Who Will Win The Race For Jobs In Renewable Energy?

When it comes to renewable energy innovation and equipment manufacturing, China is challenging the West, and the outcome will decide where millions of jobs go in the future. As The New York Times reported recently, “China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain, and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker […]

New federal climate change agency forming

The Obama administration is forming a new agency to study and report on the changing climate. Also known as global warming, climate change has drawn widespread concern in recent years as temperatures around the world rise, threatening to harm crops, spread disease, increase sea levels, change storm and drought patterns and cause polar melting. Commerce […]

Delusions of Finance: Where We are Headed

Back in October, I participated in the 2nd International Biophysical Economics Conference at SUNY-ESF in Syracuse, New York. Charlie Hall had written to me, inviting me to come and give a talk. Specifically, he wanted me to go back to my post from January 2008 called Peak Oil and the Financial Markets: A Forecast for […]

Seven States of Energy Debt

…I First, let

Kunstler: We're Weimar

Future historians who try to chart the unraveling of the USA’s political tapestry might point to two events of the past week. The obvious first one was the Tea Party convention at Nashville. It was held not accidentally at the ridiculous Opryland Hotel and resort in the city’s outer suburban asteroid belt, right next to […]

Matt Simmons – At Risk: The Sustainability Of Oil And Gas

Presentation given at the AON Annual Energy Insurance Symposium ■ Prime lesson to be learned from our 2009 financial meltdown, is risk through lack of transparency. ■ We now live in an energy world of obtuse data. ■ We have no third-party audits for 90%+ of world World seems comfortable in

Rosneft retained world's biggest reserves in 2009

Rosneft kept its grip firmly on the top spot among world’s publicly traded oil companies as it reported on Monday a 2.5 percent rise in hydrocarbon reserves for 2009 under PRMS rules. The state-controlled firm has been a chief driver behind Russia’s recent surge in oil output, which last month remained above 10 million barrels […]

China's CNOOC emerges from shadows, eyes big deal

China National Offshore Oil Corp’s likely acquisition of oil field assets in Africa should silence critics concerned that the country’s top offshore oil producer has been sitting on too much cash for too long. CNOOC has been a noticeable absentee from overseas M&A since it paid $2.7 billion for a stake in French oil major […]

Does peak demand = peak supply?

Last week A few commenters raised the contrast or similarity between

Bright future for biodiesel in Indonesia

As Indonesia is today the world’s largest producer of crude palm oil (CPO) — a desirable feedstock for biodiesel production — it has the potential to grow into a world biodiesel leader and a model for plantation sustainability. Biodiesel has the potential to become a significant industry sector in Indonesia, supported by two of its […]

Addressing the food versus fuel debate in Ghana

Concerns over energy supply security and oil-price volatility are generating greater interest in alternative energy sources in Ghana. Civil society groups want a comprehensive biofuel policy. Godwin NNANNA in Accra writes that so far the policy has been slow in coming The lines between energy and agriculture are becoming more blurred. As science advances, the […]

Argentinian Oil Production Continues to Fall

Argentina’s oil and gas production fell in 2009 compared with the previous year, marking the third consecutive annual decline since 2006. In 2009, oil production fell 4.3% and gas production dropped by 3.7%, to 622,949 barrels per day (bpd) and 48.41bn cubic metres (bcm), respectively – according to the Argentine Energy Secretariat. Significantly, the oil […]

In Utah, Company Aims to Store Energy in Air

A Utah company plans to dig a series of underground caverns that it hopes to one day fill with compressed air, releasing it to generate electricity by turning a turbine and solving one of the most vexing problems facing the clean-energy industry — how to store power. Under a barren patch of Utah desert, a […]

NIF Moves 5.9 Million Degrees Closer To Fusion Power

With the need for a cheap and abundant alternative to fossils fuels more important than ever before, the field of fusion energy is getting hotter. Really, really hot. 6 million degrees hot. Yes, the National Ignition Facility, the Department of Energy’s pet fusion project, has finally fired up its 192 lasers and zapped something, moving […]

China plans more LNG imports

China plans to import more liquefied natural gas (LNG) to relieve its fuel shortfall, according to a report Sunday by the Xinhua News Agency citing Zhang Guobao, head of the National Energy Administration. Zhang said that domestic gas companies should seek more long-term LNG contracts to take advantage of a global surplus of the fuel. […]

BP faces investor revolt over Canadian oil sands project

BP has become the second energy major to face a potential shareholder revolt over its investment in controversial Canadian oil sands. A group of pension funds and asset managers last month filed a resolution asking Royal Dutch Shell to reconsider its involvement in the expensive project, which emits more carbon dioxide than conventional drilling. Now […]

