The water market: bigger than oil by 2030

Can water keep the traders out for ever? Seems unlikely if there’s supply/demand imbalances to be taken care of, and money to be made from doing so. CLSA Asia Pacific Markets, one of Asia’s biggest equity brokers, estimates that total world water demand will hit 6.9 billion cubic m/year by 2030, equivalent to 119 million […]

OPEC surplus keeps price of crude down

Iran’s OPEC governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi said the organization had surplus capacity of 4-6 million barrels of oil per day, which was keeping the price of crude down. Right now, because of the economic crisis, OPEC is facing a 4-6 million barrel surplus capacity,” Khatibi said, according to the Iranian oil ministry website SHANA. “This […]

Arrogance and Scientific Rules of Thumb

One of my favorite sources of rules of thumb is thermodynamics. It doesn’t tell you how to do things, or how fast you can do them, but it tells you whether something, like running your car on water, is impossible. Most people know that there are three laws of thermodynamics: energy can neither be created […]

New Zealand Begins Emissions Trading Scheme

“At present we appear to be bogged down in emission reduction schemes and targets. This thinking is short-term as the high emissions industries in the long run are doomed.  We have the low-carbon technology – which include many forms of renewable energy such as solar electric, solar thermal, wind, wave, tidal, geothermal and bio-energy.  All […]

EIA’s first Peak Oil statement in 2000 – how was their vision a decade ago?

Back in 2000, the EIA developed their first power-point presentation covering the topic of peak oil (http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/FTPROOT/presentations/long_term_supply/index.htm). A version of it was presented by EIA Administrator Jay Hakes to the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. What was the EIA’s rationale at the time? How has their view held up a decade later? To help evaluate […]

Global oil demand to outgrow decline

Global oil demand will grow more this year than it declined in 2009 and will surpass the 2007 record high “at least 2 years earlier than consensus projections” a year ago, said Paul Horsnell, managing director and head of commodities research at Barclays Capital. The firm expects the first annual demand increase since 2005 among […]

Peak oil and public transportation

So when the ever-diminishing supply of unlimited, inexpensive, and always-at-the-ready oil is a factor with which we are all contending every day, preferring “the convenience of personal automobile transportation to the inflexibility of mass transit” won’t be worth the paper that comment is printed on. Peak Oil doesn’t much care about our “preferences,” or whether […]

How Prepared is India for A Food Crisis?

Over 70 per cent of the world’s population resides in poor countries, it has access to less than 40 per cent of the world’s resources such as water, irrigated land, power, etc. This is a result of inconsistent economic progress (post-colonialisation birth pangs), rampant population growth and distractions such as internal conflicts and neighbourly tensions. […]

BP Oil Spill Silenced Scientists Are Breaking Their Silence

Toxic chemicals are “Killing all life” 50 to 200 miles inland will be “devoid of life” for “unknown number of years”

Saudi King: Halt To Oil Exploration To Save Wealth

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has ordered a halt to oil exploration operations to save the hydrocarbon wealth in the world’s top crude exporting nation for future generations, the official Saudi Press Agency, or SPA, reported late Saturday. “I was heading a cabinet meeting and told them to pray to God the Almighty to give it […]

What is Peak Oil – Everything you should know

When Will Peak Oil Happen? Estimates vary, but the general consensus is that the world’s peak is now, plus or minus about five years, i.e. something between 2005 and 2015. The most optimistic forecast is around 2020, but these are estimates from the oil producing nations and the oil companies, who don’t want to see […]

Could a new “Manhattan Project” produce radically new energy sources?

the Congressional Research Service provides an invaluable starting place: “The Manhattan Project, the Apollo Program, and Federal Energy Technology R&D Programs: A Comparative Analysis“, Deborah D. Stine, 30 June 2009. She compares the Manhattan and Apollo projects in both absolute terms (constant dollars) and relative to the US economy at that time, and compares those […]

The Shock of Peak Oil and Peak Coal

In discussion with Professor L. D. Danny Harvey, who describes the coming consequences of the peak in our ability extract and supply oil.

