Earth

But how can we ease population without taking draconian steps? By developing in ways that we should be anyway, experts say. Are there too many people on Earth? That question is rarely raised today, in part because it conjures up the possibility of governments intruding into the most private and profound decision a couple can […]

Buzz grows for modernizing energy grid

Alternative energy is taking it on the chin this recession, with solar and wind developers canceling projects and laying off workers. But a far more obscure slice of the energy sector is hotter than ever: the electricity grid. How hot? President Obama has made modernizing the nation’s vast power network a key piece of his […]

Air Force drops plan to make fuel from coal in Montana

WASHINGTON The B1, B52 and C-17 already have been certified to run on the coal-mix blend, and the F-15, F-22, C-5 and KC-135 all have also used the blend, Strasburg said. The Air Force is looking for alternatives to oil to make sure that it can continue to operate its aircraft when supplies are tight. […]

When Technology Fails: How to Survive the Long Emergency

Finally, a book for the millions of people who realize that making the shift to sustainability is a matter of economic and ecological survival. Taylor Haynes: A lot of people are now really concerned — or even hopeless — about the state of the world and what our future holds. Peak oil and climate change, […]

Byron King: Why Oil is Too Cheap

…The Hubbert geology-based model of scarcity morphed in the past couple of years. The more recent concern has become aboveground issues. There are things like politics (Venezuela, for example); war (Iraq); insurrection (Nigeria); access to sites (Russia); other macro-investment trends (the rise of national oil companies — NOCs) and broad issues, like limits to industrial […]

Oil price slump a challenge to Obama

Alternative energy looking less viable A slide in oil prices may be good for consumers battered by the U. S. economic slowdown, but it could pose a challenge for President Barack Obama’s ambitious plan to revolutionize America’s energy use. Obama’s plan — outlined during the campaign last year when oil prices hit a record $147 […]

Iter: Flagship fusion reactor could cost twice as much as budgeted

The international project, which aims to produce cheap green power by recreating the conditions inside the sun, already absorbs half Britain’s energy research budget An experimental fusion reactor that will recreate the conditions at the heart of the sun to create cheap green power could cost twice as much as governments had planned for, the […]

Foundation Coal Idling 3 WVa mines

Mine operator Foundation Coal Holdings said Friday it is idling three underground mines in southern West Virginia in the latest sign that the recession is catching up with the industry. Work at the mines and an associated preparation plant is ceasing immediately, Linthicum Heights, Md.-based Foundation said. The Laurel Creek complex produces about 1 million […]

What’s in your package?

A $4.6 billion coal gift in stimulus package, record profits for FutureGen members While Peabody Coal, one of the prime sponsors of the FutureGen boondoggle in Illinois, announced an eightfold increase in profits in their fourth quarter reports for 2008, the Senate Appropriations Committee just approved legislation for an additional $4.6 billion in handouts to […]

Australia: 31 dead in heatwave

AT least 31 people have perished in South Australia’s 40 degree-plus heatwave, while firefighters are battling huge blazes threatening homes, power installations and a coalmine in Victoria. South Australian Premier Mike Rann says there will be an inquiry into how the national power regulator has handled the state’s heatwave, the political heat turned up as […]

Netanyahu says Iran will not get hands on nukes

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s leading candidate for prime minister, said Saturday that Iran “will not be armed with a nuclear weapon.” In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Netanyahu said if elected prime minister his first mission will be to thwart the Iranian nuclear threat. Netanyahu, the current opposition leader and head of the hardline […]

We’re Working Longer Than Ever to Pay for Fossil Fuels

…Americans are falling behind — most of us anyway. We’re working longer than ever before to maintain a standard of living that once we took for granted. With respect to gas prices, average Americans are much worse off than they were in 1970. The working poor, in particular, are getting absolutely crushed. Their economic standing […]

Clean Energy Spending Needs To More Than Triple: Report

Clean energy investment needs to more than triple to $515 billion a year to stop planet-warming emissions reaching levels deemed unsustainable by scientists, the World Economic Forum said in a report on Thursday. The hefty investments required in renewable energy sectors such as solar and wind energy need to be made between now and 2030, […]

New nuclear reactor’s waste is seven times more hazardous

Greenpeace has uncovered evidence that nuclear waste from the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), the flagship of the nuclear industry, will be up to seven times more hazardous than waste produced by existing nuclear reactors, increasing costs and the danger to health and the environment. The revelation comes soon after President Sarkozy’s decision to build a […]

Obama urged not to backburner climate change

Don’t put off action on global warming just because times are lean — that’s the message Al Gore, world environmental leaders and U.S. executives sent Friday to President Barack Obama. Worries are mounting that economic troubles are sapping momentum, in the U.S. Congress and in other world capitals, for costly investment in clean energy and […]

