Cheaper Oil: Chaos or Prosperity?

Could “Falling oil prices could spark global turmoil?” Steve Hargreaves seems to think so in his piece by that name published on CNNMoney. While mentioning some economic benefits of falling oil prices, the article focuses on how a significant drop in oil prices could lead to geo-political instability, especially in OPEC nations and other oil […]

Iran on verge of electricity shortage, again

Iranian Energy Ministry warned that, if citizens do not decrease electricity consumption, electrical outages will be inevitable, Jahanesanat daily quoted Iran’s Energy Ministry as saying. Reserve power capacity at Iran’s power plants currently stands at 500 megawatts, which indicated a 3000 to 3500 megawatts fall compared to the first three weeks of the summer, the […]

“Biggest Oil Discovery In 50 Years” Debunked

I like to listen to voices outside of the mainstream, but I don’t buy everything I hear. I bumped into this one from Joseph Farrell (click here) who I like for his geopolitical insights into what the Banksters are up to. He links to this piece: You’d think a discovery equivalent to Saudi Arabia would […]

Collapse And The Changing Face of Suicide, By Gary Stamper

We have a winner: According to the American Journal of Public Health, motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of death by injury between 2008 and 2009. However, that dubious distinction has been replaced by a disturbing new cause: Today, the form of death by injury that takes more American lives than any other is […]

Preparations under way to plug burning Gulf of Mexico wel

The owner of a ruptured shallow-water natural gas well in the Gulf of Mexico is ready to drill a relief well to plug it once it obtains a permit, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said on Friday. Walter Oil & Gas, which owns the well that ruptured on Tuesday, has contracted with […]

Bomb attack halts oil flow through Kirkuk pipeline

A bomb attack halted crude flow through the pipeline running from Iraq’s Kirkuk oilfields to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in Turkey, officials at Iraq’s North Oil Company (NOC) said on Sunday. The attack took place at midnight on Saturday near the city of Mosul and the officials at state-run NOC said repair work would […]

Deadly clashes during pro-Morsi protest in Egypt

Dozens of people died early Saturday in Egypt after huge street protests pitted supporters of ousted Islamic President Mohammed Morsi against demonstrators backed by the Egyptian army. CBS News’ Clarissa Ward reports from Cairo that two different versions of events were being told by the different sides involved in the clashes. The Interior Ministry said […]

China, OPEC and the future of energy

Already guzzling more energy than the United States to feed its power-hungry manufacturing sector, China is expected to use twice as much energy as the United States by 2040. This from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s latest International Energy Outlook, released Thursday. The central theme, which hasn’t changed much in the last several years, is […]

Energy Risk: No More Blowouts, Dry Holes, or Abandoned Oil Wells

According to the Alberta Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, almost 400,000 oil and gas wells were drilled in the province during the period 1963 to 2012; for an average of about 8,000 per year. Of those, 154,111 have been abandoned or about 38.5 percent. The term ‘abandoned well’ means a well that is […]

Can Renewable Energy Grow Fast Enough to Make a Difference?

Across much of the globe, there is an insatiable hunger for energy to fuel growing economies. While the U.S. and Europe could see relatively flat-lined energy use in coming decades, it will rise considerably in non-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (non-OECD) countries between now and 2040, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). […]

Marc Faber: “It’s Gonna End One Day… Through War Or Financial Collapse”

Given more than his normal 30-second soundbite on mainstream media, Marc Faber is able to discuss in considerably more detail his views on the massive growth in global financialization (when compared to real economies) noting that “one day, this financial bubble will have to adjust on the downside.” This will occur via either an inflationary […]

Iran stands high chance of winning chairmanship of OPEC

The headquarters of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Vienna, Austria (file photo) Sat Jul 27, 2013 7:1AM The election to pick OPEC’s secretary general is scheduled to be held in Vienna on December 4, with Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia vying for the post.” An Iranian lawmaker says chances are high for […]

TEPCO Faces New Setbacks at Fukushima Nuclear Plant

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has found itself thrust into the spotlight again over the last two weeks as a series of events at and around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station have triggered a large volume of negative press, government commentary, and regulatory backlash. The embattled utility clearly has its hands full on more […]

Debunking Gasland Part II

As many of you know, we put together a comprehensive debunk of Gasland Part II shortly after the film premiered in New York City in April. Since then, we’ve continued to expose the fraud that forms of the core of both Gasland and Gasland Part II, as well as director Josh Fox’s insistence on repeating […]

Peak oil? What peak oil?

Graph courtesy of Jean Laherrere (units are barrels per capita per year) Cassandra’s Legacy

Can Natural Gas Contribute Towards a More Sustainable World?

