The Oil Drum

Lester R. Brown: Plan B Budget for Restoring the Earth

The health of an economy cannot be separated from that of its natural support systems. More than half the world’s people depend directly on croplands, rangelands, forests, and fisheries for their livelihoods. Many more depend on forest product industries, leather goods industries, cotton and woolen textile industries, and food processing for their jobs.

Passing the buck on fuel economy

But rather than change their behavior or make any sacrifices to actually accomplish this, Americans would rather shift the responsibility onto somebody else. In this case, it's the auto companies - and it's a mistake.

Stop shopping ... or the planet will go pop

According to Porritt, the most senior adviser to the government on sustainability, we have become a generation of shopaholics. We are bombarded by advertising from every medium which persuades us that the more we consume, the better our lives will be. Shopping is equated with fun, fulfilment and self-identity. It is also, Porritt warns, killing the planet. He argues, in an interview with The Observer, that merely switching to 'ethical' shopping is not enough. We must shop less.

Gas crunch likely as Mideast races to meet local needs

Regional demand growth of up to 10 per cent per year is eating into export potential. Widening supply deficits are forcing governments to emphasise meeting domestic needs.

Leaders to discuss CentAm integration

President Felipe Calderón will meet with presidents of Central America and Colombia Monday to discuss and evaluate a plan that aims to integrate the region´s economy through infrastructure and energy projects.

EU Overlooks Pitfalls Of Central Asian Strategy

In the future, the EU will have to contribute substantially to the settlement of border conflicts in the region, particularly between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, if it wishes to have long-term partners and law-governed states in Central Asia. Shots along the Kazakh-Uzbek border are almost daily occurrences.

What Does Iraq's New Oil Law Say About an Invasion?

Iraq's new oil-hydrocarbon law, and the push to see it quickly passed, has begun to raise serious questions among observers and critics.

Saudi LPG Prices Up After Iran Standoff Boosts Crude Prices

Saudi Aramco and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) raised their common April contract prices for liquid petroleum gas (LPG) for propane by 24 dollars a ton to 530 dollars a ton and for butane by 39 dollars a ton to 545 dollars a ton, the Middle East Economic Survey reported Monday.

The Cyprus-based weekly publication said that the increase was due to the recent sharp rises in crude oil prices to above 60 dollars a barrel for benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) because of increasing tension between Tehran and London over the capture of 15 British naval personnel, and the move to tougher sanctions against Iran over the nuclear issue.

Whatever happened to oil sands takeovers?

There have been lots of rumours but no big energy deals during the past year.

The jolly green bubble

There's a new bubble in Silicon Valley, and I'm in the office of John Doerr, watching it expand. Doerr, of course, is the legendary venture capitalist and inflator-in-chief of the last glorious investment craze. (Remember "The Internet is the greatest legal creation of wealth in history"? That was him.) So what's his take on green technology? "This could be the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century."

Vermont: Gas-guzzler fee on inefficient cars facing hurdles at Statehouse

A legislative proposal to impose a "gas guzzler" fee on inefficient cars is moving forward in the House, but may run into roadblocks if and when it arrives for consideration in the Senate.

Colorado: Jump-starting jobs? Think local, retrain

While Colorado supports alternative energy of all kinds - from fuel cells to wind turbines, solar panels to fuel-making algae - it must also find a way to fund public education and train the kinds of workers required to develop it.

Ethanol to debut in Phoenix area

Initially the output of the plant will be used mostly in 10 percent blends to increase the oxygen content of gasoline and make that fuel cleaner burning. But some of the output also will go toward production of E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline that is coming into its own as a separate fuel.

Will green play in Peoria?

This heartland city is betting its future on ethanol, wind and other environmental industries.

The New Silk Road

When Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the oil giant Saudi Aramco last year, he didn't need a translator. Plenty of Chinese-speaking Saudis were on hand. A few years earlier, Saudi Aramco had sent dozens of employees to study in Beijing. After all, China, not the United States, represents the future growth for Saudi oil exports.

Thailand: Persian Gulf tensions shift focus to NGV

The Energy Ministry will encourage more use of natural gas for vehicles (NGV) to ease the impact of any oil shortage that could result from renewed tensions in the Persian Gulf.

Salvadorian president hails controversial U.S.-Brazil biofuel plan

El Salvadorian President Elias Antonio Saca on Sunday hailed the U.S.-Brazil plan to set up an ethanol plant in El Salvador, despite criticism of the scheme in the region.

European Ethanol Production Climbs 71% in 2006

European ethanol production rose 71% in 2006 to around 1.56 billion liters (412 million gallons US), according to data published by eBio, the European Bioethanol Fuel Association.

A Plastic Wrapper Today Could Be Fuel Tomorrow

Scientists worldwide are struggling to make motor fuel from waste, but Richard Gross has taken an unusual approach: making a “fuel-latent plastic,” designed for conversion. It can be used like ordinary plastic, for packaging or other purposes, but when it is waste, can easily be turned into a substitute diesel fuel.

The power of trash

An energy-hungry nation is turning to an alternative source of power: the methane gas building up under dumps across the country.

Eco-anxiety: Something else to worry about

Concerns generated by her own research led Colborn, 80, to make lifestyle changes. The environmental health analyst and co-author of the 1996 book Our Stolen Future avoids Tupperware and Saran Wrap; leftovers go in mason jars and empty peanut butter containers. In 1987, fearing a coming energy crisis, she bought a 900-square-foot cottage, no air-conditioning, within walking distance of the small town of Paonia, Colo.

While scientists like Colborn are making environmentally sound lifestyle choices based on their own study, a growing number of people have literally worried themselves sick over a range of doomsday scenarios.

Their worry has a name: eco-anxiety.