Medvedev in hurry for new gas pipelines: Bulgarian TV

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for the speedy completion of two new gas pipelines that bypass Ukraine in an interview with Bulgarian national television Friday. “The new energy routes such as the South Stream and the Nord Stream pipelines have to be speeded up,” Medvedev said during an interview from his Meiendorf Castle official residence.“If […]

Crude palm oil import into India to get boost

India’s decision not to impose import duty on crude palm oil (CPO) while maintaining a 20 per cent duty on soybean oil is expected to boost CPO exports to the continent, at least in the first quarter of this year, analysts said in Kuala Lumpur. Despite mounting pressure by domestic oil producers’ associations to re-impose […]

Ukraine on the Brink

The gas supply crisis between Russia and the EU has been resolved; the larger crisis in Ukraine has just begun. In what has become a regular ritual, gas deliveries to Europe via Ukraine were halted for two weeks in January as the Russian and Ukraine argued over debt, shipment fees, and the price of gas […]

Oil production peaked in July 2008

There are numerous indications that world oil production peaked in July 2008. So says Professor of Physics Kjell Aleklett. According to him, the theory that oil production is on a downward path is gaining more and more supporters. Uppsala Physics Professor Kjell Aleklett has long been convinced that the world According to Aleklett there are […]

Economist: Irish Graduates Should Emigrate to Australia or Canada

Irish economist Eddie Hobbs told a group of students studying in Trinity that if his daughter was leaving college soon he would tell her to emigrate. For students in Ireland who are leaving college soon he advised them to leave the country as the economy is in a very serious condition and there are very […]

Rising Acidity Is Threatening Food Web of Oceans, Science Panel Says

The oceans have long buffered the effects of climate change by absorbing a substantial portion of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. But this benefit has a catch: as the gas dissolves, it makes seawater more acidic. Now an international panel of marine scientists says this acidity is accelerating so fast it threatens the survival of […]

Wind Power Experiencing Exponential Growth Globally

A new study from Energy Watch Group “Wind Power in Context The author of the report, Dr. Rudolf Rechsteiner, explored the drivers behind the growth in wind power identifying sixteen key attributes that will continue to drive growth. Renewable Energy World

Wind energy groups seeking economic stimulus aid

WASHINGTON (AP) Wind power posted gains last year, with electricity generated by wind turbines increasing by 50 percent and 13,000 additional jobs in wind turbine and component manufacturing, the American Wind Energy Association reported this past week. President Barack Obama has called for a doubling of renewable energy production in three years, a potential boon […]

Japan airline in world first ‘camelina’ biofuel test flight

TOKYO (AFP) One engine on the Boeing 747-300 aircraft, which took off from Tokyo’s Haneda airport, was powered by biofuel mixed with conventional kerosene jet oil, the company said. “No modifications to the aircraft or engine were required for biofuel,” JAL said in a statement. Associated Press

Iowa’s green energy policy struggle

The presence of prairie winds and rich soil makes Iowa literally fertile ground for developing alternative energy sources from wind turbines and biofuels. But the landscape is also a reminder that achieving energy independence is a formidable challenge and making an agricultural economy green is not easy. Farm workers cannot take subways to work, farmers […]

Activists, oil firm lose bid for drilling off Calif

Odd alliance had a deal, but state commission rules otherwise SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – A state panel rejected a proposal Thursday that could have led to the first new oil drilling project off the California coast in 40 years. The State Lands Commission voted against Plains Exploration & Production Co.’s request to expand drilling off […]

Ex-Microsoft Scientist Crafts Nuclear Reactor Startup

TeraPower is gearing up to enter the new nuclear market with a reactor that runs on natural or depleted uranium. Intellectual Ventures, the high-level think tank created by ex-Microsoft chief scientist Nathan Myhrvold, is going nuclear. The firm is getting prepared to spin out a company called TeraPower that will develop nuclear reactors that run […]

Waste could be crucial in search for cleaner fuels

LONDON (Reuters) – What we throw away could soon be used to power our cars, if projects to produce ethanol from commercial waste are ramped up. Some companies are exploring the environmental and financial benefits of putting waste to good use and are developing technology to produce bioethanol. Industrial and household waste is vastly under-utilised […]

Atlantic crude spreads may change for good

LONDON (Reuters) – North Sea Brent crude oil may never again trade at a long-term deep discount below U.S. light crude futures, even after the recession has passed and U.S. oil inventories have been drained to more normal levels. Environmental and financial pressures are leading to a long-lasting decline in demand for gasoline, particularly in […]

Venezuela oil output may slide on cash woes

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela faces a growing risk of falling crude production in the coming months as oil service companies show signs they may halt key activities over a huge buildup in unpaid bills sparked by tumbling crude prices. A major oil sector slowdown would devastate the OPEC nation’s economy and force cuts in billions […]

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