Peak Oil Media/Videos:

A good many videos this week. First, wanna learn about exponential growth? Here’s a short video entitled “Are Human’s Smarter than Yeast?” (mentions Bob Shaw even!–basically an 8 min version of Al Bartlett’s hour talk over at GPM on exponential growth) Perhaps a smidge rudimentary for this crowd, but pay special attention to the three […]

Energy disputes sour Russia, European Union summit

Disputes over energy investment and human rights hung over a Russia-European Union summit Friday where the two sides agreed they would try to address their differences in new talks on a stalled cooperation agreement. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the EU representatives said they would start talks next week in Brussels on a wide-ranging Russia-EU […]

Venezuela says no evidence oil price hurting demand

Oil price hawk and major exporter Venezuela said on Friday there is no evidence record crude values are hurting demand despite economists’ predictions the cost could dent demand and trigger a sharp price fall. Venezuela’s oil minister Rafael Ramirez also reiterated to reporters the OPEC member’s position that oil markets are well-supplied and any decision […]

Brazil expects OPEC invite, sees moderating role

Brazil, which has found big offshore oil reserves in the subsalt cluster, expects an invitation by OPEC to join the exporter countries’ cartel, Energy Minister Edison Lobao was quoted as saying on Friday. Lobao said in an interview with Valor Economico business newspaper that his estimates were based on the fact that Brazil had been […]

Envisioning a world of $200-a-barrel oil

As forecasters take that possibility more seriously, they describe fundamental shifts in the way we work, where we live and how we spend our free time. The more expensive oil gets, the more Katherine Carver’s life shrinks. She’s given up RV trips. She stays home most weekends. She’s scrapped her twice-a-month volunteer stint at a […]

Civilization’s golden era is teetering on collapse

New millennium has brought a turning point in history, yet we ignore meltdown The period from 1950 to 2000 will be remembered as the Golden Era of modern civilization, the pinnacle reached by humans after a million years of evolution. This brilliant half-century was sponsored largely by fossil fuels, especially oil, which brought unprecedented economic […]

Iran says Gulf oil route at risk if attacked

TEHRAN (Reuters) – The Revolutionary Guards said Iran would impose controls on shipping in the vital Gulf oil route if Iran was attacked and warned regional states of reprisals if they took part, a newspaper reported on Saturday. Fear of an escalation in the standoff between the West and Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil […]

Global Oil-Supply Worries Fuel Debate in Saudi Arabia

Former Officials at Odds Over ‘Peak’ Theory; Crude Hits High Sadad al-Husseini and Nansen Saleri raced up the ranks at Saudi Aramco, the world’s most powerful oil company, working together for years to squeeze more crude from Saudi Arabia’s massive fields. Today, the two men have staked out opposite sides of a momentous industry debate. […]

Australia: High petrol prices hitting outer suburbs

The price of an affordable house in the outer suburbs for some is having to spend more than they can afford on the soaring cost of fuel, experts say. As petrol prices close in on $2 a litre, the mounting fuel bill has made the decision to live further from the central business district (CBD) […]

Flat-earther blind to oil facts

Celebrated New York Times columnist Thomas L Friedman, a flat-earthling, in a provocative polemic this week accused the United States president of being the nation’s addict-in-chief to oil with “a massive, fraudulent, pathetic excuse for an energy policy”. (“Mr Bush, Lead or Leave”, June 22, 2008). Friedman talks as if he wants the president to […]

Africa: Summit to Debate Soaring Food, Oil Prices

Africa needs to urgently address the issues of soaring food and oil prices and take appropriate measures as they negatively impact on poor households, said African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping. “We need to discuss and analyse all possible solutions on these sky-rocketing prices including transport costs which compound food prices,” said Mr Ping while […]

South Africa: Fishing Companies Reeling Under Fuel Price Hikes

Fishing companies are under pressure as rising fuel prices translate into more costly catches in a market where price is determined by levels of supply and demand. However, despite the rising fuel prices, Oceana Group and Foodcorp aim to catch their quota this year even if both companies face squeezed margins.News agency AFP reported last […]

Coal-bed methane: Canary in a coal mine

Miners and their canaries are used to thinking of natural gas as a potentially deadly impediment to digging up coal. It is present in many seams, and poses a danger to humans and birds alike. But gas is becoming increasingly scarce, while coal remains abundant, so many firms are reversing the normal pattern and harvesting […]

Equipment shortage slows US coal output growth-CEO

The cost and lead time involved in acquiring new equipment are among the impediments to raising coal production in the United States, a coal company executive said on Friday. The cost of both machines and supplies has risen sharply, and manufacturers need lead times of as much as 36 months to deliver equipment, said Paul […]

Power needed to bury CO2 a coal issue – experts

A big challenge facing electric utilities seeking to burn coal cleanly is providing enough power to capture and bury the carbon dioxide produced, experts said Friday. The process called carbon capture and sequestration requires as much as 20 percent of the electricity a power plant generates.That essentially means that for every five coal plants using […]

