An energy game-changer?

Louisiana shale could change fate of U.S. energy supply GRAND CANE, La. The gas found in the area’s Haynesville shale and in other shale formations throughout the country has changed the nation’s energy outlook in just a few short years. Some see abundant North American natural gas as the gateway to reduced dependence on foreign […]

Rubin: Oil price to affect trade

Expect to see fewer ships coming into Halifax from across the Atlantic Ocean as the price of fuel skyrockets, says Jeff Rubin, a former chief economist at CIBC World Markets. “Between the first and second OPEC oil shock, which was a period of great increase in oil prices, there was massive trade diversion away from […]

Oil to touch $100 per barrel in the longer term, say analysts

Not only are the current oil prices, hovering between $65 and $80 per barrel, sustainable in the short-term, going by the recent developments they could touch $100 in the longer term, according to analysts. “Long-term prospects look a lot different, with all market fundamentals pointing towards oil at $100 and more,” Philipp L Lotter, Senior […]

No easy answers when electricity is cut off

The electricity had been cut off and it was dark in the house, so her young daughter didn’t realize that the lid was down on the toilet seat around 3 a.m. last Friday. “She’s in there cleaning up urine and she didn’t even wake me up, because she knew I had to work,” said the […]

The Nuclear Wait

With climate talks starting in Copenhagen next month, many countries are eager to report advancements in nuclear power. The United States now has new applications for 26 nuclear power reactors Companies that design reactors, like General Electric and Westinghouse, and construction firms that build them, have experienced swift growth as countries in Europe and Asia […]

Willing to give up blue skies for climate fix?

Geoengineering gets closer look as a ‘Plan B’ in case emissions don’t fall We can probably engineer Earth’s climate to cool the planet, scientists say, but are we willing to live with the downsides? Those could include creating more droughts, more ozone holes and, oh yeah, a thin cloud layer that obscures blue skies and […]

'Almost out' of old Arctic sea ice, expert warns

‘I’ve never seen anything like this,’ he tells Canadian lawmakers OTTAWA – The multiyear sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean has effectively vanished, an Arctic expert says, a startling development that will make it easier to open up polar shipping routes. Vast sheets of impenetrable multiyear ice, which can reach up to 260 feet thick, […]

Chevron profit hit by oil, refinery weakness

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Chevron Corp (CVX.N) posted a 51 percent drop in quarterly profit on Friday, becoming the latest oil major to be hit by the steep decline in oil and natural gas prices and anemic margins at refineries. Although the profit was better than expected, shares of the second-largest U.S. oil company […]

After takeovers, Venezuela oil area languishes

CIUDAD OJEDA, VENEZUELA (Reuters) – Five months after Venezuela nationalized dozens of oil service contractors in Zulia state, the once-bustling industrial dock on Lake Maracaibo is nearly abandoned, and the 16 red flags raised to celebrate the takeovers are already tattered and faded. A few small groups of workers remain, hoping to get the jobs […]

Lessons from oil industry may help address groundwater crisis

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Although declining streamflows and half-full reservoirs have gotten most of the attention in water conflicts around the United States, some of the worst battles of the next century may be over groundwater, experts say A new analysis by researchers at Oregon State University outlines the scope of this problem, but also points […]

Edward Burtynsky: Economies of Scale

…A believer in the concept of What will the world look like after oil is used up? Burtynsky found the answer in Azerbijan were he photographed former oil fields and offshore rigs abandoned by the Soviets after the deposits were sucked dry. He photographed a repository for decommissioned military aircraft, which sit in vast rows […]

French Ideal of Bicycle-Sharing Meets Reality

PARIS But this latest French utopia has met a prosaic reality: Many of the specially designed bikes, which cost $3,500 each, are showing up on black markets in Eastern Europe and northern Africa. Many others are being spirited away for urban joy rides, then ditched by roadsides, their wheels bent and tires stripped. With 80 […]

Farmers may want to rethink selling corn residue

LINCOLN, Neb. Some companies will pay up to $20 a ton for long-term contracts. At an average of 3 tons per acre, a mere 100-acre field could yield a gross profit of $6,000. But University of Nebraska-Lincoln farm experts say that residue is even more valuable to the farmer by adding nutrients and lending structure […]

The holdout: Alone in an abandoned car plant

DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) — Most people assume the Packard Plant in Detroit is vacant. It’s an industrial ruin where the last car was manufactured 53 years ago. Almost all the windows are blown out. Collapsed walls litter the overgrown sidewalks with broken bricks, mixed with charred metal and shattered glass. But one tenant remains headquartered among […]

Is this the true face of rural Ireland?

…Farmers At the Tipperary Institute, minds are being applied. The optimistic view is that rural Ireland will come full circle, simply because of national need. In the rush to specialise, farmers have lost the key skills of the kitchen garden, the means of producing food.

