State of Connecticut Begins Planning for Peak Oil

State Rep. Terry Backer (D-Stratford) announced passage of a bill he authored, House Bill#5724, An Act Concerning Energy Scarcity And Security, that will take steps to ensure Connecticut's energy planning is in place and alternative strategies have been designed to address the ever increasing cost and potential supply disruption in the face of global oil supply constrictions.

Representative Backer, co-founder of the Connecticut Legislative Peak Oil and Natural Gas Caucus said, "We are standing at the doorstep of a sea change in energy and our consumption of it. The world's oil supply so critical to every aspect of modern life and is not keeping pace with demand globally. It is unlikely that enough supply and flow will ever be generated to satisfy the global economy and demand –everything changes from here in and we must be prepared"

The Case For $80 A Barrel Oil

Oil prices may hang above $100 a barrel for the rest of this year but will fall as low as $80 next year as world demand slackens and Saudi Arabia tries to buy influence with the incoming president by pumping more crude oil, an influential Lehman Brothers analyst said in a report issued today.

Saudi engineers have been working on several big projects that could boost the nation's output by 1.3 million barrels a day--more than the expected increase in global demand next year--but the secretive nation is "likely to keep its political tool, excess production capacity, close to its chest until it has a new U.S. president to win over," Morse writes.

Iceberg dead ahead!

A surge in the number of icebergs off Newfoundland has imperilled marine traffic and added work for the flight crews who monitor offshore.

About 600 icebergs are currently on the Grand Banks, roughly double the total all last year, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Two years ago, the area had virtually none.

And the "sheer number" of bergs this spring in the area near the oil rigs has left spotters "very busy," Luc Desjardins, senior ice and iceberg forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service, said from Ottawa in a telephone interview this week.

Sea changes could warn of Day After Tomorrow scenario

In the movie The Day After Tomorrow, the world froze pretty quickly when a major ocean current, dubbed the "ocean conveyor belt", turned off.

While that was a work of fiction, slowdowns of the conveyor are possible and researchers have now found a way of giving us a few years' advance notice.

Although even 10 years' warning would be too late to do anything about preventing such an event, it could help people plan ahead to adapt, they say.

A big price to pay beyond the pump

Gas prices are on the rise and the effects are being seen throughout the county.

Transportation plays a major role in all aspects of life including those that help Fulton County function efficiently. With gas prices rising regularly and the future of the increases unknown, many people are wondering what will have to change for Fulton County to stay financially stable.

Carolyn Baker: 12 Stepping Our Way To Armageddon

I recently received an email from a reader, frustrated with my insistence on holding a vision of what is possible alongside the dismal, inevitable current realities of civilization's collapse. Admonishing me to bear in mind America's Oprah and NASCAR world view and therefore abdicate any sense of optimism I might have, this reader accused me of suggesting that we should 12 Step our way through Armageddon. Rather than being offended, however, I was overcome with gratitude for this reader's image, frustrated with me as he may be, because in spite of the regular "wordsmithing" that I do as a writer, I always feel a sense of relief and validation when someone else gives words that I may not yet have for what I've been thinking, feeling, or doing.

G-7 Central Bankers Stymied By 'Crude Oil Vigilantes'

The “Group of Seven” central bankers, who control the money spigots in two-thirds of the world’s economy, huddled with their colleagues from China and Russia behind closed doors in Basel, Switzerland this week, haunted by the “Crude Oil Vigilantes” who threaten to unravel G-7 schemes to rescue troubled global banks. Yesterday, the price of West Texas Sweet traded as high as $124 /barrel, doubling from a year ago and guiding Chicago Corn futures to all-time highs.

Oil stockpile a drop in the bucket

Congress is calling for a freeze in shipments to the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But analysts say that would do little to lower prices.

Oil addiction to drive US election

WITH Wall Street suddenly abuzz with talk of crude oil prices reaching $US200 a barrel and the three remaining presidential candidates apparently vying with one another to present the most politically opportunistic (and economically absurd) energy "plan", it is becoming increasingly clear that America's addiction to cheap oil is likely to be a major issue this November.