LEBANON: University team builds Arab world’s first solar-powered car

A team of engineering students and their professor have built what they describe as the Arab world’s first solar-powered car, according to a news release. It is named “Apollo’s Chariot,” in reference to the Greek god of the sun. The steel and fiberglass one-seater (pictured) is about 18 feet long and 6 feet wide and […]

Uncle Sam Rolls In a 100-MPG Solar Plug-In Hybrid

Tony Markel drives a plug-in hybrid that runs 50 miles per charge, goes 100 miles per gallon and gets power from the sun. If he has his way, you’ll drive one too before long. His 2006 Prius has a lithium-ion battery six times more powerful than the nickel-metal hydride pack Toyota put in it. But […]

Investments pour into solar energy, but the sector is scary

When Rick Hanna and his fellow energy analysts at Morningstar in Chicago sat down recently to discuss solar energy stocks, the question on the table was this: Is solar the next Internet-style bubble?Last year’s IPO hype aside, solar is an industry driven by commodities, not technology: Any declines in crude oil prices will be felt […]

US halts solar energy projects over environment fears

The US government is putting a hold on new solar energy projects on public land for two years so it can study the environmental impact of sun-driven plants. The Bureau of Land Management says the moratorium on solar proposals is needed to determine how a new generation of large-scale projects could affect plants and wildlife […]

Plans for $350M ethanol plant in Mich. announced

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is expected to be the host of a $250 million plant that would turn wood chips into fuel. Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Boston-based Mascoma Corp. announced some details of the project Friday. The plant will be built at one of two sites under consideration in Chippewa County with the help of a […]

Ford Waits as GM, Toyota Take Lead on Plug-In Hybrids

June 27 (Bloomberg) — Ford Motor Co., under pressure to trim its reliance on trucks, said it’s taking a measured approach on plug-in hybrid vehicles by letting rivals assume the risk of marketing the new technology. “If customers aren’t buying them, we’re not making them,” Ted Miller, Ford’s senior manager of energy storage, said in […]

Gazprom Pushing Natural Gas for Cars in Europe

Russian energy giant Gazprom wants to set up a network of service stations across Europe for cars fuelled by natural gas. Gazprom controls a quarter of the world’s gas reserves. Gazprom plans to increase its presence in Europe’s gas retail business, the company’s chief executive announced on Friday, June 27. Currently, few cars in Europe […]

SEC Proposes Change In Oil, Gas Reporting

The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed allowing oil and gas companies to include in regulatory filings additional information about their reserve inventories, a measure analysts and investors use to gauge a company’s prospects. If adopted, the change proposed Thursday would increase reserves results at a time when they have been on the decline. The SEC […]

What’s better — food or petroleum?

Quiz time. Which is more important to you and your family — food or petroleum? As you pause a few moments to respond, be aware that the U.S. government has already answered the question for you. And the answer is that petroleum trumps food, big time. Since 1975, the U.S. government has been buying oil […]

North America’s first carbon tax rolls out under fire

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) – Civic leader Scott Nelson says he is as worried as anyone about global warming, but that does not make him happy to be one of the first North Americans to pay a carbon tax to curb climate change. Nelson, the mayor of Williams Lake, British Columbia, says record high energy […]

Canada plant to make ethanol from garbage

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – A garbage sorting plant in Edmonton, Alberta will be home to an ethanol facility that will turn 100,000 tonnes of plastic, cardboard and paper into the fuel additive starting in 2010, an official involved in the project said on Friday. The C$70-million ($69.3-million) plant will produce 36 million liters of ethanol […]

North Pole Could be Ice-Free This Summer

Arctic sea ice could break apart completely at the North Pole this year, allowing ships to sail over the normally frozen top of the world. The potential landmark thaw – the first time in human history the pole would be ice-free – is a stark sign of global warming, according to an article Friday on […]

Man torches his car to protest surging gas prices

A German man set his car on fire in Frankfurt on Friday to protest skyrocketing fuel costs, say police. The unemployed 30-year-old man drove the black 1995 BMW 3-series sedan onto the lawn outside the city’s convention centre at about 7:30 a.m., police spokesman Karlheinz Wagner said. CBC — story also at MSNBC

Lack of Export Insfrastructure Hinders Kazakhstan’s Bid to Become Oil Power

ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Kazakhstan, with its vast reserves of hydrocarbons, is on a path to become a petro-power on a global scale. That, at least, is the plan of the Kazakh government, oil companies with access to the rich oil fields of Kazakhstan, and those seeking alternatives to OPEC oil. However, as oil production in […]

Out of gas

As the “peak” of global petroleum production rapidly approaches, EcoDensity may not be enough to save our oil-dependent society Gazing out his kitchen window in Kitsilano, Richard Balfour can see a clear picture of the future. We are running out of oil, says the founder of the Vancouver Peak Oil Executive, a group of local […]

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