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a community peak oil portal
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| UN's climate change guru sees record oil price as a positive |
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 MADRID (AFP) — The UN's top climate change official said Thursday that record oil prices, which have surged to 146 dollars a barrel, were positive for the environment.
"I think they are a net positive. First of all you see that through decreasing demand in Europe and North America where people are becoming much more conscious of petrol prices," Yvo de Boer told AFP.
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| The year everything changed |
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 [Sydney - ]The stormclouds are gathering. Our market has plunged below 5000 for the first time in two years, oil prices are soaring, America is in (unofficial) recession and the Reserve Bank is clearly worried about the home front.
After years of partying, many believe it's time for the inevitable hangover when gloom and doom replace the exuberant optimism that just a few months ago seemed as though it would never end.
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 The fundamental lessons for a country suddenly facing an energy crisis and an uncertain economy ought to be clear enough. Drive slower -- when you have to drive at all, that is. Seek alternative forms of transportation. Turn off the lights you don't need, and don't be wasteful.
Oh, and by all means, don't go lunging for the panic button.
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| Key EU lawmaker proposes new 2015 biofuel target |
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 PARIS, July 4 (Reuters) - A key European Union lawmaker said on Friday he had broad parliamentary backing to propose changing the EU's target for biofuels so that 4 percent of road transport fuels come from renewable sources by 2015.
Claude Turmes told Reuters one-fifth of those renewable fuels would have to be either second generation biofuels or electric vehicles. There would be a major review in 2015 to decide whether to move towards an 8-10 percent target in 2020.
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| Only seven years left for global warming target: UN panel chief |
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PARIS (AFP) — The head of the UN's Nobel-winning panel of climate scientists on Friday said only seven years remained for stabilising emissions of global-warming gases at a level widely considered safe.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), delivered the bleak warning at a gathering of European Union ministers where he pleaded with the EU to take the lead in global talks on tackling climate change.
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| Food and climate crises 'linked' |
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Climate change will worsen the world's food crisis, the UN has forecast.
Food and global warming are interconnected, said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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| EU shrugs off biofuels complaints, sticks to 2020 target |
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BRUSSELS, Belgium: The European Union will ignore critics who accuse it of helping to boost food prices by embracing an ambitious and binding target for the use of biofuels, officials said Friday.
The European Commission is sticking to its proposal that biofuels account for at least 10 percent of energy used by the EU's huge transportation sector by 2020, because voluntary targets have failed miserably so far, EU spokesman Michael Mann said.
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| Companies begin quest for oil, gas off Florida |
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 PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — Oil companies once viewed drilling in the deep waters off Florida as cost prohibitive. Politicians feared even the slightest sign of support would be career suicide.
No more. Record crude oil prices are fueling support for oil and natural gas exploration off the nation's shores. In Florida, movement was underway even before President Bush called on Congress last month to lift a federal moratorium that's barred new offshore drilling since 1981.
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| Talking Points For An Energy Crisis |
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The Nation: In The Face Of The Oil-Price Crisis, America Had Better Come Up With A Plan
Airlines are cutting back on water for plane toilets to save weight and fuel. They had better come up with a better business plan than that. And in the face of the burgeoning oil-price crisis, America had better come up with a plan as well.
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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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