Is The War On Coal Really Over?

On Tuesday, Pruitt’s EPA proposed to withdraw the Clean Power Plan (CPP), a controversial step that seeks to roll back the clock on arguably the most important environmental achievement of President Obama. In fact, some argue that the CPP ranks up there along with the healthcare overhaul as one of Obama’s top domestic policy victories. The Clean […]

Saudi Arabia’s Revolution From the Top Has No Place for Critics

Few would describe Mohammed Al-Arefe as a defender of women’s rights. In one infamous video, the Saudi cleric explains exactly how a man should beat his wife. But when the government decided to allow women to drive cars, up popped Al-Arefe on state TV to say what a good idea that was. “A modest woman […]

Kunstler: No Joy in Trumpville

I took advantage of the calm before the storm, to pay a visit on Saturday to my hometown, Trumpville, a.k.a. Manhattan. My college buddy had a son who was acting in an off-Broadway play (closing night, so don’t bother asking). The city I knew as a kid — which, frankly, I never liked very much […]

The Consent Of The Conned

Every single line item in our entire Bernie Madoff scam of a system is cooked. My theme this week is The Great Unraveling, by which I mean the unraveling of our social-political-economic system of hierarchical, centralized power. Let’s start by looking at how the basis of governance has transmogrified from consent of the governed to […]

No room for children: the absurd theory of population control

‘Want to fight climate change? Have fewer children.’ That was a headline on the Guardian earlier this year. A study published in Environmental Research Letters measured the impact of certain lifestyle choices when it comes to carbon emissions. The study suggests that having fewer children, along with adopting a vegetarian diet, avoiding long flights and […]

New York’s Clean Energy Standard Is Merely Virtue Signaling

New York State’s Clean Energy Standard Is but symbolic environmentalism accomplishing almost nothing with respect to emissions or the welfare of New Yorkers. A recent report evaluated New York State’s clean energy programs and found them costing the state’s consumers and businesses over $1 trillion with no measurable impact on world climate. Thus, the carbon […]

This Is The Only Russia Story That Matters

The World Gold Council has reported that the Central Bank of Russia has more than doubled the pace of its gold purchases, bringing its reserves to the highest level since Putin took power 17 years ago. Russia’s desire to break away from the hegemony of the U.S. dollar and the dollar payment system is well-known. […]

Energy East’s demise is Canada’s Peak Oil Divide moment

Canadian leaders cannot despise oil and pipelines and maintain high living standards. Without the goose, there will be no golden eggs. It’s that simple. This week’s cancellation of another oil pipeline – from Alberta to New Brunswick – should not be a cause for celebration as it is in some minds. It represents Canada’s Peak […]

No, Trump Is Not Withdrawing From the Iran Deal

If any former Obama administration officials, European diplomats or arms-control advocates are reading this, I have some reassuring news. President Donald Trump will not be killing your precious Iran nuclear agreement. Yes, the president is expected next week to decertify Iranian compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Which would indeed throw the matter […]

After the Dust has Settled

The UN General Assembly week in New York last month was an important and inspiring gathering of leaders from Government, business, civil society and academia from all corners of the world to debate how to create the world we all want. Or, more specifically, how to take action on the 17 Global Goals and turn […]

Trump expected to decertify Iran nuclear deal

President Donald Trump is expected to announce soon that he will decertify the landmark international deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program, a senior administration official said on Thursday, in a step that potentially could cause the 2015 accord to unravel. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump is also expected to roll out […]

US Department Of Energy Looks To Subsidize Coal Plants

In a Canute-like move, On September 29, the US Department of Energy sent a proposal to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that would, if adopted, significantly increase the value of aging coal and nuclear power plants. There are a number of interesting aspects to the DOE’s directive to the FERC. First, what surprised us […]

Maduro Visits Putin, Proposes Global Oil Trade In Rubles, Yuan

Three weeks after the US imposed financial sanctions on Venezuela in an effort to cripple its economy and choke the Maduro regime, which in turn prompted Caracas to announce it would no longer receive or send payments in dollars, and that those who wished to trade Venezuelan crude would have to do so in Chinese […]

King Salman Visits Russia: Something is Brewing

As though there aren’t enough surprises in the Middle East, consider these: King Salman of Saudi Arabia will visit Russia tomorrow, China will continue its import of crude oil from Iran, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets next month, and Russia, well it plays all sides depending on which way it wants to […]

Making an Economic Case for Climate Action

Having faced a year of record temperatures and devastating hurricanes, the United States stands more to lose if it doesn’t take steps to reduce the risk and impact of climate change, according to a new report. Launched by the Universal Ecological Fund, it details the costs of the U.S.’ climate inaction to the national economy […]

What is Counterinsurgency?