Unfortunately, if the recent level of discourse is any indication, there is little likelihood of anything useful emerging from the political debate. For that to happen, there would have to be an acknowledgment by politicians that the forces of supply and demand prevail in the global oil market, just like other markets, and are at the root of US dependence on imported oil.

High energy costs a boon in disguise for candidates

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Across the country, nobody is happy about high and rising oil and gasoline prices. But there are at least three people who should be delighted by them (in addition to the well-paid oil company executives): Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama.

Alberta to look at exporting oil overseas: Stelmach

If the United States follows through with a boycott of oil from Alberta's tarsands, the province will build a pipeline to the West Coast so it can sell to other countries, Premier Ed Stelmach said Thursday.

Serbian govt approves oil and gas agreement with Russia

BELGRADE (Itar-Tass) -- The Serbian government has unanimously approved the oil and gas agreement with Russia and recommended the parliament to ratify it, the government press office said on Friday.

Slow death everywhere: Israel's continued siege is taking Gaza back to the Stone Age

Armed with a sharp axe, Jihad Abu Hamam creeps about once a week into the woods on the eastern border of Al-Qarara village in the southern Gaza Strip. He cuts tree branches there and pulls them to his house two kilometres away. Jamila, his wife, uses these branches as kindling that she lights to cook their food each day, ever since the family's store of gas for cooking ran out a month ago due to the Israeli decision to bar the entry of gas to the Gaza Strip.

Tanzania: Kerosene prices skyrocket

Both the government and oil dealers in the city`s three municipalities of Kinondoni, Ilala and Temeke, have admitted in separate interviews that the country is experiencing an acute shortage of kerosene.

In same vein, environmentalists describe the situation as too pathetic.

They fear further depletion of already degraded forests, as five million plus people in Dar es Salaam alone will definitely substitute kerosene for charcoal.

The Philippines: Amid crisis, birth spacing pushed

The time has come to practice birth spacing as a long-term solution to the threat posed by population growth outstripping food production.

President Arroyo issued the call, noting that population reached 88.57 million at a census in August last year.

But the President declined to elaborate on birth spacing. Her administration has adopted a conservative stance on the use of contraceptives to control the population, espousing instead the Church-backed natural family planning method.

South Carolina: House plan will run out of gas

Maintenance at S.C. State University will have to wait, and school buses will run out of fuel by spring, under a tighter House budget passed Thursday.

Lower-than-expected state revenues forced some tough budget decisions and a revised $7 billion state spending plan.

Centrica warns on wind farm costs

Centrica, one of the UK's biggest energy generators, has warned that the prospect of making money from wind farms is looking "marginal".

The company says that the rising cost of off-shore wind farms could end up ruining the government's renewable energy targets.

The comments come a week after Shell withdrew from a project that was set to become the world's largest wind farm.

U.S. consumers rank last in world survey of green habits

WASHINGTON — Americans rank last in a new National Geographic-sponsored survey released Wednesday that compares environmental consumption habits in 14 countries.

Americans were least likely to choose the greener option in three out of four categories — housing, transportation and consumer goods_ according to the assessment. In the fourth category, food, Americans ranked ahead of Japanese consumers, who eat more meat and seafood.

Food fears

At Dollar Foods on Commercial Drive, manager Quoc On is busy in the back supervising the arrival of a food shipment. The aisles are jammed with hungry customers, the lineup at the cashier is deep, and outside the front door boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables are piled high on the sidewalk, the fresh produce sparkling in the warm springtime sun. The scene is one of affluence and abundance, yet behind this façade a crisis is brewing that may signal the end of the Age of Endless Abundance. At the very least, the days of cheap food imported from all around the world at very low prices may be about to end.

Ending state monopoly of oil in Mexico could remake Latin America

It could be said that Latin America will come of age politically the day that Pemex, Mexico's oil behemoth, ceases to be a state monopoly. Until that happens, the psyche of many Latin Americans will be beholden to the mythical notion that government-owned natural resources are the custodians of national identity.

That is why President Felipe Calderón's efforts to open up the oil sector to private investment in Mexico have profound cultural implications.

Tasmania poised for oil, gas bonanza

TASMANIA may be on the verge of a multi-billion-dollar onshore oil and gas boom.

US exploration company Empire Energy Corporation yesterday unveiled a $31 million program to drill up to eight test wells at key locations in an exploration lease covering 23 per cent of the state.

It also released an independent expert's prediction that the lease could hold between 67million and 145million barrels of oil and between 344billion and 799billion cubic feet of natural gas.

Production of more oil can’t be taken off the table

The answer to energy problems should have been addressed a decade ago or longer. A bipartisan group of 20 experts in energy met for over three years to come up with a plan to help alleviate the impending energy crisis. They completed their work in 2004 with recommendations that encompass the issues of oil security, the environment, fuel efficiency, renewable fuels, etc.

Yes, the commission recommended environmental controls, expanding renewable fuel sources and fuel efficiency standards. Also among those suggestions, however, were to expand and develop nuclear energy, explore and develop the fields in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), build more refineries and increase mandatory fuel efficiency standards for automobiles, trucks and utility vehicles.

The Truth About Gas Prices

The far left, including Barack Hussen Obama, and their shills in the dinosaur media are moaning about, and disparaging McCain and Clinton’s proposal for a temporary suspension of the federal gasoline tax. The elites don’t care that gas prices will keep many working Americans from taking any vacation this summer. Nor do they care that the price of gas is forcing Americans to pay more for everything from food to clothing. They’re just outraged that anyone would expect the government to get by with a little less even while the citizens are suffering.

Who Really Lost the Cold War?

These days, the price of oil seems ever on the rise. A barrel of crude broke another barrier Wednesday -- $123 -- on international markets, and the talk is now of the sort of "superspike" in pricing (only yesterday unimaginable) that might break the $200 a barrel ceiling "within two years." And that would be without a full-scale American air assault on Iran, after which all bets would be off.

Considering that, in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, oil was still in the $20 a barrel price range, this is no small measure of what the Bush administration years have really accomplished.

Democrats' Windfall Tax — On You

As any student who's taken Econ 101 at the local junior college can tell you, higher taxes don't encourage production; they discourage it. But Senate Democrats apparently played hooky the day taxes were discussed. They should at least have read the report from their own nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in 2006.

It shows that from 1980 to 1986, the last time the U.S. had a windfall profits tax on oil companies, the results were disappointing. As the chart shows, oil companies were hit hard by the tax. And in line with basic economic theory, they produced less oil, not more.

Welch says his plan to suspend shipments to the national reserve is gaining support

Democratic Congressman Peter Welch says he's encouraged that a number of prominent Republicans are now backing his plan to suspend shipments to the national Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Welch says the proposal is part of a larger plan that's designed to reduce gasoline prices by as much as 75 cents a gallon.

Broken food system

A food security expert at UB says the worldwide food crisis is a direct result of the choices made by policy-makers and the lack of attention paid to the food system and its relationship to global warming and fossil fuels.

Germany Warns Of Economic Risks From Species Loss

BERLIN - Nations must act to slow extinction rates, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Thursday, arguing the loss of species threatened food supplies for billions of people.

Go Easy On Biofuels Until More Clarity - World Bank

WASHINGTON - A senior World Bank official said on Thursday that countries should not greatly increase biofuels production until there is more clarity about how much they have contributed to the global food price crisis.

Juergen Voegele, director for agriculture and rural development department at the World Bank, cautioned against shifting a lot of the blame to biofuels but also said massive subsidies for the biofuel industry was not helping the crisis.

Salt water tested as fuel source

SEATTLE – For more than a year, it's been widely circulated on the Internet as a scientific oddity.

Now a process that converts sea water into a possible fuel source is gaining legitimacy.

For Sale: Machine To Make Home-Made Ethanol

NEW YORK - A new company hopes drivers will kick the oil habit by brewing ethanol at home that won't spike food prices.

E-Fuel Corp unveiled on Thursday the "MicroFueler" touting it as the world's first machine that allows homeowners to make their own ethanol and pump the brew directly into their cars.

Niagara Summit told of brave new globally warmed world

Niagara's future isn't as dependent on the mid-peninsula corridor and selling wine to Germany as it is on containing urban sprawl, improving public transportation and developing policies that will help the elderly and the poor cope with heat waves that push the mercury above 40øC for days on end, a renowned political scientist and bestselling author says.

Thomas Homer-Dixon said municipal politicians have to start planning now for a world where extreme storms, prolonged droughts and oppressive heat waves are common. Where the increased cost of shipping food halfway across the world makes eating locally grown food more feasible.

Climate, Culture, and Collapse: Responding to Rapid Change

Recent and emerging observations of the severity of human-induced climate change have led to a feverish burst of publications imploring radical and immediate action. Many of the world’s most eminent scientists are now joining NGOs in calling for drastic halts in greenhouse gas emissions and societal changes on an unprecedented and global scale. The Climate Code Red Call for a Sustainability Emergency, for instance, likens our current position to that of the astronauts in the Apollo 13 crisis: a desperate time-crunch necessitating quick thinking, rapid response, and radical action.

However, the magnitude of the climate issue is profound and the mainstream has not responded to the scale of the threat. We are at the cusp of a global crisis that is still only perceived by relatively few individuals and groups. The voices of these authorities – our leading global change scientists and organizations – are often muffled, suppressed, or diminished by the influence of media and mass culture.

Gas jumps above $3.67, oil passes $126 on Venezuela concerns

NEW YORK - Oil rose above $126 a barrel for the first time Friday, bringing its advance this week to nearly $10, as investors questioned whether a possible confrontation between the U.S. and Venezuela could cut exports from the OPEC member. Gas prices, meanwhile, rose above an average $3.67 a gallon at the pump, following oil's recent path higher.

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal published a report that suggested closer ties between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and rebels attempting to overthrow Colombia's government. Chavez has been linked to Colombian rebels previously, but the paper reported it had reviewed computer files indicating concrete offers by Venezuela's leader to arm guerillas. That appears to heighten the chances that the U.S. could impose sanctions on one of its biggest oil suppliers.

"If we put on sanctions, I'm sure Chavez would threaten to cut off our oil supply," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. "Obviously that would have a major impact on oil prices."

Light, sweet crude for June delivery vaulted to a new record of $126.20 in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange before retreating to trade up $1.09 at $124.78 a barrel.

OTC: "There is plenty oil in the world" - Sandrea

There is no oil scarcity in the world, "there is plenty of oil in the world", Dr. Rafael Sandrea, president of IPC Petroleum Consultants Inc., a Tulsa base International consulting firm, speaking at a press conference at the OTC energy conference in Houston, on Wednesday, insisted.

... Contrary to the case of scarcity of oil reserves, Sandrea proves with his model that global crude oil and natural gas reserves are still strong and only 20% of the discovered reserves have been used.

Even do some experts for see a crucial inflection point ahead, base in historic discovery rates, and their estimates of decline, in the world hydrocarbons reserves, claiming that a peak oil and gas production is looming and a collapse in in the horizon, Sandrea, said that until now, nobody has made a credible attempt to quantify future potential oil and gas supply in detail, ands on a global basis.

Sandrea concludes that, contrary to the well publicize "Peak Oil theory" that oil & gas reserves are in imminent danger of "falling from cliff", there is in fact spare capacity available with the demand and supply remaining in balance for decades to come.

Real Networks CEO Rob Glaser: He Got Game

Real Networks (RNWK) CEO Rob Glaser says his company so far is feeling few effects from the economic downturn. And in fact, the company today reported better-than-expected Q1 results.

In an interview this afternoon with Tech Trader Daily, Glaser does say that the one area where he sees some “clouds” going forward is advertising, which affects several of the company’s businesses, but which overall is less than 10% of Real’s revenues. Ask Glaser about the economy, and he’ll say that while he’s bullish on his own company, he’s not quite as optimistic about the broad picture. Glaser says he’s a “peak-oil believer” who is on his third hybrid. Oil, he says, is not going back to $60 anytime soon, “if ever.”

Biogas? China size it

Conversion to a symmetrical or parallel system for our world’s electricity generation will require a combination of small, locally-generated power supplies, coupled with individual home generation, in addition to the regular power grid supply. Conversion to a new world, not in geography, but in power generation will need to be developed as a hybrid of generation sources comprised of: Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), Hydroelectric, Geothermal, Wind, PV Panel, Tidal Current and Magnetic Linear Generator Buoys, plus Bio-Mass and Biogas in addition to coal and natural gas.

