Global riot epidemic due to demise of cheap fossil fuels

If anyone had hoped that the Arab Spring and Occupy protests a few years back were one-off episodes that would soon give way to more stability, they have another thing coming. The hope was that ongoing economic recovery would return to pre-crash levels of growth, alleviating the grievances fueling the fires of civil unrest, stoked […]

Did Natural Gas Debt Trigger the Ukraine Crisis?

Defending Moscow’s December 18, 2013 agreement to provide Ukraine with an aid package estimated at about $15 billion, and cheaper natural gas through discounts and “gas debt forgiveness” estimated as able to save Ukraine $7 bn in one year, Vladimir Putin said the decision to invest $15 bn in ‘brotherly slavic’ Ukraine, and grant the […]

The Petro States of America

The Keystone XL pipeline should be an open-and-shut case from a climate perspective, the criterion President Obama has set for judging it. In a speech in June, he said he would approve the pipeline “only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.” By that standard, this should be an easy, […]

Asia’s Iran oil buys start to rise after nuclear deal

* Top four buyers take 1.25 mln bpd from Iran in Jan * Imports confirm tanker data showing rising Iranian shipments * Second payment on frozen oil receipts due on Sat Asian buyers increased purchases of Iranian crude by 22 percent in January from a year ago as the grip of sanctions imposed since 2012 […]

Fascism and the Future, Part Three: Weimar America

The discussion on fascism that’s taken up the last two weekly essays here on The Archdruid Report, and will finish up in this week’s post, has gone in directions that will very likely have surprised and dismayed many of my readers.  Some of you, in fact, may even be jumping up and down by this […]

The true reason for tripling gas prices

Ross Gittins at the SMH has an article on the Australian government’s plumbing of new moral depths, including a look at the dishonest debate about natural gas exports – Under Tony Abbott, political principles reach an all-time low. Declining standards at federal level have been matched by bad behaviour at state level. For an example […]

Feds unveil plan to save honey bees

Claiming that the future of American food production depends on a revived honey bee population, the Agriculture Department on Tuesday announced it will spend $3 million to help ranchers and farmers improve the health of the bugs, key to pollinating $15 billion worth of food. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement, “Expanded support […]

Let U.S. oil exports flow

Anyone who has paid any attention to the news knows about the surge in oil and natural gas production in the United States. While the technique of fracking has been in use for decades, in Michigan since 1952, it has recently begun to yield record production. This has restored America’s role as a major producer […]

Welcome To The Currency Wars, China (Yuan Devalues Most In 20 Years)

The last 7 days have seen the unstoppable ‘sure-thing’ one-way bet of the decade appreciation trend of the Chinese Yuan reverse. In fact, the 0.95% sell-off is the largest since 1994 (bigger than the post-Lehman move) suggesting there is clear evidence that the PBOC is intervening.   The fact that this is occurring with relatively […]

US War Machine Downsizing?

Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has unveiled plans to shrink the US Army to its smallest size since before the US entered World War Two. Outlining his budget plan, the Pentagon chief proposed trimming the active-duty Army to 440,000-450,000 personnel, down from 520,000 currently. Cold War-era Air Force fleets – the U-2 spy plane and the […]

Britain creates new oil and gas regulator to tackle falling output

Britain said it would create a new oil and gas regulator which will help UK explorers speed up their search for hard-to-access fossil fuel resources in a bid to counter plunging North Sea production rates. A government-commissioned report published on Monday said Britain could lose out on a potential 200 billion pounds worth of oil […]

G-20 Agrees To Grow Global Economy By $2 Trillion

Apparently all it takes to kick the world out of a secular recession and back into growth mode, is for several dozen finance ministers and central bankers to sit down and sign on the dotted line, agreeing it has to be done. That is the take home message from the just concluded latest G-20 meeting […]

Iran Plans Higher Pay for New Oil Contracts

Iran will offer foreign partners incentives to find and pump more crude and natural gas and will pay some fees in barrels as it seeks to boost income once international sanctions are lifted. New contracts Iran is developing will offer higher fees for riskier exploration and production projects, oil-ministry officials said at a conference in […]

Ukraine overthrows Yanukovych amid US/Russia power struggle over natural gas

The popular uprising in Ukraine has resulted in ex-President Yanukovych fleeing the capitol on Saturday, apparently retreating to the safety of Kharkiv, a city in Russia-friendly Eastern Ukraine. While it’s extremely historically significant that a popular uprising has overthrown a Russia-backed government, the events also illustrate a global power struggle centering on natural gas supplies, […]

Orlov: Shock over Ukraine

[Update: I am pushing this live a few days early, because the Ukrainian situation is evolving so rapidly. One political corpse (Yanukovych) is out; apparently he has fled to Russia. Another political corpse (Tymoshenko) has been hastily rehabilitated and is ready to be put on the ballot for elections in May. Question is, Will there […]

Is the US Trying To Start WWIII?

