Richard Heinberg on 100 days of the BP gusher

As the 100 day anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf rolled around this week, WMNF’s Kelly Benjamin spoke with Richard Heinberg, senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute and former advisor to the National Petroleum Council on Peak Oil and the ramifications of the BP tragedy. Benjamin asked Heinberg what should […]

EU ministers impose more sanctions on Iran

European Union foreign ministers adopted extra sanctions on Iran, in particular targeting investment in the country’s oil and gas industries, as well as curtailing its refining and natural gas capabilities. “The message to the Iranian government could not be clearer: the longer it refuses to talk…about its nuclear program, the greater the pressure and isolation […]

BP’s ‘Kill’ Start May Be Delayed Due to Storm Debris

BP’s “static kill” procedure may be delayed by a day because the company first has to remove debris at the bottom of the relief well drilled to permanently plug the source of the largest oil spill in the U.S. history. The so-called static kill procedure, aimed at more fully sealing the damaged Gulf of Mexico […]

European Union and six countries reach deal for fusion reactor

The European Union (EU) along with China, India, Japan, the U.S., South Korea, and Russia reached a deal on Wednesday on the financing and timetable for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), BBC reported. The deal was reached after massive cost overruns and project delays. The cost of the project was initially estimated at $6.5 […]

Fossil Fuel Subsidies Are 12 Times Support for Renewables

Global subsidies for fossil fuels dwarf support given to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power and biofuels, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said. Governments last year gave $43 billion to $46 billion of support to renewable energy through tax credits, guaranteed electricity prices known as feed-in tariffs and alternative energy credits, the London-based […]

Russian oil output yet to peak, say drillers

Russia’s top oil firm Rosneft said new drilling technologies have spurred output growth despite high levels of reserve depletion. “New wells in Samaraneftegaz and Udmurtneft have been more productive than we originally planned. We are drilling faster and the flow rates have increased,” Peter O’Brien, Rosneft’s vice president for finance, told Reuters. BP’s venture, TNK-BP, […]

Europe’s Iran sanctions may backfire

In light of Iran’s serious need for foreign capital in its energy sector, the crippling effect of Western sanctions on its oil and gas is bound to have ripple effects in accentuating Europe’s current energy insecurity, reflected in the 27-member EU’s wariness of undue dependence on Russia and its frantic search to diversify sources of […]

News Cycle Turns in BP’s Favor

The answer is boringly simple–BP capped the well, oil stopped flowing into the Gulf, beaches and fisheries reopened, the TV cameras moved on to the next sensation and the doom mongers that didn’t have the sense to pack up and leave too were left looking a little silly. Indeed, Matt Simmons retired as Chairman Emeritus of Simmons […]

A Critical Examination of Matt Simmons’ Claims on the Deepwater Spill

Matt Simmons, author of Twilight in the Desert, has long been one of the most famous and influential voices on the subject of peak oil. After the release of his book, Simmons rose to fame as Saudi Arabian oil production declined and global oil prices skyrocketed. However, Simmons has lately been making hyperbolic claims related to […]

Heinberg: Beyond the Limits to Growth

How do population, water, energy, food, and climate issues impact one another? What can we do to address one problem without making the others worse? The Post Carbon Reader features essays by some of the world’s most provocative thinkers on the key issues shaping our new century, from renewable energy and urban agriculture to social […]

World’s population up

As the world’s population grows, Russia’s population will be declining, the experts forecast. The world’s population in 2009 made 6.8 billion, and by 2025 it will make up to 8.1 billion, and a quarter of a century later – up to 9.4 billion. Africa’s population will be growing most quickly. By 2050, it will double […]

NYT: GOM’s Salty Fields Could Delay Peak Oil

Not so long ago — at least, in geological time — many in the oil game thought the Gulf of Mexico was tapped out. Financiers called it “the Dead Sea.” Nearly a century of production had run its course. Well after deeper well turned up dry, many drilling into thick layers of salt. And where […]

LA Times: Senate’s energy bill: What a disappointment

President Obama’s push for cleaner energy ran out of gas long ago. But that doesn’t excuse him or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for surrendering so easily, or so completely. Editorial July 28, 2010 After Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) unveiled an energy bill Tuesday that was so watered down from earlier versions that […]

Bloomberg: Pickens, Home Depot Beat Wind-Turbine Makers in Energy Measure

T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire energy hedge-fund manager, and Home Depot Inc., the largest U.S. home-improvement retailer, are winners in energy legislation that fails to help solar-panel and wind-turbine makers. The measure proposed yesterday by Senate Democrats would give Pickens victory in his lobbying campaign for more use of natural gas, providing $3.8 billion in […]

Reuters: U.S. wind power installations drop in first half of 2010

* New wind capacity down 71 pct in first half * Industry presses for federal renewable energy standard July 27 (Reuters) – The amount of new wind power installed in the United States fell by 71 percent in the first half of 2010 from a year ago as government support for the renewable energy source […]

Japanese Tanker Damaged In Straits Of Hormuz; Outside Attack Considered

Some unpleasant possibilities to consider in the aftermath of what appears to have been an attack on a Japanese VLCC. And, of course, if this is another Cheonan in the making, why pick a Japanese false flag scenario? With two US aircraft carriers in the vicinity, one would imagine we should have a pretty good […]

Oil – Who’s Using it all up?

