Why Going Back To Normal Is No Longer An Option For The American Economy–And Where We’re Headed Now

Former IMF chief economist Joseph Stiglitz has a message for everybody who’s sitting around waiting for the economy to “get back to normal.” Stop waiting. ‘Cause that train’s gone, and it ain’t coming back. And the sooner we accept that “normal,” as post WWII America knew and loved it, will not be an option in […]

Why Is Gasoline Consumption Tanking?

Gasoline deliveries reflect recession and growth. The recent drop in retail gasoline deliveries is signalling a sharp contraction ahead. Mish recently posted some intriguing charts depicting a significant decline in gasoline consumption (additional charts here). Then correspondent Joe R. forwarded me this stunning chart of gasoline retail deliveries, from the U.S. Energy Information Administration: (EIA) […]

Peak Everything — Why Everything Costs More

Peak Oil–No Longer the Right Question A Shell Oil geologist named M. King Hubbert predicted in 1956 that U.S. oil production would peak in the early 1970s. When it did, Hubbert became the geologist equivalent of a rock star and gave the young environmental movement evidence for something it was seeking: a limit to growth. […]

IEA Slashes Oil Demand Growth Forecast

The International Energy Agency Friday slashed its 2012 oil demand growth forecast for the second time in just a few weeks as the economic outlook weakened, just as oil production from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reached its highest level since October 2008. The IEA has cut half a million barrels a day from […]

Nestle CEO: Feeding the World Will Be More Difficult

Chief Executive Officer Paul Bulckesaid feeding a swelling world population will be made more difficult by slowing crop-yield growth and scarce resources. Following are comments Bulcke made at the “Feeding the World” meeting organized by Economist Conferences in Geneva yesterday. Nestle’s products include KitKat chocolate bars and Nescafe instant coffee. “In the next 40 years, […]

Community supported agriculture

Community supported agriculture is a community-led initiative connecting organic growers with local consumers, each group of consumers supporting a farm by purchasing directly from the grower, in order that the grower may have an assured market for the produce and the consumers know exactly where and under what conditions their food is grown. Each such […]

Oil, Food, Water: Is Everything Past Its Peak?

An unprecedented crisis faced America. Oil production was going to peak in just three to five years, resulting in foreign oil addiction and economic calamity. The scientist responsible for slapping the nation into consciousness implored industry and government to act: “The smug complacency that habitually blinds the American public must be torn,” wrote David White, […]

How will Denmark react to peak oil?

This morning I awoke before the sun had risen and, having made myself a cup of tea, turned on the local news to see if anything interesting had happened. The newsreaders were in a state of mild excitement because the night had been the coldest in 26 years. Yes, outside my window it was a […]

Will Peak Oil Spell the End of Capitalism?

Capitalism will end when oil runs out, according to Fleeing Vesuvius, a collection of essays first published in Ireland in 2010. The US and New Zealand editions came out in mid-2011. The basic theme of Fleeing Vesuvius, which is aimed at the growing sustainability movement, is TEOTWAWI (The End of the World as We Know […]

Foss on Peak Oil and Alternative Energy

Nicole Foss (who writes as Stoneleigh on TheAutomaticEarth website) offers as deep, well-informed and humane a perspective on our economic future and the lifestyle changes it will require as you’ll find anywhere.

Once, men abused slaves. Now we abuse fossil fuels

In 2005, while teaching history at a French university, I was struck by the general disbelief among students that rational and sensitive human beings could ever hold others in bondage. Slavery was so obviously evil that slave-holders could only have been barbarians. My students could not entertain the idea that some slave-owners could have been […]

U.S. gasoline heads for “epic summer”

Refinery outages in the U.S. and Europe and lower U.S. crude prices will support U.S. gasoline refining margins and enable traders to profit from rising U.S. gasoline futures, said Seth Kleinman, global head of energy strategy at Citi. “U.S. gasoline looks fantastic – it is heading for an epic summer,” said Kleinman, speaking at the […]

Peak oil – it’s history, right?

Peak oil – it’s history, right? Everything has changed so fast. Two years ago, the world was facing an intractable oil crisis. “By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear,” the U.S. Defence Department declared in a major report. “A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity.” […]

Electric Cars & Overpopulation — R-Squared Energy TV Ep. 10

In this week’s episode of R-Squared Energy TV, I answer questions on the future of electric cars, and the global population, which many feel is the root of so many problems. Some of the topics discussed are: When electric cars might be expected to make significant inroads in the auto market Why some people will […]

Food Production Must Double in 30 Years

The world will need to double food production within the next three decades in order to feed a rapidly growing and increasingly affluent population.  A United Nations report says reaching that goal will require major increases in intensive, high-efficiency livestock operations for both meat and dairy production. The report concedes that intensive livestock operations can […]

