Tech Talk – The Dangers of Complacency

Perceptions based on perhaps too small a collection of information can lead into opinions that, on investigation, turn out to be incorrect. Just recently a couple of friends had mentioned that charities that they are associated with were seeing a decline in donations. I built this into a picture of the general public being less […]

Levy nuclear plant more costly than a natural gas facility

In the long run, nuclear power is cheap. This, for many of Florida’s top decisionmakers, is the Truth. Lawmakers have cast aside their worship of the free market — which long ago lost trust in building nuclear plants — and skewed state law to favor construction of new reactors. Lisa Edgar is a believer. As […]

The Monarchs of Money

The Monarchs of Money The world’s central banks have printed unimaginable amounts of money in recent years. Neil Macdonald explores what this means for the global economy and for your financial well-being.

Feeding the Nine Billion

Global food prices have leapt in the past few years and there are fears that if the world’s population goes on growing, many more people will go hungry. A terrible prospect, but is it true? And if so, what is to be done about it? Peter Day chairs a roundtable discussion with experts from around […]

Bye-Bye Baby Boomers

A May 2 article in the New York Times “Suicide Rates Rise Sharply In US” informed us that not only have suicide rates increased in the past decade among teens and the elderly, but more surprisingly, they have surged among the baby boomers. Ten days later, an article on the Alternet website asks, “Is Cutthroat […]

How oil travels around the world, in one map

Here’s a neat map looking at how oil travels by sea around the globe — focusing on the key “choke points” where that oil supply is most vulnerable to attack: Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration That map comes from this recent reporting project on U.S. energy security by nine student journalists at the Medill National Security Journalism […]

How Big Oil Uses the Republican Party to Subvert American Democracy

In a surprise move, the eight Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee yesterday blocked a floor vote on President Obama’s nominee, Gina McCarthy, as EPA Administrator. In doing so the Republican senators broke their earlier promisadditione to move McCarthy’s nomination if she answered an unprecedented 1079 written questions, a quest she […]

Exxon and Qatar plan to ship US natural gas to Britain

Exxon Mobil and Qatar Petroleum announced an agreement on Thursday to ship liquefied natural gas to Britain from their proposed export plant in the United States, offering another supply stream to the island nation as domestic output dwindles. Under the deal, the companies would send up to 15.6 million tonnes of LNG each year to […]

Energy Demand: Devaluing Oil

Take a look at all the “junk” you have lying around in your garage, basement, attic, closet, etc. Are you doing anything with it? Are you trying to sell it? Have you ever had a yard sale and realized that all that old junk isn’t really worth that much? That maybe for the meager amount […]

The Obama Administration’s Natural Gas Policy Is Tragically Misguided

The Obama administration has come out in support of the idea of exporting U.S. natural gas. This stance is counterproductive and shortsighted, and if followed, it will prove harmful to domestic manufacturing (i.e., value generation) and to future generations of Americans. While exporting natural gas would certainly prove to be an economic boon for a very […]

Degrowth, Anti-Consumerism And Peak Consumption

Degrowth embraces the ongoing devolution of paid work and wealth that cannot be reversed. The anti-consumerism Degrowth movement is gaining visibility and adherents in Europe. Degrowth (French: décroissance, Spanish: decrecimiento, Italian: decrescita) recognizes that the mindless expansion of mindless consumption fueled by credit and financialization is qualitatively and quantitatively different from positive growth. Degrowth is based on a number of principles: […]

Author Dmitry Orlov on why he believes the U.S. is on the brink of collapse…and how to survive it

Attachment Size 42.44 MB Buck spoke May 3 with Dmitry Orlov, author of  the award-winning book Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects, and of the forthcoming The Five Stages of Collapse: Survivors’ Toolkit. Born in Russia, he moved to the U.S. while a teenager, and traveled back repeatedly to observe the Soviet collapse […]

Availability of oil in the long term is dubious, as oil prices could in fact retreat, helping the tanker market

The finite supply of oil could result in a highly unstable market environment if the oil market reaches its peak. According to a recent report from market analyst’s Poten & Partners, “conservationists and industry have been at odds over the ability of crude oil to continue to serve as a primary conduit for meeting the […]

Saudi Arabia Seeks Stable Crude Prices, Minister Al-Naimi Says

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, welcomes additional supplies from other producers that may help to stabilize prices, Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said. “New supplies are welcome,” Al-Naimi said today in a speech in Istanbul, where he traveled to meet Turkey’s energy minister Taner Yildiz. “They will add depth and, I hope, greater stability […]

