US congressmen favour export of natural gas to India

Top American lawmakers have strongly favoured export of US natural gas to India, in the absence of which, they said, the energy starved nation might be forced to join the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline. During a Congressional hearing on export of US natural gas, the lawmakers argued that it is in the national security interest of […]

The Power of Community. How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

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http://globalvillageproject.com This is a project of the Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions. Isolated geographically and politically, Cuba survived “peak oil”. Can their experiences help us be prepared?

The New Texas Land Rush

The boom in hydraulic fracturing brings a wave of oil barons buying luxury homes; demands include elevators, built-in grills and plenty of display space for trophy animals. The shale-oil boom in the Lone Star State has created a different kind of gusher: oil executives flush with cash looking to buy luxury real estate. “We can […]

Unprecedented Shortages Of Ammo, Physical Gold And Physical Silver

All over the United States we are witnessing unprecedented shortages of ammunition, physical gold and physical silver.  Recent events have helped fuel a “buying frenzy” that threatens to spiral out of control.  Gun shops all over the nation are reporting that they have never seen it this bad, and in many cases any ammo that […]

US: Syria chemical weapons case not airtight

White House says US spy agencies’ assessment that Syria used sarin gas was made with “varying degrees of confidence”. The White House said it was continuing to study assessments by US spy agencies that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons and would not set a timetable for corroborating reports. “I’m not going to set a timeline, because the […]

“Peak Rail” – Has The Crude Shipping Train Left The Station?

Some call it the “holy rail.” In Alberta Canada, an estimated 120,000 barrels of oil per day are shipped out by train to the U.S. east coast and Gulf coast region. By the end of the year – when several terminals are completed – that number could reach 200,000 barrels a day. Despite rail costs […]

America: On the Verge of Exporting LNG

In the past decade, drillers have unlocked so much unconventional play, that America is enjoying record gas supplies and prices that are just a quarter of what Eastern countries pay. It is estimated that the annual U.S. gas supply could grow a further 25 percent by 2035, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). […]

US would generally benefit from LNG exports, House panel told

Authorizing more liquefied natural gas exports potentially could increase domestic gas prices, but the US would benefit overall, witnesses told a US House Foreign Affairs Committee subcommittee. “The shale gas boom can continue to strengthen the US economy, cut carbon emissions, and bolster US national security if Congress and the administration make the right decisions,” […]

New York City Pension Funds Sue BP for Investment Losses

New York City’s pension funds, among the largest in the country, have brought a suit against BP PLC claiming their members lost $39 million as a result of BP’s actions before and after the Deepwater Horizon explosion. In a 237-page complaint, the pension funds allege their investments in BP were made at “artificially inflated” prices […]

Survival tips from the Gypsies

  Years of contact with the Roma, whom we also call “Gypsies,” have changed in many ways my view of the world. Not that I could penetrate more than superficially a culture that I found to be the most alien I even encountered and of which I don’t speak even one of the many dialects. […]

Peak Moment 231: Columbia Ecovillage (part 2) — Shaping a Life Together

What’s it like, living in an urban ecovillage? Barbara Ford finds that this size community enables people to contribute while doing what they love. Dennis Karas and his wife had to adjust to noise levels with more children around, but enjoy having many friends with shared values. All community members are trained in consensus decision […]

Canada’s Oil Minister, Unmuzzled

The last time your friendly scribe sought an interview with Joe Oliver, Canada’s minister of natural resources, he was turned down flat. It was February last year. Oliver had made a series of impolitic remarks about the efforts to block the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which, if it’s ever built, would import oil from the […]

What If We Never Run Out of Oil?

New technology and a little-known energy source suggest that fossil fuels may not be finite. This would be a miracle—and a nightmare. As the great research ship Chikyu left Shimizu in January to mine the explosive ice beneath the Philippine Sea, chances are good that not one of the scientists aboard realized they might be […]

Rebuilding the Foodshed: Fields of ENERGY

Over the coming days, we’ll be sharing material from Chapter 4 (Energy) of the latest Resilience guide, “Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to Create Local, Sustainable & Secure Food Systems“. This is a heck of a chapter, one that takes a look at the complex relationships between food systems, energy and waste. If you eat food, […]

Streetfacts #3: Roads Are a Money Losing Proposition

The majority of the roads and highways built in America are simply bad investments. Continuing this pattern will only ensure that wasteful projects consume larger chunks of our federal, state, and local budgets, without addressing the real need for transportation options. This Streetfacts chapter has a bit more math than usual, but we think we’ve made an […]

Natural gas becomes a fuel for the long haul

The natural gas boom has already upended the American power industry, displacing coal and bringing consumers cheaper electricity. Now the trucking industry, with its millions of 18-wheelers moving products like potato chips, underarm deodorant and copy paper around the country, is taking a leap forward in switching from petroleum to cleaner-burning natural gas. And if […]