In recent years the natural gas industry has developed technologies which have opened up the possibilities of tapping into gases previously considered to be too difficult or too costly to utilise. Last year at the 25th World Gas Conference one of the key topics for conversation centred on continual innovation and how natural gas could […]

Energy Demand Soars as Asia, Africa Drive World Population Growth, Says U.N./Worldwatch

The current world population of 7.2 billion will grow to somewhere between 6.8 billion and 16.6 billion by the end of this century, according to a recent look at population growth by the United Nations’ demographers. Elements in the future mix include unexpectedly high fertility in a number of developing countries, as well as current […]

Less Than 1 Percent of Tar Sands Infractions Penalized

A new report finds that enforcement of environmental infractions by companies in the Alberta oil sands are 17 times lower than similar infractions reported to the United State’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The report [pdf], authored by the environmental non-profit Global Forest Watch, looked at more than fifteen years of data on recorded environmental mishaps by oil sand’s companies, […]

Changing fortunes

The world is changing or to borrow the Kaptaan’s phrase it has changed. In 1990, the US accounted for a quarter of the world’s GDP and China only four percent. Today the US’ share is less than one-fifth, while China’s has grown to 15 percent. Overall, the developed world accounted for 65 percent of the […]

Can Nuclear Energy Save Detroit?

In 1966, the Fermi I nuclear power plant, the only liquid metal cooled breeder reactor that provided commercial electricity in the United States, suffered a partial melt when an internal reactor component moved and partially blocked coolant flow. Fermi I was repaired by 1970 and restored to operating status for a couple of years, but […]

OGPSS – Of Egyptian Bread and Oil

The turmoil in the Middle East shows little sign of ending in the near future, and the potential lack of enough cheap fuel for the population is a warning that the levels of unrest may continue and even get worse. There is, however, some hope for enough local supply in the near term to help […]

Energy and the Economy–Basic Principles and Feedback Loops

Does a fish know that its nose is wet? Probably not. It swims in water, and assumes that is the only way any animal lives. We live in an economic world. Economic models that were developed years ago were created based on observations of how the economy seemed to work at the time. As time […]

The end of the world as we know it.

Ever wondered how our world may really end? Are we going to run out of food as our population reaches 9 Billion people…. or can we expect another Pandemic with millions dying from a virus outbreak? Leeds University in the UK which says food prices are going to soar as the world population booms to […]

World will use 56 percent more energy by 2040

Developing countries are driving the consumption of inexpensive fossil fuels, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Government intervention and international exchanges of low-carbon technology could help mitigate the effects of climate change, experts say. A laborer shovels coal at a local storage site in Jiande, Zhejiang province, in China. China and other emerging economies […]

Can a president control gas prices?

In the midst of the summer driving season, the price of a gallon of gas continued to rise this week, and President Obama’s job approval rating continued to fall. Inquiring minds want to know: Do Americans believe the president has any power to control gasoline prices? It turns out the answer depends on whether you […]

‘Crude for blood’ – return of sectarian war hits Iraq’s oil exports

Iraq’s Sunni insurgents are targeting its main northern oil pipeline, undoing plans for a massive increase in exports as violence reaches levels unseen since the darkest days of civil war. Iraq’s ambitious plans to ramp up its oil output have been held back by poor maintenance and technical problems. Violence is making the situation worse, […]

IBM solar collector magnifies sun by 2,000x

© IBM Cleverly combining solar PV with solar thermal to reach 80% conversion efficiency Concentrating the sun’s ray onto solar photovoltaic (PV) modules requires walking the fine line between optimizing power output and not literally melting your very expensive super-high-efficiency solar cells. A team led by IBM Research seems to have found a way to […]

Hydropower: the unsung hero of renewable energy

The Christian Science Monitor has the second article by Robert Rapier in a series on this year’s BP Statistical Review of Energy, this one looking at hydropower and geothermal power – Hydropower: the unsung hero of renewable energy. he also uses data from the latest REN21 Renewables Global Status Report. Hydropower accounts for more electricity […]

Reports of the Death of Peak Oil Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

A week or so ago, there was a mini-flurry of blog posts announcing that peak oil was dead. Thanks to shale oil, tar sands, heavy oil, deepwater oil, and all the other kinds of oil that the peakists didn’t know about, the world was now practically drowning in the stuff. The whole thing was very strange […]

Big Oil’s Alaska problem

The industry got a coveted tax cut from the state, but did it overreach? By Craig Giammona Alaska Governor Sean Parnell FORTUNE– Oil companies operating in Alaska scored a long-awaited victory this spring when Gov. Sean Parnell signed legislation significantly cutting state taxes on oil profits.  But even before Parnell put his pen to the tax […]

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