China’s Tianjin to begin restricting car population

China’s northern Tianjin municipality will begin restricting its car population next year to control traffic congestion and air pollution, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Only 100,000 new license plates will be issued in Tianjin next year, of which 60,000 will be distributed by lottery and the rest auctioned off for a minimum bid of […]

When it comes to our need for electricity, reliability is essential.

As we come to the end of another year, it is not a nuclear issue that I want to discuss but rather the broader issue of our need for reliable electricity.  Last month I started with a quote from the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2013 highlighting how important energy has become to our society – […]

Kunstler: The end of pretend

If being wealthy were the same as pretending to be wealthy, then people who care about reality would have a little less to complain about. But pretending is a poor way for a society to negotiate its way through history. It makes for accumulating distortions which eventually undermine the society’s ability to function, especially when […]

China’s auto affair drives oil demand

Every two seconds, somewhere across China a customer takes delivery of a new car — part of a consumer buying blitz that will see China add 21 million new cars, trucks and buses to its fleet total in 2014.Short of a catastrophic economic downturn, a government edict against new car ownership, or draconian traffic congestion […]

Global Cereal Crop Production May be Maxed Out on 30 Percent of Farms

Recent research conducted by the University of Nebraska suggests that nearly one-third of global rice, wheat and corn crops have reached their maximum yields in farmers’ fields. A field of unharvested wheat is seen in Labastide d’Armagnac village in Landes, southwestern France, Recent research conducted by the University of Nebraska suggests that nearly one-third of […]

Predictions for 2014: Energy is anything but conventional

With dramatic new sources of both supply and demand emerging across the globe, energy is poised to get even more unconventional in 2014. What’s next for oil, gas, and renewables? In energy, next year promises to be just as unconventional as the last. North America’s boom in unconventional oil and gas will continue to expand […]

Peak demand: the sound of a single hand clapping

  Speaking of “peak demand” about the present stasis in the world oil production is a little like the concept of “the sound of a single hand clapping” is an old Zen “koan.” This riddle has been solved by Bart Simpson in recent times. The concept of “peak demand” is gaining popularity in the discussion […]

China’s Dependency on natural gas imports rises

Nation seeks to reduce use of fossil fuels in move to improve air quality     A vessel, loaded with more than 60,000 tons of imported LNG, docks at a port in Putian, Fujian province. China imports a growing amount of natural gas to meet domestic demand. In the first 10 months of 2013, the […]

Israeli fuel strategy leans on gas

Israel plans to cut oil use in transportation by 60 percent by 2025, an aggressive target by world standards, and will tap into its newfound natural gas deposits to make it happen. It is also investing heavily to help start-ups developing battery and biofuel technologies, and is offering an annual $1 million (R10.34 million) prize […]

DOE: Gas to outpace coal by 2040

Natural gas will overtake coal to provide the largest share of U.S. electrical power generation by 2040, according to the latest projections from the federal Department of Energy. Natural gas will produce about 35 percent of total U.S. generation, compared to 32 percent for coal, in 2040, according to the department’s Energy Information Administration estimates. […]

Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth

Author, eco-activist and senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute (PCI) Richard Heinberg joins Sandy LeonVest to talk about, among other things, PCI’s new book, “Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth.” They discuss the folly of an economy whose very existence requires endless growth and ongoing environmental devastation on a planet of finite resources. […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: The Mother of All Bubbles

We can thank Saddam Hussein for contributing the saying “mother of” to the English language when he declared that any attack on Iraq would result in the “mother of all battles.” When applied to the peak oil story, “mother of all bubbles” fits nicely into the times in which we are living. Students of history […]

On This Day In History, Gas Prices Have Never Been Higher

It seems not a day goes by when the mainstream media (or your local friendly asset gatherer) proclaims the drop in gas prices from a Middle-East-turmoiling Summer as “great news” and very positive and an implicit tax cut… as they try to juice hopes and dreams of a better-than-expected holiday spending season. The sad truth […]

Shale Bubble

We’re being told that – thanks to technological advances like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling – the US is undergoing an energy revolution, leading us in a few short years to become once again the world’s biggest oil producer and an exporter of natural gas. According to the Oil & Gas Industry and their proponents, […]

The efficient choice among combustion engines

Innovative hybrid diesel engine developed to run on natural gas Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an internal combustion engine that emits less than half the CO2 compared to a regular engine without compromising performance. This corresponds to fuel consumption of less than 2.4l per 100km. This natural gas-diesel hybrid engine is based on a […]

Peak Oil, Check. Peak Gas, Check. Peak Food? What?

