Will oceans surge 59 centimetres this century – or 25 metres?

The new climate: a controversial study suggests rapid polar meltdown and rising sea levels LONDON — When Al Gore predicted that climate change could lead to a 20-foot rise in sea levels, critics called him alarmist. After all, the International Panel on Climate Change, which receives input from top scientists, estimates surges of only 18 […]

As bees go missing, a $9.3B crisis lurks

The mysterious disappearance of millions of bees is fueling fears of an agricultural disaster (Fortune Magazine) — It’s a sweet time for honeybees in the rolling hills of eastern Pennsylvania, and the ones humming around Dennis vanEngelsdorp seem too preoccupied by the blooming knapweed nearby to sting him as he carefully lifts the top off […]

Tajik president urges population to get prepared for power shortage

DUSHANBE (Itar-Tass) – President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon has called on the countryDushanbe is currently in talks with Ashgabat on the supply of one billion kilowatt-hours of electric power in transit via Uzbekistan. A delegation of Tajikistani power engineers will fly to the capital of Turkmenistan on August 29 with this end in view. ITAR-TASS

Gas Shortage in North Dakota

A study by Triple-A says Gas Prices in North Dakota are the highest of the lower 48 state’saveraging $3.03 a gallon. The situation may get worse before it gets better. Officials say a supply shortage in the midwest is THE reason for high prices. In fact, gas is in such short supply Governor Hoeven requested […]

Iran says current OPEC production is enough

Iran, OPEC’s second-largest oil producer, said on Saturday it does not foresee any change in the cartel’s output ceiling to be decided at the Sept 11 meeting in Vienna. ‘It seems that the current OPEC production is enough and that at the next meeting the current ceiling will be kept,’ caretaker Oil Minister Gholam Hossein […]

Back to School (Kunstler)

Bad financial paper, like rust, never sleeps. We may be in the traditional torpor zone of late summer when the whole nation takes off on vacation, but worms are still turning in the compost heaps of securitized alphabet debt (MBSs, CDOs, CLOs, et cetera) behind the glass banking towers in places like Wall Street, London, […]

Oil production nearing the peak

AS first expressed in Hubbert peak theory, peak oil is the point or timeframe at which the maximum global petroleum production rate is reached. After this timeframe, the rate of production will by definition enter terminal decline. According to the Hubbert model, production will follow a roughly symmetrical bell-shaped curve. Some observers such as Kenneth […]

Sunnis won’t rejoin government after deal

Hours after Iraq’s political leaders declared a deal to return former Baathists to government jobs, Iraq’s most senior Sunni Arab leader said on Monday it was too small an olive branch for Sunnis to rejoin the government. The Sunni leader, Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, welcomed the “great achievement” of a compromise to ease measures imposed […]

Huge Saudi force to defend oilfields from al-Qaida

Anxieties about al-Qaida attacks and a US-led war against Iran have prompted Saudi Arabia to establish a special force – being trained by an American defence contractor – to protect its oilfields. Saudi authorities have already recruited 5,000 members of the Facilities Security Force and plan to raise the number to 8,000-10,000 over the next […]

Climate Talks Aim for Gas Cuts by Developed Nations

Delegates at this week’s United Nations conference on climate change will try to agree for the first time on the range of greenhouse-gas emission cuts that developed nations must make to slow the pace of global warming. “For the first time, we are going to talk about specific numbers,” Grenada’s Leon Charles, a diplomat who […]

The darker side of ethanol

Most environmentalists agree that ethanol, when blended in gasoline, can reduce some pollution compared with gasoline alone. But ethanol increases other types of pollution during production and when it’s burned in engines, said Tim Maloney, senior policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council, an advocacy group. The distillation of corn, for example, produces nitrogen oxides […]

VN: Ethanol offers clean energy source

Every year, Viet Nam has to import an average of 13 million tonnes of petrol, 3 million of which are used for social and economic development. We need 300,000 tonnes of ethanol to meet the demand of a 10 per cent ethanol mix into the number above. According to international scientists’ statistics, with the existing […]

German Energy Plan Faces Reality Check

A government plan to make Germany a global leader in fighting climate change must win the support of a reluctant finance minister to succeed.Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck’s drive to shore up Germany’s stretched public finances could be a stumbling block.Steinbruck wants to spend more money on climate change only if tax revenues continue to surge […]

Wall Street looks at energy efficiency to boost profits

Today the Wall Street Journal featured a special section on energy efficiency. The paper reports that business is increasingly looking at reducing energy use as a way to improve the bottom line. “Now, with oil, gas and electricity prices soaring, companies are beginning to realize that saving energy can translate into dramatically lower costs. And […]

SK: New Energy Source to Be Commercialized

South Korea is stepping up efforts to develop a new eco-friendly energy source and establish implementation for full-scale use of the fuel, dimethyl ether (DME), from 2012. Coal-based DME is an alternative fuel to liquefied petroleum gas (LNG), liquefied natural gas, diesel and gasoline and is considered to be environmental friendly. The government hopes that […]

