‘Oil war’ is brewing

In the ongoing battle of wits, Russia and the West are out – oiling their energy arsenals – to achieve strategic objectives. In this rather crowded geopolitical chess board, with both sides bent upon using their energy assets, who is going to have the last hurrah remains a big if. The West seems to be […]

Orlov: Statecraft or Witchcraft?

What has the US State Department been doing in Ukraine? It has been busy, and has succeeded in pushing the hapless nation, left destitute by 22 years of freedom and democracy oligarchy, to the brink of civil war. (Keep in mind, Russia came close to collapsing altogether by just nine years of freedom and democracy […]

“We Are Essentially At War” Ukraine Admits, After Dozens Killed

The Kremlin said yesterday it was receiving “thousands” of pleas for help from Ukraine, warning that it could not control pro-Russian separatists in the country and now required help to resolve the worsening violence. As Russian troops continued to conduct exercises near the Ukrainian border and the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, demanded the […]

On The Edge Of War: The Latest Russian And Ukraine Troop Movements

If Putin needed a pretext to finally drive across the Ukraine border, he got it today following first the death of nearly 40 pro-Russian protesters in Odessa during a confrontation between pro-Russia and pro-Kiev forces, and then, what appears to be a storming in progress right now by the Ukraine national guard of yet another […]

War Looms Closer: Ukraine Helicopters Shot Down

The military response to remove pro-Russian separatists from government buildings in Slavyansk has prompted fears of retaliation from Russia. From Russia Today: The Ukrainian army has begun a special operation against pro-autonomy activists in the eastern town of Slavyansk. The city is now blockaded by the Ukrainian military, with 20 helicopters reportedly deployed to crack down […]

Euro crisis or Argentina/Iceland/Malaysia: Which will be the model for future crises?

Any country that joins the single European currency immediately gives up control of its monetary policy and its exchange rate. With exchange rate risk seemingly removed, interest rates in many of the countries deemed previously to be of higher risk such as Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain (PIIGS), fell significantly and foreign investment inflows […]

When Nations Go Broke: Mob Justice

It was a scene just like out of the Wild West.   18-year-old David Moreyra had stolen a purse. And an angry mob gathered in broad daylight in Rosario, Argentina to lynch him.   It turns out that ‘mob justice’ is on the rise in Argentina, and Mr. Moreyra’s death was just one of more […]

Putin signals that he’s ready for an oil war

The US and Europe have yet to fully deploy their bluntest weapon against Vladimir Putin. But if stronger sanctions are deployed against him, the Russian president is vowing to make life very painful for the western oil companies doing business in his country. + The US this week quietly targeted some Russian oil industry bosses in its latest round of sanctions, and Europe […]

What would Randy Udall say?

There has been considerable talk in the US of late about not only future energy exports but even about using an “energy weapon” against Russia.  While that might be nice, it’s wishful thinking. An energy commentator who thought in depth about the US’s energy policy back-story and the myth of oil independence was Randy Udall, who […]

National Response Center shuts down website, transparency

Media outlets and other curious parties have been in the dark about pipeline leaks and other environmental disturbances since mid-February, and the lights could be kept off for another month. The National Response Center’s website has been under maintenance since February 21st and could remain that way until the end of May. In a prepared […]

The Energy Independence Illusion

Adapted and expanded from a presentation on “Energy Independence and Foreign Policy” to the World Affairs Council of Oregon, 3/28/14. BACKGROUND The roots of energy independence lie in the energy crises of the 1970s. US oil production peaked in 1970, and we became increasingly dependent on oil imported from the Middle East. In response to […]

Resources will be needed to support nation

Recently, I received duplicate mailings from Zero Population Growth, an organization that is anxious about running out of resources to support a rapidly multiplying world population. In several countries, the majority of people barely have enough for one good meal a day, yet the birth rate continues to rise. In the past, many children never […]

The Fracking Prostitutes of American Colleges

Lackawanna College, a two-year college in Scranton, Pa., has become a prostitute. The administration doesn’t think of themselves or their college as a prostitute. They believe they are doing a public service. Of course, streetwalkers and call-girls also believe they are doing a public service. Lackawanna College’s price is $2.5 million. That’s how much Cabot […]

Turkey to become global energy hub

Turkey has a good chance of becoming an energy hub if it maintains the gains it made in the last decade, Martin Raiser, country director for Turkey of the World Bank, said on Friday. “Turkey has taken major steps in the past decade and nearly half of them were to implement independent regulatory institutions to […]

Canada energy minister urges US to ‘depoliticize’ Keystone XL

Canada remains confident Washington will ultimately approve the Keystone XL pipeline to the U.S. Gulf Coast, two prominent cabinet ministers said on Friday, adding that the latest U.S. delay is political and not based on environmental concerns. In his first public remarks on the controversial project, the country’s new energy minister, Greg Rickford, said he […]