American diplomacy in the Ukraine crisis was summed up earlier this month by State Department senior official Victoria Neuland, a leading neocon: “F….k Europe.” On Friday, Europe responded by brokering a sensible compromise to Ukraine’s increasingly dangerous crisis just as the army was about to intervene. If the pact holds, Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanukovich will […]

Cheap Gasoline: Why Venezuela Is Doomed To Collapse

Riots in the streets. Killings of protesters. Shortages of consumer staples like toilet paper and flour. Power outages. Confiscations of private property. Capital flight. Inflation running at more than 50%. The highest murder rate in the world. The situation in Venezuela has grown so terrible that we could very well be witnessing the waning days […]

Why The Next Global Crisis Will Be Unlike Any In The Last 200 Years

Sometime soon, we’ll take a shot at summing up our long-term economic future with just a handful of charts and research results. In the meantime, we’ve created a new chart that may be the most important piece. There are two ideas behind it: 1. Wars and political systems are the two most basic determinants of […]

Will Ukraine’s Protests Swallow Putin, Too?

Two events that took place on Friday highlighted the enormous difference between Ukraine and Russia, two large, neighboring, corrupt, misgoverned East European nations whose peoples understand each other’s language and share cultural references. In Kiev, President Viktor Yanukovych conceded defeat at the hands of protesters who had held the center of the capital for three […]

Venezuela and Chavez’s Deadly Endgame

Venezuela’s cities are convulsed with riots. A local beauty queen was shot in the head during protests over . . . well, everything: chronic shortages of basic goods, increasing repression of free speech by a government that clearly feels it cannot tolerate any dissent. She is not the only person to have been killed in […]

Kurds Have Not Agreed to Export Oil via Iraq

Kurdistan has not agreed to export crude via Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO), a spokesman for the autonomous region’s government said on Thursday, contradicting earlier comments by a top energy official in Baghdad. Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani said in a televised interview late on Wednesday that the Kurds had agreed […]

US expected to keep oil embargo even if Iran nuclear deal struck

A unilateral U.S. oil embargo on Iran is expected to remain in place even if a long-term nuclear agreement between Tehran and six world powers is reached that includes an easing of international sanctions, a U.S. official said on Thursday. The embargo pre-dates the decade-long nuclear dispute with Iran. Washington cut off diplomatic ties with […]

Whistleblower Fired After Warning Of Danger At Hanford Nuclear Site

A nuclear engineer who has continually warned of major safety issues at Washington state’s Hanford nuclear cleanup site was fired Tuesday after executives accused her of “unprofessional conduct.” Image: Nuclear Fuel Storage Building (Hanford.gov) Donna Busche, the site’s environmental and nuclear safety manager, is now the third high-level employee to be removed after exposing Hanford’s […]

Saudi Arabia jails men 20 years for demonstrating

A Riyadh court sentenced seven men to between six and 20 years in jail on Wednesday for offences that included taking part in protests in the town of Qatif, in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, state news agency SPA said. SPA said the seven had been also convicted of chanting slogans against the kingdom as well […]

US Energy Secretary Favors Reducing Oil Shipped By Rail

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz supports reducing the amount of crude oil shipped by rail in favor of pipelines that are safer, cheaper and cleaner, Capital New York reported on Wednesday. “What we probably need is more of a pipeline infrastructure and to diminish the need for rail transport over time,” he said in an […]

Venezuela Renames Top Oil Reserve After Hugo Chavez

Venezuela on Tuesday renamed its largest crude reserve, traditionally known as the Orinoco Belt, after the country’s late socialist leader. “I’ve decided as of today to name it the Hugo Chavez Oil Belt,” said President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s protege and successor, during a rally of oil workers. “Do you agree?” The crowd roared its approval. […]

Health systems, neoliberalism, and the end of growth: The World Health Organization in denial

The WHO (World Health Organization) has released its latest in a series of reports[i] on public health in 53 European nations, and presents this assessment through a focus on the social determinants of health[ii]. Rather than sounding an alarm or considering the possibility that epochal economic decline is underway which threatens the health of the […]

Japan Secretly Developing Nuclear Weapons

Asia Weekly, a Hong Kong-based news outlet, is reporting that Japan is secretly developing a nuclear weapons program in response to increasing hostilities with China over the East China Sea dispute. According to the report, paraphrased by the Want China Times, “With the capability to build at least 2,000 nuclear warheads, Japan has recently demanded the […]

Confronting the “System Problem” Cooperatively

First and foremost, three cheers to Gar, Thomas, and Andrew for a fine start to this uniquely important cooperative conversation. Rarely has the exchange of words and ideas left me with such a well-spring of hope. Not only did this dialogue provide us with thoughtful, nuanced, and provocative reflections, but its process – the careful […]

Opposition Builds Against Venezuelan President

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called supporters to take to the street tomorrow, hours after an opposition politician sought by police urged his allies to march with him on the same day. Leopoldo Lopez, the leader of opposition party Voluntad Popular, whom Maduro accuses of inciting violence, urged Venezuelans to dress in white and march with […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy