The Oil Drum

The Zero-Energy Solution

Mike Strizki’s house, the house of the future, the revolutionary house that might very well change our lives forever, is an unremarkable two-story, 3,000-square-foot, white colonial-style kit home in front of which, one rainy day last November, were parked no fewer than seven trucks and cars, a pair of Jet Skis, a speedboat on a trailer, several golf carts, a small tractor, a couple of vans and an old dump truck rusting in the middle of the woods, like a major reworking of a Robert Frost poem. There was nothing odd, or futuristic, or exotically “eco” about the house — no solar panels to be seen, no giant arrays of thermopane windows passively drinking up light and heat; yet here, I’d been told, in the Sourland Mountains in New Jersey, an hour from Manhattan, was a house that had the potential — not long from now, not 20 years from now, but maybe within 5 to 10 years — to help turn millions of American homes into fully self-sustaining power plants, each one capable of producing hydrogen to fuel cars as well.

Motorists will dig deep this summer

Member states of OPEC are fast joining ranks to thwart recent moves by industry and pressure groups in North America and Europe to open the valves.

Record high gas run continues

Gasoline prices hit their record high for the seventh straight day Saturday, as gas costing less than $3 a gallon is becoming a rare find anywhere in the country.

Oil pricing - between devil and deep blue sea

Global crude oil prices are rising once again. And once again developing countries like India are going to be the worst hit. Consumers in this country may have to face hikes in the prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas in the coming months if the situation does not ease soon in world markets. Indian public sector oil companies are already gearing up to make a case for a price hike to the government, which ultimately takes these decisions.

Gore's Inconvenient Truth required classroom viewing?

First it was his world history class. Then he saw it in his economics class. And his world issues class. And his environment class. In total, 18-year-old McKenzie, a Northern Ontario high schooler, says he has had the film An Inconvenient Truth shown to him by four different teachers this year.

...McKenzie says he has educated himself enough about both sides of the climate-change controversy to know that the Al Gore movie is too one-sided to be taught as fact.

Media Ignore European Energy Politics to Advance Global Warming Alarmism

One of the issues on the table was whether Russia is going to provide more energy resources to EU nations starved for such.

Didn’t hear about this?

Well, that’s not surprising, for in the midst of the media’s ongoing attempts to create global warming hysteria while pushing the U.S. to participate in the Kyoto Protocol, our press have little interest in reporting how energy politics across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are threatening economies around the globe.

Renewable energy: The tide turns

Senior cabinet ministers are pushing for Britain to be the first nation in the world to get much of its power from the tides, as part of a massive new expansion for renewable energy. The Environment Secretary, David Miliband, Welsh Secretary Peter Hain and Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling want a giant £14bn barrage to be built across the Severn.

Variety review of The 11th Hour:

True to its doom-laden title, global-warming doc "The 11th Hour" presents the viewer with reams of depressing data, loads of hand-wringing about the woeful state of humanity and, finally, some altogether fascinating ideas about how to go about solving the climate crisis. Co-produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, this latest exercise in celebrity eco-activism lacks the personal touch that helped "An Inconvenient Truth" go green at the box office, but audiences might warm to its layered insights and polished presentation, given careful nurturing by Warner Independent and effective showcasing as an educational tool.

Pump paradox

With energy prices so high, what incentive do cash-rich oil-producing nations and multinationals have to increase supplies?

An interview with Rupert Murdoch about News Corp.'s new climate strategy

When Rupert Murdoch, the cantankerous and conservative owner of Fox News, enthusiastically joins the fight against climate change, you know we're past the tipping point on the issue. Think landslide.

Are high gasoline prices un-American? Maybe not

"The only way one can effectively address this problem today and get an immediate kick is by raising the price at the pump and keeping it there," economist Philip Verleger told New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman. An additional tax of 50 cents to $1 a gallon would give the government cash to buy back the most fuel-inefficient vehicles on our roads. "The best monument to 9/11 we could erect would be a mountain of crushed gas guzzlers," Verleger says.

Taking on High Gas Prices in California and the Oil Industry

I went to a freeway-adjacent Chevron Station in LA ($3.49 a gallon for regular) this morning to hear Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez talk very tough about the oil and refining industries: “Skyrocketing gas prices are hurting California families and jeopardizing our economy. During the electricity crisis a few years ago California adopted ... measures to keep energy companies from using these convenient shutdowns to amp up their profits and today we’re going to make sure oil companies can’t use Enron-like tactics on California consumers.”

Sri Lanka: Higher and Higher

The plight of the consumer keeps getting worse with prices of gas, electricity, fuel and other items increasing day-by-day while a chain reaction has been set off by the depreciation of the Rupee.

