How can we feed the world in 2014?

As the world’s population grows, more sustainable diets are needed. But what government got elected by rationing meat? Pressure is mounting on the global food system. There are more mouths to feed: by 2050, according to the UN, the world’s population is expected to have grown from 7 billion to 9.3 billion. Recent Food and […]

Price for Meats, Poultry, Fish & Eggs Rockets to All-Time High

 The seasonally-adjusted price index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs hit an all-time high in May, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS). In January 1967, when the BLS started tracking this measure, the index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs was 38.1. As of last May, it was 234.572. By this January, it […]

Transition: time to emerge from under the radar?

I was recently sent a really interesting paper by Philip Barnes of the University of Delaware called The political economy of localization in the Transition movement.  I was keen to publish it here, but it’s in moderation to be published, so I couldn’t.  Instead, I wrote to Philip and asked if he might be able to summarise […]

BP: US Beats China’s Oil Demand Growth in 2013

Oil demand in the United States grew at the fastest pace in the world in 2013, outstripping China for the first time since 1999 as the globe’s top economy reaped the benefits of a shale boom, oil company BP said on Monday. In its annual review of energy statistics unveiled in Moscow, BP also raised […]

EIA: As coal power fades, natural gas’ growth dependent on price, supply

Dive Brief: The degree to which natural gas replaces coal as a source of electricity generation in the U.S. by 2040 depends primarily on natural gas prices and that depends on still uncertain supply-demand factors, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In all scenarios, increasing natural gas supplies drive replacement of coal for power […]

“Extracted”: the movie

Babylonia-Brussels, Dianna Rienstra, Daphne Davies, the staff of the Club of Rome, and several more people. The book “Extracted” is available from Chelsea Green

Peak Oil: Addressing the Basics For Starters?

In my last post, I returned to a topic I’d set aside in the past couple of years: transportation. The topic is just as vital as ever, and contributions from a few other prominent writers suggest that we might want to consider the issue with renewed purpose and awareness. Bill Chameides, the current Dean of […]

We will never run out of oil (which is entirely beside the point)

Harvard economist Morris Adelman, famous for saying that we will never run out of oil, died last month. What followed the announcement of his death was a predictable set of encomiums like this one from defenders of the oil industry extolling Adelman’s infinite wisdom. Some (including my father, it seems) were so caught up in […]

The Energy Cost of Food

In my earlier essay The Energy Basis of Food Security, I linked the high energy intensity of food production to the reality that food and energy prices trend together; when energy prices increase, food prices follow suit. With this as a backdrop, it’s worth exploring energy use in the US food system a little more […]

China’s energy consumption ‘unrivaled’

China’s demand for oil and natural gas will be unrivaled within the next two decades, analysis from Wood Mackenzie finds. Paul McConnell, a principal analyst for the energy consultant group’s global trends service, said in a report expanding economies in Asia are growing by the year. “By 2030 China’s energy consumption will be unrivaled and […]

Economics of natural gas don’t always add up for fleets

(Houston Chronicle) A compressed natural gas (CNG) Frito Lay truck is shown on display during the Natural Gas Vehicle USA Conference outside the Omni Houston Hotel, 4 Riverway, Thursday, June 12, 2014, in Houston. ( Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle ) HOUSTON — Though natural gas is abundant in the U.S., whether it can serve […]

Pickens: Without Iraq’s oil, prices could hit $200

If Iraq’s oil supply goes offline, crude prices could hit $150-$200 a barrel, T. Boone Pickens, founder of BP Capital Management, told CNBC on Friday. “That’s where you have to kill demand with price. That’s the only way you can do it, because oil won’t be there,” Pickens said in an interview with “Street Signs.” […]

This is what Peak Oil looks like

When they got you over barrel — what are you gonna do? You pull up, and you pay their latest price … petro, you gotta have it. Oil thirst rising as Iraq unrest boosts prices by Wendy Koch and Gary Strauss, USA TODAY — June 13, 2014 The turmoil in Iraq pushed up U.S. and […]

Oil prices aren’t coming down any time soon, and Iraq is just the latest reason

The upheaval in Iraq threatens to exacerbate a three-year-old trend in which unusual geopolitical disruptions have become the new normal. A key impact—high oil prices when analysts say bulging new supplies should be sending them far lower. + That is because much of the geopolitical turmoil has been in or involved oil-producing countries. “We are […]

Fresh Water, Growth, Degrowth, and the Steady State Economy

In Our Common Future, the 1987 report of the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, sustainable development is described as a process of change which meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs and aspirations. To achieve this objective, the report suggests […]

