China Vs. U.S.: Who Is Leading The Natural Gas Transportation Race?

Will China lead the U.S. in the adoption of natural gas transportation? Before I answer this question, let’s take a look at some background information. The United States’ #1 economic advantage against all other countries on Earth is its abundant natural gas reserves combined with its 1 million-plus mile natural gas pipeline distribution system. No […]

Did Sandy offer a peek at peak oil?

The gas shortages and long lines at the pumps in Superstorm Sandy’s wake aren’t just an echo of the oil and energy crises of the 1970s. We may be getting a sneak peek at life amid peak oil.   Peak oil — the point where fuel companies reach the limits of their ability to extract […]

OPEC sees coal use increasing in coming decades

OPEC says that fossil fuels will remain the main energy source in the coming decades with coal’s share growing and oil’s falling. In its annual World Oil Outlook, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries also projects that a barrel of benchmark crude will cost $155 by 2035, compared with under $100 now. The report, […]

Rice bowl overflow

CONTRARY to prevailing fears about global food security, our ballooning world population is unlikely to be running short of the popular food staples rice and wheat in the near future. In fact, given the rate at which rice production efficiency is likely to lift in the next decade, and changing dietary preferences in the developing […]

Aging boomers present transportation challenges

Baby boomers started driving at a young age and became more mobile than any generation before or since. They practically invented the two-car family and escalated traffic congestion when women began commuting to work. Now, 8,000 of them are turning 65 every day, and those retirements could once again reshape the nation’s transportation. How long […]

Sandy Gas Crisis Could Last for Weeks

Significant damage to northern New Jersey petroleum distribution facilities — including the region’s largest refinery — could keeps lines long at the gasoline pumps for weeks, NBC 4 New York’s I-Team has learned. Scarce Gas Leads to Long Lines at the Pump When Sandy came ashore last week, the Bayway Refinery in Linden, N.J. took […]

Full Fledged Global Recession More Likely

Germany’s industrial output dropped 1.8pc in September and orders fell 3.3pc, far worse than expected. Spanish industrial output fell 7pc. Annalisa Piazza from Newedge said it was a shocking upset and implies that Germany may be in recession already. The International Monetary Fund has warned that a fiscal shock of this scale [a US “fiscal […]

Financial Issues Affecting Energy Security

Last week, I gave a talk called Financial Issues Affecting Energy Security at the Advances in Energy Studies conference in Mumbai, India. The general topic of the conference was, “Energy Security and Development-The Changing Global Context.” As I look at the situation, it seems to me that many of the crises around the world are […]

For Champions of Degrowth, Less Is Much More

The concept of degrowth is not a very comfortable one in overdeveloped countries such as the United States. But with the planet’s resources stretched to the limit, many argue that an action plan is needed to prevent the world’s largest economy from getting any bigger, especially with the global population projected to grow by another […]

DOE: natural gas price to increase

The U.S. Energy Department boosted its outlook for 2012 natural gas prices Tuesday and lowered its forecast for production. Gas at the benchmark Henry Hub in Erath, La., will average $2.77 per million British thermal units, up from the previous estimate of $2.71, the Energy Department said in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook. Marketed gas […]

Global population growth leading to ‘golden age of agriculture’

America is on the verge of a “golden age of agriculture,” Louisiana Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain says. Strain spoke to members of the Central Louisiana Chamber of Commerce on Monday in Alexandria. His message: Demand for quality agricultural products worldwide is going to explode in the coming decades. A fast-growing global population and […]

Smart and Sustainable Buildings

Buildings consume significant amounts of energy. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) in the Department of Energy (DOE) reported that buildings accounted for 72 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption in 2006 and this number will rise to 75% by 2025.  This is split almost 50/50 between commercial and residential buildings. Pre-recession, the ratio of new […]

“As Important as Food and Water”

When Hurricane Sandy was forecast to make landfall on the East Coast, I advised people to top off their automobiles with fuel. There were a number of reasons for that, and some people in New York and New Jersey are learning those reasons the hard way. When a hurricane hits an area, it can damage […]

Sandy Price Gouging Probed: $7 Loaf of Bread, $10 Box of Matches

More than 400 possible cases of price gouging of gasoline and other essentials, including a $10 box of matches and $7 loaf of bread, have been reported in New York before and after Sandy. Reports are being investigated in New York City, the Hudson Valley and on Long Island by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. […]

Gasoline availability in Hurricane Areas

The EIA has stood up a daily emergency survey of gas stations in the storm-hit areas: Based on today’s emergency survey of gasoline availability, EIA estimates that 27% of gas stations in the New York metropolitan area do not have gasoline available for sale. This is a decrease from 38% yesterday. This number includes stations that […]

