News from August 2006

UK motorways hard shoulder experiment

The Highways Agency is to try out the idea of using the Hard Shoulder (currently reserved for emergency vehicles only) as an extra lane on motorways during congested periods. More details here: highways

‘Pop goes the bubble! The Great Housing Crash of ‘07′

This month’s figures prove that the so-called “housing bubble” is not only real, but that its cratering faster than anyone had realized. As the UK Guardian reported just yesterday, “the orderly housing slowdown predicted by the Federal Reserve will (soon) become a full-blown crash”. The housing bubble is a $10 trillion equity balloon that will [...]

Lugar on Energy:

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Peak Oil Forecasters Win Converts on Wall Street to $200 Crude

That’s not the prophecy of some apocalyptic cult. Kadijk, a hedge fund adviser, had flown from Amsterdam to attend a conference on a geologic theory known as peak oil. Proponents of this controversial idea say global oil production is now at or near its zenith. Once the flow crests and starts to decline — and [...]

EPA Brags About Going 100% Green

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has closed a deal making it the first federal agency to purchase renewable energy, or “green power,” equivalent to 100 percent of its annual electricity needs. The agency signed a contract with 3 Phases Energy Services to purchase more than 100 million kilowatt hours (kWh) in renewable energy certificates, [...]

Sharp expects solar power costs to halve by 2010

Japan’s Sharp Corp., the world’s biggest maker of solar cells, expects the cost of generating solar power to halve by 2010 and to be comparable with that of nuclear power by 2030, Sharp’s president said. “By the year 2010 we’ll be able to halve generation costs,” Katsuhiko Machida said on Thursday. “By 2020 we expect [...]

Sanctions scenarios over Iran’s nuclear quest

The United States has called for swift resort to sanctions against Iran if it ignores a U.N. Security Council deadline on Thursday to stop enriching uranium, a process that can yield fuel for nuclear power plants or bombs. The following outlines the basis for sanctions, steps to impose them and what they may entail, as [...]

Brazil to Increase Ethanol Exports 15% This Year

Brazil, the only major exporter of ethanol, may increase its ethanol exports by 15 percent this year on growing international demand for the fuel, Agriculture Minister Luis Carlos Guedes Pinto said. Brazil may export 3 billion liters (792 million gallons) of ethanol this year, compared with 2.6 billion liters sold abroad in 2005, Pinto said [...]

Mammoth $200M wind farm proposed in Iowa

Northern Iowa could have one of the nation’s largest wind farms by 2008. Iowa Winds LLC wants to build a 200- to 300-megawatt farm covering about 40,000 acres in Franklin County. yahoo

Gulf Oil Discovery Lifts Hopes for New Geological Play

A deepwater discovery reported Thursday underscores the growing importance of a geological formation in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico that’s only recently become accessible to crude oil and natural gas producers. A consortium led by BP PLC (BP) found hydrocarbons at the Kaskida well, right in the middle of the Keathley Canyon offshore area, 250 [...]