Olive Oil Shortage: Prices Soar As Effects Of Devastating Drought Hit Marketplaces

  A global olive oil shortage looms as the effects of last year’s drought, which affected Spain and areas in Southern Europe, begin to hit the marketplace. In 2013, Spain may see as much as a 60 percent drop in olive harvest yields from last year, from 1.6 million to 700,000 tons. This will have […]

Qatari emir buys six Greek islands

Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani pays €8.5m for Ionian retreats for family with seller happy to strike deal after 18 months of red tape The suitor is one of the world’s wealthiest men; the location happens to be the eurozone’s poorest country. But in an unlikely coming together of economic circumstances, the emir of Qatar, […]

Saudi Aramco Committed to Oil Exports to US, Al-Falih Says

Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s largest oil exporter, is “committed” to exports to the U.S. market, Khalid Al-Falih, the company’s chief executive officer, said today at the IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston. Saudi Aramco, as the company is known, will supply crude to the U.S. market because many of the refineries on the Gulf […]

The World No Longer Needs Raw Materials To Grow

It would appear from the chart below, that the world, in its infinitely capable manner, has not only managed to create ‘wealth’ from thin air, but can ‘expect’ growth in the future with no apparent impact on the price of the raw materials that will be needed to create that growth. Unless, of course, the […]

12 Things That Just Happened That Show The Next Wave Of The Economic Collapse Is Almost Here

Are we running out of time?  For the last several years, we have been living in a false bubble of hope that has been fueled by massive amounts of debt and bailout money.  This illusion of economic stability has convinced most people that the great economic crisis of 2008 was just an “aberration” and that […]

Peak Oil: Gas Prices Increasing in China First Time Since November

Gas prices increasing in China! 26 Febuary 2013

Peak Oil: IEA Says High Oil Prices `Major’ Threat to Europe

The IEAs Fatih Birol discussing the implications of high oil prices. 18 Febuary 2013

Peak Oil: Half the Story

An observation worth noting … and pondering, from Andrew McKay. There is no alternative to oil that can be as easily extracted, transported, stored and used as oil.  There is no alternative to oil that will let us continue our lifestyles unaffected. To misunderstand this critical point is to misunderstand the predicament that peak oil […]

US Now Leads in Energy Waste

The United States has taken the lead yet again, but this time, we may not be so proud.  We have surpassed every nation, including China, in the category of energy waste.  Yes, our country wastes the most energy in the world.  The U.S. has an energy efficiency of 42 percent, which means 58 percent of […]

Americans see biggest monthly income drop in 20 years

Feeling poorer? Americans saw their income drop so dramatically in January that it marked the deepest one-month decline in 20 years. Personal income decreased by $505.5 billion in January, or 3.6%, compared to December (on a seasonally adjusted and annualized basis). That’s the most dramatic decline since January 1993, according to the Commerce Department. It’s […]

Reaching Debt Limits

If an economy is growing, it is easy to add debt. The additional growth in future years provides money both to pay back the debt and to cover the additional interest. Promotions are common and layoffs are few, so a debt such as a mortgage can easily be repaid. Figure 1. Author’s image of an […]

New Method Could Cheaply Convert Natural Gas to Chemicals

A ceramic membrane could unlock the potential of methane-conversion catalysts and help make use of natural gas that currently goes to waste. High-performance ceramic membranes from the R&D company Ceramatec could lead to a cheaper way to convert natural gas into benzene, a liquid that can be used to make a wide variety of chemicals […]

Redefining Growth

I thought maybe I coined a new word recently: physophilia, meaning love of growth. It describes the — at times irrational – preoccupation with and addiction to economic growth that possesses politicians and many economists. This misplaced attachment has already been the focus of several EcoOptimism posts, especially here and here. (While we’re not physophiles, I guess you’d […]

California gas prices peak; pump pain changes U.S. driving habits

California gasoline prices may have already peaked for the first half of the year and should head lower soon, analysts said. Meanwhile, nationwide gasoline price averages over the first two months of the year rose at such a blistering rate that Americans were on pace to pay half a trillion dollars on gasoline in 2013 […]

How can we link monetary systems to the natural world?

