What’s on the Table in Iran Talks

Negotiators from the major global powers reconverge on Geneva on Wednesday for a second try at an interim deal to curb Iran’s nuclear weapons program. After the heated rhetoric of the past 10 days, it is vital to understand what is on the table and why a deal should be done. The recent flurry of […]

Is Your Car Going to Spy on You?

To repair America’s crumbling roads and bridges, several states and the federal government are toying with the idea of charging drivers by the mile, using data sent from black boxes in every vehicle. It’s a laudable idea, in principle. But supporters are going to have to give more thought to the privacy issues raised by […]

World powers, Iran make new attempt to clinch nuclear deal

World powers aim to clinch a preliminary deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program in politically charged talks resuming in Geneva on Wednesday to end a long standoff and head off the risk of a wider Middle East war. The United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany came tantalizingly close to winning concessions from Iran […]

Fight begins over privatizing Mexico’s oil monopoly

The fight to revamp Mexico’s moribund, state-run oil industry could start as early as this week with a Senate proposal to allow private access to the country’s oil, a nationalist symbol that for decades has been fiercely protected by the constitution from possible profiteering by foreign companies. Legislators from the two parties supporting an oil […]

Israel Working With Saudi Arabia On Iran “Contingency” Attack

When last week’s Iran nuclear talks were blocked by France, it provided a useful glimpse into just who it was that would benefit politically from a continuation of the regional confrontation. But while the French sabotage was an amusing distraction, it revealed a curious shift in middle-east alliances, namely old “enemies” Israel and Saudi Arabia, […]

U.S. should better leverage natural gas in Asia trade negotiations

This week, Salt Lake will host negotiators from 12 Pacific Rim nations working on a new U.S. Asia-Pacific trade agreement. These talks are critical for states like Utah that have seen rapid export growth – Asian nations have historically been the most closed markets to U.S. goods. A new free trade agreement would promote innovation, […]

California oil well fracking regulations released

The Brown administration has released long-awaited proposed regulations for the controversial technique for drilling for oil and gas, hydraulic fracturing. The process, known as “fracking,” has been going on for decades in oil-producing regions of California but with no special oversight by state regulators. That changed earlier this year when Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB […]

China says not looking at broad one-child policy relaxation

China is not considering a broad relaxation of its strict one-child policy despite an easing of existing rules since it would be too disruptive, the health ministry said on Saturday. The government announced on Friday that it would allow millions of families to have two children in the country’s most significant liberalization of its strict […]

‘Quite possible’ Iran, powers can reach nuclear deal next week

Major powers and Iran are getting closer to a first-stage agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program, a senior U.S. official said on Friday, adding it is “quite possible” a deal could be reached when negotiators meet November 21-22 in Geneva. “I don’t know if we will reach an agreement. I think it is quite possible […]

China To ‘Loosen’ Its One-Child Policy

Chinese state media has reported that the country’s one child policy is to be “loosened”, in what will be a major policy shift. The official Xinhua News Agency said the Communist party released a key document saying it will now allow couples to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. […]

OPEC Is Yesterday’s News

Forty years have passed since the OPEC oil embargo of 1973. In that time span, the United States has increased its population by about half, nearly tripled its economic output, and nearly doubled its per capita GDP. While doing so, the U.S. has increased its oil consumption by just 7 percent. Despite those facts, fearmongering […]

Mexico Wants to Amend Its Constitution—to Drill for Oil

Mexico’s oil industry is in a bad way. The country’s once massive petroleum reserves have basically been sucked dry. Production is plummeting, and the state oil monopoly, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is hemorrhaging money. Unless something is done soon, for the first time in decades Mexico could fall from its coveted spot among the world’s top […]

Why the Government Now Cares What You Spend on Gas

locationaffordability.info The housing crisis was, of course, primarily about housing: housing that people couldn’t afford, housing that banks helped them finance anyway, housing that too many treated as a sure-fire investment. But in a less noticed way, the housing crisis was also very much about transportation. The money we spend getting around is largely dictated […]

Russia: Pipelines Of Empire

At this juncture in history, the fate of Europe is wound up not in ideas but in geopolitics. For millennia, eruptions from Asia have determined the fate of Europe, including invasions and migrations by Russians, Turkic tribes and Byzantine Greeks. Central and Eastern Europe, with their geographical proximity to the Asian steppe and the Anatolian […]

OPEC Still Undecided on Whether to Change Quotas

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, producer of about 40 percent of the world’s oil supply, remains undecided about whether to change output quotas at a meeting next month, Ecuador’s oil minister said. Ecuador, the smallest-producer in OPEC, is considering what it will propose at the Dec. 4 meeting in Vienna, Pedro Merizalde, minister for […]