Growth alone is not the answer

If we know anything about what makes our economy tick we know this: Feed it cheap oil and it runs like a charm. But keep it rationed to expensive fuel, and growth stops dead. Every major global recession in the past four decades has oil’s fingerprints all over it. For all of our efforts to […]

More NY oil terminals online, gasoline lines persist post Sandy

The New York Harbor energy network was returning to normal on Sunday with mainline power restored nearly a week after Hurricane Sandy pummeled the eastern seaboard. Yet damage to infrastructure near Linden, New Jersey, a major northeast fuel hub, kept a major refinery and some terminals shut, lending longer life to gasoline shortages that have […]

Chaos reigns at NYC free gas fiasco

Free gas came with gallons of chaos. Thousands of fuel-starved New Yorkers were able to get much needed gasoline from the government at no cost yesterday, but not without a high-octane fit of confusion and double talk from state and federal authorities. The trouble-plagued giveaway began when Gov. Cuomo’s office announced in the morning that […]

Natural Gas: America’s Future Electric Grid?

In August 2003, cascading electric blackoutsacross the northeast United States left roughly 50 million people without power and cost billions of dollars in economic losses. That incident called into question the reliability of America’s electric power grid. To the extent anyone still had doubts, that question was answered decisively by the prolonged power outages in […]

NYC CRAIGSLIST: $15 a gallon

A third day of gasoline “panic buying” among storm-stricken New York area motorists prompted authorities on Friday to tap strategic oil reserves and waive shipping regulations even as limited deliveries resumed in the battered region. The U.S. government said it will loan 2 million gallons of diesel from the Northeast emergency heating oil reserve to […]

Worms, termites, microbes offer food security

Worms and termites are not likely to win hearts and minds, but they, along with lichens and microbes, are vital to food security, say biodiversity specialists who attended this month’s United Nations conference on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in this south Indian city. “Worms, termites, lichens and soil microbes may well be the […]

Getting On The Train – The Rail Resurrection Gets Underway

Getting On The Train Given emerging data in 2012, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the post-war automobile era in the United States is now in well-articulated decline. Accordingly, it makes sense to note the beginning of a long-term supertrend that is just getting started: the resurrection of America’s rail system. At Seattle’s historic King Street Station (a […]

Post-Sandy Gas Lines Go On And On And On (And Will Continue To)

Let the siphoning begin? “Guy on W96th ‘borrowing’ a gallon from his friend.”(@coreykilgannon) The great post-Sandy gas shortage continues! Though officials say they’re working to alleviate the problem, don’t expect to see lots of fuel flowing at the pumps just yet. See, distributing the stuff is very difficult under the circumstances. So if you can […]

Somebody Should Start The ‘Stuff Costs Too Much’ Party

Stuff costs too much.  Seriously.  Every time I go to the grocery store these days, I am absolutely horrified by the prices.  I try not to buy anything that is not on sale, but the problem is that I am discovering that the new sale prices are the old regular prices.  So now paying what […]

“Brooklyn Is Out Of Gas,” Wait For Fuel Can Last Hours

An aerial shot of the wait for gas in the Bronx.(@CEOGuddaHouse) There may be hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline in the Arthur Kill between Staten Island and New Jersey but there doesn’t appear to be much of that liquid gold at the pumps. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy reports are coming in […]

Electric Car Sales Increase 228 Percent

Automakers operate on a different calendar, in which the 2012 model year recently came to a close.  As my colleague, Luke Tonachel, explains, this was the year of the green car, with record new fleet fuel efficiency, a 55 percent increase in hybrid sales, and more than a three-fold increase in plug-in electric car sales.  […]

The cities that power the global economy are the ones most at risk of flooding

Millions upon millions of people live in coastal cities—not just New York and the Boston-Washington corridor, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and New Orleans, but also many of the great cities in the emerging economies of Asia, India, and around the world. Their coastal locations are what fueled their growth in the first place, as […]

NYC taxi firms run out of fuel as gasoline crunch deepens

New York taxi and car service companies started pulling vehicles off the road on Thursday as the fuel crunch deepened, with the vast majority of storm-hit service stations in the greater New York area now out of gasoline or without power. Power outages and fuel shortages have forced many gasoline stations to shut, and now […]

Does U.S. shale mean cheap global oil by 2020?

Does the rise of U.S. shale oil mean fuel buyers can look forward to a multi-year period of crude price decline? Or is oil destined for new record highs above $150 a barrel? The question is dividing energy analysts who are split on whether or not shale and other predominantly North American “unconventional” supply like […]

China prioritizes use of natural gas by vehicles, ships

China unveiled on Wednesday a natural gas policy designed to spur the transport sector’s use of the cleaner-burning fuel, and particularly of liquefied natural gas (LNG), as the world’s second-largest user of fuel reins in consumption of dirtier oil. Besides homes, utilities and factories, the government for the first time targeted the transport sector, covering […]

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