Solar companies get $1.85 billion in US loan guarantees

And on a patriotic note, the company estimates that construction will create up to 1,700 new jobs and operation will spawn 85 permanent jobs. Three-fourths of the building equipment and supplies, such as steam generators, heat exchangers, glass and steel, will be manufactured domestically. Chief executive Santiago Seage said the installation is already in a […]

Michael Rupert: BP Spill is More Toxic than We’re Told

“One issue that has been on the table and I believe is still on the table, which is the use of a thermal nuclear device down in the bedrock. You have to go and find the right place and you probably couldn’t. You can’t use a nuke in softer stone because all you’re going to […]

Worst case scenario – Super Volcano of Methane Erupts in the Gulf

Explosions. Tsunamis. Mass extinction.

Heinberg: Most-Likely Scenarios for US

Oil exporters are using an ever-greater proportion of what they produce to satisfy growing domestic demand for fuel. That means that even if world crude oil production can remain on its current plateau of about 75 million barrels per day for another decade, the amount available to importing countries will inexorably dwindle. And this in […]

U.S. Adds Its Own Sanctions on Iran

President Barack Obama signed into law new sanctions on Iran that, for the first time, will bar from the American market foreign companies that work with Iranian businesses charged with aiding Tehran’s nuclear program and the suppression of democracy. The law requires the Treasury Department to cut off from the U.S. financial system any foreign […]

Takahash: Solution for Peak Oil and Global Warming

1. Immediately enact a 5 cents/pound carbon dioxide credit. Okay, this is the same as a tax, but read my article on this subject. This credit will only increase gasoline by a buck a gallon and double the price of coal electricity. Congress needs to pass this measure, which President Obama should sign, and he […]

Population Growth Must Stop

If Chinese, Indians, and others in the poorer world had consumption levels that rose to current western levels it would be like Earth’s population suddenly increasing to 72 billion, according to Jared Diamond, who then wrote that, “Some optimists claim that we could support a world with nine billion people. But I haven’t met anyone […]

VICE Goes to The Gulf, Look at America’s Toll From BP Spill

Not to be Summer bummer but wanted to pass this over for your editorial consideration. It’s the newest episode in our Toxic series. It’s our look at the American tragedy brought on by the BP spill. The Gulf is special and aside from the environmental shit storm, the Gulf is an endangered part of Americana. […]

Bloomberg: Oil Tumbles the Most in Five Months on Signals of Slower Growth

July 1 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil fell the most in almost five months on concern growth in the U.S. and China will slow, curbing demand in the two largest energy-consuming countries. Oil slipped as much as 4.7 percent after U.S. manufacturing expanded at a slower pace last month and the Labor Department reported that more […]

More oil spills to come, says WUSTL anthropologist

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is not simply a random accident. There will be more of these spills to come, as the days of easy oil are over, says an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis. “BP and other oil companies have tried to portray this spill as an […]

Saudi Arabia claims to have boosted production to 12.5 million barrels per day

King Abdullah has highlighted Saudi Arabia’s efforts to stabilize international oil market. “The Kingdom has increased its production capacity to 12.5 million barrels per day,” he said. Addressing the G20 summit here on Sunday, the Saudi leader called upon consumer countries to establish effective financial and commodity markets to avoid fluctuations in oil prices. “The […]

US Offshore Drilling Ban Compounding the damage?

As analyst Robert Rapier points out, the large companies doing the drilling “will not be the big losers from this decision. That honor is reserved for many of the individuals and businesses along the Gulf Coast that have added jobs and made investments to serve this growing market.” Oil is a product of the sea. […]

SPILL CAM (redux)

We can’t stop the spill, but we can watch it on a live webcam. Peak Oil SPILL CAM

Doubled Yield For Bio-Fuel From Waste

“Dutch chemical company DSM announced a new process for production of ethanol from agricultural waste. Most bio-fuel ethanol now is produced from food crops such as corn and sugar cane. Ethanol produced from cellulose would use waste products such as wood chips, citrus peel, and straw. The new process is claimed to increase the yield […]

CITIES: The Death of Sprawl

In April 2009—just when people thought things couldn’t get worse in San Bernardino County, California—bulldozers demolished four perfectly good new houses and a dozen others still under construction in Victorville, 100 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. The structures’ granite countertops and Jacuzzis had been removed first. Then the walls came down and the remains […]

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