Fukushima radiation found in California

Very small amounts of radiation from the 2011 meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant have been detected off the California coast, a scientist who has been monitoring the fallout said this week. Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said trace amounts of telltale radioactive compounds were found 100 miles west […]

Navy Sailors Dying From Fukushima Radiation Exposure

Navy Lt. Steve Simmons, retired, talks about how he and hundreds of sailors who were on a humanitarian mission to Fukushima, subsequently became gravely sick with rare cancers and other diseases consistent with radiation exposure.

The biggest oil dividend of all

©Bloomberg Not much is heard these days of “peak oil”. This is the argument, widely advanced less than 10 years ago, that the world had already passed the peak of sustainable oil production and that new discoveries – which would increasingly be small and incremental – could at best only slow the rate of decline. […]

Fossil fuels: The moral choice

“How does it feel to be the one person disagreeing with over 100,000 people?!” the protester at the People’s Climate March asked me. On that Sunday, September 21, when New York City was swarming with protesters chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, these fossil fuels have got to go,” I was asking for trouble holding a […]

The Population Challenge

When people think of the world’s “population problem,” they often focus on rapid demographic growth in parts of the developing world. But, globally, the population-growth rate is actually falling, and is expected to plateau later this century. Though we cannot afford to ignore the fact that, according to United Nations estimates, there will be 2.4 […]

IEA sees new era, no quick rebound in oil prices

The oil market has entered a new era with lower Chinese economic growth and booming U.S. shale output, making a return soon to high prices unlikely, the West’s energy watchdog said on Friday. The International Energy Agency, which typically refrains from predicting oil prices, said in its monthly report that prices could fall further in […]

The Olduvai cliff: are the lights going out already?

  Image from Li and Li, “international journal of remote sensing.” h/t Colonel Cassad“. The image shows the nighttime light pattern in Syria three years ago (a) and today (b). Those among us who are diehard catastrophists surely remember the “Olduvai Scenario” proposed by Richard Duncan in 1989. The theory is a version of the […]

Use and Abuse of the “Natural Capital” Concept

Some people object to the concept of “natural capital” because they say it reduces nature to the status of a commodity to be marketed at its exchange value. This indeed is a danger, well discussed by George Monbiot. Monbiot’s criticism rightly focuses on the monetary pricing of natural capital. But it is worth clarifying that […]

A brief history of contemporary “consumerism” and anti-consumerism

History books usually study social movements of the second half of the nineteenth century from the point of view of the split between anarchists and Marxists. Both theories played an important role in debates of the great workers’ movements of the following century, and for a long time, no one seemed to question the root […]

Iraq and Kurds Reach Deal on Oil Exports and Budget Payments

Iraq’s central government and the autonomous region of Kurdistan reached an interim agreement on Thursday over oil exports and budget payments, at least temporarily easing a bitter dispute that has threatened the government’s stability. The standoff began earlier this year when Kurdish officials angered Baghdad by exporting oil produced in their region directly to Turkey […]

Deepwater Gulf Production to Set New Record in 2016

New developments and the expansion of older oil fields are expected to lift deepwater Gulf of Mexico production of 1.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2016, the first new production peak seen since 2009. However, production is expected to plateau for the remainder of the decade following the 2016 peak due […]

Can Nuclear Fusion Save the Planet?

Our ability to transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy will likely determine the fate of the planet.  Some countries are making progress toward this goal, using solar, wind and water power.  In the historic deal struck on Wednesday between the U.S. and China, for instance, China pledged that solar and wind power […]

Fracking Unbound

The Energy Department has once again lowered its prediction for the price of gas next year. For 2015, the price will remain in the range of $2.94, a full 44 cents lower than the department’s most recent prediction last month. This is one of those rare developments that has no downside – unless you’re an […]

U.S. Shale Boom Masks Threats to World Oil Supply

The U.S. shale boom masks threats to global oil supply including Middle East turmoil, conflict in Ukraine and the difficulty of unconventional oil production beyond North America, the International Energy Agency said. “The global energy system is in danger of falling short of the hopes and expectations placed upon it,” the IEA said today in […]

Creating Regional Resilience in New England

New England has a long tradition of radical communitarian culture. The colonists came here as congregations or communities rather than as individuals. Communities banded together into state parliaments here and laid the groundwork for the American Revolution. The region has a tradition of social change, moral crusades and entrepreneurial invention which provides its unique character. […]

Iraq Kurds Cabinet Approves Plan for Starting Oil Company

Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish government approved plans to create an oil exploration and production company separate from the central government and a sovereign wealth fund to take in all energy revenue. A bill to create the company for oil exploration and production, with shares to be sold to the public, was approved by the cabinet of […]

