California oil well fracking regulations released

The Brown administration has released long-awaited proposed regulations for the controversial technique for drilling for oil and gas, hydraulic fracturing. The process, known as “fracking,” has been going on for decades in oil-producing regions of California but with no special oversight by state regulators. That changed earlier this year when Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB […]

World map of Peak Oil Production

This animated map is an excerpt from a conference presentation by Randy Park. It shows the peaking of oil production (peak oil) for countries around the world. It also shows oil consumption.

Sexual revolution leading to population decline crisis

The greatest crisis humanity will face in the 21st century, according to Don Feder, will not be global warming, disease, overpopulation, or any of the dystopian scenarios portrayed in science fiction. Instead, Feder believes, the crisis will be the so-called “Demographic Winter” stemming from a worldwide decline in fertility rates. “Sometime in this century we’re […]

World Population: How Many Billion?

In 1960, the population was about 3 billion. Now, in 2013, the world population is estimated to be about 7 billion. That’s right – in 50 years, the world population has doubled. And that means my parents and everyone in their generation have lived through a doubling in population. This got me to thinking: will the […]

In win for Big Oil, U.S. proposes biofuel mandate cut

The Obama administration proposed on Friday slashing federal requirements for U.S. biofuel use in 2014, bowing to pressure from the petroleum industry and attempting to prevent a potential fuel crunch next year. It was the first cut to renewable fuel targets written into a 2007 law, and seen as a clear win for oil refiners […]

China says not looking at broad one-child policy relaxation

China is not considering a broad relaxation of its strict one-child policy despite an easing of existing rules since it would be too disruptive, the health ministry said on Saturday. The government announced on Friday that it would allow millions of families to have two children in the country’s most significant liberalization of its strict […]

Natural Gas, Renewables, Biofuels, Crude on Growth Trajectory

The US Energy Information Administration boosted its forecast for US marketed natural gas production by 0.4 percent this year and nearly 1 percent for next year, according to comments of EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski, following the issuance of the November 2013 Short-Term Energy Outlook. “Domestic natural gas output reached record levels during the past several […]

‘Quite possible’ Iran, powers can reach nuclear deal next week

Major powers and Iran are getting closer to a first-stage agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program, a senior U.S. official said on Friday, adding it is “quite possible” a deal could be reached when negotiators meet November 21-22 in Geneva. “I don’t know if we will reach an agreement. I think it is quite possible […]

Scenario of inequality

The scenario of socioeconomic inequality worldwide, reaffirmed in various reports issued by international organizations like the UN, FAO, ILO, World Bank and others, is most unfortunate: one in three people do not have access to electricity , one in five does not have access to drinking water, one in six is illiterate. One in seven […]

Bakken Crude Production to Top 1 Million Barrels by December

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that total Bakken crude oil well output will pass the 1 million barrel of oil per day (MMbopd) mark in December. Bakken oil production is expected to rise by 26,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) from 976,000 bopd this month to just over 1 MMbopd in December, […]

The IEA raises a little warning flag on future oil production

By Kjell Aleklett Uppsala University Department of Geosciences and Visiting professor at University of Texas at Austin Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering On 12 November the International Energy Agency (IEA) released this year’s edition of their World Energy Outlook report, WEO-2013. I have not studied all the detail in the report but I listened […]

Energy Crunch: the global picture

Three things you shouldn’t miss this week The dwindling emissions budget if we are to limit global warming to no more than 2°C. Graphic: International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook 2013 Article: Shale’s Effect on Oil Supply Is Not Expected to Last –  According to a report released Tuesday by the International Energy Agency, production of such oil […]

The World in 50 Years – An Energy Perspective

The world of energy is rapidly changing before our eyes, providing solutions and creating problems at the same time and in a myriad of ways. Situations that were inconceivable only a few years ago are now the default position: the USA progressing from an ever expanding energy importer to an energy export powerhouse; the Middle […]

What’s Ahead? Lower Oil Prices, Despite Higher Extraction Cost

Nearly everyone believes that oil prices will trend higher and higher, allowing increasing amounts of oil to be extracted. This belief is based on the observation that the cost of extraction is trending higher and higher. If we are to continue to have oil, we will need to pay the ever-higher cost of extraction. Either […]

Is the Sharing Economy Here Yet?

Industrial Growth Economy Sharing Economy Purpose Facilitate the acquisition and ownership of property Facilitate access to the means of meeting needs Management Hierarchical management and control Collective stewardship in the common interest ‘Work’ Defined jobs at the discretion of owners The means of making a living for ourselves Financing of Activity Financial and venture capital […]

China To ‘Loosen’ Its One-Child Policy

Chinese state media has reported that the country’s one child policy is to be “loosened”, in what will be a major policy shift. The official Xinhua News Agency said the Communist party released a key document saying it will now allow couples to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. […]

When is the oil going to run out – and should we worry about it?

