is to replace flowers with edible vegetables and […]

Urban 'Green' Spaces May Contribute to Global Warming

Dispelling the notion that urban “green” spaces help counteract greenhouse gas emissions, new research has found — in Southern California at least — that total emissions would be lower if lawns did not exist.Turfgrass lawns help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and store it as organic carbon in soil, making them important […]

Using Supercomputers to Explore Nuclear Energy

Ever wanted to see a nuclear reactor core in action? A new computer algorithm developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory allows scientists to view nuclear fission in much finer detail than ever before. A team of nuclear engineers and computer scientists at Argonne National Laboratory are developing the […]

Why not floating windmills?

Larry Viterna, Ph.D., worked on wind energy development for many years with NASA and is now working on plans for wind turbines that will float far from shore. “I think offshore wind on the Great Lakes can be very beneficial for energy potential as well as the economy,” he said Jan. 15. “I personally think […]

Occidental Petroleum and partners to develop massive Iraqi oil field

Occidental Petroleum Corp. said Friday that it and two major partners — Italian energy conglomerate Eni and Korea Gas Corp. — had signed a technical service contract to develop the massive 4-billion-barrel Zubair oil field in Iraq. Analysts offered differing opinions on the significance of the deal for Occidental, Iraq and the overall price of […]

Indian researcher extracts rare earth raw materials from industrial wastes

Competition over raw materials for new green technologie could become a thing of the past, thanks to a discovery by scientists from the University of Leeds Researchers from Leeds’ Faculty of Engineering have discovered how to recover significant quantities of rare-earth oxides, present in titanium dioxide minerals. The rare-earth oxides, which are indispensable for the […]

West dependent on China for key resources

Global use of rare earth metals has more than quadrupled in the last years to 125,000 tons per year. Analysts expect demand to reach 200,000 tons in 2014, and, by that time, China will need all it produces for its own use. “Chinese exports of rare earth metals will be reduced to zero over time,” […]

'Peak water' could flush civilisation

Forget peak oil. Forget climate change. Peak water is where it’s at, according to Scottish journalist and broadcaster, Alexander Bell, who has just written a fascinating book, Peak Water (Luath Press, Scotland). “It’s the coming issue of our age,” says Bell. “Civilisation is thirsty. It has never stopped to think about what would happen if […]

British engineers slam home wind turbines as 'eco-bling'

Installing wind turbines and solar panels in people’s homes is “eco-bling” that will not help meet Britain’s targets on cutting carbon emissions, engineers warned Wednesday. In a new report by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE), Professor Doug King said it was better to adapt buildings to make them more energy efficient than try to […]

Belarus Calls Russia's Oil Export Duties Illegal

MINSK (Reuters) – Minsk on Saturday accused Russia of acting illegally in applying full export fees to oil pumped to Belarus, in a sign that the dispute — which some fear could disrupt supplies to Europe — is far from resolved. “Russia has effectively come out of the agreement one-sidedly and is illegally applying full […]

Petraeus: Missile-Shooting Ships on Station in the Gulf

The U.S. military is keeping at least two Navy ships on station in the Persian Gulf, ready to track and possibly intercept missiles, according to the top U.S. general in the region. Speaking today at the Institute for the Study of War, Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, said two cruisers equipped […]

Harrabin's Notes: Cash for influence

…BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin looks at how the global climate debate could be affected by a US Supreme Court ruling that lifts a cap how much companies can spend on political advertising. The chances of a global climate deal this year have taken the second major blow in a week in the US. In […]

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