News from August 2009

Peak oil review – Aug 31

1. Production and prices 2. Droughts in Asia 3. Iraq Quote of the Week Energy Stat of the Week Briefs 1. Production and prices The struggle between optimists and pessimists goes on and on with neither side as yet gaining a decisive advantage. Oil prices started the week close to $75 a barrel on rising [...]

U.S. ethanol group wants origin labeling for oil

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. ethanol industry group is pushing lawmakers to craft legislation requiring gasoline filling stations to inform customers what country their fuel came from in hopes of increasing awareness about money spent on oil imported from overseas. “Most Americans don’t want their paychecks going to Venezuela and other regimes that don’t [...]

Jason Brudereck: Oil production nears terrifying drop-off

Energy consultant Michael Lynch argued last week in an op-ed in The New York Times that better extraction methods will postpone the production peak, which is significant since the economy runs on oil. If he’s correct, it means something more alarming: the drop-off in production after the peak will be that much steeper because there [...]

Twin plagues: Beetles and fire devour forests

Severity and spread are fingerprints of climate change, researchers say Beetles and fire, twin plagues, are consuming northern forests in what scientists say is a preview of the future, in a century growing warmer, as the land grows drier, trees grow weaker and pests, abetted by milder winters, grow stronger. Dying, burning forests would then [...]

Growth of ocean

-week Pacific voyage highlights Most of the trash has broken into bite-sized plastic bits, and scientists want to know whether it’s sickening or killing the small fish, plankton and birds that ingest it. During their August fact-finding expedition, a group of University of California scientists found much more debris than they expected. The team announced [...]

Climate change bill to boost nuclear plants

Nearly half of the nation’s nuclear power plants stand to earn a windfall if the climate-change bill passed by the House becomes law. The legislation, which passed by a narrow vote in June, would open the way for nuclear plants operating in states that have unregulated electricity markets to charge much higher prices than they [...]

Solar Power from Space: Moving Beyond Science Fiction

For more than 40 years, scientists have dreamed of collecting the sun Moreover, the best locations for solar arrays

Chávez ratifies oil sales to the US

Venezuelan President Hugo Ch “Venezuela cannot make a decision against us. We send this oil to our refineries in the United States.” The president pointed, for instance, to the commercial ties between the United States and the Soviet Union, despite ideological differences during the Cold War. El Universal

There won't be any separate peace

Last week the Oil Drum featured an article about the very wealthy making preparations for whatever catastrophe the post-peak future has in stock. Many commentators have pointed out that mercenaries understand very quickly there is more money to be had by cutting their rich but helpless employers’ throat than by defending them. The very fact [...]

Credit-wary investors put green projects in red

Green projects, which have become the buzzword in the past few years, are not only currently struggling for financing, the sense of urgency in pursuing them has also been affected considerably. Due to the distressed financial market conditions, the flow of equity and debt investment into renewable energy projects has been disrupted since the fourth [...]