The science, known as COIN or Counterinsurgency doctrine, is nothing less than a perpetual war, waged by states against their domestic populations. Despite the unimaginable capacity for violence and coercion that they wield, states are far more vulnerable than they let on. This is not only true of the so-called “failed states” currently plagued by […]

The Man Who will be King

Saudi Arabia Wednesday announced the consolidation of development funds under a unified body led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, cementing the powerful prince’s position in the Gulf kingdom’s affairs. The new National Development Fund joins industrial, agricultural and social development funds under a board headed by Prince Mohammed who is also defence minister, deputy […]

Kunstler: Fall of the Great Pumpkin

Welcome to the witching month when America’s entropy-fueled death-wish expresses itself with as much Halloween jollity and merriment as the old Christmas spirit of yore. The outdoor displays alone take on a Babylonian scale, thanks to the plastic factories of China. I saw a half-life-size T-Rex skeleton for sale at a garden shop last week […]

Trouble Is Brewing In The House Of Saud

Saudi women being allowed to drive is a smokescreen – Salafi-jihadism is alive and well inside the Kingdom. What’s more, another coup may be along shortly… Suddenly, the ideological matrix of all strands of Salafi-jihadism is being hailed by the West as a model of progress – because Saudi women will finally be allowed to drive. […]

Linking Resource Scarcity with Conflict

Resource scarcity can be explained through three principals. First is basic human security requires adequate resources in the specific location. The human population is unable to meet its basic requirements to sustain human life. This is minimalist approach and needs a minimum amount of resources. Second, it can be defined as existing resource availability to […]

Gail Tverberg: Why political correctness fails – Why what we know ‘for sure’ is wrong

Most of us are familiar with the Politically Correct (PC) World View. William Deresiewicz describes the view, which he calls the “religion of success,” as follows: There is a right way to think and a right way to talk, and also a right set of things to think and talk about. Secularism is taken for granted. Environmentalism […]

Heinberg: Energy and Authoritarianism

Could declining world energy result in a turn toward authoritarianism by governments around the world? As we will see, there is no simple answer that applies to all countries. However, pursuing the question leads us on an illuminating journey through the labyrinth of relations between energy, economics, and politics. The International Energy Agency and the […]

Peak Iran: ‘One of the most underappreciated geopolitical risks in the oil market’

As RBC’s head of commodity strategy in New York, Ms. Croft is closely monitoring the mounting tensions to determine what they could mean for the Iranian nuclear agreement, and, thus, crude supply and prices. And warning about the “precarious” nature of it all. She was referring in a recent report to President Donald Trump’s comments on the […]

Kunstler: #Take the Knee

There’s a lot to complain about in this deranged republic — if it even still is one — but the burdens of being a multimillionaire football player would not be at the top of my list. Personally, I find it a little peculiar that we have to play the national anthem before any sporting event. […]

China confirms will limit oil exports to North Korea

China will limit exports of refined petroleum products to North Korea starting October 1, its commerce ministry said, confirming Beijing’s participation in new UN sanctions intended to rein in its rogue neighbour. The United Nations Security Council, including permanent member Beijing, approved tough sanctions against Pyongyang last week in response to its sixth and most […]

Capitalism: The Nightmare

The neoliberal, arch-capitalist era we inhabit is chock-full of statistics and stories that ought to send chills down the spines of any caring, morally sentient human. Nearly three-fourths (71 percent) of the world’s population is poor, living on $10 a day or less, and 11 percent (767 million people, including 385 million children) live in […]

The Petrodollar Is Under Attack: Here’s What You Need To Know

Once upon a time, the U.S. dollar was backed by the gold standard in a framework that established what was known as the Bretton-Woods agreement, made in 1944. The dollar was fixed to gold at a price of $35 an ounce, though the dollar could earn interest, marking one notable difference from gold. The system ended up […]

The ‘new’ Saudi Arabia is still a dungeon

ONCE AGAIN, news from Saudi Arabia points toward the old thinking and not the modern society promised by the new crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Despite the lofty rhetoric of the crown prince’s “Vision 2030” declaration, he increasingly resembles an earlier generation of leaders with authoritarian methods. Saudi Arabia has been, and seems determined to […]

Kunstler: Pushback

A very brave law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, named Amy Wax has published the astounding argument that human beings in America would benefit from adopting “bourgeois values” and behaving accordingly. Bourgeois (Boozh-wah, for the underspeeched) may be an unfortunate term-of-art, since it came to be used as a pejorative back in the old […]

Global Oil Demand is Surging But That’s Still Not Enough to Fix the Oil Market

The oil industry just can’t seem to snap out of its doldrums this year. Crude remains stubbornly low, which has stalled the industry’s attempts at a recovery. However, while weaker prices have been bad for oil producers, they’ve been great for consumers because it has kept prices for refined products like gasoline down, which is […]

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