Earth Is An Oil-Producing Machine — We’re Not Running Out

Ever since M. King Hubbert in the 1950s convinced a lot of people with his “peak oil” theory that production would collapse and we’d eventually exhaust our crude supplies, the clock has been running. And running. And it will continue to run for some time, as technology and new discoveries show that there’s still an […]

Living in the Anthropocene – a Frame for New Activism

We are living in a new time. A new world has emerged. Like many things that are new on such a scale it is at once frightening, disturbing, uncomfortable. We have emerged from the geological epoch of the Holocene into a new epoch designated as the Anthropocene.[1] This notion of the Anthropocene refers to a […]

Are resource wars our future?

Why the Paris Climate Summit will be a peace conference – averting a world of failed states and resource wars. At the end of November, delegations from nearly 200 countries will convene in Paris for what is billed as the most important climate meeting ever held.  Officially known as the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP-21) of […]

This Oil Bust Will Change The Energy Industry Forever

As an investor in start-up companies, I am always working to test my assumptions and update my understanding of where the energy sector is now, and the direction it is moving in towards the future. Some key questions for this dynamic year: Is the current oil crisis the marking of a step change towards a cleaner energy […]

Why We Need Private Property to Deal with Scarce Resources

Scarcity of resources exists in many forms and is the problem in economics. If resources were not scarce, there would be no need to economize. The existence of scarcity is true of all resources (such as time, human energy, and natural resources). However, it is not necessarily intuitive that allowing scarce resources to be owned […]

What’s Next: Deflation, Inflation, Or Hyperinflation?

Divided Opinions We are not the only publishers to offer opinions. And not the only ones with alternative points of view. So, to answer these questions, let’s look first at the range of opinions on offer… First, there is “the authorities must know what they are doing… besides, I have more important things to think […]

We Won’t Have $100 Oil For At Least A Decade

Summary People have been worrying about running out of commodities for thousands of years. History will once again prove Malthusian arguments wrong. OECD oil demand has peaked and China isn’t coming to the rescue. Short-term, the next global recession is at our doorsteps, and weak economies mean less oil consumption. Long-term, America has the best […]

Heating oil vs. natural gas

HOPEFULLY, NEW ENGLAND WILL BE LUCKY this winter.  No Polar Vortex. No endless snowstorm piling nine feet of frozen fluff on Boston. But whatever our luck, there are certain unavoidable facts of life that every New Englander will experience this winter. Even the staunchest New England opponent of increased natural gas pipeline capacity cannot dispute […]

OPEC’s big favor to the world of oil

OPEC’s spare production capacity is estimated by the US Energy Information Administration at 1.54 million b/d, a mere 180,000 b/d above the level reached in 2008 when oil prices hit their record high. But don’t panic! Oil inventories are at very high levels. The International Energy Agency puts global oil stocks at 147 million barrels, […]

What is happening in Palestine?

Does the current conflict in the occupied territories make your heard spin? Then watch my interview with Palestinian anarchist Budour Hassan, to get some solid analysis from someone in the front lines of this struggle.

What is Degrowth? Envisioning a Prosperous Descent

This is a transcript of my keynote address presented at the ‘Local Lives, Global Matters’ conference in Castlemaine, Victoria, 16-18 October 2015.Other keynote speakers included Rob Hopkins, David Holmgren, and Helena Norberg-Hodge. Introduction Thank you for that introduction, Jacinta, good morning everyone. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of this land […]

Permaculture: Regenerative – not merely Sustainable

September 2015 saw the International Permaculture Conference, held in London, followed by the Convergence, which occupied 6 days at Gilwell park, on the Essex-London border, where its practitioners gave presentations and workshops on various aspects of permaculture, which is a sustainable design system intended to emulate the principles of living ecosystems. While it has been […]

Ten years that changed everything; and prevented all change

We are one month away from the COP-21, in Paris, that should change everything – and will probably change nothing relevant. But change does occur, even though in ways that often surprise us, and in ways we may not like to see. The past decade has been a period of enormous changes and, also, a decade […]

Russian Oil Output Hits Post-Soviet High

Russian oil production, the world’s largest, hit a post-Soviet high in October, rising 0.4 percent month on month to 10.78 million barrels per day (bpd), Energy Ministry data showed on Monday. Russia has been raising output despite low oil prices as the weak rouble has helped to offset oil companies’ reduced profits. The country is also trying to […]