Food may run out long before the oil does. A study by scientists at the University of Nebraska warns of “abrupt plateaus or declines” in industrial agricultural production. As much as “31% of total global rice, wheat and maize production” has experienced “yield plateaus or abrupt decreases in yield gain, including rice in eastern Asia […]

Former BP geologist: peak oil is here and it will ‘break economies’

Industry expert warns of grim future of ‘recession’ driven ‘resource wars’ at University College London lecture A former British Petroleum (BP) geologist has warned that the age of cheap oil is long gone, bringing with it the danger of “continuous recession” and increased risk of conflict and hunger. At a lecture on ‘Geohazards’ earlier this […]

OPEC Ministers See No 2014 Oil Glut Amid Signs of Demand Growth

Oil ministers from OPEC’s three biggest members rejected the possibility of a glut in global crude supply next year amid an increase in U.S. output and efforts by Iran and Libya to add barrels to the market. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which provides about 40 percent of the world’s oil, won’t need to […]

Dramatic decline in industrial agriculture could herald ‘peak food’

Most conventional yield projection models are oblivious to the real world say US researchers Industrial agriculture could be hitting fundamental limits in its capacity to produce sufficient crops to feed an expanding global population according to new research published in Nature Communications. The study by scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln argues that there have […]

What is the ‘Green Edge?’

Capturing stormwater using “green” practices such as trees, rain gardens, and porous pavement helps solve major urban stormwater problems while also improving the health and livability of neighborhoods. As an increasing number of cities begin to implement green stormwater management practices on a large scale, the public-right-of-way is the first place these cities are looking […]

Coal’s future may not be so bleak after all

The coal industry has taken its lumps over the past few years, with a one-two punch from lower-cost natural gas and increasing Environmental Protection Agency regulations. But emerging markets in China and India appear to be helping steam coal — used for power generation — make a comeback. And new coal-fired power plants in unlikely […]

Study says crop yields to feed a growing global population a concern

Crop yields to feed a growing global population may have reached a maximum in some parts of the world, researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln report. Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers say about 30 percent of the major global cereal crops — rice, wheat and corn — may have reached their maximum […]

Why Digital Oil Fields Are The Future Of The Energy Industry

Oil exploration and extraction is going through a period of great technological innovation. Between 2005 and 2010, the number of patents filed in the classes relating to the oil exploration and extractive industries technically doubled from just under 700 to almost 1400. One of the growing areas of research has been the “digital oil field”. […]

All Systems Go As We Say Goodbye to the Old Inefficient 60-Watt Bulb on January 1

Noah Horowitz, Senior Scientist and Director of the Center for Energy Efficiency, San Francisco, CA Six years ago, President Bush signed a federal energy bill phasing out energy-wasting light bulbs on a staggered schedule to ensure a smooth and successful transition to more efficient bulbs – and eventually save Americans $13 billion on their annual […]

High Speed Trains are Killing the European Railway Network

Picture: The Étoile du Nord Paris-Amsterdam (1927-1995). Almost as fast as the high speed train, but two to three times cheaper. High speed rail is marketed as a sustainable alternative to air traffic. According to the International Union of Railways, the high speed train “plays a key role in a stage of sustainable development and […]

1 important thing that drives natural gas demand

Some power plants can switch between coal and natural gas for fuel “Coal-to-gas switching” is a term used for when power plants decide to use natural gas in place of coal as fuel. Given sustained low natural gas prices, and the fact that natural gas burns more cleanly than coal, coal-to-gas switching had been rising […]

The ambition to reach zero coal consumption

Given a blank slate and, like a computer game, asked to create an energy system from scratch, the player would today construct a system radically different from what might have been chosen 20 or even ten years ago. There is simply more in the toolkit. The system’s elements, however, would depend on the game’s goals. […]

The squeeze on global resources

Are we nearing the precipice of global resouces, or will technology save us? In about 1800, when the world population was roughly one billion people, Thomas Malthus predicted coming catastrophe as population outstripped the world’s capacity to feed itself. If many catastrophes have occurred since then, none have been of Malthusian dimensions. Paul Ehrlich was […]

The Farm: Where we have come from and our plans for the future

As we in the North approach the winter solstice – traditionally a time of slowing down, contemplation, and letting go of the past year — we are filled with gratitude for so much that we have been given, and only barely awakened to the new possibilities these gifts bestow. Our small non-profit educational and scientific […]

Nope, Definitely No Inflation Here

Despite yesterday’s governmental reassurance (a la Venezuela and Argentina) that there is no inflation in the US, the reality for the average man in the street is a little different. We have previously noted that gas prices are 25% above their average price of the last decade but it is another staple that is more […]

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