Environment and US policy top global fears

Growing numbers of people worldwide view environmental problems, pollution, infectious diseases, nuclear proliferation and the widening gap between rich and poor as the most menacing threats facing the planet, according to a 47-nation survey published yesterday by the US-based Pew Global Attitudes Project.The survey, which conducted more than 45,000 interviews, finds that global opinion is […]

This planet ain’t big enough for the 6,500,000,000

What do the following have in common: the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, Earth’s average temperature and the size of the human population? Answer: each was, for a long period of Earth’s history, held in a state of equilibrium. Whether it’s the burning of fossil fuels versus the rate at which plants absorb carbon, […]

Giant microwave turns plastic back to oil

A US company is taking plastics recycling to another level – turning them back into the oil they were made from, and gas. All that is needed, claims Global Resource Corporation (GRC), is a finely tuned microwave and – hey presto! – a mix of materials that were made from oil can be reduced back […]

Losing Soil

In 1938, Walter Lowdermilk, a senior official in the Soil Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, traveled abroad to look at lands that had been cultivated for thousands of years, seeking to learn how these older civilizations had coped with soil erosion. He found that some had managed their land well, maintaining its […]

UK Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil and Gas Formed

On Tuesday 26th June 2007, Tony BlairPowerSwitch

Venezuela Exit Would Challenge ConocoPhillips Output Targets

The most immediate effect of ConocoPhillips’ decision to exit Venezuela’s oil-rich Orinoco river basin and seek redress through arbitration will be to challenge the U.S. oil company’s short-term production goals. Conoco, the third largest U.S. oil company by market capitalization, in 2006 garnered about 4% of its production and 9% of its oil and gas […]

This baby is just plain ugly, folks

When you watch a baby being born, after a difficult pregnancy, it is so painful the mother it is always hard to tell the truth and say, “Gosh, that baby is really ugly.” But that’s how I feel about the energy legislation passed (and not passed) by the Senate. The whole Senate energy effort only […]

Stagecoach gets green profit lift

Transport group Stagecoach has unveiled a profits jump which it says was helped by people switching to buses and trains because of environmental concerns. The Perth, Scotland-based company said underlying pre-tax profit rose 38% to News of the strong results pushed Stagecoach’s shares up by 5.4%. Stagecoach runs South West Trains and Megabus, and recently […]

The Oil Drum: Finding Needles in a Haystack

In school, we used to do horrendously difficult mathematical “word” problems routinely. I remember occasionally getting one right, but more often ended up punting on the problem, and then waiting for the teacher to explain the solution in all its elegant simplicity. Of course, just about every real-world problem contains inherent ambiguities and incomplete information. […]

Shell Won’t Re-Enter Nigeria’s Western Delta This Year

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is unlikely to go back into Nigeria’s troubled Western Delta this year despite the area contributing around 500,000 barrels a day to the company’s crude oil production, a Shell executive said Tuesday. Speaking on the sidelines of an energy security conference hosted by Cambridge Energy Resources Associates here, Ann Pickard, Shell’s […]

Debts beyond our means

…Three factors indicate how debts are accumulating. In the U.S. total consumer debt is close to $2.2 trillion dollars. Second, the administration has spent more money than we have had for six years. The federal budget has become a mockery with the national debt climbing to $9 trillion this year. Today’s students will pay the […]

The ”New York Times” Smears Peak Oil

The New York Times is considered one of the world’s top newspapers. This reputation has been tarnished, as it became a cheerleader for invading Iraq, along with a detailed series about Iraq’s WMDs, which never existed. The Times recently took a position on “peak oil” All oil companies are reassuring consumers that peak oil is […]

The Great Corn Con

The ethanol madness continues! Last week, the Senate passed an energy bill mandating the production of 36 billion gallons of ethanol per year by 2022 There are two domestic sources for that ethanol in such quantities: corn or cellulose. (Sugar cane is an excellent feedstock for ethanol, but the United States grows relatively small amounts […]

Free Software as Part of the Anarchist Toolkit

…Humanity is at a turning point because we are faced with a number of grave issues all coming together simultaneously. In large measure these would be the current 6th mass extinction event as agreed by 400 of the worlds top biologists and ecologists and which we are experiencing in the biosphere as we speak. The […]

Energy debate must include all options

RTEMeathChronicle

The Energy Challenge

If you think the United States has exhausted its own reserves of fossil fuels, think again. The Energy Information Administration, a sub-agency of the Department of Energy, reports that, at this moment, the US has 29.9 billion barrels of oil. In other words, the US actually possesses more oil than oil-exporting countries such as Mexico, […]

