How do Empires hunt bears? The control of natural resources from ancient Rome to our times

You probably know the joke that starts with the question “how do economists hunt bears?” The answer is, “they don’t, but they believe that if bears are paid enough, they’ll hunt themselves.” It is a good illustration of the awesome power of money. It doesn’t work so well with bears, but, if paid enough, people […]

Oil could lead to the downfall of ISIS

One of the key factors to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria may be as simple as disrupting oil production at facilities in northern Iraq under its control. “Focus should be put on the identification of the origin, middlemen, buyers, carriers, traders and routes through which oil produced in (ISIS)-held territory is trafficked,” wrote the […]

IEA Sees Fundamental Shifts in the Current Oil Price

The IEA’s latest medium-term oil forecast is a useful update to the thinking behind its current long-term outlook, which predated much of the current price drop. They expect shale output to be relatively resilient and rely on Iraq’s capacity to expand output in spite of significant security risks. When the International Energy Agency issued its most […]

Has California’s Fracking Boom Already Gone Bust?

We accelerate down the runway — a tiny asphalt strip next to Taft Skydiving. Our little Piper Cherokee lifts off and as we ascend, I peer out the window. Below us is California’s Kern County and more than a century of oil exploration — from the gushers of the 1800s to today’s less robust reality. […]

A review of James Kunstler’s The Long Emergency 10 years later

When James Howard Kunstler’s The Long Emergency came out in 2005, it was at once terrifying and riveting, like a nightmare whose outcome must be discovered despite the difficulty of braving through it. A chorus of critics praised Kunstler’s erudition and wonderful writing, while stressing that his book thoroughly unsettled them. (One reviewer declared that […]

Is a Chinese Shale Revolution in the Offing?

Countries across the globe like to talk a big game about developing their domestic shale oil and gas resources and sometimes utter lofty expectations of energy independence. Progress, however, has been very slow. The following map by the World Resources Institute (WRI) illustrates locations of the 20 countries with the largest shale gas and tight […]

Dollars are worthless without crude oil

In my previous post I drew some parallels between energy and money – and more specifically, energy and banking – and pointed out that when money is at stake, the presence of energy is likely lurking somewhere in the shadows. It was mostly hypotheses and observations I was throwing around about energy and banking, but […]

Max Weber on energy and industrial civilisation

The German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist Max Weber (1864-1920) is often cited, with Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx, as among the three founders of sociology. Weber is best known for his contention that ascetic Protestantism was the driving force behind market-driven capitalism and the rational-legal nation-state in the West. Against Marx’s “historical materialism”, Weber emphasised […]

Why It Matters If the Dollar Is the Reserve Currency

We refer to the dollar as a “reserve currency” when referring to its use by other countries when settling their international trade accounts. For example, if Canada buys goods from China, China may prefer to be paid in US dollars rather than Canadian dollars. The US dollar is the more “marketable” money internationally, meaning that […]

co-op turns leftover cooking oil into usable fuel

Pat Rupp runs the fish fries at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Gretna, Neb., and found himself with a 300-gallon problem. The church puts on six fish fries a year, a major fundraising effort. Rupp, a Knights of Columbus volunteer, said he and his kitchen crew often serve 1,000 people per event. The fried […]

Outcry and fears grow as Pakistan builds new nuclear reactors

The Karachi Nuclear PowerComplex is on an earthquake-prone seafront less than 20 miles from downtown Karachi. (Max Becherer/Polaris Images for The Washington Post) By Tim Craig March 5 KARACHI, Pakistan — World leaders have fretted for years that terrorists may try to steal one of Pakistan’s nuclear bombs and detonate it in a foreign country. But […]

Oil Producers Could See “Regime Change”

As we’ve noted previously, the US-Saudi joint effort to force the Kremlin into cutting Assad loose (the end goal of course being to install a government that will acquiesce to mainlining Qatari natural gas through Syria straight into Europe thus breaking Gazprom’s stranglehold), has resulted in a bit of collateral damage for the world’s less […]

Crude oil train derailed in Ontario, fire reported

A Canadian National Railway Co train carrying crude oil has derailed near the Northern Ontario community of Gogama, with the crew reporting a fire but no injuries, the company said on Saturday. A preliminary assessment indicated a bridge over a waterway had been damaged and a number of tank cars were in the waterway after […]

Industry response to peak oil not enough long term

President and Vice President, Illinois Renewable Energy Association We were asked recently if peak oil remains an issue. Just as cold weather stimulates doubt regarding climate change the current low price of oil stimulates doubt about peak conventional oil. Such short-term anomalies confuse the public and bring out a new round of denials regarding the […]

The Bottom Line on Nuclear Energy

Existing nuclear power plants are extremely valuable societal assets. Shutting them down in the absence of compelling economic or technical reasons is folly. It sometimes feels like this statement is so obvious that it shouldn’t need to be made and yet you don’t have to look far to see governments which appear not to care. […]

