Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System

I am currently reading Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System.  From the summary: The electric power delivery system that carries electricity from large central generators to customers could be severely damaged by a small number of well-informed attackers. The system is inherently vulnerable because transmission lines may span hundreds of miles, and many key […]

A New Global Currency; the Rise of the East; and Peak Oil – Erik Townsend

Episode 126: Alasdair Macleod interviews Erik Townsend (http://ErikTownsend.com) — a specialist on “peak oil investing” and a contributor to the popular Financial Sense website. Erik sees short-term strength in the dollar due to capital flight out of other markets. But long term, America’s problems will mount, and the country will need to address serious issues. […]

Saudi Aramco Says 2012 Output Rises to Record 9.51 MMbopd

State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, saw its average crude production rise to 9.506 million barrels a day in 2012, the highest level in more than three decades, up from 9.067 million barrels a year earlier amid output outages in Libya and Western sanctions against Iranian crude. Recoverable and proven crude-oil and condensate reserves […]

Peak water?

Two words that fill many economists with dread are ‘peak oil’. The phrase is meant to signify that moment when oil production peaks, and falls into decline. What will happen when that day occurs? Will we see the end of economic growth, or will we barely notice it, so rich will we be in renewable […]

Gail Tverberg: Oil Limits and Climate Change

They say that every cloud has a silver lining. If future energy consumption (which is mostly fossil fuel) drops because of a financial collapse brought on by high oil prices and other limits, then, at least in theory, climate change should be less of a problem.  One of the important variables in climate change models is […]

Accelerating loss of biodiversity poses serious threat to human survival

A decline in the diversity of farmed plants and livestock breeds is gathering pace, threatening future food supplies for the world’s growing population, the head of a new United Nations panel on biodiversity said on Monday. The new head of a global organization, dedicated to strengthening communication between policymakers and biodiversity scientists, has issued a […]

Drilling Faster Just To Stay Still: A Proposal To Use ‘Production Per Unit Effort’ (PPUE) As An Indicator Of Peak Oil

Within the fields of harvest and fisheries management catch per unit effort (CPUE) is one method that is used to determine the health of a biological resource. The underlying assumption is that as a population declines it becomes harder to catch and therefore CPUE decreases. Effort can be measured in a number of ways. In […]

Peak Oil and Transition

full documentary…

Peak Oil: Game-Changer

An observation worth noting … and pondering, from Michel Desjardins: We have become increasingly aware that there are fundamental constraints to ongoing economic expansion, that perpetual growth on a finite planet is a fool’s dream. If Peak Oil is here – and there is solid evidence showing that it is – then it means we […]

Difference Engine: Fuel for the future?

AMERICA’S unexpected, and most welcome, bonanza of natural gas from its vast shale deposits seems to be doing as much to reduce pollution as many of the efforts introduced over the years to restrict emissions from vehicles, power stations and other sources. The biggest breakthrough the energy industry has seen in decades, hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) […]

Peak Collateral

I wonder if we are reaching what we might call ‘Peak Collateral’?  That state when the creation of assets, which the market will accept as collateral, is insufficient to sustain the demand for credit. It’s funny isn’t it, how the terms we use, or are encouraged to use, have such an influence on how an […]

Fracking could ruin German beer industry, brewers tell Angela Merkel

German brewers have warned Chancellor Angela Merkel that any law allowing the controversial drilling technique known as fracking could damage the country’s cherished beer industry. The Brauer-Bund beer association is worried that fracking for shale gas, which involves pumping water and chemicals at high pressure into the ground, could pollute water used for brewing and […]

The UK Oil Peak and its Terminal Decline

Did you know that: – the UK has reached its Oil peak in 1999 ? – the oil production has decreased by 7.5% for 12 hear in a row ? – the oil production is down by 64% from its peak ?

The Enron analog

The Executive Branch of the US government is beginning to look like Enron just before bankruptcy. That’s not to say the administration of Barack Obama has criminals in high office, as Enron did. The basis for comparison here is consistent, unabashed, and in too many instances motivational hubris. The title of a 2003 book by […]

Iran: Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah clinically dead

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz is reported to be clinically dead as the monarch is not recently seen in the public. A Saudi journalist working for London-Based Asharq Alawsat says the Saudi monarch has been clinically dead since Wednesday. He also quoted medical sources in Saudi Arabia as saying that the king’s vital organs, […]

The Unintended Consequences of Exporting Natural Gas

The best intentions during an election campaign have a habit twisting beyond recognition once a candidate is in power. I doubt when Barack Obama was teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago he thought that, once in the White House, his Administration would be responsible for one of the most chilling crackdowns on the […]