Beneath the Ukraine Crisis: Shale Gas

Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, speaking to Ukrainian and other business leaders at the National Press Club in Washington on Dec. 13, 2013, at a meeting sponsored by Chevron. Behind the geopolitics pitting Russia against the West – and the ethnic tensions tearing Ukraine east and west – another backdrop for […]

Saudi Sniffs at Spreading Health Crisis

The Kingdom is accused of suppressing the spread of news about the deadly MERS virus, but failing to stop the spread of the virus itself Saudi Arabia’s doctors are having no luck stopping the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus from sweeping the country, but the government is doing much better at preventing news […]

Defence of ‘blood for oil’distracts us from the deeper, systemic causes of the Crisis of Civilisation

Yesterday morning, Tony Blair – former Prime Minister and current Middle East envoy for the UN, US, EU and Russia – delivered one of the most Orwellian speeches of his career at Bloomberg London HQ, on the subject of ‘Why the Middle East matters’: “When we consider the defining challenges of our time, surely this […]

US readies more sanctions on Russia

The United States said on Friday it was prepared to impose further sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine, where armed pro-Moscow separatists seized a bus carrying international mediators, escalating the two-month-old crisis. The separatist self-declared mayor of Slaviansk told Reuters the mediators were being held because they were believed to have a spy […]

Russia China natural gas contract looks likely

Pricing remains an issue, but negotiations expected to be completed soon Russia and China are highly likely to nail down a natural gas deal during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing in May after years of negotiations, experts from both sides said on Tuesday. Sergey Pikin, director of Russia’s Energy Development Fund, was optimistic […]

NTSB head: Oil tanker rail ‘safety has been compromised’

The recent spate of accidents in the U.S. and Canada involving trains carrying crude oil demonstrates that “far too often, safety has been compromised,” the head of the top U.S. transportation safety agency said today. The amount of crude oil transported on railroads — shipments that frequently pass through the Chicago area — has more […]

Is The US Military Preparing For The Collapse Of The Dollar?

It almost happened in 2008… but as this excerpt from Casey Research’s Meltdown America documentary notes, it appears the US military is preparing for the potential collapse of the US dollar. As Scott Taylor warns, “…if the carrot (of credit worthiness) is fading, and the stick (of military threat) is weak, that empire is going […]

Oman Fights Saudi Bid for Gulf Hegemony With Iran Pipeline Plan

Oman’s plan to build a $1 billion natural-gas pipeline from Iran is the latest sign that Saudi Arabia is failing to bind its smaller Gulf neighbors into a tighter bloc united in hostility to the Islamic Republic. The accord was signed during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Oman last month, and marks the first […]

In Defense Of Inaction

I have, of late, had a falling out with many of my fellow ‘progressives’, similar I suppose to that of Paul Kingsnorth, who is being savaged by Naomi Klein and others for giving up on the environmental movement and non-local activism, and by humanists for losing faith in our species’ capacity for innovation and change. I […]

Turkey: Oil-for-gold trade with Iran justified

Allegations against the state-run Halbank within the scope of the Dec. 17 operation, an attempt to overthrow the ruling party, was aimed to bring Turkey’s years-long oil trade with Iran into disrepute Turkey’s state-run bank Halkbank has been at the center of allegations that it has violated international sanctions on trading oil and precious metals […]

Lifting U.S. oil export ban would mean greater dependence on foreign oil

The United States today is a large net importer of crude oil and refined products. And, yet the story that the country can somehow export crude oil as a foreign policy measure to help reduce Ukraine’s dependence on Russia won’t die. Oil executives and their surrogates keep bringing it up, and unsuspecting reporters amplify a […]

The robot is ready – so when will deep sea mining start?

The world’s first deep sea mining robot sits idle on a British factory floor, waiting to claw up high grade copper and gold from the seabed off Papua New Guinea (PNG) – when a wrangle over terms is solved. Beyond PNG, in international waters, regulation and royalty terms for mining the planet’s subsea wealth have […]

“King Coal” Is Dying; Prince Oil & Gas Is Next

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a […]

Please, Not Another IMF

Copying a Bad Idea Why is there an IMF? It seems a good question, so here is the short answer: in the post gold standard world, central bank-supported fractional reserve banking has enabled the emergence of such huge credit booms, that governments frequently get into severe trouble when a boom collapses and their countries’ current […]

The Slow Death Of The Old Global Order

In the spring of 2012, The National Interest produced a special issue under the rubric of “The Crisis of the Old Order: The Crumbling Status Quo at Home and Abroad.” The thesis was that the old era of relative global stability, forged through the crucibles of the Great Depression and World War II, was coming […]

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