ANALYSIS - World begins to smart from oil's too rapid rise

LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) - From the poorest of Africa to the United States and big business, a breakneck rally that could take oil to $200 a barrel is likely to inflict pain on everyone.

The world was remarkably resilient to a series of record prices in 2007, but a roughly 30 percent rise since the end of last year, with predictions of more to come, is harder to absorb.

"The key issue is the rate of change. The recent exponential rise is unhealthy for everyone," a senior executive from a major oil company said. He declined to be named.

Russia foreign investors unfazed by rows with West

LONDON (Reuters) - With oil at more than $125 per barrel and growth booming, foreign investors in Russia are finding it easy to turn a blind eye to disputes with the West and increasingly bellicose rhetoric over Georgia.

Record oil prices bring fresh interest in L.A.'s wells

LOS ANGELES — Record prices are prompting oil prospectors to renew interest in drilling in Los Angeles, where urban sprawl, environmental opponents and decades of production make for one of the world's toughest oil fields.

"We're more active than ever," says Tim Marquez, CEO and founder of Venoco, which is running wells and reviving old ones in the city and elsewhere in California.

March trade surplus widens on energy prices

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Rising prices for oil and natural gas exports boosted Canada's trade surplus to C$5.53 billion ($5.48 billion) in March, above expectations for a third straight month and the highest level since May of last year, Statistics Canada said on Friday.

Analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast, on average, a trade surplus of C$4.5 billion. Statscan revised the February surplus to C$4.79 billion from C$4.94 billion previously.

Ensuring the Future of the Oil and Gas Industry

Despite the rising price of oil, experts predict that the oil and gas industry will experience a void in employees in the coming years. In addition to the "Graying Workforce" phenomenon, there simply are not as many young people joining the industry.

Chevron: 1,100 employees eliminated within reorganization

NEW YORK - Chevron Corp. said about 1,100 employees were eligible for severance payments at the end of the first quarter, after the nation's second largest oil company eliminated the positions as part of a restructuring and reorganization plan.

India: Coal situation worsens at thermal stations: Chinese demand eating into imports

Coal reserves at power stations have hit a record low.

Nearly a third of the country’s thermal stations are now reported to be facing “critical stocks”, where coal stocks are expected to last less than seven days.

Planes fly more, emit less greenhouse gas

WASHINGTON — The U.S. aviation industry has cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 13% since 2000, even as the amount of flying has reached record levels, government data show.

Conservationists make most of real estate crisis

Plummeting real estate values and demand for new housing are hammering developers but helping conservationists, enabling land trusts to buy thousands of acres that were slated for development and preserve them as open space.

Michael T. Klare: Portrait of an Oil-Addicted Former Superpower

Nineteen years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall effectively eliminated the Soviet Union as the world's other superpower. Yes, the USSR as a political entity stumbled on for another two years, but it was clearly an ex-superpower from the moment it lost control over its satellites in Eastern Europe.

Less than a month ago, the United States similarly lost its claim to superpower status when a barrel crude oil roared past $110 on the international market, gasoline prices crossed the $3.50 threshold at American pumps, and diesel fuel topped $4.00. As was true of the USSR following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the USA will no doubt continue to stumble on like the superpower it once was; but as the nation's economy continues to be eviscerated to pay for its daily oil fix, it, too, will be seen by increasing numbers of savvy observers as an ex-superpower-in-the-making.

Oil price vaults to record 125.98 dollars

LONDON (AFP) - The price of New York crude oil surged past 125 dollars per barrel on Friday, lifted by speculative demand amid concerns about tight global energy supplies, analysts said.

New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, spiked as high as 125.98 dollars in early afternoon London trading.

And London's Brent crude contract hit an all-time pinnacle of 125.68 dollars.

"Oil futures hit fresh record highs, continuing gains from yesterday," said Sucden analyst Michael Davies on Friday.

Prices have rocketed to fresh records every day this week on the back of unrest in key producer Nigeria, other ongoing supply worries and the weak dollar which stimulates demand.

