Russia Hikes Natural Gas Price For Ukraine

Russia on Tuesday sharply hiked the price for natural gas to Ukraine and threatened to reclaim billions previous discounts, raising the heat on its cash-strapped government, while Ukrainian police moved to disarm members of a radical nationalist group after a shooting spree in the capital. Alexei Miller, the head of Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom natural gas […]

Who’s Fuelin’ Whom?

Tapping into the growing interest in fracking and the development of shale gas, Chelsea Green Publishing – the nation’s leading publisher on home-scale, do-it-yourself books about food, fuel, and shelter – is offering a new manual for homesteaders—The Plunderer’s Companion: Home-Scale Fracking and Micro Mining for the Homestead and Farm by Sue T. Boottes. The […]

Goodbye to supermarkets?

Starting as ‘economy’ stores in America in the early 1900s, staffed by a few employees selling only canned goods, supermarkets have come a long way in a relatively short period of time. Today, supermarkets are filled with an average of 47,000 products, and are seen as the ideal milieu for the busy consumer. You can […]

The Absurdity of US Natural Gas Exports

Quiz: 1. How much natural gas is the United States currently extracting? (a) Barely enough to meet its own needs (b) Enough to allow lots of exports (c) Enough to allow a bit of exports (d) The United States is a natural gas importer Answer: (d) The United States is a natural gas importer, and has been […]

US Taking on More Saudi Oil Despite Shale Glut

The U.S. Energy Department said imports from OPEC increased year-on-year, with Saudi Arabia accounting for the bulk of additional oil. While oil production from the United States has increased, the data show the global market is still interconnected. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported the amount of petroleum imported from members of the Organization of […]

Global Oil Crunch In 2015?

Dr. Jeremy Leggett, a former oil geologist, industry consultant, and former adviser to the British government, has a new book out: “The Energy of Nations: Risk Blindness and the Road to Renaissance” Leggett’s book discusses five systemic risks that could affect the global energy market and financial markets. If not addressed soon they could spark […]

Scientists develop more efficient natural gas-to-fuels process

U.S. scientists says they have devised a potentially easier, cheaper and cleaner way to turn natural gas into usable fuels and chemicals — a discovery which could lead to natural gas products displacing oil products in the future. The process would be less complex than conventional methods to turn natural gas into liquid products and […]

China is Now the World’s Largest Net Importer of Petroleum and Other Liquid Fuels

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, March 2014 Note: Net petroleum and other liquids imports are defined as total liquid fuels consumption minus domestic production. In September 2013, China’s net imports of petroleum and other liquids exceeded those of the United States on a monthly basis, making it the largest net importer of […]

Growing global population, fewer resources threaten future food security

Today, 1 in 6 Americans is hungry. Yet the current food insecurity problem pales in comparison to the challenges of the future. The ability to feed a rapidly growing world population was a focal point of educational programs held in Washington, DC, this week in conjunction with National Agriculture Day. To help raise awareness about […]

Modern Agriculture: Modern Enough?

In order for Minnesota to become organized as a Territory of the USA in 1849 there was necessity of meeting a population threshold of 5,000. The 1850 Census showed Minnesota with 6099, the USA with 23.2 million and the World population stood at 1.26 billion. Today Minnesota is home to about 5.4 million, the USA […]

Inflation Fear – US Food Prices Are Up 19% In 2014

We are sure the weather is to blame but what happens when pent-up demand (from a frosty east coast emerging from its hibernation) bumps up against a drought-stricken west coast unable to plant to meet that demand? The spot price (not futures speculation-driven) of US Foodstuffs is the best performing asset in 2014 – up […]

Wheat Group Seeks 50% Yield Boost by 2034 to Feed World

Crop researchers will aim to improve wheat yields by 50 percent by 2034 to feed a growing world population, according to an announcement at a summit to mark Nobel Peace Prize-laureate Norman Borlaug’s birth. The International Wheat Yield Partnership hopes to secure $100 million in funding over the next five years, the U.K.’s Biotechnology & […]

Efficiency, Not Just the Recession, Drove US Energy Savings Since 2007

The growth of electricity use has been falling for decades, but it will likely flatten out in coming years to an annual growth rate of less than 2 percent. The decline is due to many factors, from changing weather and economic recessions to the wider adoption of energy efficiency measures. But it is the latter […]

Snake Oil: how fracking’s false promise of plenty imperils our future

For those who thought the ‘fracking’ issue was just about water pollution and earthquakes, Richard Heinberg’s Snake Oil might be a little perplexing. You don’t get to the parts about environmental pollution until about two thirds of the way through the book. But it’s for that very same reason that those who are unaware of these larger […]

