Utilities Feeling Rooftop Solar Heat Start Fighting Back

If you wonder why America’s utilities are rattled by the explosive growth in rooftop solar – – and are pushing back — William Walker has a story for you. A flip-flop wearing Walker stands in his driveway pointing to a ubiquitous neighborhood feature – solar panels on the roofs of five of six houses nearby. […]

DOE: Gas to outpace coal by 2040

Natural gas will overtake coal to provide the largest share of U.S. electrical power generation by 2040, according to the latest projections from the federal Department of Energy. Natural gas will produce about 35 percent of total U.S. generation, compared to 32 percent for coal, in 2040, according to the department’s Energy Information Administration estimates. […]

Norway’s shame: How a nation squandered its oil riches

Here’s a warning to America: Even a rich nation can be bled dry … by pandering to those who won’t work Some 50 years ago, Njord, the mythological Norsk god of wealth, smiled on the hardworking fishermen and lumberjacks, and presented Norway with the gift of oil. In financial terms, this was a handsome gift […]

Drill here? Maybe. Drill now? That’s impossible

Southern political leaders and the oil industry want to find out if there’s enough oil and natural gas off the Atlantic coast to justify drilling for it. That’s a reasonable request that should be part of the country’s energy plan. What’s not reasonable is some politicians’ leap to the conclusion that offshore oil and gas […]

Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth

Author, eco-activist and senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute (PCI) Richard Heinberg joins Sandy LeonVest to talk about, among other things, PCI’s new book, “Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth.” They discuss the folly of an economy whose very existence requires endless growth and ongoing environmental devastation on a planet of finite resources. […]

Syria’s Assad ‘has secret Iraq oil lifeline’

Illegal oil imports from Iraq have helped Damascus government keep country running, Reuters news agency reports. The Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad has received substantial imports of Iraqi crude oil from an Egyptian port in the last nine months, shipping and payments documents show, part of an under-the-radar trade that has kept his military […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: The Mother of All Bubbles

We can thank Saddam Hussein for contributing the saying “mother of” to the English language when he declared that any attack on Iraq would result in the “mother of all battles.” When applied to the peak oil story, “mother of all bubbles” fits nicely into the times in which we are living. Students of history […]

Iran Sanctions Bill Big Test of Israel Lobby Power

This week’s introduction by a bipartisan group of 26 senators of a new sanctions bill against Iran could result in the biggest test of the political clout of the Israel lobby here in decades. The government of President Hassan Rouhani has warned repeatedly that the demand that Iran dismantle its nuclear programme entirely is a […]

Brazil Advances in the Shale Game

Brazil, which has dazzled the world with the discovery of billions of barrels of pre-salt oil, has now moved into the shale game that has revolutionized the United States – despite the fact that the 12th tender Nov. 28 did not attract many companies. Winning bidders included 10 power firms. Petrobras, Brazil’s state controlled oil […]

Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals Linked to Fracking Found in Colorado River

The Colorado River flows through the town of Rifle in Garfield County, Colorado. Photo (taken 1972) by David Hiser, courtesy of U.S. National Archives, Flickr/Creative Commons. This week, more evidence came in that hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) poses potentially serious risks to drinking water quality and human health. A team of researchers from the University […]

On This Day In History, Gas Prices Have Never Been Higher

It seems not a day goes by when the mainstream media (or your local friendly asset gatherer) proclaims the drop in gas prices from a Middle-East-turmoiling Summer as “great news” and very positive and an implicit tax cut… as they try to juice hopes and dreams of a better-than-expected holiday spending season. The sad truth […]

US Should Tap the Offshore Goldmine

Back in 2011, at a fundraiser in San Francisco, President Obama remarked that “We have lost our ambition, our imagination, and our willingness to do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge.” Since his comments there has no doubt been a dramatic increase in domestic production of oil, natural gas and renewable energy. Through […]

The Man Who Predicted the Future for BP Says Peak Oil Is Nigh

In a year that saw the United States reach near-historic levels of fossil fuel production, it seemed that the words ‘peak oil’ were scarcely uttered. But it’s still a looming question, that we have yet to satisfactorily answer—when are we going to run out of oil? Have we already started to? A renowned geologist, and […]

About that EIA Hail Mary

The key take-away from the US EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook released one week ago jumps out in the graph below: US crude oil production should peak in 2016 at a level 26% higher than that projected just one year ago.  That’s an additional 2 million barrels a day (mb/d), pushing the US total to 9.6 […]

China to ease one-child policy early next year

Beijing said last month it would allow millions of families to have two children, the most radical relaxation of its strict one-child policy in close to three decades. Changes to China’s strict one-child policy, which will allow more parents to have a second child, will begin to roll out early next year, state media said. […]