Money may not grow on trees, but it does grow at a much faster rate – particularly when created by banks as interest-bearing debt. In modern economies, nearly all money is created in this way. To maintain a stable money supply, debtors must repay both the initial loan and the interest on the loan.  This […]

India suffered peak power shortage of 9% in 2007-12

India witnessed a peak power shortage of 9 per cent during the five years ending 2012 when over 50,000 MW new generation capacity was created, the Economic Survey said today. “During the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12), nearly 55,000 MW of new generation capacity was created. Yet there continues to be a peak shortage of […]

Food Production and Energy Usage, Efficiency

In a world where billions of people go hungry every day, the very idea that a good chunk of our global food production goes to waste sounds outrageous. But this is what happens. The problem is so serious that it has prompted the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to […]

American Petroleum Institute Addresses Record-High Gasoline Prices

American Petroleum Institute (API) held a press conference Tuesday addressing high gasoline prices and noted that more crude oil production and efficient consumption of oil products are key to addressing higher gasoline prices, API’s Chief Economist John Felmy told reporters. “We have very large oil resources here in the United States and technologies that are […]

Can we live again in 1964’s energy world?

“Everything has to get worse. We are behaving so badly.” Vaclav Smil, you should know, talks very fast in staccato bursts and doesn’t own a cell phone. The University of Manitoba professor, perhaps one of Canada’s most precise energy analysts, also doesn’t want to be the servant of a communication machine. “Everyone wants a piece […]

Orlov: Monkey Trap Nation

A few weeks ago I flew back to Boston from St. Petersburg. Nine time zones is a lot to fly through in a day, especially when flying west. It all adds up to a single very long day that just won’t end. When I had left Boston, I set up the boat to stay above […]

Peak Oil’s Impact: Antifreeze

Oil plays an essential role in almost everything that touches our everyday lives. From the food we eat to the means by which we transport ourselves, our goods, and our services, to what we grow, build, have, own, need, and do, oil is almost always an important element. But the painful truth now and soon […]

US oil imports from Middle East increase

The US was more reliant on the Middle East for its oil imports last year, underscoring the critical importance of the politically unstable region for the country despite the growing energy independence its shale gas revolution is bringing. That domestic production boom has triggered intense debate over whether the US would still guard the world’s […]

Morning in America? U.S. economy poised to accelerate

Famed U.S. economist Milton Friedman once observed that a recovery from recession is like plucking a guitar string: The harder the economy is pushed down, the faster it snaps back. That didn’t happen when America began to exit a deep downturn in 2009. Now, though, after years of paltry growth and despite a government austerity […]

Liquefied natural gas demand to rise 4.6 per cent annually over 15 years

The demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) is forecast to rise by 4.6 per cent annually over the next 15 years. According to organisers of an industry event here, LNG is one of the fastest growing segments of the gas market, with industry research suggesting that LNG demand is forecast to rise by 4.6 per […]

Peak Oil: What REALLY Caused the GLOBAL Recession of 2008

Jeff Rubin giving his analysis of the ongoing worldwide resession starting in 2008.

Insane Levels of Inequality – Which Hurt the Economy – Are Skyrocketing

Preface: All capitalist systems have some inequality.  We don’t want to prevent all inequality … justeconomy-wrecking levels: Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist, adds that some inequality is necessary to create incentives in a capitalist economy but that “too much inequality can harm the efficient operation of the economy.” And you might assume that conservatives don’t […]

Gail Tverberg: Twelve Reasons Why Globalization is a Huge Problem

Globalization seems to be looked on as an unmitigated “good” by economists. Unfortunately, economists seem to be guided by their badly flawed models; they miss  real-world problems. In particular, they miss the point that the world is finite. We don’t have infinite resources, or unlimited ability to handle excess pollution. So we are setting up […]

Geomagnetic Disturbances and Power Outages

On January 15, 2013, I presented a webcast on Energy Central titled, “Geomagnetic Disturbances and their Impacts on Power Transformers”. You can view the presentation here. The presentation generated many questions from the audience that I did not have time to address. This blog post addresses a few of those questions. Stay tuned for more […]

Americans’ consumption affects oil prices in Philippines

Amid weeks of consecutive hikes in oil prices, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla told The Manila Times that the reduction in oil price can only be dependent in a slump of the United States economy, among other global factors. Petilla said that the main factors that primarily led to the recent price hikes on petroleum products […]

OECD Oil Consumption

The above shows oil consumption in the major developed regions of the world though September 2012 (according to the EIA).  You can see that since the Arab spring (when prices went up), US and European consumption has gone down.  In the US this is mainly through improved oil efficiency reducing consumption faster than the rather […]

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