Oil prices at nine-month highs amid Iraq violence

* Brent spikes over $113 on Iraq supply worries; US over $106 * Iraqi Kurds seize control of northern oil city Kirkuk * Insurgents surround Iraq’s largest refinery in Baiji (Updates prices at settlement)   Oil prices jumped to nine-month highs on Thursday, as concerns mounted that escalating violence in Iraq could disrupt oil supplies […]

Global Energy Demand Growth? Follow the Shovels in the Ground

A key indicator of global energy production and consumption growth is mega-project construction. Where are the world’s largest power plants, mining operations, oil & gas developments, utility-scale renewable energy projects or desalination plants being built? These mega-projects require a company to oversee the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) aspects of the capital intensive investments. It’s […]

Europe’s Reliance on Gas Imports to Grow 50% by 2030

Paul McConnell Principal Analyst for Wood Mackenzie’s Global Trends Service explains: “Global energy markets are reaching a new equilibrium. As demand shifts East it will expand to extraordinary proportions, but this era is also one of robust energy supply. As a result, we see few, if any, strong upside signals for oil, gas and coal […]

China’s Record Oil Hoarding Seen Keeping Crude Above $100

China is hoarding crude at the fastest pace in at least a decade, shielding itself from supply disruptions and helping keep prices above $100 a barrel. The country imported a record volume in April as it emulates steps taken by the U.S. in the 1970s to create a strategic petroleum reserve, government data show. Chinese […]

Dr. Morris Adelman And Peak Oil Theory

Several weeks ago, the US Energy USEG -2.63% Information Administration (EIA) made big news by severely reducing its estimate of recoverable oil from California’s huge Monterey Shale formation.  This change in calculation by some guys sitting at desks in Washington DC led to a very predictable series of misleading stories with sensationalized headlines like this […]

Summer gas prices

The national average price for regular unleaded gasoline is $3.66 per gallon. This is a penny less than last month and three cents more than last year.

9 Reasons Why Oil Prices May Be Headed For A Bust

Though the U.S. shale oil boom of the past several years has led to a renewed surge of domestic oil production as well as an oil glut, crude oil prices have remained stubbornly high. There are a growing number of reasons, however, why crude oil prices are likely to finally experience a bust in the […]

The world’s population is getting wealthier

The global population is not only growing, its composition is also changing in some very important ways. Over the next few decades, the number of people considered to be in the ‘global middle class’ is projected to more than double, from 430 million in 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2030 (or from 7.6% of the […]

Peak Oil: Another Look At Growth

Earlier this year, I offered two posts [here & here] on Perfect Storm – Energy, Finance and the End of Growth, a well-reasoned 2013 report issued by Tullet Prebon, a British financial services firm (in the wholesale financial and energy sectors), authored by its Global Head of Research, Dr. Tim Morgan. I came across a […]

Talkin’ trash: Are we literally throwing away energy?

Philipp Schmidt-Pathmann wakes up every day thinking about trash. What got him thinking about it in the first place is how much of it is simply dumped into landfills across America when most of what is not recyclable could instead be turned into energy for homes and businesses everywhere. Schmidt-Pathmann has seen a better approach […]

Peakoil and pushing on a string

Imagine the economy as a wagon with one string attached to the front and one at the back. When energy is cheap, the wagon is pulled forward by the front string. The string a the rear represents monetary policy. Pulling on the rear string prevents the economy from going too fast. Cheap energy is over. […]

The Stone Age Didn’t End Because We Ran Out of Stones

“The Stone Age didn’t end because humanity ran out of stones.” — Ronald Bailey We used to be afraid of something called Peak Oil. Peak Oil was the idea that oil production had reached its zenith, or would soon, and was poised to plunge; we inevitably faced a drought of the black gunk. In 2007, […]

Raw Material Demand Seen at 140 Billion Tons by 2050

Global use of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass will reach 140 billion metric tons a year by 2050, three times what it was in 2000, according to the United Nations’ Environment Program’s International Resouce Panel. Available water supplies will likely only satisfy 60 percent of global demand in 20 years, the panel said in […]

The Global Energy Market’s Moment of Truth

If you want to know what addressing climate change will really be like for business and investors, then take a look at today’s electricity and energy markets. Driven by climate policy, technology development, business innovation, NGO campaigns and investment risk analysis, creative destruction is inflicting itself upon the sector with a vengeance – and the […]

Peak Oil Revisited…

In a lecture to the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy in February of 2014 Steven Kopits, who is the Managing Director of the consultancy, Douglas Westwood explains how conventional “legacy” oil production peaked in 2005 and has not increased since. All the increase in oil production since that date has been from unconventional […]

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