Energy experts have warned recently that Britain currently stores enough natural gas for only thirteen days of supply. Such a stark reality indicates how little reserve actually exists to fall back on. The news also brings to mind the concept of energy and fossil fuel shortage, depicted in movies such as ‘Mad Max’. But with […]

‘Don’t rely on shale oil’ warns International Energy Agency

The world faces a potential oil supply crunch and higher prices, according to the latest analysis by the International Energy Agency. The IEA said increasing shale oil output by the United States means middle east producers are delaying investing believing there will be an “abundance of oil” from shale, when in fact there will be […]

OPEC Is Yesterday’s News

Forty years have passed since the OPEC oil embargo of 1973. In that time span, the United States has increased its population by about half, nearly tripled its economic output, and nearly doubled its per capita GDP. While doing so, the U.S. has increased its oil consumption by just 7 percent. Despite those facts, fearmongering […]

Recollecting the false messiah of peak oil

Oil prices continue to decline, with WTI currently leading the charge: So where are the oil bulls of 2008 now? Hard to say. But long-standing oil market watcher Stephen Schork, of the Schork Report, offers some colourful views on the topic this Wednesday. They come in the shape of a somewhat self-congratulatory nostalgic yarn, but […]

Turning electricity into food

  Our paper published in the “Journal of Cleaner Production” where we discuss the possibility of using renewable electric energy to power all the phases of the agricultural process. For a copy of this paper, send a message to ugo.bardi(whirlywhirl)unifi.it. You know that when energy in agriculture is discussed, the paradigm is energy production in […]

Oil, natural gas industry presents economic opportunity

One of the most-watched indicators of our country’s economic health is employment. Through the past several years of slow economic recovery, we know that the oil and natural gas industry has been one of the few bright spots in our economy. A recent report shows the oil and natural gas industry supported more than 9.8 […]

IEA’s oil price pressures may be short-lived

The IEA has been struggling to find reasons to call on producers to help soften high oil prices for some time, and this month is no different. With surging volumes of US shale oil, sliding demand in the OECD, muted Chinese growth and amble industry oil stocks, you know things are probably all well with […]

Mexico Wants to Amend Its Constitution—to Drill for Oil

Mexico’s oil industry is in a bad way. The country’s once massive petroleum reserves have basically been sucked dry. Production is plummeting, and the state oil monopoly, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is hemorrhaging money. Unless something is done soon, for the first time in decades Mexico could fall from its coveted spot among the world’s top […]

Peak Oil: Using Energy To Get Energy # 2

[W]e must realize that all resources are inextricably interconnected, and also require energy to produce. We can’t overlook the reality that drilling apparatus and infrastructure needed to extract oil from shale also demand large quantities of steel, derived from iron ore, whose production and refinery in turn require energy. Huge energy costs are also inherent […]

IEA Says Mideast Disruptions Pose Risk to Oil Market

Supply losses in the Middle East and North Africa may offset rising shale oil output and push prices higher next year, the International Energy Agency said. Crude prices may “come under renewed upside pressure” as refiners returning from seasonal maintenance eat into supply already curtailed by unrest in Libya and Iraq, the agency said today […]

U.S. producing more oil than it imports

The United States still imports 35% of the petroleum it uses, but its oil production is on the rise while its consumption is falling. The United States tiptoed closer to energy independence last month when — for the first time in nearly two decades — it produced more crude oil than it imported, federal officials […]

Why the Government Now Cares What You Spend on Gas

locationaffordability.info The housing crisis was, of course, primarily about housing: housing that people couldn’t afford, housing that banks helped them finance anyway, housing that too many treated as a sure-fire investment. But in a less noticed way, the housing crisis was also very much about transportation. The money we spend getting around is largely dictated […]

Russia: Pipelines Of Empire

At this juncture in history, the fate of Europe is wound up not in ideas but in geopolitics. For millennia, eruptions from Asia have determined the fate of Europe, including invasions and migrations by Russians, Turkic tribes and Byzantine Greeks. Central and Eastern Europe, with their geographical proximity to the Asian steppe and the Anatolian […]

Rob Hopkins Introduces New Yorkers to the Transition Movement

The Transition movement, a grassroots response to climate change, focuses on local economic development.  In 2005 UK environmentalist Rob Hopkins created a unique organizing method to catalyze community level responses to climate change, as he set up what would be the first Transition initiative in the town of Totnes, England.  Hopkins co-founded the Transition Network in 2007 […]

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