Peak Oil Denial: Sticking To The Script (Pt 6)

This is the sixth in a series of posts [* links below] examining the latest entry straight from the playbook on peak oil denial—that seemingly never-ending attempt to ignore facts, mis-/under-inform readers, or create ever-rising levels of non-credible optimism. [NOTE: Any quotes in this series are taken from the above-referenced Manhattan Institute paper unless otherwise […]

John Michael Greer: The God With Three Heads

It’s been said that a man’s religion is the thing he can’t bear to have questioned. If there’s any truth in that old saying, the idea that faith in progress is a religion has a great deal going for it. Over the seven years this blog has been appearing, I’ve discussed any number of controversial […]

No lonely planet

Malthusians can breathe a sigh of relief: If current trends hold, human beings won’t fulfill doomsday predictions by making like rabbits after all. Thanks to the success of incessant fear-mongering, the world’s population is expected to peak soon and then begin a long slide downward. That’s fewer of us “defacing” the planet. A research team […]

How to solve overpopulation

Overpopulation and possible solutions to make the world sustainable took center stage in a presentation to Lions Club members by speaker David Paxson Wednesday. Paxson, of Minneapolis, Minn., is president of World Population Balance, a nonprofit organization. He explained to about 20 Lions Club members how many people the planet can sustain. “The human numbers […]

The ‘mess’ that oil made

We discuss the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico cleanup and how the US government remains divided over Keystone XL. Kidney damage, liver damage, and memory loss are just some of the health effects being reported by many who worked on the BP oil spill cleanup. Time and again, those working to clean up the […]

When will people start to understand peak oil?

Peak Oil will always be a controversial theory… always. But it’s a reality. What’s maddening is explaining it over and over again to people that don’t get it. For example, Dr. Sami Al-Nuaim recently wrote in the Saudi Gazette: In the last few years, there were several attempts from several non-specialized writers in the Saudi […]

The USD Reserve Exodus Continues – Australia Diversifies Reserves Into China

As we have discussed numerous times over the past year, there is a quiet movement among the world’s central banks to diversify their reserves away from the pejorative USD. Whether it is direct trade linkages, hording physical precious metals, or simply buying foreign sovereign debt, there is a trend emerging. The latest defection, as BusinessWeek […]

Iran’s Hosseini Discusses Economy, Oil, Rial

Shamseddin Hosseini, Iran’s minister of economic affairs and finance, spoke yesterday with Bloomberg’s Kambiz Foroohar and Peter Green about the country’s economy, oil exports and currency. (This is not a legal transcript. Bloomberg LP cannot guarantee its accuracy.) KAMBIZ FOROOHAR, BLOOMBERG NEWS: How concerned are you about rising inflation in Iran, and what measures are […]

Latest Saudi Arabian Oil Supply

I’m resolved to follow Saudi Arabia a bit more closely after the big cut-back this winter.  The above is the latest data: March shows a very slight increase in production (probably less than the uncertainties in the data, so we could call it basically flat over February).  There was also one extra oil rig in […]

‘Peak Fossil Fuels’ Is Closer Than You Think

Every time an iPhone is charged or an episode of “Mad Men” plays on a television, puffs of vaporized carbon join the atmosphere, products of power-plant combustion. And every year the world demands more. That era may be nearing an end, as the world approaches “peak fossil fuels,” a phrased used by Bloomberg New Energy […]

If Climate Change and Population Growth Are Going to Push Food Prices Up by 50%, What Happens When you Add in Peak Oil?

From the Japan Times: Former Irish President Mary Robinson’s foundation for climate justice is hosting a major conference in Dublin this week. Research presented there said that rising incomes and growth in the global population, expected to create 2 billion more mouths to feed by 2050, will drive food prices higher by 40 to 50 percent. […]

Test Your International Oil IQ

In last week’s column, we examined some oil production trivia involving US states. This week, we look at some international oil trivia covering the 5-year period 2007-2011, as well as some individual trivia from 2012. In this case, the data sources are the 2012 BP Statistical Review of World Energy and the Energy Information Administration. A table […]

The benefits of alternative farming methods

Small-scale farmers produce food for 70% of the global population. Yet, they are some of the world’s poorest and most food insecure people. Alternatives to conventional farming should be embraced to improve subsistence farmers’ yields and to ensure adequate food production for the growing global population. The stark reality, according to the International Food Policy […]

BP Oil Spill Worse Than Thought

Newsweek on the Deepwater Horizon spill The extent to which the 2010 explosion and collapse of Deepwater Horizon has affected the Gulf of Mexico and land abutting it has been obscured, writes Mark Hertsgaard, who reports on an ongoing trial against British Petroleum in Louisiana. “BP was warned in advance about the safety risks of attempting to […]

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