Little Guys Lose Out On Oil Bonanza

Oil storage capacity in the U.S. is more than half full as commodities traders and some midstream firms take advantage of an inversion in the price of crude. Nymex futures contracts for U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude on Friday priced oil for delivery in January 2016 about 19% above the current spot price. That […]

Agriculture’s Consumption of Earth’s Resources

During my lifetime as a farmer in the San Luis Valley I have watched the Green Revolution from a front-row seat. My family tended fields throughout the industrial development of agriculture. We participated in and benefited from the mechanization of farming. Tractors and hydraulics replaced manual labor. Manufacturers made larger and more efficient farm implements. […]

Introducing Fracklog, the New-Fangled Oil Storage System

Oil drillers expecting prices to rebound after the biggest drop in six years have come up with an alternative to storing their crude in tanks: They’re keeping it in the ground. It’s a new twist on an old oil-trading technique, known as a contango storage play, in which a trader buys cheap crude in an […]

Oil Today Is Cheaper Than in 1970

In 1970 a barrel of crude oil averaged about $13 a barrel. Adjusted for inflation, that same barrel of oil should cost about $78 today. Instead, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil for April delivery traded at just under $50 a barrel in the noon hour on Friday. With crude prices at multidecade lows, Saudi […]

The World Has Extracted More Crude Oil Than It Knows What to Do With

The world is so flush with crude oil, it is running out of places to store it all. Crude oil producers are currently pumping nearly 1.5 million barrels a day more of the stuff than the world actually needs, according to The Wall Street Journal. American crude-oil supplies are at an 80-year peak, which leaves […]

World Rig Counts Declining

The weekly Baker Hughes Rig Count for North America and the International monthly rig count is out. In the charts below the monthly data is through February 2015 and the weekly data is as of March 6th. World Rig Count, counting oil, gas and miscellaneous rigs are down 684 rigs over the last three months. The annual […]

The Solution to Overpopulation Is Population Control

According to an American Dream article, “Al Gore, Agenda 21 and Population Control,” there are too many of us and it has a negative impact on the earth. Here’s what the United Nations Population Fund said in its annual State of the World Population Report for 2009, “Facing a Changing World: Women, Population and Climate”: “Each birth results not only […]

Sustainability for Whom?

The mission of UPSTREAM (formerly Product Policy Institute) is “sustainable production and consumption and good governance.” Sometimes I feel like we’re swimming against the tide in advocating a role for government action in ensuring sustainable production and consumption. Big brands like Wal-Mart, Nestle, Procter and Gamble can effect rapid, systemic change in their global supply chains when […]

Oil Production in Federal Gulf of Mexico Expected to Continue Increasing

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration. Note: Production data have not yet been reported for four of the eight fields (Cardamom Deep, Jack, St. Malo, and Tubular Bells). Because of the long timelines associated with Gulf of Mexico (GOM) projects, the recent downturn in oil prices is expected to have minimal direct impact on GOM crude […]

ISIS Set Iraqi Oil Fields On Fire, Stalls Military Advance

  Thick black smoke billowing from oil wells northeast of the city of Tikrit is obstructing Shi’ite militiamen and Iraqi soldiers attempts to drive ISIS from the Sunni Muslim city after militants set them on fire. Reuters reports a witness and a military source said Islamic State fighters ignited the fire at the Ajil oil […]

To Drill or Not to Drill: That is the Question

Here’s a Jeopardy!-style question for you: “Eight different species of whales can be seen in these two American seas.” Unless you’re an Iñupiaq, a marine biologist, or an Arctic enthusiast like me, it’s a pretty good guess that you can’t tell me what those seas are or what those whales are either. The answer: the […]

Iraq, Iran and Libya are wildcards for oil

<p>Energy&#039;s crude realities </p> <p>Carl Larry, Frost &amp; Sullivan, discusses the impact of supply and demand pressure on oil prices.</p> Despite the meltdown in the oil market, prices are more likely to rise than to fall further because of geopolitical instability, an industry consultant told CNBC on Thursday. “Iraq, Iran, [and] Libya, history tells us […]

The Illusionary Recovery Is Now Giving Way To The Economic Collapse

ADP employment number miss expectations. RBS, Target laying off people. Deflation not showing up in food, alcohol or electricity. New type of loans, landlord loans, real estate market crashing and the bankers are getting desperate. FCC wants to be the referee of the internet. China tells Obama to mind his own business about fighting terrorism. […]

China Has Announced Plans For A ‘World Currency’

The Chinese do not plan to live in a world dominated by the U.S. dollar for much longer.  Chinese leaders have been calling for the U.S. dollar to be replaced as the primary global reserve currency for a long time, but up until now they have never been very specific about what they would put in […]

Water Scarcity Risks Being a Source of Conflict

The depletion of freshwater resources will inevitably lead to tension, conflict and migration among large swathes of the world’s population.  Yemen, an impoverished desert country racked by years of conflict, instability and misgovernance, may soon add another dubious distinction to its unfortunate track record: At current rates, it may become the first country in the […]

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