The Global Food Crisis & Bernanke’s Recipe for Disaster

Our goal is to help as many people as possible become aware of the disaster we are rapidly approaching with the end of cheap resources. In our opinion, the wealth of most Americans could get wiped out during the next decade due to commodity inflation. Focusing on your real purchasing power, altering your lifestyle, and […]

Why Things Are Falling Apart… And What We Can Do About It

To understand the reasons why our financial system, our economy and our present policies are unsustainable, we need to come to grips with two simple truths. First, the economy and government are an interconnected system. As such the party attempting to steer it does not have controlling power over it. The second fact is that […]

The Pros and Cons of Natural-Gas Vehicles

Clean. Abundant. Cheap. Domestic. What’s not to like about natural gas? So why not use it to power a car? Most Americans think of natural gas as a fuel source to heat their homes or run their clothes dryers or stoves. But natural-gas cars have been zipping around foreign highways for decades. According to the […]

Warnings of oil running out are just baloney

How much would you pay for a barrel of Irish rainwater? Not much I guess, as it is heavily oversupplied despite being told that water is an increasingly scarce resource worldwide. This baloney about world ending “facts” applies to the oil market too, and anyone betting on oil prices rising continuously are advised to think […]

The Rape of Fukushima Dai-Ichi

Dressed all in white from head to toe (including a respirator), it was a shotgun wedding.  Or worse, a rape.  But one way or the other, U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials were out to force themselves and their radiation on a helpless Japan — again.  Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945.  More than a hundred thousand […]

Robert Rapier: Grading My Energy-Related Predictions for 2012

In my list of Top 10 Energy Related Stories of 2011, I made five predictions for 2012. Those predictions were: President Obama will easily win reelection, which means that energy policies will likely continue along the current trajectory. The Keystone Pipeline project will be approved (although that decision may still slide into 2013). Natural gas […]

World Bank pledges $900 million for Iraq

The World Bank pledged $900 million to Iraq over the next four years to help it create jobs, build stronger institutions and improve social inclusion, the global development lender said in a statement on Tuesday. Iraq’s government developed the strategy with the World Bank, the private sector, and other stakeholders to focus especially on better […]

Solar power adds to nonusers’ costs

Booming rooftop solar installations in California are bringing an unwelcome surprise to the homes and businesses that don’t have the devices: an extra $1.3 billion added to their annual bills, more than half of that for Pacific Gas & Electric customers. Power companies in the state, the nation’s biggest for solar power, are required to buy […]

Asia to North America: Eat My Dust!

North Americans breathe dust, pollutants, and microbial spores that cross oceans and mountain ranges without difficulty. University of Washington researchers describe the phenomenon in a recent issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Plumes of Dust & Microbial Spores   For the first time researchers have been able to gather enough biomass in the form of […]

Supply surge jolts ‘peak oil’ theory

The entrenched notion that the world will soon start running short of oil was jolted earlier this year when an expert study concluded that, contrary to what most people believe, oil-supply capacity is expanding so fast that it will outpace consumption by a wide margin in the next few years. The study by Leonardo Maugeri, […]

A Big, and Risky, Energy Bet

Qatar — The compact assembly of towers, tubes and tanks that make up the Oryx natural gas processing plant is almost lost in a vast petrochemical complex that rises here like a hazy mirage from a vast ocean of sand. But what is occurring at Oryx is a particular kind of alchemy that has tantalized […]

ExxonMobil Set to Explore Offshore South Africa

Exxon Mobil Corporation announced Monday that its affiliate, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production South Africa Limited, will soon begin exploration activities offshore South Africa. The ExxonMobil affiliate signed an agreement with Impact Africa Limited (Impact), a subsidiary of Impact Oil & Gas Limited, to acquire a 75 percent participating interest in the Tugela South Exploration Right […]

Oil Imported, Than Refined Products Exported From USA By “Our Oil Companies”

In 2011, the United States consumed more than 97 quadrillion Btu (quads) of energy, despite only producing about 78 quads. The difference—about 18 quads—reflects the balance of imports and exports of energy. Petroleum, which includes crude oil as well as petroleum products, accounted for a majority of both energy imports and exports. The United States […]

Exploration, development spending fuels growth in worldwide oil and gas reserves

As a result of growth in Asia-Pacific gas reserves, investments in Canada’s oil sands and the dramatic increase of US shale reserves, worldwide oil and gas reserves increased in 2011. Worldwide oil reserves grew by 1% in 2011, while gas reserves rose by 4%. Oil and gas revenues experienced 27% growth in 2011. Nearly 20% […]

Kunstler: America the Horror Show

Finally the USA has an act that perfectly expresses its true spirit as the horror show nation among nations: the random mass slaughter of little children by a maniac. Is it not so that the failure to protect little children from harm is the most shameful weakness an adult human can present?      Next, […]