How to cut your IT energy costs

The Internet doesn’t produce belching smokestacks or toxin-spewing drainpipes. Instead, the environmental impact of the data centers that power the Web and private networks is about as visible as the electrons moving around a company’s servers. But visible or not, the ecological and economic costs of those servers are massive. A report released last week […]

Aus: PCs lead in energy wastage

Business reliance on technology is generating almost 8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, more than the emissions created by the civil aviation industry. According to research conducted for the Australian Computer Society, one of the biggest power consumption demands comes from desktop computers, which in many cases are never switched off.The load on […]

SK: Surging Oil Prices Hit Pilot Training

Skyrocketing oil prices are compromising the Air Force’s combat capability by reducing flight training hours for pilots, a state-funded defense think tank said Monday. The Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA) said in a publication that current surging oil prices beyond $60 a barrel are preventing pilots from undergoing the minimum 160 hours flight training […]

July oil output drops at Mexico’s Cantarell field

Crude oil output dropped in July at Mexico’s aging Cantarell offshore field, according to data published on the energy ministry’s Web site on Monday. Cantarell, closely watched by the oil industry after sharp dips in output in recent months, produced an average of 1.526 million barrels per day versus 1.570 million bpd in June. The […]

Jordan: King urges speeding up nuclear energy programme

AMMAN (Petra) – His Majesty King Abdullah on Sunday called for speeding up the Jordanian nuclear programme, stressing that energy remains a top challenge that requires long-term radical solutions. Chairing a meeting of the High Commission on Nuclear Energy Strategy, the King underlined the need to secure and utilise alternative local energy resources, both traditional […]

Middle East: Gulf states may opt for N-power

Nuclear power plants could be built in the Gulf, following talks with international experts in Vienna. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has almost completed a draft feasibility study on nuclear energy in the GCC, Bahrain’s Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) revealed yesterday after talks with the world’s nuclear watchdog. MEW assistant undersecretary of […]

Hurricane Dean Backs OPEC

Crude oil prices fell to below $70 a barrel last week, registering their lowest level in two months, even though the hurricane season has begun in the western Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. However, this took place after American indicators pointed to a rise in the commercial reserve of oil in the US, and […]

Carnegie Mellon Researchers Look At Fossil Fuel Impacts

Pittsburgh PA — A team of Carnegie Mellon University researchers report that the choices U.S. officials make today could limit how the nation’s future energy needs are met and could cost consumers billions in idle power plants and associated infrastructure systems. In the upcoming Sept. 1 edition of the journal Environmental Science and Technology, Carnegie […]

Thin-Layer Solar Cells May Bring Cheaper Green Power

Durham UK — Scientists are researching new ways of harnessing the sun’s rays which could eventually make it cheaper for people to use solar energy to power their homes. The experts at Durham University are developing light-absorbing materials for use in the production of thin-layer solar photovoltaic (PV) cells which are used to convert light […]

Energy futures rebound on refinery woes

…The September gasoline contract led the way, reversing an early loss of more than a cent and gaining more than 5 cents on continued concerns about the impact of a mid-August fire at Chevron Corp.’s 330,000 barrel per day Pascagoula, Miss., refinery. Trade media reports late last week said Chevron had canceled a 550,000-barrel Venezuelan […]

U.S. House Energy Bill: Rhetoric Over Reality

When it comes to energy issues, Americans are far more interested in rhetoric than pragmatism. For proof of that, look no further than the massive energy bill passed by the House last month. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi heralded the passage of the 780-page bill, known as “A New Direction for Energy Independence, National Security, and […]

New methane separation device reduces greenhouse gas emission

BEIJING — Chinese technologists have developed a new industrial device to purify methane from the coal-bed gas, finding a solution to reduce a big chunk of China’s greenhouse gas emission. Yang Kejian, a veteran technologist at the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), led his research team to […]

Nigeria: Fuel Scarcity – Airlines May Jerk Up Fares

There are indications that airlines may increase airfares following the scarcity of aviation fuel which has hit the airline industry since Friday. The scarcity, according to investigations, was as a result of the inability of the importers and the marketers to distribute the commodity to the users on Friday evening.Airlines were already flying with the […]

What Happens If Iran Blocks The Strait Of Hormuz?

As tensions simmer between the U.S. and Iran, a big energy threat hangs over the world. Iran has said that if the U.S. attacks, it will respond by disrupting trade through the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow gateway that tankers use to bring oil from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. […]

Forecast for solar power: Sunny

Solar power has long been the Mercedes-Benz of the renewable energy industry: sleek, quiet, low-maintenance. Yet like a Mercedes, solar energy is universally adored but prohibitively expensive for most people. A 4-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system costs about $34,000 without government rebates or tax breaks. As a result, solar power accounts for well under 1% of […]

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