N.Z. Refining

(Bloomberg) — New Zealand Refining Co., operator of the nation New Zealand Refining, controlled by the local units of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc and Chevron Corp., processes oil for its major shareholders at rates based on refining margins in Singapore, Asia

Kurt Cobb: Characterizing the incalculable

It would be nice to be certain about the future. But, absent time travel, no one can be certain about anything that hasn’t happened yet. So, as a substitute many specialists build models in disciplines as disparate as finance and physics to guess what the future might look like given certain assumptions. In physics the […]

Rob Hopkins: Getting over oil, one town at a time

The founder of the Transition Towns movement explains why he is optimistic that we can survive peak oil and minimise climate change. Can you tell me more about the Transition Towns movement? A Transition Town is formed when a group of individuals gets together to ask how their community can mitigate the effects of a […]

2 Dead, 250 Hurt in Conn. Explosion

A gas explosion and fire erupted at a Connecticut power plant, resulting in what police described as “mass casualties,” CBS Affiliate WFSB reports. At least two people were killed and as many as were 250 people injured, 4 critically, sources told WFSB. There are reports of people trapped under metal, concrete and steel. The explosion […]

Electric Cars Powered Up for Test Drive in Israel

Pi Glilot, Israel (Feb. 7) — If Shai Agassi has his way, your next car will be electric. Agassi today inaugurated a center that allows visitors to learn about electric cars, test-drive them and put their name on a list to buy one. The cars are being made by Renault.Agassi, a charismatic Israeli-American multi-millionaire, said […]

Saudi Arabia opens to outsiders as it looks to the future

Foreign investment, in a country long assumed to have no need of any, rose from $2bn (But the more important comparison is that in 1973, the year of the last oil crisis, oil accounted for 72pc of GDP. In 2008, when oil prices peaked again, it was 31pc. The role of the private sector has […]

'Massive glut' blamed for holding back oil prices

Toronto-Dominion Bank economist Dina Cover wrote in a report this week that despite the improved global economic picture, “[the] blow to the crude oil market is going to continue to be felt for some time, as the fundamental picture remains quite weak.” She noted that while demand from the developing world had returned to healthy […]

Branson warns that oil crunch is coming within five years

Energy crisis threatens to be more serious than credit crunch Sir Richard Branson and fellow leading businessmen will warn ministers this week that the world is running out of oil and faces an oil crunch within five years. The founder of the Virgin group, whose rail, airline and travel companies are sensitive to energy prices, […]

Why Natural Gas Vehicles Won't Decrease Oil Dependence

Natural gas is the fossil fuel du jour. At Davos, BP CEO Tony Hayward described unconventional natural gas as a ‘complete game changer’. The rest of the panel agreed. In December Exxon Mobil (XOM) bought XTO Energy for $41bn to access its resource base of 45tcf (trillion cubic feet) of unconventional natty. Some see this […]

Lack of Australian nuclear plant almost immoral: Peter Cosgrove

FORMER defence force chief Peter Cosgrove has pleaded for Australia to embrace nuclear power, criticising the “daily scrapping” between politicians about climate change. Addressing a business breakfast in Perth, General Cosgrove said strong action was crucial and it was “almost immoral” to export uranium to less technologically advanced and stable countries to use in nuclear […]

Defusing the Methane Greenhouse Time Bomb

Methane trapped in Arctic ice (and elsewhere) could be rapidly released into the atmosphere as a result of global warming in a possible doomsday scenario for climate change, some scientists worry. After all, methane is 72 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide over a 20-year timescale. But research announced at the […]

Nigerian militants say disabled Shell oil pipeline

LAGOS (Reuters) – A Nigerian militant group said on Sunday it had attacked a Royal Dutch Shell oil pipeline in the Niger Delta but the Anglo-Dutch company said it had no reports of any such sabotage. The Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), a coalition of ex-militants and community leaders, said in a statement it had disabled […]

Earth, wind and wire: Going beyond solar panels

Not long ago, people who wanted to generate their own green energy at home had to content themselves with rooftop solar panels. But new technologies — and hefty government subsidies — are now allowing homeowners to tap the wind, the Earth and other renewable sources in their own backyards. Call it the green evolution.The cost […]

Start preparing for oil at $200 a barrel

The key issue is not whether petrol and diesel prices should reflect today’s oil price of $75/barrel. It is that booming Asia will in a decade push oil to $200/barrel and maybe $300/barrel. India must prepare for a world of scarce, expensive oil instead of pretending that astronomical subsidies can ensure price stability.In the 1990s, […]

« 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