Nuclear may lose green tag if fuel costs rise

Environmental costs of nuclear power are likely to increase as high-grade uranium becomes harder to find, according to new research that has been challenged by the uranium industry. The findings form part of the debate over what part nuclear power will play in supplying future energy needs.Australian researchers writing in the journal Environmental Science and […]

China aims for 100 gigawatts of wind power by 2020

China aims to expand its wind power generating capacity to 100,000 megawatts by 2020, more than doubling the current world’s installed capacity, according to the Shanghai Daily and The Wall Street Journal’s Environmental Capital blog. The plan — which is five times the previous target — was set forth by the National Development and Reform […]

China’s oil consumption hits record high in Q1

Soaring oil prices have not slowed China’s consumption of oil as statistics show that China’s apparent consumption of crude oil and refined oil products both hit record highs in the first quarter of the year. According to statistics released Tuesday by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA), China’s apparent consumption of oil products […]

Hamish McRae: We will never have cheap oil again

When this wave of higher oil prices subsides, is it going to be business as usual? After the oil shocks of the 1970s and early 1980s, the oil price came back down and we went pretty much back to our bad old ways. But this time it feels different. It is true that all the […]

Scientists call for halt in grain-based biofuel production

Some scientists are calling for a moratorium on using grain-based feedstock to produce biofuel to halt the rise in global food prices. Joachim von Braun, head of the International Food Policy Research Institute, told local journalists after a teleconference that if a biofuel moratorium is issued this year, it would lead to a price decline […]

Indonesian coal consumption to exceed exports

Domestic coal consumption would exceed coal exports, sometime between 2015 and 2020, if the government cap on coal exports remains in place, an association said Tuesday. Indonesian Coal Mining Association president Jeffrey Mulyono said domestic coal demand would jump to 75 million tons in 2009, from this year’s 52 million tons.Domestic coal demand would reach […]

Richard Heinberg’s MuseLetter #193: It’s Happening

…There is a surreal quality to the experience of seeing the unfolding of unpleasant events that one has predicted. Plenty of times over the past few years IThe only silver lining is the possibility that now, at last, as the trends (Peak Oil, the failure of growth-based economics, the failure of industrial agriculture, climate chaos, […]

Michael Klare: Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet – Global Fight for Oil

During the Cold War the world order was fairly well defined. There’s a new international energy order. Who are the players in this version of the great game? In the Cold War era, the two main poles of power were the Western block, with the United States as the dominant power and the Soviet block. […]

World power crunch tightening diesel market

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Rising electricity demand, aging power infrastructure and fuel shortages in developing countries are boosting global demand for diesel — factors that could keep supplies tight and prices strong for another couple of years. The boom in use of diesel for electric generators in parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and […]

Could state-owned plants prevent power shortages?

Now that almost everyone acknowledges that Maryland’s plan to deregulate electricity didn’t work, state officials are looking at how to prevent a power shortage predicted by the state’s Public Service Commission. The Associated Press last week reported that the PSC study said that if no major changes were made, the state could face rolling “brownouts” […]

Proposals unlikely to improve Mexico’s oil output

WASHINGTON In an already tight world oil market where prices are pressing $120 a barrel, any decline in oil supplies matters. It matters to the U.S., which buys 8 percent of its oil from Mexico and will have to look to other, shakier suppliers to take Mexico’s place. It certainly matters to Mexico, where more […]

Schools living fuel nightmare

PUTNAM COUNTY — If you think you have gas pump sticker shock, consider the Putnam County School system, which uses about 7,000 gallons of diesel every 20 days to keep 50 big buses running over routes that total 2,668 miles. The big yellow vehicles get about eight miles to the gallon. It takes 81 gallons […]

Flying into trouble

The sky-high cost of fuel means that airlines are going out of business – sooner than environmentalists predicted. What does it mean? For all the talk about how home heating and petrol pump prices are fast rising, there seems to be remarkably little comment – given our love affair with flying – about how runaway […]

Grain Market Manipulation = Petrofraud Redux

“This money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we’re seeing at the gas pump, at the grocery store, and will also give our economy a boost to help us pull out of this economic slowdown. This afternoon, two local Union 76/Conoco Phillips (gadzooks, these mergers make for long names) gas stations in […]

The president

…Asked about peak oil and renewable energy research, Bush said, In all, in a 50-minute press conference, Bush touted drilling the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge six times, including a few times in response to unrelated questions. I know we

Why the demise of civilisation may be inevitable

DOOMSDAY. The end of civilisation. Literature and film abound with tales of plague, famine and wars which ravage the planet, leaving a few survivors scratching out a primitive existence amid the ruins. Every civilisation in history has collapsed, after all. Why should ours be any different? Doomsday scenarios typically feature a knockout blow: a massive […]