How Fiat Dies: FAQ for Hyperinflation Skeptics

This FAQ is for the frequently asked questions or objections common among hyperinflation skeptics.  The statements or questions in bold below are things hyperinflation skeptics say and my responses follow. How is hyperinflation defined? The International Accounting Standard of IAS 29 says there is hyperinflation when “the cumulative inflation rate over three years approaches, or […]

US shale boom starts to fade

The SMH has an article opining that prospects for US shale oil production are fading – US shale boom starts to fade. For the past three years, the boom in the US shale oil industry has outstripped all expectations. Production surged far faster than any forecasts; drillers raced to secure space in new pipelines to […]

Peak Oil: It’s Dead — Again?

“The IEA says Peak Oil is Dead. That’s Bad News for Climate Policy,” blares a Time magazine headline. But there’s just one problem. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has said no such thing. “New oil sources, many of them unlocked by new technology—the Canadian oil sands, tight oil in North Dakota and Texas, ultra-deep water […]

Memorial Day Driving By The Numbers

Following CAP’s piece yesterday that details exactly what it means to use gasoline to travel this Memorial Day weekend, here is an infographic that shows the cost of Big Oil. Gas prices are rising in the Midwest and spot crude oil prices for the West Texas Intermediate benchmark is nearly $5 per barrel higher than […]

Cutting Down Trees for Biofuels?

Cutting down trees to generate biofuels to substitute for fossil fuels can’t make sense in terms of carbon accounting, can it? I never thought so, but apparently some people have contended that it does. This Project Syndicate essay from Bjorn Lomborg addresses the question, and I think it’s worthy of consideration not just because I […]

OPEC May Keep Target as Oil Demand Set to Rise

OPEC may leave the group’s output target unchanged at Friday’s meeting in Vienna because increased demand in the next few months will help maintain the commodity’s price, a local energy analyst said. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will review the 30 million barrels a day production ceiling as demand in the U.S. […]

Israeli Vision for Electric Car Fades as Better Place Pulls Plug

Better Place LLC, the electric car venture backed by Israel’s President Shimon Peres as a way to wean the world off oil dependence, will shut down after failing to attract new investments. Better Place, which in January 2012 started its first commercial roll-out with 100 electric cars to Israeli customers, filed a motion for liquidation […]

Attenborough: endless growth ‘lunacy’

One of the world’s leading naturalists Sir David Attenborough has cautioned Australia against pursuing further population growth, labelling an unlimited expansion a kind of madness. Speaking before touring Australia next month, Sir David questioned why the country still found itself actively debating whether it needed to grow its population. ”Why would you want to do […]

Protecting Communities from Fracking’s Impacts

With fracking already underway in 30 states and advancing at a breakneck speed, safeguards have not been adequate to protect communities, public health or the environment. I’ve seen the damage from the oil and gas industry’s unfettered advance firsthand. My conversations with people whose lives have been dramatically impacted were heartbreaking and continue to inform […]

Mexico Could Become a Huge Importer of U.S. Natural Gas

Last week, the Department of Energy authorized the Freeport LNG project to export gas to countries that don’t have free-trade agreements with the United States. The project — a $10 billion plant in Quintana Island, Texas, partly owned by ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical, and Osaka Gas — is only the second LNG export venture to receive the department’s […]

Kuwait oil minister’s resignation accepted

The resignation of Kuwait’s oil minister Hani Hussein has been accepted, local media reported, after he came under pressure from lawmakers wanting to question him over a $2.2 billion compensation payment to Dow Chemical Co . Earlier this month the parliament speaker said some members of the cabinet had offered to resign, without giving details. […]

Carolyn Baker: Blogging From The AOL

No, not THAT AOL—not America Online, the monster internet provider we have all grown to know and hate. Rather, I’m sending you an update on the Age Of Limits Conference from a pristine, un-fracked place in Pennsylvania.   Above is a photo taken just at the entrance of the conference site and what those of […]

Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided?

Virtually every past civilization has eventually undergone collapse, a loss of socio-political-economic complexity usually accompanied by a dramatic decline in population size [1]. Some, such as those of Egypt and China, have recovered from collapses at various stages; others, such as that of Easter Island or the Classic Maya, were apparently permanent [1,2]. All those […]

Pemex: Output at 2.54 million bpd in first 4 months of 2013

Mexico City, May 25 (EFE).- Mexican state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos said it produced an average of nearly 2.54 million barrels per day in the first four months of 2013, nearly half of which was destined for export. Of the average of 2,538,000 barrels produced per day, 54 percent was heavy crude, 33 percent light […]

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