A wonky look at some data: oil vs. gold, and gasoline on holidays

A look at two data points and what they mean… if they mean anything. We’ve looked at the relationship between gold and oil before. The relationship at present seems to be signaling that maybe the two of them are reflecting their own realities and not the historic relationship to each other. The number of barrels of […]

Shale Bubble

We’re being told that – thanks to technological advances like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling – the US is undergoing an energy revolution, leading us in a few short years to become once again the world’s biggest oil producer and an exporter of natural gas. According to the Oil & Gas Industry and their proponents, […]

Civil war looming in South Sudan as president says army ready to take on rebels

South Sudan president has threatened rebel held areas with a major offensive despite diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in the world’s youngest nation The last British evacuation flight took off just after midday as thousands of expatriates remained behind, hoping a descent into civil war could be averted. Troops loyal to Salva Kiir, the […]

U.S. Furious With Israel After Sale of Advanced Military Technology to China

The Israeli Defense Ministry’s Head of Defense Export Control, Meir Shalit, resigned last week after the United States expressed anger over a decision he made to sell sensitive military equipment to China, Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported on Sunday. At the time, Shalit did not provide a reason for his resignation. Washington asserted that his authorization […]

The efficient choice among combustion engines

Innovative hybrid diesel engine developed to run on natural gas Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an internal combustion engine that emits less than half the CO2 compared to a regular engine without compromising performance. This corresponds to fuel consumption of less than 2.4l per 100km. This natural gas-diesel hybrid engine is based on a […]

Apocalypse 2012: The one-year anniversary of Nothing Happened Day

Three hundred and sixty-five days ago, millions of people felt a growing sense of — I was going to write “relief,” but it might have been “disappointment” — when the world didn’t end on Fake Mayan Prophecy Day. Social media users around the world greeted the non-event with the kind of viral mockery everyone loves these […]

Peak Oil, Check. Peak Gas, Check. Peak Food? What?

Food may run out long before the oil does. A study by scientists at the University of Nebraska warns of “abrupt plateaus or declines” in industrial agricultural production. As much as “31% of total global rice, wheat and maize production” has experienced “yield plateaus or abrupt decreases in yield gain, including rice in eastern Asia […]

‘Shahed 129’ IRANS newly unveiled ATTACK DRONE

The Islamic Republic of Iran has launched the mass-production of the indigenously developed Shahed 129 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which was unveiled in September 2012, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced. The drone was displayed recently in an armed configuration, carrying four guided missiles (Sadid) loaded on two twin-launchers, carried underwing. Iranian sources stated […]

Peak Oil: Jeremy Leggett: The Energy Of Nations

The Energy of Nations — Risk Blindness and the Road to Renaissance Founder and Chairman, Solarcentury and SolarAid; Chairman, CarbonTracker Key note at WWF Climate Colver Conference 2013, Stockholm, Sweden. November 2013

Former BP geologist: peak oil is here and it will ‘break economies’

Industry expert warns of grim future of ‘recession’ driven ‘resource wars’ at University College London lecture A former British Petroleum (BP) geologist has warned that the age of cheap oil is long gone, bringing with it the danger of “continuous recession” and increased risk of conflict and hunger. At a lecture on ‘Geohazards’ earlier this […]

Canadian Approves Plans for an Oil Pipeline

An environmental and economic review panel approved plans for a pipeline and port project that, if built, will move oil from Alberta’s oil sands to tankers on Canada’s Pacific Coast. After approval stalled in Washington for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would link the oil sands to the United States Gulf Coast, the Enbridge Northern […]

UK Willing to Develop North Sea Rhum Gas Field Shared with Iran

TEHRAN (FNA)- The UK voiced willingness to support resumption of gas production from Rhum gas field after Iran decided to develop the field. British government had in 2010 stopped gas production in Rhum field, which is co-owned by British Petroleum and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), due to sanctions imposed on Iran, announcing that […]

Study Links Fracking to Sex Change in Animals

Reuters Protesters were arrested during clashes with police at Balcombe over fracking The debate about the rights and wrongs of hydraulic fracturing – “fracking” – to extract natural gas from shale rock looks set to become even more heated. Scentists in the United States have published a study claiming that many of the chemicals used […]

Hurrah! The European Union Will Not Be Regulating Fracking For Natural Gas

One of the worries that we over here in Europe have had is that the European Union will decide to regulate the practice of fracking for natural gas. No, this isn’t because we believe (nor that I believe either) that there should be no regulation at all. Rather, because the EU itself is the wrong […]

An upside for energy

In the oil patch, we’re used to the roller-coaster of boom and bust. And even in a time of boom, as 2013 was for the industry, the thoughts of bust can never be that far away. In October, for the first month in nearly two decades, the industry extracted more oil from United States soils […]

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