News from August 2008

Palin: Iraq is a war for oil

In a recent BusinessWeek interview, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) admitted that she believes the Iraq war was fought because of oil: We are a nation at war and in many [ways] the reasons for war are fights over energy sources, which is nonsensical when you consider that domestically we have the supplies ready to go. [...]

U.S. Gulf oil output at a trickle ahead of Gustav

HOUSTON (Reuters) – U.S. energy companies shut nearly all offshore oil production and were racing to bring down flood-prone Louisiana refineries on Sunday ahead of Hurricane Gustav’s landfall, which could rival the wrath of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. Gustav is expected to be a dangerous Category 4 hurricane with wind speeds up to 155 mph when [...]

Cold season will push up oil price: Iran

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran’s oil minister suggested on Sunday crude at $100 a barrel was the lowest appropriate level but said factors like the approaching cold season would push up demand and prices, an Oil Ministry website reported. Oil has fallen from a record level around $147 a barrel in July to around $115 a [...]

‘Peak Oil’ drives urgent energy alternatives

In the furore over increasing oil prices, the two words our leaders seem determined not to mention are Oil does not run out at the peak, as roughly half of the ultimately available oil remains to be produced. However, it is the point at which further expansion of global oil production becomes impossible because production [...]

Payment Plan for Climate-Change Costs Proposed by Institute

The U.S., China and wealthy nations should bear the costs for curbing carbon-dioxide emissions worldwide in proportion to the income and air pollution they generate, the Stockholm Environment Institute proposed. The environmental advocate, with centers in Sweden, Britain and the U.S., is attempting to break a deadlock in international talks for a new global treaty [...]

Past evidence boosts concern for Greenland icesheet: scientists

PARIS (AFP) – Scientists Sunday said they could no longer rule out a fast-track melting of the Greenland icesheet — a prospect, once the preserve of doomsayers, that would see much of the world’s coastline drowned by rising seas. The researchers found that the great Laurentide icesheet which smothered much of North America during the [...]

Global warming’s toasty water connection to Gustav

Global warming has probably made Hurricane Gustav a bit stronger and wetter, some top scientists said Sunday, but the specific connection between climate change and stronger hurricanes remains an issue of debate. The Atlantic is seeing an increase in storms rated among the strongest. In the past four years, Hurricanes Gustav and Katrina, and six [...]

UN Calls for Urgent Action on Climate Change

The United Nations is calling for urgent action to halt climate change on the 20th anniversary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The U.N. Secretary General and other eminent personalities were present at the official ceremony, which celebrated this event in Geneva from where Lisa Schlein reports for VOA For much of the past [...]

Putin reminds EU of Russia’s Pacific oil pipeline

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that Russia’s first oil pipeline to Asia must be completed without delay, underlining Russia’s energy clout just hours before European Union leaders meet to discuss Georgia. Russian state-owned news agency RIA said Putin had signed a government order “on speeding the building of phases of [...]

Oil drop to help U.S. transport only in short-term

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A recent dip in oil prices should boost U.S. transport companies’ earnings for the current quarter, but oil is still too pricey to offer the sector any long-term relief from the many economic headaches it faces. Transport firms will get a short-term lift as the fuel surcharges they implemented to cope with [...]