Oil Espionage: How the NSA and GCHQ Spied on OPEC

America’s NSA and Britain’s GCHQ are both spying on the OPEC oil cartel, documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal. The security of the global energy supply is one of the most important issues for the intelligence agencies. Documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal that both America’s National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have […]

Meet The Firm Whose $95 Billion In Assets Keeps Iran’s Ayatollah In Power

Bloomberg may be in hot water for scuttling an article that “might anger China” as exposed over the weekend, but that was only after winning investigative prizes for its series of reports exposing the epic wealth of China top ruling families in 2012: a topic that has received prominence at a time when the forced […]

The Fossil Fuel Welfare State.

While world leaders gather in Warsaw to fight climate change, their governments spend half a trillion dollars on carbon subsidies. When we talk about the Great Energy Shift to a shiny green future, keep in mind that there’s plenty of green bankrolling the dirty power past. That point was driven home yesterday by the release […]

Iran nuclear talks fail: Where next for oil?

The fallout from the failure of a high-profile international meeting over Iran’s nuclear ambitions could be most felt in the cost of oil. The Brent crude price of oil rose towards $106 a barrel in early trading Monday morning, following the conclusion of the weekend’s meeting. Any signs that Iran is coming into the international […]

Iran Nuclear Programme Deal Fails Due To French Block: New Saudi-French Alliance Emerging?

While most pragmatists knew well in advance that optimism over an Iran nuclear programme deal emerging out of Geneva was very much displaced, few anticipated what the actual reason for the failure would be. Indeed, most had expected that the staunchest opponent to the deal, Israel PM Netanyahu who moments ago appeared on Face the […]

Sprawl – Risking The Future Of Christchurch

Susan Krumdieck discussing urban sprawl in relation to peak oil. May 2013

Iran nuclear deal unlikely as split emerges in Western camp

Barring a last-minute breakthrough, talks between Iran and six world powers on curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions were set to end without an agreement on Saturday as a split emerged between France and the other Western powers, diplomats said. The latest round of talks began on Thursday and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry unexpectedly arrived […]

Oil prices may plunge if Iran gets a nuclear deal

Oil futures bounced off an earlier four-month low on Friday, but analysts told CNBC that prices could plunge if an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program is made this weekend. Secretary of State John Kerry unexpectedly joined the ongoing negotiations in Geneva, sparking speculation that a preliminary deal could be reached soon. Iranian oil exports have […]

Western Voters Say No To Fossil Fuels

Fossil fuels took a licking in local elections in Colorado and Washington on Tuesday, as voters resoundingly said no to oil and gas fracking and coal exports. In Washington state, the four progressive candidates for seats on the Whatcom County Council that will likely decide the fate of a controversial coal export terminal proposal were […]

Pakistan ‘ready to deliver nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia’

AQ Khan dismisses claims that Pakistan-made nuclear weapons are ready for delivery to Saudi Arabia as part of its efforts to counter Iran’s atomic programme The founding father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme has dismissed reports that his country has reached a secret deal to provide Saudi Arabia with warheads in the event that Iran produces […]

Oil industry may challenge U.S. export ban

The U.S. oil industry, riding a domestic energy boom, is preparing to challenge restrictions on crude exports, possibly by arguing that limits designed to keep petroleum in America may violate international trade rules. “Export issues are something we’re going to have to address,” John Felmy, the chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute trade group […]

Cracks Widen in U.S.-Saudi Alliance

  A U.S. Air Force B-1B bomber flies by ships participating in an exercise in the Arabian Gulf, August 2013. Riyadh views the U.S. as willing to risk sacrificing key strategic assets – in this case, the Bahrain headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet — as part of a broader retreat from the region. Credit: […]

Will There Be Progress Between U.S. and Iran?

Bloomberg Contributing Editor Richard Falkenrath discusses U.S., Saudi Arabia and Iranian relations with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television’s “Money Moves.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Ron Paul: What Cannot Be Said About Iraq

October was Iraq’s deadliest month since April, 2008. In those five and a half years, not only has there been no improvement in Iraq’s security situation, but things have gotten much worse. More than 1,000 people were killed in Iraq last month, the vast majority of them civilians. Another 1,600 were wounded, as car bombs, […]

Scotland and China are natural energy partners

Scottish oil and natural gas workers are natural partners for a China as it seeks ways to satisfy growing energy demands, Scottish leader Alex Salmond said. The country’s first minister said energy partnerships would top the agenda during his trade mission to China this week. “Scotland’s enviable reputation as the European capital of oil and […]

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