Meat vs Veg: An Energy Perspective

What ought we eat? This is among the preeminent questions of our time, one asked by policy wonks, diet gurus and, of course, consumers. People imbue a wide array of values into their dietary choices, including impacts on their health, cost and environmental impacts, among others. The question of what to eat generates a particularly […]

Finding optimism in the challenge to double food production

Since humans have dominated the landscape we have cleared vegetation and created cropping areas, and concomitant with clearing these has been a growth in population. In industrial times the growth in population may have been greater than the soil’s capacity to deal with this in a sustainable way. This statement is not unequivocal and is […]

10 states with the highest gas prices

Gasoline prices have risen steadily the past six weeks through March 18. There was an uptick in gas prices all but one of the past 38 days, and gas is now more expensive than at any point the past six months. In a number of states, the price of gas is now more than $3.75 […]

Will Your Family Be Able to Pay For Gasoline?

Putting aside the Peak Oil implications on basic services, food and retail transport and the financial markets, how much are you spending now vs the future on simply getting around in our car based society?  Let’s break it down and start simple. Do you think this is not going up? Looking at my family only, […]

The Next New Economy

At half past three in the morning, Alec Johnson rolls out of bed, puts on his uniform, and walks a block to one of Nice Ride’s bike sharing stations in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis. He unlocks a neon green bike and pedals down the Midtown Greenway, a former railroad corridor that now features biking and walking paths, to his job as […]

Oil Limits and the Economy: One Story, Not Two

The two big stories of our day are (1) Our economic problems: The inability of economies to grow as rapidly as they would like, add as many jobs as they would like, and raise the standards of living of citizens as much as they would like. Associated with this slow economic growth is a continued […]

“Deglobalization” Versus “Inclusive Growth”

The race of globalization is leaving the majority of the world’s population far behind.  According to UNICEF, the richest 20% of the population gets 83% of global income, while the poorest quintile has just 1%.1  This trend is getting worse.  A new UNDP report called “Humanity Divided” estimates that 75% of the world’s population lives […]

The Math of feeding the world

The next time you’re enjoying a meal, take a moment to think about where the food came from. Think about the family farmer or rancher who helped put it on your plate—not only that day but all 365 sunrises a year for you and the other 7 billion and counting people around the world American […]

Peak Oil: It’s Baaaack

Prospect of Oil Supply Collapse  As an old oil hand, I was seriously disturbed five years ago when it was almost impossible to develop a payback time for shale oil production.  Since then it has continued to go missing as massive amounts of cash was spent on the industry.  This suggests that we now know.  […]

Family farms are best way to feed the world

Family farms offer the greatest potential for meeting the nutritional needs of a growing global population while conserving resources and protecting biodiversity, new research suggests. The food think tank, Food Tank, has produced statistics to show that the world’s 500 million family farms take a less damaging approach to the environment compared to large scale […]

Psychological Trigger Points For Crude Oil Demand Destruction

I’ve talked about demand destruction before in this blog. Demand destruction occurs when the marginal benefit of using more crude oil exceeds the marginal cost for people. Essentially, when oil prices go too high, people use less oil. On a personal level, this means that people may drive fewer miles by staying closer to home […]

Taking the Permaculture Path to Community Resilience

What permaculturalists are doing is the most important activity that any group is doing on the planet. We don’t know what the details of a truly sustainable future are going to be like, but we need options, we need people experimenting in all kinds of ways and permaculturalists are one of the critical groups doing […]

GS E&C develops natural gas liquefaction process

GS E&C, one of South Korea’s largest builders, said Tuesday that it has developed an in-house natural gas liquefaction process plant. The builder, which began joint research with state-run Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS) in 2008, said its test bed plant located in Incheon, west of Seoul, has successfully produced liquefied natural gas (LNG). “The plant […]

Natural gas to outpace all energy sources until 2035

Natural gas is expected to be the fastest growing energy source until 2035 as the global energy consumption is likely to grow by an average 1.9 per cent per year, according to a report. “Between 2012 and 2035, natural gas demand is expected to grow by an average 1.9 per cent per year, outpacing all […]

Coal, gas or nuclear? Power-hungry South Africa must decide now

On paper, South Africa’s long-term energy plans look solid, with coal, nuclear, gas and renewables all viable options. But none are likely to prevent potentially crippling future power crunches in Africa’s biggest economy unless a decision is made soon on when and how to add capacity to the grid. South Africa’s failure to invest in […]

Blinkered to threat of rising oil prices

Oil production in Australia peaked in 2000. It would have peaked worldwide too by now, had it not been for the shale oil boom in the US. Some interesting work by this country’s most unrelenting peak oil proponent, retired engineer Matt Mushalik, shows that without shale oil – which accounts for 1.5 million barrels a […]

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