Converting Coal Plants to Biomass

Coal-powered generating stations retrofitted to run on a mixture of coal and dried wood pellets can produce cost-competitive, emission-reduced electricity even without the advent of a cap-and-trade system, according to a new biomass life cycle analysis published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology. For utilities under pressure to meet renewable portfolio standards, biomass […]

Kjell Aleklett: The OPEC bulletin and focus on Angola

Now it is time to focus on Angola. Five of the ten articles in the OPEC Bulletin are on Angola that became a member of OPEC on 1 January 2007. The 115th OPEC meeting that was held in Luanda on 22 December 2009 was the first conference that the new OPEC-nation had hosted. High up […]

Do you use more energy than your neighbors?

More than 1 million U.S. households now receive reports on how their energy consumption compares with their neighbors as utilities encourage conservation, some with smiley faces for those doing well. The reports While that may sound small, the savings add up. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which started sending the reports to 35,000 households in […]

"Strong risk" of 2010 famine in Africa's Sahel: EU

DAKAR (Reuters) – Millions in West Africa’s arid Sahel belt could face famine this year unless the world acts quickly to help, the European Union’s humanitarian aid arm said on Thursday. The warning came as Niger confirmed the veracity of a leaked government forecast that half its population will face food shortages this year after […]

Exxon Dives Deep Into High-Risk Exploration

Hardly known as a wildcatter, Exxon Mobil Corp. is searching for oil in most of the world’s regions where high-risk exploration is under way, even as other big oil companies are being more selective and cutting capital spending. So far, though, Exxon has little to show from its exploration campaign and needs to make large […]

Baylor Researcher Finds Methane Hydrate in Gulf Using New Search Method

A Baylor University researcher has used a new search method that he adapted for use on the seafloor to find a potentially massive source of hydrocarbon energy called methane hydrate, a frozen form of natural gas, in a portion of the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. John Dunbar, associate professor of geology at Baylor, and his […]

Is There an Ecological Unconscious?

About eight years ago, Glenn Albrecht began receiving frantic calls from residents of the Upper Hunter Valley, a 6,000-square-mile region in southeastern Australia. For generations the Upper Hunter was known as the Residents were distraught over the spread of coal mining in the Upper Hunter. Coal was discovered in eastern Australia more than 200 years […]

Population Taboo

Today marks the beginning of Global Population Speak Out. It Global Population Speak Out is a month-long initiative encouraging more candor about population in public discussion of challenges like pollution, emissions, poverty, species extinction and peak oil, food and water. Population growth is often the biggest factor creating or accelerating these problems, but too often […]

Agriculture: Wisdom of the Uncivilized Crowds

Picture this: A remote Indian village in the Ganges delta a few hundred years ago. The farmer starts his day by letting his flock of ducks into his irrigated fields. The water from the river brings with it, besides nutrients and alluvium, some unwanted (for the crops) pests too. But that is not a problem–the […]

Navy: Time is now to prepare for ice-free Arctic

The Navy will soon have a new battlefield on its hands. Climate changes near the North Pole have been dramatic. The amount of summertime ice has decreased by half over the past 50 years. The ice is also 50 percent thinner, resulting in greater seasonal variations. Climate experts predict several weeks of

55 nations set 2020 carbon goals since Copenhagen

Fifty-five nations accounting for almost 80 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions have set national goals for fighting climate change by a deadline in the “Copenhagen Accord,” the United Nations said on Monday. “This represents an important invigoration of the U.N. climate change talks,” Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said […]

Growing Pentagon Focus on Energy and Climate

The Pentagon released its Quadrennial Defense Review on Monday, a wide-ranging report laying out rising priorities for keeping the peace and, when needed, waging war. For the first time, the report A core conclusion: Assessments conducted by the intelligence community indicate that climate change could have significant geopolitical impacts around the world, contributing to poverty, […]