Interview Professor Kjell Aleklett: The great energy journey

Interview: Professor Kjell Aleklett of Uppsala University has recently published the book Peeking at Peak Oil that has aroused considerable attention worldwide. The professor’s energy journey that culminated in this book began at a meeting of the Liberal Party of Sweden in Katrineholm in 1995. Uppsala University will soon institute a full-scale research programme in […]

Heinberg: Conflict and Change in the Era of Economic Decline: Part 4 – Post-carbon governance

The following is Part 4 of an essay which was originally an address to the International Conference on Sustainability, Transition and Culture Change, November 16, 2012, by Richard Heinberg Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Are we headed toward a more autocratic or democratic future? There’s no hard and fast answer; the outcome may […]

“Peak farmland” is here, food crop area to fall

The amount of land needed to grow crops worldwide is at a peak and an area more than twice the size of France can return to nature by 2060 due to rising yields and slower population growth, a group of experts said on Monday. The report, conflicting with U.N. studies that say more cropland will […]

U.S. to send troops, Patriot missiles to Turkey

The United States and Germany are sending Patriot missiles and troops to the Turkish border, a warning to Syria’s besieged President Bashar al-Assad. The surface-to-air interceptors would be “dealing with threats that come out of Syria,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Threats would include Syrian strikes inside Turkey and fighting between the government and […]

Iraq’s Oil Boom Being Felt Far and Wide

Iraq’s post-war production boom is having ramifications both within and beyond its borders. BP is seeking to redefine the terms of its contract for the giant Rumaila oilfield, the Financial Times reports, proposing to scale back its output target as it struggles with poor infrastructure and export bottlenecks. Rumaila accounts for about one-third of Iraq’s current […]

In growing global market for energy, coal still dominates

A surge in natural gas production in North America and regulatory assaults in the US can give the impression that coal’s future is grim. Not so, says Energy-Facts.org. The misimpression can be especially strong in the US, where gas prices very low by international standards and regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency are displacing coal […]

What everybody ought to know about energy

If you’ve ever looked for an iron-clad case that the fossil energy supply is out-of-control, over-the-top destructive –of planet, wildlife, people’s health and culture– then check out Energy, the latest publication of the Post Carbon Institute. The word “breathtaking” has become cliche when put with “photographs” but here it really applies. You will gasp aloud […]

Will Israel Sell its Natural Gas to China?

Several issues related to the production of natural gas in Israel’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) have not yet been properly analyzed and no decision concerning them has been adopted. Some of these issues have economic as well as political strategic implications, and particularly as they are within an industry that is guided by long term […]

Previous long-term government, industry oil forecasts badly overestimated supply; why should we listen now?

[I]f you’re still operating under the assumption that the earth’s petroleum–or at least the cheap stuff–is about to run out, you’re not going to thrive in the new oil era. Technology is making it possible to find, produce, and refine oil so efficiently that its supply, at least for practical purposes, is basically unlimited. –Businessweek, […]

Iran says oil revenues down by half

Iran’s oil revenues have been cut in half this year compared with last year, a newspaper quoted Iran’s economic minister as saying, an admission of how deeply Western sanctions are cutting Tehran’s chief source of funds. U.S. and European Union sanctions are designed to slash oil revenues to starve Tehran of funds that might be […]

Tech Talk – Iran and the new EIA and OPEC Reports

With the possibility that demand for Iranian oil may fall below 1 million barrels a day (mbd) as sanctions continue to bite, Iran has announced that it wants OPEC to cut back production to the agreed quotas, rather than the overall additional 1 mbd that is actually being produced, and sold. Such a move would, […]

Fracking’s Future

  Supplies of natural gas now economically recoverable from shale in the United States could accommodate the country’s domestic demand for natural gas at current levels of consumption for more than a hundred years: an economic and strategic boon, and, at least in the near term, an important stepping-stone toward lower-carbon, greener energy. But even […]

Fixing the Future

Host David Brancaccio tackles one of the toughest challenges facing Americans today: How does our country create jobs that pay well and build prosperity? Brancaccio travels across America uncovering innovative community and small business projects pioneered by inspirational personalities.

Canada in 2013: It’s all about the oil

Canada is in a fortunate position relative to other developed Western nations. Our government is stable. Our budget deficit is small. Our real estate market is healthy (if somewhat overheated). And unemployment is relatively low. Only the occasional flourish of Quebec separatism keeps things lively in the Great White North. The biggest challenge my country […]

Exxon’s Dangerous Energy Outlook

ExxonMobil presented its latest Energy Outlook report recently, the 2013 Outlook for Energy: a view to 2040 (pdf). The report is chock full of figures and graphs showing an inexorable rise in global energy demand and supply and the growing market for Exxon’s products. As can be expected, the report shows that despite some recent efficiency gains, […]

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