Mexico Looking at Risky Deep Water Oil

Much of Mexico’s remaining oil wealth lies thousands of meters below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. The question is: how to get at it. When state monopoly Pemex discovered its ‘Supergiant’ oil fields in the 1970s, they were found in barely 100 meters of water. At the time, they were the envy of […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: Oil & the Arctic Meltdown

Last week brought the news that this summer the Arctic icecap shrank to an all-time low of roughly half the size it was in 1980. While this is the lowest ever seen since satellite monitoring began 33 years ago, some experts are saying that the summer of 2012 was probably the smallest the icecap has […]

Will Surging Oil Prices Prevent Environmental Doom?

In the 21st century, burning hydrocarbons is critical to achieving the economic expansion that is needed to support the billions of new people who are projected to inhabit the planet. Yet chasing that growth could throw so much carbon into the atmosphere that it may undermine humanity’s very survival. Thankfully, there is another way to […]

Global Corn Demand to Grow 2.2% a Year

Growing demand for food in developing countries will continue to be a major driver of demand for corn and soybeans over next past decade, according to a new USDA report released last week called Long-Term Prospects for Agriculture Reflect Growing Demand for Food, Fiber, and Fuel.   Average Annual Growth in Global Demand Oilseed meals […]

Number of Farms in the United States

The New York Times has an interesting article on the resurgence in interest in farming amongst the young and college educated For decades, the number of farmers has been shrinking as a share of the population, and agriculture has often been seen as a backbreaking profession with little prestige. But the last Agricultural Census in […]

Oil prices hurt French, make government unpopular

The french demanding lower fuel prices! September 2012

Matt Damon stars in natural gas film

A salesman for a natural gas company experiences life-changing events after arriving in a small town, where his corporation wants to tap into the available resources. Director: Gus Van Sant Writers: John Krasinski (screenplay), Matt Damon (screenplay), and 1 more credit » Stars: Matt Damon, Frances McDormand and John Krasinski | See full cast and crew […]

3 Mega Forces of the Energy Trade

There are very few sure things in markets and investing. So I don’t say this lightly: the price of a barrel of crude oil will average over $125 this decade. Even if I’m wrong, you will want to explore my logic. Because even if I’m too bullish by $25 per barrel, there will still be […]

Fla. natural gas vehicle fueling stations planned

A Florida-based firm has opened a natural gas vehicle fueling station in Tallahassee and has plans for 15 more across the state and three in Georgia. Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, the state’s top energy official, was on hand for Tuesday’s opening of Netpetro’s Tallahassee station. The Leon County School District is partnering with the firm. […]

Transition yourself

The climate has gone rogue, energy prices are threatening, and the economy sucks. You know the elections aren’t going to make it better. Why wait for government? You can protect your community and yourself by helping your town withstand the shocks. This program is about the Transition Town Movement and local power. We begin with […]

Energy: The Book

ENERGYtakes an unflinching look at the environmental devastation created by our thirst for energy — including supposedly “clean” renewable sources. From oil spills, nuclear accidents, and mountaintop-removal coal mining to oversized wind farms and desert-destroying solar power plants, virtually every region of the globe is now experiencing the consequences of out-of-control energy development. Essentially no […]

Qatar – Rich and Dangerous

The first concern of the Emir of Qatar is the prosperity and security of the tiny kingdom.  To achieve that, he knows no limits. Stuck between Iran and Saudi Arabia is Qatar with the third largest natural gas deposit in the world.  The gas gives the nearly quarter of a million Qatari citizens the highest […]

Tesla Motors Launches Revolutionary Supercharger Enabling Convenient Long Distance Driving

Tesla Motors( NASDAQ : TSLA ) today unveiled its highly anticipated Supercharger network. Constructed in secret, Tesla revealed the locations of the first six Supercharger stations, which will allow the Model S to travel long distances with ultra fast charging throughout California, parts of Nevada and Arizona. The technology at the heart of the Supercharger […]

Mysterious Virus Emerges in the Middle East

Global health authorities are hunting for cases of a mysterious viral respiratory illness that killed at least one person in Saudi Arabia and left another who traveled there in intensive care in a U.K. hospital. Health officials said the source of the virus infecting both is unknown, though they have identified it as a coronavirus, […]

Global population is food for thought

PICK a number and forecast global growth population by 2060.You know that by 2050 it will be nine billon. Exponentially that figure will increase to 10b by 2060, according to consultant Julian Cribb, author of The Coming Famine. Mr Cribb told delegates at last week’s Global Agribusiness Conference the consequences of global population growth were […]

Is shale oil production from Bakken headed for a run with “The Red Queen”?

