Keep on trucking? No, Keep on Platooning!

  The concept of “platooning” involves electronically connected trucks running close to each other. It is a much more innovative idea than that of self-driven private cars and it has the potential of revolutionizing road transport by drastically reducing costs. (image from scania.com). Self-driving cars (or “automated vehicles,” AVs) are all the rage in the […]

The Widening Saudi–Iran Divide

The conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran marks a deepening division between regional powers and international hegemons in the Persian Gulf. The Saudis and Iranians have to learn to cooperate or risk further confrontation. By Seyed Hossein Mousavian New regional and international coalitions are forming with respect to the Middle East and Persian Gulf. An […]

Sun setting on US empire

Leading US economist Laurence Kotlikoff says he remains optimistic about solving the big structural problems plaguing global finance, but he has a grim prognosis for the US if it doesn’t change fiscal and monetary policies. “We’re heading the way the British Empire went, its inevitable” he says. “The [US] dollar is going to give way […]

The 11 cities most likely to run out of drinking water – like Cape Town

Cape Town faces the unenviable situation of being the first major city in the modern era to run out of drinking water. However, the plight of the drought-hit South African city is just one extreme example of a problem that experts have long been warning about – water scarcity. Despite covering about 70% of the […]

Oil slips to biggest weekly loss in 2 years amid market turmoil

Oil prices slid more than 3 percent on Friday as US futures fell below $60 a barrel for the first time since December on renewed concerns about rising crude supplies. Oil prices slid more than 3 percent on Friday as US futures fell below $60 a barrel for the first time since December on renewed […]

The Crisis Engulfing Venezuela’s Oil Patch Is Far Worse Than Anticipated

Summary Venezuela’s oil industry is caught in a deep-crisis. There are signs that oil production is declining at a faster rate than many analysts are anticipating. If output drops as sharply as it appears to be it could dislocate anywhere up to 900,000 barrels daily from global supplies bolstering prices. President Maduro’s attempts to hang […]

From shortage to surplus: Where will energy innovation take us next?

Forty-five years ago, I passed my driving test and giddily slipped my driver’s license into my wallet, ready to enjoy the freedom that a dollar’s worth of gas – then 28 cents a gallon at the local Hess station – could provide. Several months later, those prices had just about doubled. My mother was waking […]

Kunstler: Party On, Dudes

As of this week, the shale oil miracle launched US oil production above the 1970 previous-all-time record at just over ten million barrels a day. Techno-rapturists are celebrating what seems to be a blindingly bright new golden age of energy greatness. Independent oil analyst Art Berman, who made the podcast rounds the last two weeks, […]

Beware of The Agenda Behind “Population Control”

Population control –family planning, mother and child healthcare, reproductive health– is back in the news with enhanced momentum. A few years ago some leaders who were encouraging their citizens to produce more children because the optimal size for economic development hadn’t been reached have abruptly changed their minds. In support of population growth, they argued […]

Transition US: A Year in Review

Transition US has published its annual review, highlighting our accomplishments and detailing our metrics from the 2017 calendar year. Enjoy!   Letter from the Transition US Team We’ve just completed our ninth year at Transition US, and during this time we’ve seen historic swings across the political spectrum, economic peaks and crashes, and the most […]

No glaciers, no water?

The world’s largest rivers begin in glaciated mountain regions. However, climate change may cause many glaciers to disappear. Will water become scarce? There are around 200,000 glaciers worldwide. They play a central role in the water cycle, particularly in the middle and low latitudes, by offsetting runoff fluctuations. Rivers are lifelines on which billions of […]

US Oil Production Will Collapse Just As Quickly As It Increased

While U.S. oil production reached a new peak of 10.25 million barrels per day, the higher it goes, the more breathtaking will be the inevitable collapse. Thus, as the mainstream media touts the glorious new record in U.S. production that has both surpassed its previous peak in 1970 and Saudi Arabia’s current oil production, it’s […]

Exxon To Produce All Of Its Oil Despite Peak Demand Fears

ExxonMobil was forced to finally acknowledge the possibility that future climate change policy could lead to peak oil demand, a serious threat to the company’s operations over the long-term. In response to a shareholder resolution passed last year, the oil major just released a report that recognizes the danger of peak oil demand. By 2040, […]

Big Oil, Meet Your Next Rival: The Flying Car

At a time when EVs and driverless technology are all the rage, Chinese drone maker EHANG has posted footage of the latest test flights of its EHANG 184 passenger-carrying all-electric autonomous aerial vehicle. According to the Chinese company that was created in 2014, the EHANG 184 series is “the world’s first passenger drone capable of […]

Oil World Turns Upside Down as US Sells Oil in Middle East

The United Arab Emirates, a model Persian Gulf petro-state where endless billions from crude exports feed a giant sovereign wealth fund, isn’t the most obvious customer for Texan oil. Yet, in a trade that illustrates how the rise of the American shale industry is upending energy markets across the globe, the U.A.E. bought oil directly […]

Pakistan’s Water Crisis Is a Ticking Time Bomb

When it comes to Pakistan, President Trump’s Twitter feud with one of America’s most important partners in the fight against terrorism has dominated the news. But beneath the headlines, a massive water crisis is unfolding that has profound implications for the country’s stability and security. Rapid urbanization and conflict combined with corruption, crime and years […]

First U.S. City to Ban Fossil Fuel Expansion Offers Roadmap for Others

On a clear July morning three years ago, dozens of environmental activists pushed their kayaks into the Willamette River in Portland while others rappelled 400 feet from the top of St. Johns Bridge in an attempt to block a Shell Oil ship and its drilling equipment from leaving the port and entering Alaskan waters. A […]

Cape Town’s Water Crisis Should Be a Warning to the World

Cape Town residents line up to refill water bottles at Newlands Brewery Spring Water Point on January 30, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa.Photo: Morgana Wingard/Getty Images Cape Town, South Africa, a city of 4 million people, is just weeks away from becoming the world’s first major city to run entirely out of water — […]

The Shale Boom Might Not Last Long

U.S. shale is growing at a scorching rate, but will the shale industry be around for the long haul? A new study calls into question the heady projections for shale oil and gas, arguing that expectations of huge levels of production for decades to come are based on shaky assumptions. The Post Carbon Institute’s report […]

Will Peak Oil Come Anytime Soon?

Our taste change, technologies evolve, live goes on and whether we like it or not, the world changes every day. To put it bluntly, change is inevitable. Although it’s an inevitable reality of our world, it doesn’t mean that we’re on the verge of it. On January 24, 2018, British Petroleum (BP) held its annual […]

Saudi Arabia: One-time ‘swing producer’ becomes ‘swayed producer’ of oil

© Getty Images Oil prices have reached the $70-a-barrel mark, their highest since December 2014, but neither Saudi Arabia nor Russia is shouting with glee. That’s because it remains to be seen whether the oil market has achieved price stability for awhile. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih this month spoke of the “fragility of the market.” He […]

The World Bank’s Systematic Looting of Africa

A brand new World Bank report, The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018, offers evidence of how much poorer Africa is becoming thanks to rampant minerals, oil and gas extraction. Yet Bank policies and practices remain oriented to enforcing foreign loan repayments and transnational corporate (TNC) profit repatriation, thus maintaining the looting. Central to its “natural capital accounting,” the […]

The Bumpy Road Down, Part 4: Trends in Collapse

Bamboo in Winter This time I’m going to look at some of the changes that will happen along the bumpy road down and the forces and trends that will lead to them. If you followed what I was saying in my last post, you’ll have realized that the bumpy road will be a matter of […]

The Great Crude Oil Fireball Test

If all goes well, a massive fireball of hydrocarbons will ignite in the New Mexico desert some time in the next year. It will be part of a multiyear Department of Energy research project to understand whether the chemical composition of unconventional crude oils changes the risk they pose to the nation’s highways, pipelines, and […]

Heinberg: U.S. Energy Abundance for Now— But Don’t Peek Behind That Curtain!

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy is about to release its Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) 2018, with forecasts for American oil, gas, and other forms of energy production through mid-century. As usual, energy journalists and policy makers will probably take the document as gospel. That’s despite the fact that past AEO reports […]

China surpassed the United States as the world’s largest crude oil importer in 2017

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Petroleum Supply Monthly and Weekly Petroleum Status Report, China General Administration of Customs, based on Bloomberg, L.P. Note: December U.S. imports derived from weekly crude oil imports. China surpassed the United States in annual gross crude oil imports in 2017, importing 8.4 million barrels per day (b/d) compared with 7.9 […]

Kunstler: A Quandary

It is the super-duper quandary of the moment: choose between the oafish, charmless, and possibly not-so-stable-genius Leader-of-the-Free-World… and a security state that will do whatever it takes to get rid of him, for instance, engineering a nationwide hysteria over Russia. Has anyone else noticed how odd it is that the so-called “Resistance” has all along […]

Iran Can Boost Output Fast If OPEC Ends Cuts

Country can add 100,000 barrels daily within a week: Zanaganeh OPEC, allied suppliers to meet in June to assess crude market Bijan Namdar Zanganeh Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg Iran can swiftly increase production of crude if OPEC decides to scrap limits on global output when the group meets next in June, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh […]

Post Carbon Sustainability Town Hall – Corvallis

12 March, 2018 7:00 pm CH2MHill Alumni Center, Corvallis, OR Sustainability Town Hall 2018, Corvallis Asher Miller Registration is now open for the 2018 Sustainability Town Hall, to be held on Monday, March 12, from 7 to 9 pm at the CH2MHill Alumni Center on the OSU campus. Save your place by registering HERE. Participants will be […]

Peak Money: a permanent change

The end of economic growth: the recession that will not end in our lifetime   We are past limits to growth, this is not a cyclical recession Some of the media, government elites, and the financial world knew the 2008 financial crash was imminent but feigned surprise in public while planning their exit strategies and […]

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