The world’s three largest oil consumers are the US, Europe, and China and India. Europeans are smart, and way ahead of North Americans in their understanding of oil and energy, because it has always been more expensive there than here. Another reason is that, except for a brief period when North Sea oil was plentiful, […]

Africa: Free Trade in Natural Resources Bad for Development

The report, released by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Jul 23, showed that fish, forestry, fuels and mining products represented 24 percent of world trade in 2008. Fuels account for three-quarters of this trade and have experienced a rapid growth since 2000. Intra-regional trade among African states remains at exceedingly low levels – an […]

Global Oil Supply Now Contracting?

For a number of months now, I’ve been tracking the fairly rapid recovery in global oil production, after the end of the great recession. I even pointed out that there was enough spare capacity in OPEC that it could potentially exceed the previous peak of monthly oil production back in July 2008. I was careful […]

The Emergence of Localism

As long as activist energy is directed towards influencing governments, only small things will be asked for. In order for initiatives to have any hope of success, they must be framed within the context of overall government policy, and they must not be making ‘unrealistic demands’. Thus stifled in their options, the very imagination of […]

Opinion: Steady-State Economy?

Our current social order is no longer sustainable. Our economic system is based on a tragically flawed set of premises, namely that we can extract all we want from the environment, pump all the waste we want into it, and make most of our wealth, as a nation, by speculating financially. An oversimplification? Yes. But […]

CSMonitor: Gulf oil spill: Where has the oil gone?

Since BP capped its ruptured well, the Gulf oil spill has shrunk dramatically. The Gulf itself is breaking down the oil at top speed, but past spills indicate the effects could linger for decades. By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer / July 27, 2010 Since BP capped the renegade Macondo well at the center of the […]

Another Oil Leak Is Spotted in the Gulf

A wellhead in southeastern Louisiana was spewing oil up to 20 feet into the air on Tuesday morning, local officials said, at least the third unrelated oil leak in the area since the Deepwater Horizon spill began 99 days ago. The well, owned by the state, is in Barataria Bay, about 65 miles south of […]

Ahmadinejad says expects U.S. to attack MidEast soon

Iran expects the United States to launch a military strike on “at least two countries” in the Middle East in the next three months, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told state-run Press TV. In an interview recorded on Monday, Ahmadinejad did not specify whether he thought Iran itself would be attacked nor did he say what […]

Video: Peak Oil and The End of Cheap Energy

Peak oil is the maximum oil extracted on the planet. It marks half all the possible recoverable oil being recovered. John Richter presents to the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association.

‘Stealth’ fusion experiment gets $50 million

Little more information was available Monday about the experiments at the company, Tri-Alpha Energy, or the funding itself. In the past, Socaltech reported, Tri-Alpha has received funding from Goldman Sachs, Venrock, Vulcan Capital and New Enterprise Associates. Tri-Alpha’s experiments, based on the work of UC Irvine plasma physics professor Norman Rostoker, have been rumored for […]

Rigzone: Energy Industry Monitors Tax Cut Expiry’s Implication for O&G

While some Democratic senators reportedly have said they wanted to keep all Bush-era tax cuts in place for all earners for the time being, Treasury Secretary William Geithner said President Obama would let Bush-era tax cuts for top earners expire in January to help reduce the U.S. budget deficit. The news comes after some Senate […]

Peak Generation: It’s a race to failure between rogue states and global oil output

Dwindling global oil supplies are leaving the world ever more reliant on a group of unstable countries – many of which are themselves facing major domestic problems right now. Believe it or not, many of the world’s major oil exporters cannot maintain their own domestic energy requirements. Venezuelan consumers endure electricity blackouts of “seven or […]

WSJ: Iraq Seeks 150,000 Barrel A Day Rise In Oil Output By Year End

By Hassan Hafidh Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES BAGHDAD (Dow Jones)–Iraq is hoping to gain at least 150,000 barrels a day of new crude oil production at the end of this year or beginning of next year as mega-deals awarded from its first post-war licensing auction start to deliver, Iraqi and company officials say. Western oil […]

USA Today: Price holds key to ending nation’s addiction to oil

Two years ago this month, crude oil prices spiked to more than $145 a barrel, driving the price of regular gasoline to more than $4 a gallon and painfully reminding the nation once again how vulnerable it is to the whims of the international oil market. It’s reasonable to ask what policymakers have done in […]

Next Page »

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