In this post I present the results from an in depth time series analysis from wells producing crude oil (and small volumes of natural gas) from the Bakken (Bakken, Sanish, Three Forks and Bakken/Three Forks Pools) formation in North Dakota. The analysis uses actual production data from the North Dakota Industrial Commission as of July […]

‘Demand Response’ in Electricity: Economists vs. FERC on (Over)Pricing

As noted here at KP in August, a group of electric power economists (including me) filed an amicus brief on FERC’s demand response pricing rule. At the Master Resource blog, Travis Fisher examines the issue with some detail. Here is a bit: In Order No. 745, FERC reasoned that, “when a demand response resource has […]

Meanwhile in Oklahoma

Here in Oklahoma what you have been predicting for some time is here already, with exception to the full brunt of the collapse. The grocery still has food, the system is still operating, but we are all essentially indigent. For example, I am now out of dishwashing liquid and running low on laundry detergent; they […]

Why Germany Owns 1/3 of the World`s Photovoltaics

According to Global Market Outlook for Photovoltaics until 2016 (EPIA, 2011), about 36 percent of the total worldwide photovoltaic capacity is installed in Germany. Apart from Italy at 18 percent, the rest of the world is far behind. The United States is sitting at a mediocre 5th place with 6 percent of the total capacity. […]

South Invited to ‘De-Grow’

“We should find the way, with our small degrowth movement in the global North, to align ourselves with the environmental justice movement originating with indigenous peoples from the South,” Catalan ecological economist Juan Martinez-Alier said at the third international degrowth conference in Venice, Italy. Degrowth is popular concept particularly in France, Italy and Spain, and […]

Oil price reporting escapes regulation

Global financial regulators have backed away from a proposal to regulate oil price reporting media, recommending a set of guidelines that largely reinforce their existing practice in assessing prices of the world’s biggest traded commodity. The conclusion was detailed in a draft final report of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), Principles for Oil […]

Visualizing Peak Oil: Hype, Hope, Boom, Or Bust

While oil prices have slid in their ubiquitous post-QE manner in the last few days, they remain notably elevated amid growing tensions in Iran and central bank largesse spillovers. These short-term fluctuations, however, pale in significance to long-run implications of peak-oil and whether it exists or not. From cost implications to technological innovation and demand […]

Seneca and Hubbert global collapse scenarios put into modern perspective:

A friend of mine sent me a link a few weeks back with an article written by Ugo Bardi an Italian professor, with an interesting take on Seneca’s view that growth happens at a much slower pace than irreversible economic contraction. Comparing it to the Hubbert curve, which reflects natural resource production curves; he sees […]

Coal and Nuclear Power Can’t Substitute for Pricey Oil

About 40 percent of the world’s electric power is generated from burning coal, which is second only to oil in contributing to global energy use. And affordable coal may soon be running out just as fast as affordable oil is. No resource can withstand the pressure of an exponential growth in demand. China burned 3.7 […]

Shale Oil Reserves: A Game Changer Or Just Over Hyped?

Part of the peak oil debate is a discussion on how much oil is “left” for people to consume. Those who reject peak oil (or at least the “doomsday” forms of it) often point to unconventional oil sources as shale oil, oil sands, and even non-oil sources like natural gas or renewable energy. For example, […]

Balancing food, weather, and population

Cyclical or secular? That’s the question economists, historians, climatologists, farmers, consumers – just about anyone with an interest in the future, which is more or less everyone – are trying to answer. During bad times, the idea of cyclicality is encouraging. We can ride out hardship because prosperity is just around the corner – although […]

Water scarcity a growing problem, experts say

By 2030, half the world’s population will live in areas where water is scarce, a panel of water experts at the National Geographical Society said Tuesday. Speakers at the conference sponsored by GrowingBlue emphasized the need to solve the problem now by using global response strategies, rather than waiting until the problem peaks. An area […]

US links Iran’s state oil company to Revolutionary Guards

The U.S. government officially linked Iran’s state oil company to the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Monday, a determination that enables the United States to apply new sanctions on foreign banks dealing with the National Iranian Oil Company. But in a report to Congress, the Treasury Department said there was not enough information at […]

Susan Krumdieck: Peak Oil

Susan Krumdieck from the university of Canterbury discussing peak oil. January 2012

Kunstler: Duty

I drove the eight miles from Cambridge to Greenwich, New York, around eight o’clock and the night was bell-jar clear. A scrim of deepest blue sky backlit the landscape of tender hills and valleys while on the ground I wended the twisting two-lane state highway 372 with my brights amplifying the yellow road signs and […]

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