The oil world and its villains

In a new book, journalist Peter Maass takes a voyage into the troubled regions of the world and finds oil corrupting almost everything it touches CLIMATE change and worries about energy security have been the two dominant forces behind a growing popular resentment of the hydrocarbons sector in recent years. But, suggests Peter Maass, a […]

China to Raise Resource Acquisitions as Car, Home Sales Jump

(Bloomberg) — China, the world China Minmetals Corp. and China Petrochemical Corp. led an acquisition spree last year, as companies snapped up zinc mines in Australia, oil reserves in Nigeria, and gold deposits in the Philippines. Owning resources will give China more control over pricing and reduce its dependence on suppliers including BHP Billiton Ltd., […]

'Climate emails hacked by spies'

Interception bore hallmarks of foreign intelligence agency, says expert A highly sophisticated hacking operation that led to the leaking of hundreds of emails from the Climatic Research Unit in East Anglia was probably carried out by a foreign intelligence agency, according to the Government’s former chief scientist. Sir David King, who was Tony Blair’s chief […]

Kunstler: The Jive Economy

Memo to nation: we’re not really growing, we’re shrinking. Is this necessarily a bad thing? I dunno. Unlike, say, the stockholders of Toll Brothers I’m not so sure that “housing starts” represents my idea of a healthy economy — since it really means we’re destroying every cornfield and cow pasture left outside our cities, which […]

"Energy-Louisiana Style" at the 2010 Washington Mardi Gras

The theme of the 62ND annual Washington Mardi Gras Ball is “Energy-Louisiana Style.” That’s why Louisiana’s business leaders in attendance were looking forward to hearing from the luncheon’s keynote speaker Matthew Simmons, chairman emeritus of Simmons and Company, an investment banking firm for the nation’s energy industry. But when a technical snafu prevented Simmons from […]

Crack Spreads Widen as Refineries Close in the U.S.

(Bloomberg) — As refineries from New Jersey to New Mexico close at the fastest pace in three decades, traders in Singapore are profiting from a new plant on India That means higher profits for oil companies and traders in Asia, where consumption is growing 13 times faster than in Europe and the U.S. That

World's most powerful laser to trigger fusion reaction this year

A pivotal step in the march towards fusion power, the ”holy grail” of sustainable clean energy, could be taken this year. Scientists in the US are preparing for the dramatic moment when the world’s most powerful laser unleashes the nuclear force that lights up the sun and achieves ”ignition”. At that moment, 192 laser beams […]

Getting connected: Europe's green energy 'supergrid'

It is a criticism frequently leveled at those promoting wind or solar power as an alternative to fossil fuels: what happens when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine? Well, now there is a smart answer, at least in Europe — we’ll simply and instantly switch to another source of clean, green power.Plans […]

The oil economy is dead, long live the oil economy

Talk about mixed messages from the bigwigs who gathered in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum (WEF). On the one hand, they said, to avoid dangerous climate change, we have to invest billions more than we already are into clean, green energy technologies. On the other hand, they said, peak oil is a worry […]

Russia's Lukoil Wins Iraqi Contract to Develop Major Oil Field

The Iraqi government has awarded a contract to Russian energy company Lukoil and its Norwegian partner to develop a major oil field in southern Iraq. Iraq signed the deal Sunday with Russia’s Lukoil and Statoil of Norway for expansion of the West Qurna Phase 2 oil field, one of the country’s largest. The site has […]

The great uranium stampede

It’s an odd place for a group of Frenchmen to pitch a tent city. Bakouma is one of the deepest, darkest corners of African jungle. From Bangui, the capital of the land-locked Central African Republic, it takes days to navigate the 800km of dirt track to this patch of virgin forest in the middle of […]

Canada: Residents fear prospect race for lithium

The rush to find lithium in West Quebec has some residents concerned that prospectors will cut trees and tunnel or drill on their land to meet the demand for the volatile metal used in rechargeable electric car batteries. Stelmine Canada Ltd., a Montreal-area mineral exploration company has staked claims on 5,200 hectares of private land […]

« Previous 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