Oil drops as demand falls amid supply growth expectations

NEW YORK – Oil prices fell more than $3 a barrel Tuesday as the market absorbed data showing demand is falling even as supplies are rising. Gas prices inched higher at the pump, continuing their record-breaking press toward $4 a gallon. A monthly Energy Department report said demand for finished petroleum products dropped 8.5 percent […]

US air force calls for mission to combat climate change

The US air force will this week call for the world’s top scientists to come together in a 21st-century Apollo-style programme to develop greener fuels and tackle global warming. It wants universities, governments, companies and environmental groups to collaborate on a multibillion-dollar effort to work out greenhouse gas emissions of existing and future fuels. William […]

Gas prices top concerns over jobs, health

WASHINGTON – Paying for gasoline easily tops the list of economic woes facing families in the United States, according to a survey on how changes in the economy have affected people More than a quarter of households earning more than $75,000 a year described paying for gasoline as a serious problem. For those with incomes […]

Climate change could fend off peak oil crisis

Last week, Hamish McRae, one of the worldThis recession has not actually been caused by the high oil price; the subprime-mortgage scam is to blame for that. But the recession is likely to drive the demand for oil down far enough to bring the price back down to $100 before long, or even to $85 […]

ND Study: 167 Billion Barrels of Oil in Bakken

The Bakken shale formation in North Dakota holds up to 167 billion barrels of oil but only about 1 percent of it can be recovered using current technology, a new study says. The study released Monday said current technology could lead to the recovery of about 2.1 billion barrels in North Dakota’s portion of the […]

Ben Bova: What has changed since last gas crisis?

I wrote those words in 1974. Thirty-four years ago. Back then, the U.S. was reeling from the Arab oil embargo and a double-headed

Pictures of Oil

Graphs of and information about what’s happening with petroleum …and its derivatives …and the consequences The following graphs show prices for petroleum products in the U.S. overlayed to show the increase each year since 2002 over previous years. If the area for a particular year is visible it means the price has not been at […]

Floating turbines may join Norway’s offshore rigs

UTSIRA, Norway Norway’s government is contemplating licensing “blocks” for offshore wind generation, and Norwegian oil company StatoilHydro aims to start work next year on a floating turbine project near the site of the first North Sea oil discovery 40 years ago. “We are the best place in Norway if you love wind,” Mayor Jarle Nilsen […]

ExxonMobil Declares Force Majeure on Strike, Shut-In 800,000 bbl/d

ExxonMobil Corp. Monday took the drastic step of declaring force majeure on its energy operations in Nigeria because of an ongoing labor strike, signaling the damaging affect the dispute is having on its operations in the country. The declaration means ExxonMobil is unable to meet its contractual obligations because of a shut-in by the strike […]

Cuba’s Fidel Castro warned of food crisis a year ago

HAVANA (Reuters) – As global fears about food security mount with riots in Africa and panic buying elsewhere, one world figure can sit back and say he warned a year ago of a coming food crisis — Fidel Castro. Cuba’s ailing revolutionary has not appeared in public since he underwent intestinal surgery in July 2006 […]

No end in sight for costly oil bubble

We are used to blaming the high oil price on the misbehaviour of foreigners – leftist leaders in Latin America, satraps in the Gulf and hostage-takers in the Niger Delta – so the closure of the Forties pipeline in the North Sea by the actions of Scottish trade unionists adds a cosy domestic drama to […]

Next few years may be tough

We may have not seen such headlines in many decades. Food prices are soaring, and in the poorest nations of the world — in parts of the Caribbean, South East Asia and Africa — the cost of basic foodstuffs means that the line of subsistence is being eradicated. The next stop for these people is […]

Rise of Nationalism Frays Global Ties

Trade, Environment Face New Threats; Balkanized Internet …Energy companies have been among the first to feel the new nationalism. Since oil prices started rising in 2004, Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador have nationalized foreign-owned oil assets, the first big wave of nationalization since the 1970s. After Venezuela’s state-owned oil firm doubled its ownership of heavy-oil […]

We should warm to the idea of melting poles

More than two decades ago, at the height of the Cold War, Arctic scholar Oran Young proclaimed that the world was But now, two decades after Oran Young introduced the concept of the

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Is It Time To Abandon the Idea of Phasing Out Oil and Gas?
• More than 20% of global refining capacity at risk of closure
• Charles Hugh Smith Blog: Fire, Then Ice Our Deflationary Future
• Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser says energy transition strategy ‘visibly failing’
• 100 million-degree ‘artificial sun’ sets new records in hunt for energy’s ‘Holy Grail’

• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy
• US seeks to buy up to 3 million bbls of oil for Strategic Petroleum Reserve
• Desertification: the world is losing healthy land at an astonishing rate
• US oil production will keep booming in 2024, setting up a possible showdown with Saudi Arabia
• Saudi Arabia piles pressure on UAE to shift COP28 focus away from oil and gas
• US Warship, Commercial Ships Under Attack In Red Sea