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a community peak oil portal
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| As prices plunge, OPEC faces dilemma on oil production |
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 NEW YORK: The decline in oil prices in recent weeks has been a welcome relief for consumers and a rare piece of positive news in an otherwise bleak economic landscape. But for oil producers, increasingly accustomed to rising revenues, falling prices are fast turning into a cause for concern - if not quite panic.
Oil prices have fallen by a third in the past seven weeks and are headed for a drop below the symbolic $100 threshold for the first time since March. Though not a full-blown collapse, the speed of the decline is prompting some soul-searching within the OPEC oil cartel.
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| Amid bluster over energy, Senate cuts a deal |
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| GOP gets some drilling, nuclear, Democrats get wind, solar incentives
High energy prices have become a bitterly contested political issue. Republicans are bashing Democrats for standing in the way of drilling for more oil and gas at home, while Democrats retort that their rivals are misleading the American public by saying that such drilling would significantly lower prices. Yet amid the partisan bomb-throwing over America's future energy policy, Washington is actually making a rare effort to forge a compromise.
Over the summer a group of five GOP and five Democratic senators, dubbed the Gang of 10, hammered out a comprehensive energy proposal. And now, after taking withering heat from both left and right, the idea is gaining support.
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| California ''water bank'' in works amid drought |
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 SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California's state government is forming a "water bank" to buy water for local water agencies at risk of shortages next year should a current drought persist, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Thursday.
Schwarzenegger in June declared the most populous U.S. state to officially be in drought and declared nine counties in its farm-rich Central Valley to be in a state of emergency because water supplies were so low after two years of below-average rainfall.
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| Localized Pollution Potentially Plays Large Role in Future Climate Change |
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Short-lived gases and particle pollutants — which stay in the atmosphere for just days or weeks — have a greater influence on Earth’s climate than previously thought, according to a new NOAA-led report released today as part of the series of Synthesis and Assessment Reports coordinated by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. The report also says that while these pollutants are generated locally they will have global climate implications.
Such short-lived pollution includes black carbon (soot), low-altitude ozone, nitrates and sulfates. Each type of pollution influences surface temperatures differently — from the cooling influence of sulfate particles, which tend to reflect sunlight, to the warming characteristics of heat-absorbing black carbon.
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| Honda to show new hybrid car at Paris auto show |
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 TOKYO (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co will unveil a prototype of its eagerly awaited low-cost hybrid car due for launch in early 2009 at the Paris auto show next month, Japan's No.2 automaker said on Thursday.
The five-door, five-seater compact hatchback -- Honda's second attempt at a dedicated hybrid car after it discontinued production of the two-seater Insight in 2006 -- will also be called Insight.
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| U.S. must increase nuclear power-Energy Minister |
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LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The United States needs to start generating more of its power from nuclear energy, but will still have to rely on coal and oil for the foreseeable future, the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy said on Thursday.
Dennis Spurgeon told a nuclear energy industry conference in London that the era of cheap oil was over and action was needed to tackle an "energy crisis" facing the United States.
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| Biofuels: Can a global standard solve the sustainability problem? |
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 Biofuels are in the spotlight again for helping to drive up both carbon emissions and food prices – but a new standard may go some way to addressing the environmental, economic and social issues. Rikki Stancich reports
The sustainability of biofuels has again been brought into question, this time by an independent review in the UK. The Gallagher Review, commissioned by the UK government and released in July, concluded the EU’s biofuels target of 10% of all fuels by 2020 could not be met sustainably and advised that targets be scaled back.
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| Ethanol: energy's golden child dodges more darts |
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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Ethanol's wild ride has brought it quickly from political golden child to scapegoat for everything from soaring food prices and world hunger to pork-barrel spending.
This week, the Republican Party in its national platform called for an end to ethanol mandates in just the latest shot at a fuel alternative that, in some circles, has grown more targeted than treasured.
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| Bodman Says EIA Data Is `Reliable,' Unaware of Probe |
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| (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman today defended the reliability of market data supplied to the Energy Information Administration and said he was unaware of a probe of participants providing false information.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is examining whether certain players provided false data to the EIA, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, to benefit their trading positions. Bodman spoke to reporters after giving a speech in Washington.
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| The Question Wall Street is Ignoring but the World Can’t |
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 Is Oil Production Falling Faster Than Demand?
Every Wall Street forecast of where oil prices are headed next – up or down – seems to be based solely on the degree of “demand destruction” that can be expected. But what about “supply destruction?” Whatever the level of demand destruction, if supply destruction is greater, oil prices will rise, not fall.
Wall Street seems to think that, because OPEC is thinking about possibly lowering production, this must mean there’s plenty of oil available, forgetting that OPEC has been unable to raise production to take advantage of sharply higher crude prices. Led by Russia, it’s been the non-OPEC countries, responsible for 60% of global oil production vs. 40% for OPEC, that have been able to raise their output as global demand has grown.
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| Big Three bailout may be around corner |
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| Automakers seek $50 billion in low-interest loans to convert plants from trucks to fuel efficient cars; presidential election could help their chances.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Plunging auto sales, high gas prices and election year politics could help convince Congress to approve a $50 billion loan package to embattled U.S. automakers that Detroit's Big Three claim is key to their future success.
On Wednesday, General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler LLC reported monthly sales declines of at least 20% from a year ago, as American car buyers continued to turn away from SUVs and pickups and towards more fuel efficient car models.
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| Entergy Warns Of Precarious Power Island Situation In SE Louisiana |
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| vox_mundi writes: Entergy's transmission system has sustained extremely severe damage from Hurricane Gustav, damage that could make power restoration a difficult and slow process, especially in southeastern Louisiana.
Thirteen of the 14 transmission lines serving the New Orleans metropolitan area are out of service due to the storm.
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| Gas guzzling temptation as prices fall |
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 With prices at the pump continuing to slip, will memories of the summer's gas crunch fade, tempting drivers to fall off the conservation wagon?
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Although it was a painful summer for most drivers, it could have been worse had Americans not cut back on their gasoline consumption. Now, as summer ends and gasoline prices fall, drivers may be tempted to resume their gas guzzling habits.
Since July, when gas hit a record high near $4.10 a gallon nationwide, prices have fallen 10% to $3.678 a gallon on Thursday. And according to Geoff Sundstrom of the American Automobile Association, prices could fall even further.
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| Gulf Coast Faces Sea Level-Sinkage Double Whammy |
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| vox_mundi writes: Hurricane Gustav has been a harsh reminder that it's only the whim of a hurricane track, a few miles this way or that, which can make the difference between a close call and another Katrina-like catastrophe for New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities.
With the one-two punch being delivered by sinking land and rising sea levels, and with every hurricane threatening a knock-out blow, it's getting harder to avoid that very unpopular question: How much longer can these coastal communities survive?
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| Paying the climate change bill |
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| vox_mundi writes: How much will it cost the European Union to fight global climate change? Clearly, the answer depends on what your target is, how you propose to get there, and the size of the EU’s contribution compared with those of the US, China and so on. But a new report from the Centre for European Policy Studies thinktank offers some useful estimates.
The report assesses six recent studies, ranging from the Stern Review and a World Bank analysis to research prepared by Vattenfall, the Swedish energy company. In these reports, the average annual global costs for mitigating and adapting to climate change are put at anything from €230bn to €614bn, based on 2006 data.
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