The Coming Price War Between Crude Oil And Natural Gas

The big difference in energy these days, not just in the US but worldwide, is reliability of supply, particularly in the abundant availability of natural gas. That reliability allows, even forces, Natural Gas to be a major energy source competitor. Extractive technologies of the past century relied on the location and exploitation of intense pockets […]

No “Peak Natural Gas” Anytime Soon

One does not hear much these days about “peak oil”, as new technologies are developed and implemented that, together with market conditions, make feasible the exploitation of previously uneconomical or irretrievable deposits. A new report by the Diplomatic Center for Strategic Studies (DCSS), based in Kuwait, just published, confirms an International Energy Agency report from […]

Albert Oil-Sands Output Increased 10% in 2012

Alberta oil sands production increased 10 percent to 1.9 million barrels a day last year and will double to 3.8 million by 2022, the province’s energy regulator predicts. The increase came even as oil sands capital expenditures dipped 10 percent to C$20.4 billion ($20.35 billion) in 2012. Some companies cut budgets because of “increased pressure […]

An interview with Prof. Calvin Jones: “Economics is a child of the oil age”

The other day I read an excellent piece by Calvin Jones, Professor of Economics at Cardiff Business School (see right) called Technology Cannot Tackle Climate Change.  Having argued that, due to a range of issues, economic growth is no longer possible, he writes: “Faced with these issues it is easy to withdraw into either a […]

Garbage as Energy Commodity? Industry Booms in Europe

Oslo, Norway is known for many different characteristics; being Norway’s government capital, for one, along with being the economic hub for trade and home to over 1.4 million citizens.  One thing most people don’t know about Oslo however, is how much they really want your garbage. “I’d like to take some [garbage] from the United […]

At Least 9 More Decades for North Sea Oil

Oil and gas production in the UK North Sea can continue until the end of this century provided the right government policy decisions are made, according to Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing. Speaking to Rigzone at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston Tuesday afternoon, Ewing said: “In domestic terms, the [Scottish] industry is having a […]

Peak Oil’s Impact: Getting to School

Oil plays an essential role in almost everything that touches our everyday lives. From the food we eat to the means by which we transport ourselves, our goods, and our services, to what we grow, build, have, own, need, and do, oil is almost always an important element. But the painful truth now and soon […]

The Reality & Effects Of Peak Oil

compilation video…

Shell presses ahead with world’s deepest offshore oil well

Royal Dutch Shell is pressing ahead with the world’s deepest offshore oil and gas production facility by drilling almost two miles underwater in the politically sensitive Gulf of Mexico. The move is being viewed in the oil industry as a demonstration of Shell’s confidence that its technology can deliver returns on expensive and risky offshore […]

Canada Betting On Large-Scale Carbon Capture

Canada is betting that carbon capture and storage (CCS), a technology that is fairly well understood but unproven at the scale needed to significantly decrease greenhouse gas emissions, can reduce the environmental footprint associated with making fuel from oil sands—its fastest-growing source of greenhouse-gas emissions. (See “Alberta’s Oil Sands Heat Up.”) If things go as […]

The Price Of Copper And 11 Other Recession Indicators That Are Flashing Red

There are a dozen significant economic indicators that are warning that the U.S. economy is heading into a recession.  The Dow may have soared past the 15,000 mark, but the economic fundamentals are telling an entirely different story.  If historical patterns hold up, the economy is heading for a very rocky stretch. For example, the […]

U.S. Should Export Natural Gas, Not Coal

President Barack Obama’s suggestion last weekend that he may favor greater U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas is a welcome sign. More exports would spur more domestic production and help balance U.S. trade. LNG exports could also help counter the unsettling increase in American exports of coal to Europe. In 2012, the U.S. sent about […]

John Michael Greer: The Song Remains the Same

If you always do what you’ve always done, a popular saying nowadays has it, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten. Most people accept that readily enough in the abstract.  It’s when they attempt to apply this logic to their own lives and thinking that they get tripped up, because self-defeating patterns very often arise […]

Peak Oil Revisited – Oil Limits Are Now Debt Limits

LIMITS TO GROWTH Oil and energy limits are more complex than what we have imagined so far. The crossover from OECD Old World dominance of oil market demand, to Rest Of World dominance was more than 7 years ago, but the perception of what this means has been slow. Very slow.   Source: OilVoice Totally […]

Private energy investment is all the stimulus the economy needs

John Hofmeister former president of shell oil making some very interesting points around world oil demand and production. March 2013

Radioactive water was released into Lake Michigan before Palisades nuclear plant shutdown Sunday

Before Sunday’s shutdown of Palisades Nuclear Power Plant, about 79 gallons of diluted radioactive water were released into Lake Michigan, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday, May 6. But by the time the water reached the lake, the level of radioactivity had been diluted to the point where it did not represent a health or […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy