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a community peak oil portal
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| Oil prices are probably going up no matter what we do |
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 ...Oil has zoomed to surreal levels, briefly hitting a record high of $145.85 a barrel in trading Thursday morning. That’s more than double a year ago, despite increasing fuel-conservation measures and a sputtering U.S. economy reeling from six straight months of job losses. The average U.S. gas price nationally for regular is a record $4.09.8.
But here’s what is really scary: Even though oil prices have been rising sharply for several years and that has encouraged additional drilling, the global supply of oil has increased only modestly. Output is actually falling in some substantial oil-producing nations as a result of declining fields, civil war or other issues.
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 As Russia becomes more aggressive regarding its natural gas supplies, Europe faces a whole new energy crisis.
Oil may be headed for $200 a barrel and the price of everything from wheat to gold set to cause yet more ructions in world commodities markets, but for European businesses, households and governments, natural gas may be the next big headache. Like oil, the price of this fossil fuel is rising dramatically. Now EU officials and others in the industry are warning that Europe is facing a supply crunch as well, whatever the price.
Europe is “sleepwalking” its way to a “staggering dependence on imports,” Paulo Scaroni, chief executive of Italy’s national energy company, Eni, told the World Energy Congress in Rome late last year. By 2020 gas demand could be 40% higher than in 2007, at a time when production in the 27-nation EU was “expected to halve.” The result, he stated, will mean doubling Europe’s annual imports from 300 billion cubic metres to 600 billion cubic metres. “We clearly run the risk of a gas shortage in the future,” he added.
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| Vietnam Suspends Gold Imports, Follows FDR's Great Depression Lead |
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 Introduced in 1978, the Vietnamese dong is another example of fiat money gone wrong.
Inflation is now clearly out of control. Inflation soared 27% over the last 12 months through June. And inflation is still climbing as crude oil and other commodities prices continue to hit new highs.
The dong is down just 3.7% this year versus the dollar, but it still remains severely overvalued. Also, recently the dong breached its government-imposed trading band.
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| The last all-premium airline may vanish |
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| The last of the transatlantic all-premium-class airlines could soon vanish, but not because of bankruptcy — and it's not necessarily bad news for transatlantic high-fare fliers.
L'Avion, the French all-business-class airline that operates two Boeing 757s — each fitted with just 90 seats — between Paris Orly Airport and Newark Airport, has agreed to be purchased by British Airways.
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| IMF: Food-fuel surge puts poor countries at ''tipping point'' |
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| Poor countries are increasingly threatened by the surging food and fuel prices, which is eating up reserves and seriously frustrating poverty reduction efforts, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a broad 162-country survey.
The report said that the impact is being felt globally but is most acute for import-dependent poor and middle-income countries confronted by balance of payments problems, higher inflation, and worsening poverty.
"Some countries are really at a tipping point," IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said upon the release of the report on Tuesday.
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| KZN fuel protest to bring country to a halt (South Africa) |
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| The KwaZulu-Natal Transport Alliance, Cosatu and KZN Taxi Council will be embarking on a massive strike next Wednesday, leaving millions of people without transport on that day.
The chairperson of the KZN Transport Alliance, Eugene Hadebe, said they were angry about the continuing increases in petrol price because they were not only affecting them, but also their customers.
"We are really starting to believe that the government is somehow in a way trying to move us out of business - and we won't let that happen. When we increase our taxi fares, we are the ones that look bad in the eyes of the public. We are the ones who have to face the loss of passengers to buses and trains," he said.
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| Traditional fishing lifestyle in south Thailand under threat |
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| Idling on the muddy sands of Thailand's coastal deep south, fishing boats hand-painted in lurid primary colours languish while their owners look on helplessly.
Traditional fishing, once a thriving industry in southern Pattani and Yala provinces, has been reduced to a dwindling niche activity as fishermen lose out to large commercial firms and soaring fuel prices.
The troubles in the industry compound the problems faced in this mainly Muslim region, where separatist unrest has claimed more than 3,300 lives in the last four years, with no resolution in sight.
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| Fourth of July feast more expensive this year |
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| Gasoline and fireworks aren't the only things explosively high-priced this Fourth of July holiday weekend.
According to the American Farm Bureau Federation Marketbasket Survey, retail food prices at the supermarket continued to increase in the second quarter of 2008. The informal survey shows the total cost of 16 basic grocery items in the second quarter of 2008 was $46.67, up about 3.5 percent or $1.64 from the first quarter of 2008.
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| Chrysler At Risk Of Bankruptcy |
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| A JPMorgan analyst warned that Chrysler is at risk of bankruptcy as it is hit by the triple force of high pump prices, an economic slowdown and an expected decline in sales of trucks. Other than bankruptcy, the next viable option for the third largest vehicle maker in the U.S. would be to sell its Jeep and Dodge Ram brands by early 2009.
JPMorgan auto analyst Himanshut Patel said the two other U.S. carmakers, General Motor and Ford, would likely hurdle the challenges of the auto industry in 2008 and even manage to have a profit in 2010.
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| Motorists rethink driving habits as gas prices soar higher at the pumps |
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| A Los Feliz resident walks to the nearby post office four blocks away from her home instead of driving to keep from paying the continually increasing cost of gas.
"I'm walking around my neighborhood a lot more now," Jennifer Abbott said. "I actually get to stop and talk to my neighbors while they walk their dogs. It's fun and relaxing."
In April 2008, Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles than a year earlier. Greenhouse gas emissions fell by approximately 9 million metric tons during the same period, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Web site shows.
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| Venezuela calls on OPEC to subsidize oil for poor countries |
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| Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Thursday called on the OPEC cartel to absorb the costs of the oil import bills of the world's 50 poorest countries, predicting that the price of crude is "going to continue rising."
"OPEC, or some of its members, should take the responsibility to supply these countries through special mechanisms, subsidies, donations, agreements. It is not going to make us any richer or poorer," he said at a meeting of the non-aligned movement at Isla Margarita on Venezuela's northern coast.
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| Oil Demand to Outpace Supply Growth in the Medium-Term - IEA |
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| The International Energy Agency has indicated in its medium-term assessment that global supply will find it hard to meet sharply rising demand over the next five years, contrary to expectations in some industry quarters that conditions may soften to bring down the record-high oil prices, according to Dow Jones.
The agency's assessment, which forecasts conditions through to 2013, sees no respite for consumers as oil supplies will be strained even further, even though demand could fall as a result of weaker economic growth.
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| Attack on nuclear sites means war, says Iranian commander |
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| Tehran - An Iranian military commander warned Friday that any attacks against Iran's nuclear sites would mean the start of a war, official news agency IRNA reported.
'Any military action against (nuclear sites in) Iran would mean start of a war and the Iranian reaction would definitely make the enemy regret both its decision and action,' commander of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, told IRNA.
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| You would think that this story is right out of science fiction. But the facts appear to be that the US Democrat-controlled Congress intends to destroy the Republican middle class with $11 per gallon gasoline.
The Democrats’ base -- wealthy white “limousine liberals”, and very poor people -- won’t be harmed, but the families who live in suburbia will be devastated.
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| Michael Klare: Life at the summit |
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| Energy experts continue to debate whether the world has already reached a peak in global oil output or if the moment of maximum yield still lies years ahead. But if we could look back to today from 50 years hence, the difference between a peak in 2008 or, say, 2015 is largely immaterial: for all practical purposes we are now perched on the summit of the depletion curve of world petroleum, and will remain in this territory – a rounded crest when seen from afar, not a sharp apex – for some years to come. There is nothing further to be gained by arguing about the precise moment of peak oil, or from seeking to delay its arrival. From now on, our overarching challenge is to adjust to life on the petroleum summit.
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