Watching the Watchdogs: 10 Years of the IEA World Energy Outlook

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is the energy watchdog of the industrial world. The developed nations of the world were caught off guard by the oil crisis of 1973. They then realized energy resources are so fundamental to all of civilization, and recognized how vulnerable we are to supply disruptions. Forty years ago in 1974, […]

Will The Saudis Drive US Shale Out Of Business

There has always been a close link between U.S. oil production, international prices and OPEC, so it should come as no surprise that North America’s shale drillers find themselves locked in a battle with Saudi Arabia over prices and market share. Until the 1950s, the United States accounted for more than half of all global […]

$80 Oil Is the New Normal Minimum

Bob and Barb Moriarty brought 321gold.com to the Internet over 10 years ago. They later added 321energy.com to cover oil, natural gas, gasoline, coal, solar, wind and nuclear energy. Both sites feature articles, editorial opinions, pricing figures and updates on current events affecting both sectors. Previously, Moriarty was a Marine F-4B and O-1 pilot with […]

IEA: Crises cloud world energy outlook

The International Energy Agency called on world leaders to take decisive action to stem future energy demand in its latest World Energy Outlook report released on Wednesday. The Paris-based energy consultancy said that total energy demand is set to rise by 37 percent by 2040, and that annual investment of $900 billion (723 billion euros) […]

Worried about plunging oil prices? Ottawa isn’t

Federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver will provide Canadians with a fresh look at Ottawa’s financial health on Wednesday afternoon in the government’s annual fall fiscal update. With a slew of measures preceding the address, don’t expect any major surprises, experts say. “With a host of tax cut/benefit measures already announced, this will indeed serve as just a fiscal update […]

Iraqi troops push back ISIL in oil-rich city

The Iraqi army has reached the centre of the northern city of Beiji, as they continue their effort to break the siege of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on the country’s biggest oil refinery nearby. Exclusive images obtained by Al Jazeera on Monday showed government forces pushing ahead into the rebel-controlled city, with ISIL’s […]

Cheap Gas?: EIA Projects Natural Gas Prices to Double by 2035

The U.S. Energy Information Agency projects that the price of natural gas will more than double by 2035 measured in constant 2012 dollars. Meanwhile, the same survey projects that steam coal prices will increase by less than 15 percent. The chart at right was included in the EIA’s Annual Energy Report. Following are key sections […]

UAE Concerned That Oil Glut May Curb Exploration, Production

The collapse in oil prices may deter investment in exploration and production projects predicated on $100 crude, according to Suhail Al Mazrouei, energy minister of the United Arab Emirates. “What worries us is that some investors will not continue to invest,” Al Mazrouei told reporters in Abu Dhabi. “Not us, others, are not going to […]

Dark Age America: The Hoard of the Nibelungs

Of all the differences that separate the feudal economy sketched out in last week’s post from the market economy most of us inhabit today, the one that tends to throw people for a loop most effectively is the near-total absence of money in everyday medieval life. Money is so central to current notions of economics […]

On Guar Beans and Fracking Giants

Last year on July 4, North Dakota oil and gas billionaire, Harold Hamm just couldn’t contain his patriotic enthusiasm. In an op-ed commentary published by Forbes, Hamm wrote, “America has a long history of achieving the impossible.  We defeated the British. We landed on the moon.  We invented the Internet. And now we can add […]

Early signs of a pullback in US oil drilling

Watch out, US shale boom: Plummeting oil prices are challenging the economics of expensive shale drilling. Low oil prices make shale drilling less profitable, and some oil companies are paring back spending and drilling plans as a result With oil prices low and showing no sign of an immediate rebound, the industry is beginning to […]

US, China sign symbolic emissions plan

The United States and China announced a largely symbolic plan on Wednesday to implement new limits on carbon emissions, the highlight of a summit between Barack Obama and Xi Jinping in which both leaders played down suggestions of differences and rivalry. U.S. officials said the commitments by the world’s two biggest carbon polluters came after […]

Peak Oil: A New Paradigm Suggested Pt 2

  The economic paradigm we are currently engaged in must change in order to end our oil obsessed economy simply because no alternative energy resource will yield equal energy outputs. A realistic shared vision of what global prosperity might look like in an age of depleting resources is required to align economic and social aspirations, and […]

Saudi Arabia is trying to sabotage America’s shale oil boom

We’ve been here before. By “here,” I mean Saudi Arabia throwing its weight around in the global oil markets and triggering what we can only call a kind of reverse oil shock as a result. The consequences were particularly visible last Tuesday, when Saudi Arabia slashed the price at which it is willing to export […]

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