A Sneak Peek at Blackstone's Kailix Advisors Hedge Fund

"It's like they got off the phone with T. Boone Pickens and said, 'Help us out here. We're starting up a hedge fund. What should we buy?,'" said StockPickr Chief Executive Officer James Altucher, who has written about the fund.

He speculated that the diversity of energy bets is really Blackstone's way of wagering on so-called peak oil theory, which holds that the globe's oil supplies are slowly diminishing.

Price of gas up 18 cents in the past two weeks

The average cost of self-serve regular gasoline rose about 18 cents per gallon nationwide over the past two weeks, according to a survey released Sunday.

That translated to an average price of $2.78 a gallon, according to the latest Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country.

Russia: Oil and Gas Reserves Shrinking

The country's oil reserves shrank by 7.3 billion barrels from 1994 to 2005 as the country failed to replace dwindling West Siberian reserves with new discoveries in East Siberia and other regions, an official said Friday.

Royal Dutch Shell may lose management control of Sakhalin Energy

Royal Dutch Shell PLC could lose management control of Sakhalin Energy, the Russian company which runs the giant Sakhalin project in eastern Siberia, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

The newspaper did not name its source, but said under an agreement signed last year a Gazprom appointee could end up running the project.

Gazprom Seeking $1 Trillion Value, Double Exxon's

OAO Gazprom, Russia's natural gas export monopoly, aims to quadruple its market value to $1 trillion within a decade and become the world's biggest company.

Energy Policy: A Norwegian Perspective

Greater transparency and data accuracy is also required with regard to oil reserves. In several, major oil-producing countries there are uncertainties about the true size of oil reserves. For long term planning, relevant and reliable information on oil reserves is essential. In its support to JODI, the G8 Summit also called for the development of a global standard for reporting oil and energy reserves.

Possibility of natural gas cartel isn’t likely

Unlike oil, which is traded on an exchange that constantly updates the market price based on supply and demand, most gas is sold under tight contracts that allow buyers to lock in prices for up to 25 years.

Officials deny plans to form gas cartel

"I hate the name cartel. We are not a cartel," al-Attiyah told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting's opening ceremony. "We're just here to consider our interests."

Fear and Loathing in Energy Coverage

It’s bad enough that this country is forced to endure Criminal Narrators Boosting Crude and their 24-hour sponsored pump-fest. Bad enough that they choose to give a forum to oil extortionists and peak-oil fanatics while delighting in this plague of high prices that has cost the American people $240Bn a year in windfall profits.

Russian general says U.S. continues preparations for military action against Iran

The release of the 15 British sailors and marines captured by Iran has robbed the U.S. of a pretext to attack Iran, but the U.S. has not given up plans to attack Iran militarily, said Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, president of the Academy for Geopolitical Problems, a Russian think tank.

"Preparations to strike Iran's strategic facilities continue. Three major groups of U.S. forces are still in the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. Altogether, they have up to 450 cruise missiles on alert," the general told Interfax-AVN.

Was Rationality Banned From American Politics?

Yet the debate in Washington (in Tallahassee, in Sacramento, in Richmond) goes on as if there’s no connection between what they do there and the future. It goes on as if there’s some kind of magic pill that some great worldwide dictator can force down somebody else’s throats to solve Peak Oil and Global Warming at the last minute.

Hu Returns Home From Russia Empty-Handed on Energy

The Year of China in Russia got off to a top-level handshaking start in Moscow this week, ensuring that whatever else might go amiss, visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao would have something to smile about, for the TV stations back home at least.

But after three days of political pledges and promises with President Vladimir Putin and other Russian leaders, the Chinese president has returned home without any progress on the one issue that hexes Beijing now -- energy security.

Fidel Castro: Where Have All the Bees Gone?

No one at Camp David answered the fundamental question. Where are the more than 500 million tons of corn and other cereals which the United States, Europe and wealthy nations require to produce the gallons of ethanol that big companies in the United States and other countries demand in exchange for their voluminous investments going to be produced and who is going to supply them? Where are the soy, sunflower and rape seeds, whose essential oils these same, wealthy nations are to turn into fuel, going to be produced and who will produce them?

Commodity Markets Analysis, Meat, Gold, Corn and Peak Oil

At some point, high natural gas prices looming in the background will make the cost of fertilizer too expensive which will cause lower applications which will result in lower crop yields. This will in turn drive the price of grains and meat even higher, which is one reason many should consider buying some arable land with access to an available water source. Note that the price increases from peak natural gas have not even been factored into the higher prices of meat or grains. Food will become so expensive that the ethanol boom will absolutely collapse due to public demand for “Food instead of Fuel”.

Global warming: future looks bleak for Cape of Good Hope

The lush vineyards, rare plant species and breathtaking scenery that have turned the Cape peninsula into a tourist magnet are in danger of withering away within decades if the doomsday predictions of a growing number of scientists come true.

Vermont bid to curb emissions heads to court

A week after the U.S. Supreme Court said vehicle carbon dioxide emissions can be regulated like other pollutants, an effort by several states to do that is about to get its first court test.

Nuclear power enters global warming debate

Legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions creates new alliances and opens old wounds on Capitol Hill.

The 90 Percent Solution - Newsweek interviews George Monbiot

When it comes to the need to reduce carbon emissions, how far is far enough?

John Kerry: Conservation’s convenient truth

Enough talk already. We have spent the past decade debating a scientific consensus on global warming instead of moving to fix it.

In these lost years, we could have created millions of jobs, opened up vast new markets, improved the health of our citizens, slowed global warming, saved the taxpayers’ money, earned the respect of the world and strengthened our long-term security. Instead, America’s climate change strategy has been rhetorical, not real.