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Peak Oil News: Public Policy; Political and Legal News

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The SEC Surrenders to the Oil Industry
Public Policy; Political and Legal NewsWhat are the consequences of allowing multi-billion-dollar systemically important multinational corporations to report their assets using proprietary mark-to-model tools involving discredited Monte Carlo simulations? I think we all know the answer to that one. But unbelievably, after such shenanigans contributed enormously to the greatest financial meltdown in living memory, the SEC is now set to allow more or less exactly the same thing in the oil industry.
Posted by Leanan on Saturday, November 21 @ 19:02:40 PST (88 reads)
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Outages dim Chavez popularity
Public Policy; Political and Legal NewsPower failures, unpaid civil servants and falling oil revenue play havoc with support for the Venezuela leader.

Reporting from El Consejo, Venezuela - Power outages are hitting Henrique Vollmer's rum distillery several times a week, interrupting production, damaging equipment and jeopardizing the jobs of his 375 workers.

President Hugo Chavez blames the inadequate power production by Venezuela's hydroelectric plants on low rainfall. But Vollmer says the problem has deeper roots.

Posted by Leanan on Saturday, November 21 @ 18:40:16 PST (90 reads)
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Chickens come home to roost in backyards around the USA
Public Policy; Political and Legal NewsPORTLAND, Maine — For months, Daniel Strauss has looked out the window of his home on busy Stevens Avenue and noticed as many as six chickens pecking at the soil of his backyard.

The hens' owner, Jennifer Rudin, wasn't sure at first whether her city neighbor would appreciate the chickens' free-ranging, which has become routine for them since Portland approved backyard chicken farming earlier this year. But having seen how adaptable chickens are, Strauss is planning to get a few of his own.

Posted by Leanan on Saturday, November 21 @ 15:04:20 PST (135 reads)
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Mexico eyes risk contracts to offset Cantarell downturn
Public Policy; Political and Legal NewsLOS ANGELES -- Mexico’s state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos and the Secretaria de Energia (Sener) are preparing risk contracts that will be offered to oil companies—international and domestic—in order accelerate the search for oil and gas, according to local media.

Mexico’s daily El Universal reports that the contracts are the result of concern over output generally, but especially at Cantarell, which represents a loss of 272.425 billion pesos/year ($20.859 billion) in tax revenue for the country, or 2% of estimated gross domestic product for 2009, at current oil prices.

Posted by Leanan on Saturday, November 21 @ 12:40:18 PST (150 reads)
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The Critical Unraveling of U.S. Society
Public Policy; Political and Legal NewsThe economic elite have launched an attack on the U.S. public and society is unraveling at an increased rate.

...Considering our current economy, what will happen when another extreme weather event like Hurricane Katrina hits a major US city? What will happen when storms, droughts and fires continue to spread with increasing intensity? How many have to die before even modest actions are taken to prevent environmental catastrophe?

Posted by Leanan on Saturday, November 21 @ 03:43:22 PST (406 reads)
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Sustainability and Social Justice: Do the Math
Public Policy; Political and Legal NewsAccording to data compiled by the UN, the Global Footprint Network, and Dr. William Rees at the University of British Columbia, total human consumption already exceeds the Earth's capacity by 30 per cent. This is known as biological 'overshoot'. The UN estimates that most natural services to human societies - forests, fish, fresh water and clean air - decline annually. As human population and consumption grow, our collective overshoot increases.
Posted by Leanan on Friday, November 20 @ 18:04:52 PST (229 reads)
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America's Pending Collapse
Public Policy; Political and Legal NewsIn an essay, written by Richard Heinberg entitled “Should We Prop-up a Dying Economy” (19 October 2009), he argues that the economists and the people who follow physical science disagree sharply about where this economy is going. Peak Oil, whether it is present now or just years away, will mean that the economy will contract. The economists state that growth can happen in any environment, yet it is apparent that when oil prices spiked in 2008, the auto industry and the airline industry almost went belly-up. Shrinkage of energy means shrinkage in the economy, we have all been under the notion that we can borrow against a growing economy. The facts are that if the economy does not grow, there will be very little in the growth of capital to repay debts that are leveraged at an average of an average of 350% of debt to GDP ratio. Where will new capital come from?
Posted by Leanan on Friday, November 20 @ 13:20:19 PST (453 reads)
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Matt Simmons: Water and Energy Crisis Looms on Horizon
Public Policy; Political and Legal NewsOcean Energy Institute founder and energy investment banker Matthew Simmons gave an hour-long keynote address at the Island Institute's 2009 Sustainable Island Living conference on Saturday morning at the Strand Theatre in Rockland. Simmons titled his talk "The Gulf of Maine: What Lies Beyond the Fossil Fuel Horizon," but his presentation ranged far outside the Gulf to encompass the globe.

Sporting a delicate windmill as a lapel pin, Simmons started off by reflecting on the concept of sustainability, a current buzzword among energy development experts. "More and more people around the world are beginning to wonder, "Does the globe have a sustainable strategy?'" Simmons said. "It's all about sustainability. Sustainability means protecting or improving our living standards. And without abundant water and energy, we are not sustainable," he said. "There's no question that our oceans are energy's last frontier."

Posted by Leanan on Friday, November 20 @ 11:22:03 PST (350 reads)
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U.N. Report Calls for More Environmental Protection in Wartime
Public Policy; Political and Legal NewsKethaney writes "

A report released this month by the United Nations Environment Program and the Environmental Law Institute calls for stronger international laws to protect the environment during times of war.

The report found that although existing laws of war — including aspects of the Geneva Convention — address environmental protection, their wording is imprecise. Strengthening, enforcing and clarifying existing legislation could help protect “natural assets” during wars, the study says."

