The Oil Head-Fake: The Illusion that Lower Oil Prices Are Positive

The essence of the Oil Head-Fake Dynamic is the inevitable drop in oil price due to global recession will trigger disruption of the global oil supply chain. I’ve described the dynamic of structural imbalances of supply and demand leading to lower prices for crude oil as the Oil Head-Fake: high global production (supply) continues while demand […]

“No Ordinary Conference”: The Fourth Degrowth Conference in Leipzig

The following notes are intended to give some personal insights into what was a very special event, the fourth in a series, (Paris 2008, Barcelona 2010,Venice 2012) and, while it followed the process of previous degrowth conferences, it was by far the most adventurous to be attempted to date. The event was marked by a […]

Honolulu: Peak Oil canary in the coalmine

Kakaako: The beginning of the End for Honolulu’s character as it becomes YuppieLand .. http://www.gofundme.com/eevcfw

Peak Oil and Climate Change: A Rural Community Guide

Global climate change is a reality, and at the same time energy prices continue to rise. As these trends will fundamentally change our communities, how can municipalities work to increase resilience – to ensure that communities can withstand potential shocks and changes? What types of responses address both climate change and rising energy prices? This […]

The Return To $30 a Barrel Oil

While the world starts to understand that behind the evil behind ISIS there is also another element to it, greed. US airstrikes hit mobile oil refineries in Syria that was help fund the terrorist group. Ideology is always best suited when it is being funded with oil and to strike at these mobile units is […]

Family spending on gasoline hits all-time high

The average U.S. household spent more than $2,600 on gas last year for a third consecutive year — an all-time high and a 111% increase compared with the amount spend a decade earlier, an advocacy group says. The increase was due to the high price of oil, says the group, Securing America’s Future Energy, which […]

In 2015, Imported Oil Will Make Up Just 21% of US Consumption

Due to the highest level of domestic crude oil production in 45 years, oil imports will make up less than a quarter of U.S. consumption next year, according to a forecast by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). In August, “total U.S. crude oil production averaged an estimated 8.6 million barrels per day,” which was “the […]

China’s Growing Food Problem/Opportunity

Feeding China’s population of 1.3 billion people is a difficult task, even under the best of circumstances. Securing enough food for its people, however, will be even more difficult for China in the years ahead due to a number of factors, including increased competition from a growing global population, the reduction of the country’s agricultural […]

Post-Capitalism

In an interview recently, Aftab Omer observed that I seem hesitant to describe Sacred Economics as a post-capitalist economic vision. I replied that I am not talking about the end of capitalism, bur rather a transformation in the nature of capital, so that capitalism no longer bears the social dynamics to which we are accustomed. […]

Blackouts Present Biggest Risk to South Africa’s Economy

South Africa has an electric bill coming due that’s threatening everything from its swimming pools to its sovereign debt. Consumers are asked almost daily to switch off their water heaters, pool pumps and anything else that will save power during peak periods. Industrial customers are also asked to conserve energy, even if it means reducing […]

Saudi Arabia using more crude oil than ever

Saudi Arabia aims to use more renewable energy, but for now it burns more crude oil directly than any other nation in the Middle East, a Wednesday report found. By 2023, Saudi Arabia plans to have 120 gigawatts of solar and nuclear power available, more than twice what’s installed currently. Saudi Arabia has few alternative […]

The Most Consumed Fuel by State

I saw a very interesting graphic several days ago that shows the most consumed fuel in every state in the US: Image Credit: Movoto In 49 of 50 states, fossil fuels were the most consumed fuel. South Carolina was the single exception, where nuclear power was the most consumed fuel. Coal consumption predominates in coal-producing […]

The Oiliness of Everything: Invisible Oil and Energy Payback Time.

Just as fish swim in water, we swim in oil.  You can’t understand the predicament we’re in until you can see the oil that saturates every single aspect of our life. What follows is a life cycle of a simple object, the pencil. I’ve cut and reworded Read’s I Pencil, My Family Tree to show […]

The shifting fundamentals of commodity demand

Economic growth in emerging markets has driven energy commodity demand over the last decade, but that growth is now slowing. According to the IMF, GDP growth in emerging markets fell from 7% a year on average in 2003-2008 to 6% in 2010-13. The Fund forecasts that emerging market growth will dip further to 5% from […]

$2 trillion growth goal called feasible

Finance chiefs from the 20 largest economies on Sunday said that they are close to reaching their goal of boosting world GDP by more than $2 trillion over the next five years and will focus on infrastructure investment to help reach the target. Australia’s treasurer, Joe Hockey, who hosted the Group of 20 meeting in […]