Kuwait oil production seen rising 30% by 2018

Oil production in Kuwait is predicted to grow by nearly 30 percent by 2018, with crude volumes reaching 3.6m barrels per day, according to a new report. Between 2008 and 2018, global research firm Business Monitor International said it was forecasting an increase in production of 29.3 percent. Oil consumption in the same period is […]

The Future of European Transport: iTREN-2030

On 21 October the final workshop was held in Brussels (Belgium) of the integrated transport and energy baseline until 2030 (iTREN-2030) modeling project. At the workshop a final scenario was presented that incorporated likely transport and energy policies, and the effects on European transport of a continued global plateau in oil production up to 2030. […]

Byron King: Rare Earths and Other Critical Metals

All the vital technologies in your life rely on an incredibly small number of specialty metals. Electronics, aerospace, military defense, automotive, clean-tech, renewable energy: none of these would exist without these That

U.S. Inflation to Appear Next in Food and Agriculture

Prices are rising all around us, yet agricultural commodities have for the most part been left behind and remain at historically depressed levels. Fundamentals for agriculture are improving on a daily basis. A worldwide shortage of farmers combined with food inventories falling to record lows is setting up the perfect storm for an explosion in […]

Huge Texas Wind Farm's Turbines Will Be Made in China

Clean tech has seen a boost as the U.S. pours government funding into renewable energy, and China looks set to reap much of the benefits. Latest example: a Chinese wind-turbine company has just become the exclusive supplier for one of the largest wind-farm developments in the U.S. The Shenyang Power Group has signed on to […]

Local Motors: A New Kind of Car Company

When John B. Rogers was a Marine deployed in Iraq in 2004, he brought a book called Winning the Oil Endgame with him to the Gulf. The book, by environmental activist Amory B. Lovins, discusses how people can end their dependence on fossil fuels. Rogers says reading the volume inspired him to create a new […]

Arctic Sediments Show That 20th Century Warming Is Unlike Natural Variation

ScienceDaily The UB researchers and their international colleagues were able to pinpoint that dramatic changes began occurring in unprecedented ways after the midpoint of the twentieth century. “The sediments from the mid-20th century were not all that different from previous warming intervals,” said Jason P. Briner, PhD, assistant professor of geology in the UB College […]

An interview with Stoneleigh – the case for deflation

…Firstly, I would say that the energy prices that currently seem stubbornly high should fall substantially as the speculative premium evaporates and demand falls on a resumption of the credit crunch. The sucker rally that has spawned all the talk of green shoots is essentially over in my opinion. The result should be a reversal […]

Exxon, Majors Battle to Lift Profits as Oil Use Sags

(Bloomberg) — Exxon Mobil Corp., PetroChina Co. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc are battling slumping fuel demand as oil majors seek to rebuild profits battered by the global fallout from the worst U.S. downturn since the Great Depression. Exxon Mobil Oil companies around the world are slashing costs, cutting jobs and holding back on some […]

Putin Warns Ukraine Over Gas Crisis

NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia (Reuters) – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko risked provoking a new gas crisis that could disrupt supplies to Europe. “It looks like we will again have problems with energy payments,” Putin said after a telephone call with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yushchenko’s main political […]

Jeff Rubin: Get ready for triple-digit oil again soon

Nothing is shrinking faster these days than global trade. For the first time in decades, world trade volume, the lifeblood of the global economy, is actually falling. And chances are that downsizing is here to stay. One reason global trade is shrinking is that most major economies have been contracting. Recession-scarred economies will of course […]

An open letter to Steve Levitt

The problem of global warming is so big that solving it will require creative thinking from many disciplines. Economists have much to contribute to this effort, particularly with regard to the question of how various means of putting a price on carbon emissions may alter human behavior. Some of the lines of thinking in your […]

The recession is dead … long live the recession!

The world Among the many consequences of passing the world oil peak: the days of cheap inexpensive food are behind us. And, too, every time the inflation-adjusted price of oil tops $80/bbl, we head into a recession. Most commentators think Saudi Arabia will continue to bail us out, but the kingdom clearly has reached peak […]

Saudis to drop WTI as price benchmark for U.S. crude

… WTI has, in fact, already slipped below its major benchmark competitor, North Sea-based Brent, several times in the past two years

Clever 'chopped' cars promise cheap electric commuting

IT COULD take a “perfect storm” to create electric cars that match gas-powered cars’ range – a mix of motor-industry investment, infrastructure change and advances in battery technology. Instead of waiting, a new project aims to build cheap vehicles good enough for short commutes. Huge effort has been expended on untested new technology, says Illah […]

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LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Is It Time To Abandon the Idea of Phasing Out Oil and Gas?
• More than 20% of global refining capacity at risk of closure
• Charles Hugh Smith Blog: Fire, Then Ice Our Deflationary Future
• Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser says energy transition strategy ‘visibly failing’
• 100 million-degree ‘artificial sun’ sets new records in hunt for energy’s ‘Holy Grail’

• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy
• US seeks to buy up to 3 million bbls of oil for Strategic Petroleum Reserve
• Desertification: the world is losing healthy land at an astonishing rate
• US oil production will keep booming in 2024, setting up a possible showdown with Saudi Arabia
• Saudi Arabia piles pressure on UAE to shift COP28 focus away from oil and gas
• US Warship, Commercial Ships Under Attack In Red Sea