The Most Important Resource for Our Future: Inexpensive Oil

Our economy runs on oil. Most of the tractors used for growing food run on oil. Nearly all of today’s cars and trucks run on oil. It is popular to talk about changing to some other fuel, but the practicalities are that any such change will be very slow. There is a huge cost associated […]

The US obsession with energy imports and why Europe doesn’t sweat it

In this US election year, nearly every politician campaigning at the federal level, no matter the party, wants to improve “energy independence” and “energy security.” The catchphrases invoke American can-do-ism and let candidates inject the slightest economic and foreign policy knowledge into their pitches without having to get bogged down in the details. It’s almost […]

The Price of Growth

Growth. It’s what every economist and politician wants. If we get ‘back to growth’, servicing debts both private and sovereign become much easier. And life will return to normal (for a few more years). There is growing evidence that a major US policy shift is underway to boost growth. Growth that will create millions of […]

World lacks enough food, fuel as population soars

The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid sending up to 3 billion people into poverty, a U.N. report warned on Monday. As the world’s population looks set to grow to nearly 9 billion […]

Does Cheaper Natural Gas Mean Cheaper Electricity?

Other factors — including high capacity prices and congestion — could offset any savings For the fourth consecutive year, falling natural gas prices may lower the cost of the electricity delivered to most of the state’s businesses and residents, beginning in June. At least that is the conventional wisdom, when the state Board of Public […]

UK Refinery Closure Stirs Fuel Shortage Fears

Nearly 1,000 jobs are at risk after one of the UK’s largest oil refineries announced it would halt supplies, as its Swiss owner prepares to file for insolvency. The Coryton refinery in Essex halted sales on Monday after negotiations with lenders broke down and credit lines were suspended, leading to a default on $1.75bn (£1.12bn) […]

Peak Oil: Yes, Still a Serious Issue

The director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will be delivering a lecture titled “U.S. Energy Outlook: Whatever Happened to ‘Peak Oil’” at Indiana University on February 6. The description of the lecture provides some background: “Not long ago, the public heard much concern that the nation and the globe had reached or was about […]

Feeding 9 billion in 40 years

Although world agriculture has met the food demand of growing populations and expanding economies over the last half of the 20th Century, U.S. growers and their counterparts worldwide face a “continued challenge” to meet the continued growth in food demand over the last half of the 21st century, according to Iowa State University emeritus ag […]

Icelanders: Recovering Dubiously From the Crash

Three years ago, thousands of Icelanders were standing outside Iceland’s parliament building chanting “incompetent government” in an attempt to bring down the conservative government that had been seen as responsible for the collapse of the country’s banking system. In 2008 all three major commercial banks collapsed because they could not refinance their short-term debt. It […]

Roubini warns of tough times ahead

Economist Nouriel Roubini, nicknamed “Dr. Doom” for his gloomy predictions in the run-up to the financial meltdown four years ago, says the fallout from that crisis could last the rest of this decade. Roubini, widely acknowledged to have predicted the crash of 2008, sees tough times ahead for the global economy and is warning that […]

Canadian Retail Gas Pricing 101

(Or “Talk To Me About Gas Retail Pricing—Like I’m in Grade Four”) Last year back in April-May, when I visited family and friends in Hamilton, Ontario, regular gas was being retailed at the $1.37 to $1.45 per litre range. You could literally hear groans from motorists each morning as they saw the daily updated pricing […]

World Economic Forum Davos 2012: Leaders agree that access to food key to feeding hungry

Business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum agreed on Thursday that solving the problem isn’t just about producing more food, it means getting these staples into hungry mouths. “The world can feed itself. Africa can feed itself. The problem is we have vulnerable populations who do not have access” to the food, said […]

Supermarkets rush to raise fuel prices as pumps run dry amid fears of panic buying

Fuel prices have risen again just 24 hours after one of Britain’s biggest refineries went bust, stopping supplies to filling stations. There are fears of panic buying after long queues formed outside several filling stations in the South East yesterday as diesel pumps ran dry. Supermarkets – which usually set the trend – have put […]

Coal, the new war in the Pacific

Takeovers of oil and gas assets are multiplying on all continents, with coal assets participating as well, but with less exposure in Europe. Despite the construction of about ten coal-fired power plants in Germany and Poland, solid fuels appear as belonging to Europe’s past. The main competing grounds have moved from the near Atlantic to […]

China’s Oil Demand Reaches Records Despite Slowing Growth

China’s apparent oil demand in December rose 0.7 percent year on year to 41.02 million metric ton (mt), or an average 9.69 million barrels per day (bpd), a Platts analysis of recent statistics released by the Chinese government showed. “But even with that relatively slow rate of growth at the end of the year, the […]

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