Analysis: Turkey’s energy future

Turkey is a crucial transit country for the world’s oil and natural gas market, and a top Foreign Ministry official says its role will increase as the industry brings more sources to market and demand continues to rise. “Our main purpose is to contribute to the global energy security of supply,” Vural Altay, deputy director […]

Australia: Energy profile

Australia is rich in natural resources with significant petroleum, natural gas and coal reserves. AustraliaEnergyPublisher

May oil output slips at Mexico’s Cantarell field

Crude oil output at Mexico’s huge but aging Cantarell offshore field declined in May, according to data published on the energy ministry’s Web site on Tuesday. Cantarell, closely watched by the oil industry after sharp dips in output, produced an average of 1.579 million barrels per day versus 1.592 million bpd in April. The figure […]

IEA chief economist: High oil prices here to stay

Oil prices are unlikely to fall far from today’s near record levels of around $70 and any move in the longer term is more likely to be upwards, the International Energy Agency’s chief economist said on WednesdayReuters

Countries need to enhance oil, natural gas capacity: OPEC president

OPEC President Muhammad bin Dhain al-Hamili said on Tuesday that various countries needed to enhance oil and natural gas capacity, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported. Al-Hamili, also energy minister of the United Arab Emirates, made his remarks at the 10th Annual International Energy Conference entitled “East Meets West: New Frontiers of Energy Security.” There […]

Bottoming out. Pump prices may have hit lowest point

After sliding for six weeks, gasoline prices may be about to hit bottom. Prices nationwide and in California are still dropping, but not as fast as a few weeks ago. California’s average for a gallon of regular hit $3.19 Tuesday, down less than a penny since Sunday. The national average fell to $2.98, according to […]

Energy bill may gouge consumers

Despite good intentions, Congress is about to make a huge error in consumer protection and energy security if a House-Senate conference committee ends up approving energy legislation that increases taxes on oil companies and makes gas-price gouging a criminal offense. Price controls and taxing our way to energy security backfired in the 1970s, draining billions […]

US lawmakers warned on anti-OPEC bill

OPEC president Mohammed Al Hamli warned US lawmakers on Wednesday they were taking a “really dangerous step” in seeking legislation to sue the oil group. The US Senate last week approved a plan that would enable the federal government to take legal action against OPEC for price manipulation, but the White House has threatened to […]

Power cuts hit Cyprus in summer scorcher

Power cuts hit Cyprus in the midst of a scorching heatwave on Wednesday as electricity workers called a strike over authorities’ plans to introduce LNG to the market in the next three years. Transmission operators were forced to cut supplies in some areas of the island to farm out 800 megawatts initially available on the […]

Building a Bug to Harvest Oil

Microbes dwelling in oil fields and coal beds could inspire new methods of extracting fossil fuels from the depths of the earth. That’s the hope of Ari Patrinos, a genomics pioneer who helped run the Human Genome Project and is now the president of Synthetic Genomics, a Maryland-based biotech startup founded by J. Craig Venter. […]

Still Apart Over Gas Row, China and Japan Agree to Compile Plan by Fall

Japan and China remained apart Tuesday over main points of contention in the dispute over gas exploration rights in the East China Sea, but they agreed to continue to expedite efforts to compile a plan to jointly develop the disputed gas fields by the fall, a Japanese negotiator said. “We had intense discussions on both […]

Korea: Biodiesel to Become Cheaper Than Light Oil in 4 Years

The price of biodiesel, an alternative energy source to light oil, will become lower than light oil as early as 2011, securing its economic feasibility, according to a recent report by the Korea Energy Economics Institute (KEEI). According to the report, released on June 26 and titled Prospects on the Economic Feasibility of Biodiesel and […]

Climate Change Threatens North Africa Food Supply

Increasingly frequent droughts in North Africa will force governments to import more food, placing their economies under severe strain unless global warming is checked, a senior UN climate expert said. A dry spell in Morocco has slashed the country’s 2007 grain crop to an estimated 2.0 million tonnes from 9.3 million last year and the […]

Why experts on Mideast are always wrong

The operational mistake that experts keep making is the failure to recognize that backward societies must be left alone, as the French now wisely leave Corsica to its own devices, as the Italians quietly learned to do in Sicily, once they recognized that maxi-trials merely handed over control to a newer and smarter Mafia of […]

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