Asphalt prices pave way for higher costs

The high price of crude oil has pushed up more than just the cost of filling up the family automobile with gasoline at the corner convenience store.

It also has forced up the cost of laying down pavement for new roads, filling in the potholes of aging parking lots or reconditioning a home's leaky roof with a new layer of three-tab asphalt shingles.

Thomas Friedman, commencement speaker at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

The situation is amplified by the rapid advancement of China, India, and the former Soviet Union, he said. As the citizens of these countries pursue their own versions of the American dream and look to purchase cars and furnish their homes with new appliances, Friedman said the global demand for energy will skyrocket at an unprecedented rate.

Jamaica: If we should find oil, then what?

Over the last three months, the Government has been hinting at the possibility of oil in the territorial waters of Jamaica. The Prime Minister, in at least one media report, was quoted as saying she wanted all Jamaicans to pray for the discovery of the precious commodity.

Boosting Penn Valley Park’s drawing power

One of the most controversial aspects of Clay Chastain’s light-rail plan mandates the closure of all roads carrying through traffic in Penn Valley Park. That includes Broadway, carrying 23,000 cars a day.

No big deal, Chastain argues: Creating a large swath of “open, contiguous green space in the heart of the city” is more important than traffic flow. Green space, he asserted in an interview with The Star, is the “greater good.”

Freight train usage keeps rolling higher

The number of railcars transporting freight nationwide grew to 17,380,102 in 2006, up 1.2 percent over 2005, according to Tom White, a spokesman for the Association of American Railroads.

Getting in on the (under)ground floor

Earth homes are environmentally friendly and energy-conserving structures that are built with three sides covered by concrete and soil, using solar energy to heat and cool much of the home.

Energy Crisis: Biomass fuels likely to be just one step in the search for a solution

It isn't going to be easy, painless or cheap for any of us. We didn't just pretend not to hear the first warning bell when it sounded in 1973, we pretended that it was a call to an all-you-can eat buffet.

Fears over looming energy crisis in UK
The lights could go out in Britain within eight years as demand is predicted to outstrip supply.

ACROSS Britain, cities are plunged into darkness. In London, the Underground grinds to a halt, leaving panicked commuters stranded in oppressively hot carriages. In office blocks, lifts stop operating and the air-conditioning shuts down. Employees swelter in stifling conditions.

This is not the postapocalyptic vision of some film-maker, but a realistic scenario as Britain grapples with a looming energy crisis. The statistics are frightening. In only eight years, demand for energy could outstrip supply by 23% at peak times, according to a study by the consultant Logica CMG. The loss to the economy could be £108 billion each year.

The controversial British National Party is Ahead of the pack on Peak Oil crisis. They've been running a series on peak oil all week, including Eating up the oil reserves, A looming economic depression? and Building an electricity based economy.

Venezuela May Create Private Oil Drilling Company, Envoy Says

Venezuela, which this week announced plans to nationalize 18 oil rigs operated by international companies, wants to establish a Latin American oil and gas drilling corporation.

Erratic energy prices 'could hit world economy'

TOP finance officials from the world's eight wealthiest countries said yesterday that the global economy is on track, but warned that volatile energy prices could disrupt growth.

Peak Oil and the Inflation Lie

The selective use of core inflation is a cover-up that is routinely assisted by corporate media that, knowingly and unwittingly, promotes the illusion of a “growing economy with inflation under control, or non-existent”.

Consider all options to keep the lights on

We are facing a looming energy crisis that needs to be addressed immediately. Base-load generating plants can take years to construct, so we must begin constructing new facilities today. If we do not deal with this issue in a timely fashion, California-style rolling blackouts won't be far away. These are not just a nuisance; they can have crippling effect upon our economy and quality of life.

Oils well that ends

When will this foolishness stop? How long will the consumer keep getting shafted by the Arabs, oil companies, environmental "whackos" and the liberals who want to keep us in bondage and not resolve the energy crisis facing our nation? Well, I think I have a solution for solving our energy crisis.

Shell hit by ‘dirty’ Arctic oil furore

The world’s largest untapped oil reserves – in northern Canada – have become the new front line in the battle between environmentalists and the energy industry.

Peak problems: As height of oil production nears, people must conserve and change the way they live

Most of the world is not tuned into "peak oil" as a real and inevitable event. But peak oil, the moment when we can no longer, on a global basis, increase oil production may be here already or only a year or two away.

Is peak oil a big deal? Ali Samsam Bakhtiari, a respected oil analyst and past director of the National Iranian Oil Company, refers to it as "the most important event of the 21st century." His greatest worry is the continuing contraction in oil production after the peak, with annual production reduced by approximately 30 percent or more within 12 to 15 years after the peak.

Living green before their time

Almost 40 years ago, Morninglory commune took a zero-footprint path.