Posted by Leanan on Friday, November 20 @ 09:33:04 PST (73 reads)
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Thomas Friedman: What They Really Believe
Public Policy; Political and Legal NewsIf you follow the debate around the energy/climate bills working through Congress you will notice that the drill-baby-drill opponents of this legislation are now making two claims. One is that the globe has been cooling lately, not warming, and the other is that America simply can’t afford any kind of cap-and-trade/carbon tax.

But here is what they also surely believe, but are not saying: They believe the world is going to face a mass plague, like the Black Death, that will wipe out 2.5 billion people sometime between now and 2050. They believe it is much better for America that the world be dependent on oil for energy — a commodity largely controlled by countries that hate us and can only go up in price as demand increases — rather than on clean power technologies that are controlled by us and only go down in price as demand increases. And, finally, they believe that people in the developing world are very happy being poor — just give them a little running water and electricity and they’ll be fine. They’ll never want to live like us.

Posted by Leanan on Thursday, November 19 @ 17:43:34 PST (404 reads)
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John Michael Greer: How Relocalization Worked
Public Policy; Political and Legal NewsOne of the points that I’ve tried to make repeatedly in these essays is the place of history as a guide to what works. It’s a point that deserves repetition. A good many worldsaving plans now in circulation, however new the rhetoric that surrounds them, simply rehash proposals that were tried in the past and failed repeatedly; trying them yet again may thus not be the best use of our limited resources and time.

Of course there’s another side to history that’s more hopeful: something that worked well in the past can be a useful guide to what might work well in the future. I’d like to spend a little time discussing one example of this, partly because it ties into the theme of the current series of posts – the abject failure of current economic notions, and the options for replacing them with ideas that actually make sense – and partly because it addresses one of the more popular topics in the ongoing peak oil discussion, the need for economic relocalization as the age of cheap abundant energy comes to an end.

Posted by Leanan on Thursday, November 19 @ 11:05:18 PST (217 reads)
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The IEA’s “Whistleblower” Is Irrelevant
Public Policy; Political and Legal News...Halfway through the article, we perceive the glimmer of the real agenda. To get some substance to the story and to get somebody to go on record, The Guardian spoke to John Hemmings a Member of Parliament, and chair of the UK all-party parliamentary group on peak oil and gas. (You can tell from the group’s title how alarmist Peak Oil theory is already a mainstay of British political thinking.) Mr Hemmings weighs in that, “this” – by which he means the IEA whistleblowers’ personal opinions – “all gives an importance to the Copenhagen [climate change] talks and an urgent need for the UK to move faster towards a more sustainable [lower carbon] economy.”
Posted by Leanan on Thursday, November 19 @ 10:07:30 PST (320 reads)
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The Emerging US-China Strategic Alliance on Clean Energy
Public Policy; Political and Legal NewsGraeme writes "

The bilateral relationship between the United States and China has begun to take on a more pragmatic and secure quality under the Obama Administration, a welcome contrast to the past, when the U.S. was mostly uneasy about the rise of China and China was often uncertain about assuming its emerging role as an economic and political center of gravity. Though disagreements over the value of the Yuan, trade restrictions and human rights issues will continue to be present in the Sino-U.S. relationship, the exigencies of the worldwide economic downturn and the opportunities for cooperation in the development of a new energy future, are paving the way for a sustainable and productive bilateral relationship."

Posted by Leanan on Thursday, November 19 @ 03:14:51 PST (95 reads)
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Energy chiefs warn crisis stifling investment
Public Policy; Political and Legal News

GENEVA — The economic crisis is jeopardising key energy industry investments that are needed to cope with future growth in demand and shifts to cleaner energy, executives and officials warned on Wednesday.

Executives from gas, oil and power generation firms said at a UN conference here that they were delaying and cutting back investments due to the credit crunch, the economic downturn and volatile oil and gas prices.

Posted by coyote on Wednesday, November 18 @ 17:48:51 PST (166 reads)
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COP15 failure and Peak Oil success: Why exaggerate Global Warming?
Public Policy; Political and Legal NewsOECD leaders go far out of their way to never, ever mention Peak Oil. This in fact is the biggest real world driver for worldwide Energy Transition away from CO2 emitting fossil fuels. Due to limited world oil reserves and production capacity, moving away from fossil fuels is necessary, whether or not there is climate change or global warming. Complicating this, world pipeline and LNG gas supplies are now entering a period of large or massive increase, depending on country and region, perhaps able to last 5 years or more. While oil can get very expensive, natural gas will likely remain cheap, and international traded coal will likely remain low cost on delivered energy terms.
Posted by Leanan on Wednesday, November 18 @ 16:15:03 PST (207 reads)
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Old Articles
Wednesday, November 18
· The Peak Oil Crisis: Accusations
· Why China Isn't Willing to Get Too Tough on Iran
· Mexico Not Considering Pricing Change for Oil Exports
· The petroleum civil war
Tuesday, November 17
· In signal to West, Iran boosts fuel output
· Peak oil review - Nov 16
· The developing scandal around the IEA and peak oil
· No Plan for Oil Shortages in North America
· Summary Presentation for Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
· Carving up Africa for Food and Fuel
· The psychology of climate change
Monday, November 16
· The one thing depleting faster than oil is the credibility of those measuring it
· Kunstler: The Fate of the Yeast People
· U.S. submarine's trip to Arctic should sound alarms for Canada: expert
· Obama Hobbled in Fight Against Global Warming
· Kjell Aleklett: The Struggle Against Climate Change May Cause Starvation
· How the Great Recession Will Transform America
· Weapons Upgrade at the Dubai Air Show
· Russia seeks inspiration from high-tech Singapore
· Burma's oil-rich generals can afford to ignore Obama on Suu Kyi

Older Articles
 
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