Low Oil Prices: Sign of a Debt Bubble Collapse, Leading to the End of Oil Supply

Oil and other commodity prices have recently been dropping. Is this good news, or bad? Figure 1. Trend in Commodity Prices since January 2011. Brent spot oil price from EIA; Australian Coal from World Bank Prink Sheet; Food from UN’s FAO. I would argue that falling commodity prices are bad news. It likely means that […]

Heinberg: Paul Krugman’s Errors and Omissions

In a New York Times op-ed published September 18 titled “Errors and Emissions,” economist-columnist Paul Krugman took a swipe at my organization, Post Carbon Institute, lumping us together with the Koch brothers as purveyors of “climate despair.” No, the Koch brothers are not in despair about the climate; apparently our shared error is that we […]

‘Time-of-Use’ Electricity Pricing

My mom is a pro at shopping for good deals. She taught me the importance of timing my purchases during the off-peak season to get the most value for my dollar. Time-of-Use (TOU) electricity pricing reminds me of the lessons my mom taught me, and it can help empower families to take control of their […]

U.S. Oil imports at historic low

U.S. imports of crude oil in August were the lowest they’ve been in almost 20 years, the American Petroleum Institute said. API said in its monthly report on trends in the U.S. energy sector crude oil imports of 7.6 million barrels per day in August, the last full month for which data are available, was […]

MPG OMG! What’s behind the gasoline demand drop?

Over at ESPN, there’s a podcast called “Numbers Never Lie.”  The name’s something sports types like to throw around when making a point. Like this: Detroit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera is one of only four players with 300 total bases in 11 straight seasons. It would be hard for even a Kansas City Royals fan to […]

Return of the $3 Gallon?

Here is the price of gasoline in the U.S. so far this year: Gasoline prices in 2014 The national average price of regular unleaded, now at $3.38 a gallon, is down 8 percent from the end of June. Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at GasBuddy.com, thinks this year will bring the cheapest autumn gasoline prices since […]

Peak Farmland, Let’s Get Vertical

Agriculture has one hell of a footprint, occupying 37.6 percent of earth’s land area, or about 0.7 hectares (1.7 acres) per person to feed our world’s current population. “There is no activity that humankind engages in that has a bigger impact on the planet than agriculture,” Jack Bobo, Chief of Biotechnology and Textile Trade in […]

Reason for Permaculture – Fossil Fuel Shortage, aka peak oil

I have been thinking about writing (or doing a podcast) along these lines for a while. The original plot was to do a podcast that talked about a whole bunch of different reasons that we should start apply the design system of Permaculture to pretty much everything we do…and believe me, it would easily fill […]

Deeper Saudi Oil Cuts Seen After Biggest Drop Since ’12

Saudi Arabia will need to keep cutting oil output to sustain prices above $100 a barrel, even after the kingdom’s largest reduction in two years, according to BNP Paribas SA and Societe Generale SA. The world’s biggest crude exporter told OPEC last week it pumped 408,000 barrels a day less last month, about as much […]

The US shale oil boom is saving the world almost $5 billion a day

Oil prices continue to plunge today despite the beheading of another western hostage by the Islamic State, tensions between Russia and the West, and mayhem in Libya. As Quartz has reported, one of the main reasons is surging US oil production, which has made up for supply disruption almost barrel for barrel—and is also a bad […]

Living the New Economy in Jamaica Plain

Chuck Collins is a founder of Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition. As part of PCI’s “Weaving the Movement” project, a series of interviews and group conversations with leaders in the new economy and community resilience movements, we spoke with Chuck about the making the new economy real, bridging race and class divides, and more: Interview with […]

Exporting US Oil to Mexico

  Mexico could become a major export destination for surplus US light crude oil, despite being one of the largest oil suppliers to the US, mainly of heavy oil. If structured as an exchange for other barrels, such exports might not require re-writing US oil export regulations, unlike sales to non-neighboring countries. Two of the biggest […]

Escaping the city to ride out climate change and peak oil

Bugging out from Boston to Vermont My wife Sarah and I are moving to Vermont. I’ve been studying climate change and its interconnected problems for a year, and my research has brought me to the conclusion that a time of tremendous scarcity and uncertainty is upon us. So we’ve decided that it’s time to get […]

Ukraine cuts gas consumption

Ukraine cut its gas consumption by 14.6% – 4.5 bcm – year on year between January and July 2014, to 26 bcm, the Energy and Coal Ministry said. Consumption fell by 31.3% year on year in July, or 618 MMcm, to 1.4 bcm. Natural Gas Daily

Despite Decline in Some Regions, World Oil Consumption Still Seen Rising

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Energy Outlook 2014 The largest potential for growth in demand for liquid fuels lies in the emerging economies of China, India, and countries in the Middle East, according to EIA’s recently released International Energy Outlook 2014 (IEO2014). In the Reference case projection, world liquid fuels consumption increases 38% from […]

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