Kunstler: Good Little Maoists

Sometimes societies just go batshit crazy. For ten years, 1966 to 1976, China slid into the chaotic maw of Mao Zedong’s “cultural revolution.” A youth army called the Red Guard was given license to terrorize authorities all over the nation — teachers, scientists, government officials, really just about anyone in charge of anything. They destroyed […]

Reality Setting In For The Oil Majors

Third quarter earnings capture some of the worst losses recorded since the downturn in oil prices began last year. Oil prices have displayed great volatility over the last twelve months, rallying to $60 per barrel in the second quarter before dropping back down to current levels in the mid-$40s. That has contributed to some large […]

The Bottom Is About To Fall Out Of ISIS’ Vast Oil Welfare State

The Islamic State’s use of oil to fund welfare programs will cause big problems in the terror group’s future based on the experience of other petro-states. Aside from all the other problems ISIS faces — American and Russian airstrikes, general malaise of people living under their leadership, and Kurdish militias — oil economies breed their […]

How the Pentagon spent $43 million on a single gas station

John Sopko’s team of investigators has uncovered all kinds of wasteful spending in Afghanistan through its work as a U.S. government watchdog. Now the group has uncovered a $43 million gas station, which Sopko calls “gratuitous and extreme”—and possibly criminal. In a scathing report, Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, wrote that a similar compressed […]

Current Technology Can Meet 2050’s 2.5 Trillion Barrel Demand

The oil and gas industry will be able to meet the world’s consumption demand of around 2.5 trillion barrels of oil and gas in 2050 using current upstream technology, according to BP’s Technology Outlook report, which was launched at the energy firm’s London office Monday. BP’s report shows that, by using the best available technologies […]

Startups tackle nuclear fusion’s power

Backed by investors like Jeff Bezos and Paul Allen, young firms, including one in Redmond, say they’ll succeed where the government has failed in developing a fusion reactor.   A group of startups with ties to the Seattle area is promising a new and virtually unlimited source of power, one that produces none of the […]

The I-40 Highway of Shame

“It is good to remember that Milošević ended his days in prison in The Hague for the Bosnian cleansing while Jackson still graces our twenty-dollar bill.”   On Interstate 40 one leaves Fort Smith, Arkansas, crosses the Oklahoma line and immediately the place names begin to change from words like VanBuren and Muldrew to words […]

Chevron Announces Big Job Cuts

Oil giant Chevron Corp. announced Friday that it was planning to cut 6,000 to 7,000 jobs as the company sees it profits decline for the fourth consecutive quarter. The global oil-market is currently experiencing its worst price slump since the 1980s, Bloomberg reported. The job cut announcement came along with third-quarter net income reports. Chevron reported […]

Venezuela Oil Price Tumbles Below $40

Venezuela’s weekly oil basket price fell further back below $40 as oil prices around the world slipped and as the crucial U.S. market remained well supplied. According to figures released by the Venezuela Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, the average price of Venezuelan crude sold by Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) during the week ending […]

Is it the end of the world again?

My last two pieces argue the US is fragile and could go into meltdown at any time given over-extended supply lines, a morally weak population, and fiat currency. I wanted to see if the apocalyptic vision of the Christian End Time prophecy is on the money. It’s hard not to get apocalyptic when the world […]

The Fatal Blindness of Unrealistic Expectations

I wrote the article below in January 2013, but never published it. The strong response to last week’s post on the hubris and hype of Silicon Valley, as well as this recent interview, jogged my memory and inspired me to dig this out of the mothballs. I was pleased to see how relevant it remains 2.5 years later. […]

Harsh realities finally push US champions of shale oil into retreat

Prolific output from US shale formations in recent years have thrown the world oil market off balance. But a long market slump is now forcing shale producers to retreat. US crude oil output hit a 44-year peak of 9.6m barrels a day in April then began to decline. By summer next year it will have […]

Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil and gas producer

In 1944, Saudi Arabia and four American oil producers jointly founded what they called Aramco, short for Arabian-American Oil Co. Earlier, the business had been called California-Arabian Standard Oil Co. In 1980, the Saudi government nationalized it and changed its name first to Aramco and eight years later to Saudi Aramco. Today, the company is […]

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