U.S. Shale Glut Means Gas Shortage for Mexican Industry

Mexico has begun cutting natural gas supplies to some of its largest customers by as much as 45 percent of their orders to cope with ballooning demand from households to steelmakers such as Ternium SA and ArcelorMittal. Monopoly supplier Petroleos Mexicanos, known as Pemex, started reductions on a case-by-case basis as the government studies forcing the […]

Can Oil Prices Rise Indefinitely Without Strong Economic Recovery in Europe and the US?

Clouds of recession hover over Europe and are threatening the US, unless significant policy changes are enacted from those existing now. Most advanced nations also suffer from both exploding debt and a demographic decline of their core populations. Unless the world’s wealthy nations resume the buying spree of the “economic bubble period” of the 1990s […]

Saudi Arabia May Become Oil Importer by 2030

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, risks becoming an oil importer in the next 20 years, according to Citigroup Inc. Oil and its derivatives are used for about half of the kingdom’s electricity production, which at peak rates is growing at about 8 percent a year, the bank said today in a an e-mailed […]

Orlov: The Most Interesting Driver in the World

Recently circumstances have conspired to make it necessary for me to drive hundreds of miles all over New England. I don’t often drive. The last time I owned a car was over a decade ago, and I haven’t missed it. I bicycle a lot, plus Boston’s public transportation is not too awful. When I do […]

Robert Rapier: 4 Reasons Why Gas Prices Are About to Fall Rapidly

While U.S. gasoline prices have been on the rise for the past two months — and are presently $0.15/gallon higher than they were a year ago — I expect that gasoline prices will start to fall rapidly in the weeks ahead. There are four reasons for this. First is that the spike from Hurricane Isaac […]

The era of cheap food may be over

The last decade saw the end of cheap oil, the magic growth ingredient for the global economy after the second world war. This summer’s increase in maize, wheat and soya bean prices – the third spike in the past five years – suggests the era of cheap food is also over. Price increases in both […]

Should the world go vegetarian? Scientists say “no”

Limiting animal agriculture is not a healthy, sustainable way to save water. In a recent paper, the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) recommends that the world population save water by reducing the consumption of animal products by 75 percent. This recommendation is based on flawed data. Meat, milk and eggs are important sources of protein […]

Energy independence and neo-Malthusian commodity fears

I’m not supposed to be blogging.  Philippe and I have a book deadline at SUP this week.  We have a Forbes piece due soon, too.  And I have a speech to prepare for an Institutional Investor Forum in mid-September.  So I’m going to make this quick… Tonight was my last night as a summer bachelor (my wife and […]

Saudi oil income at all time high

Saudi Arabia is expected to net its highest ever oil export earnings of nearly $335 billion in 2012 because of high crude prices and a slight rise in its production, according to the Gulf Kingdom’s largest bank. Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy and world’s oil powerhouse, netted a record high income of $317 billion […]

Russia’s Gazprom Tightens Its Stranglehold On Europe, France Falls: The Natural Gas War Gets Dirty

Why would France suddenly prohibit shale gas exploration? Sure, there are environmental issues with horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the methods used to extract gas from porous shale deep underground: flammable drinking water, earth quakes, cows that die, radioactive sludge in sewage treatment plants…. But French governments have had, let’s say, an uneasy relationship with […]

International Food Prices Again at Record Levels

After decreasing somewhat in recent months, international food prices have again risen dramatically, according to figures published on Thursday by the World Bank. Statistics for July indicate a 10 percent rise over just the previous month, and a six percent increase over already high prices from the same time frame a year ago. “Food prices […]

The Long-Term Tie Between Energy Supply, Population, and the Economy

The tie between energy supply, population, and the economy goes back to the hunter-gatherer period. Hunter-gatherers managed to multiply their population at least 4-fold, and perhaps by as much as 25-fold, by using energy techniques which allowed them to expand their territory from central Africa to virtually the whole world, including the Americas and Australia. […]

Battery Performance Deficit Disorder

Batteries fail—as certainly as death and taxes. Rechargeable batteries at least offer the possibility of repeating the cycle, so are in this sense more like recurrent taxes than death. But alas, the story cannot repeat indefinitely. One cheerful thought after the other, yes? But wait, there’s more… Add to their inevitable demise an overall lackluster […]

Italians Squeezed by $9.50-a-Gallon Gas Face Costly Drive Home

Giovanni Cimmino filled up his Fiat Multipla in Croatia before returning to Italy after his summer holiday, avoiding Europe’s highest gasoline prices. “You need a smart strategy to save on gas,” said Cimmino, 37, who manages a metals trading company near Milan. With pump prices at a record in Italy, “I tend to use more […]

World food prices jumped 10 percent in July

World food prices jumped 10 percent in July as drought parched crop lands in the United States and Eastern Europe, the World Bank said in a statement urging governments to shore up programs that protect their most vulnerable populations. From June to July, corn and wheat prices rose by 25 percent each, soybean prices by […]

Peak Education

In recent years I have witnessed the descriptions of several resource peaks, from oil to water, grain to gold, and peak economy. One additional resource peak that has drawn my attention over the last several months, occurring even as I write this piece, is “peak” education. Education is the sacred political issue that no one […]

Social Innovations for Economic Degrowth

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we find ourselves in a peculiar situation: although hardly anyone would deny the deep ecological crisis facing humankind, we seem to be caught in a net of assumptions that impede a practical solution. Having acknowledged that we need to reduce consumption of energy and materials drastically,1,2 we still […]

Peak Lithium, demands soars for manufacture of lithium-ion batteries

Renew Economy reports that WA based lithium miner Talison has been taken over – Talison snapped up on bet of a battery-charged future. Three years after it was forced to pull an Australian stock market float due to a lack of interest from local investors, the Australian-based Talison Lithium (TLH:TSX) – the world’s largest producer […]

The Smart Grid Means Changing Expectations

The recent Smart Grid Roadshow in Vancouver covered interesting ground in terms of how electric utilities must transform to meet expectations of stakeholders – be they consumers, regulators, or shareholders.  BCHydro resources discussed the unprecedented scope of ambitious grid modernization projects that their utility had underway to achieve two objectives:  become more efficient and consumer-centric […]

Feed Europe, Feed the World

A huge moment for reform of the industrial farming system in Europe has many stakeholders on edge. Farmers who are feeling the crunch of rising input costs – from fertilisers to fuel – believe they can benefit greatly from a transition to more traditional and sustainable farming methods.   An organic farm in the village […]

Kuwait : Natural gas provides half Saudi Arabia’s power generation

Saudi Arabia’s power generation Forty-nine percent depends on natural gas and remaining from liquid fuels with renewable power resources accounting for a negligible share, reported the Kuwait Financial Center (Markaz). As per the reports, situation is set to change as nuclear and solar power are increasingly seen as an option to satisfy the growing demand […]

Orlov: The Collapse Wager

[This is a guest post from Howard. I reformulated his wager somewhat. I am not a betting man myself. I also consider those who bet against collapse to be a bad risk. But to each his own, plus I think Howard’s collapse wager may have some didactic value in forcing people to think hard about […]

Food shortages could force world into vegetarianism

Water scarcity’s effect on food production means radical steps will be needed to feed population expected to reach 9bn by 2050 Leading water scientists have issued one of the sternest warnings yet about global food supplies, saying that the world’s population may have to switch almost completely to a vegetarian diet over the next 40 […]

IEA sees oil market as ‘sufficiently supplied’

International Energy Agency Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said she sees no reason for a release from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The IEA “bases our actions on data and reality,” she told reporters after an Aug. 17 speech at Rice University’s Baker Institute, adding, “The market is sufficiently supplied.” Her comments came […]

The fossil fuel free garden

It’s the first season for our Transition group’s community garden, but already we’ve taken to calling it the Fossil Fuel Free Garden. The tagline is an easy way for us to make the point that not only do we expect our fellow gardeners to stay organic (no chemicals, please) but that we have the additional requirement […]

Water shortages hit US power supply

As the United States’ extended heat wave and drought threaten to raise global food prices, energy production is also feeling the pressure. Across the nation, power plants are becoming overheated and shutting down or running at lower capacity; drilling operations struggle to get the water they need, and crops that would become biofuel are withering. […]

food production after peak oil

edited from: Toby Hemenway Permaculture talk

Peak cheap oil is an incontrovertible fact

Brent crude jumped to $115 a barrel last week. Petrol costs in Germany and across much of Europe are now at record levels in local currencies. Diesel is above the political pain threshold of $4 a gallon in the US, hence reports circulating last week that the International Energy Agency (IEA) is preparing to release […]

Oil prices are setting their own course

It is indeed difficult to write about the evolution of oil prices in the market of few months now. Prices seem to move against expectations, one way or another. Since the peak of $124.12 (Dh455.9) a barrel on March 18 for the Opec (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) basket of crude oils, prices have […]

The Collapse of the English and Welsh Fishery

This collapse will be repeated in commons after commons until they are all depleted. Somewhere along the line, the inevitable gigadeath will begin. Jay Handson http://www.jayhanson.us/_Biology/EnglishAndWelsh.pdf

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