The price of oil has soared by 25 percent since the start of 2008 and has doubled since the same stage last year -- when it stood at about 62 dollars.

Oil execs see $100-or-less cost by year’s end

HOUSTON - Even as oil prices ascended to new highs of more than $124 a barrel this week, many oil and gas industry executives say they expect the price to fall significantly by year’s end, a new survey shows.

Fifty-five percent of 372 petroleum industry executives surveyed by KPMG LLP said they think the price of a barrel of crude will drop below $100 by the end of the year. Twenty-one percent of respondents predicted a barrel of oil will end the year between $101 and $110, while 15 percent forecast the year-end price to be between $111 and $120 a barrel.

UK: Thefts of heating oil rise

THE soaring price of fuel has prompted a surge in thefts of domestic heating oil from tanks outside homes and farms across the region.

...The oil thefts follows a trend of thieves taking items containing metals such as lead, copper and even platinum, which have all been soaring in value.

Scores of churches and schools have had lead stolen from their roofs, copper wiring has been stolen from alongside railway tracks. Catalytic converters have been stolen from vehicles parked outside garages and homes for the platinum they contain.

NYMEX: Speculators Aren't Driving Oil Market

Democrats in the U.S. Senate are looking beyond a summer gasoline tax holiday to focus on broader oil market fundamentals. Yesterday, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid [D-Nev.] unveiled the Consumer-First Energy Act, which calls for a revocation of tax breaks to big oil companies, a windfall profit tax and a cap on additions to the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Included in the bill is a diktat to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] to substantially raise margin requirements for oil futures. That measure, say the bill's sponsors, would discourage excessive speculation which is blamed for fueling oil's meteoric price trajectory.

Gas prices hit 2nd straight daily record

The high price of gas has burdened motorists and truckers.

It's also put the squeeze on thousands of farmers.

They drive tractors up and down row after row of field after field to plow, seed and tend to their crops. That means they shell out big bucks for gas and diesel, which set its own record Friday at $4.269 a gallon - and there's no end in sight.

Bill Olthoff, a farmer and member of the board of directors of the Illinois Farm Bureau, says a tanker of diesel cost him $4,000 about 10 years ago. Now he pays $30,000 for a tanker, which lasts him through the year at his farm in Bourbonnais, Ill.

Delta, American, United raise prices

NEW YORK (AP) -- The three biggest U.S. carriers said Thursday they have again raised ticket prices, this time by $20 roundtrip, to recoup rapidly rising fuel costs.

The Peak Oil Crisis: Transiting to Transit

With crude oil now above $120 a barrel and threatening to go higher, it is clear that our preferred and convenient means of going places, our car, the airplane and the rental car soon are going to be parked because they will be too expensive to operate.

Like it or not, most of us are going to be riding some form of mass transit or multiple passenger vehicle – trains, buses, trolleys, car pools, van pools etc.- while waiting for our cars to be replaced with electric or higher mileage vehicles. As there are currently about 220 million cars and light trucks registered in the U.S. and 700 million or so elsewhere, the replacement process is going to be lengthy one.

GAS PRICES HIT USA HARD - special report by USA Today

Record high gas prices are prompting Americans to drive less for the first time in nearly three decades, squeezing family budgets and causing major shifts in driving habits, federal data and a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll show.

See also:

● Interest in mass transit, carpools, scooters jumps

● Some rethink where to call home

● Sports world begins to sputter

● Cheaper strategies devised

● Boaters' plans sunk

● Services trimmed, fuel efficient vehicles added

Return of the population timebomb

It has become taboo over recent years, but population, not consumption, really is the key to managing our use of the world's resources, says John Feeney,

Only since 1800, in the last 0.01 per cent of the history of Homo sapiens, has the human population shot into the billions. Now at nearly 6.7 billion, with 9 billion looming 40 years away, few environmentalists seem to care.

Yet the population-environment link is clear. Our environmental impact, as gauged by total resource consumption for a country or the world, is the product of population size and the average person's consumption.

Peru's Tribal Land Protected From Gas Concessions

LIMA - Indigenous rights groups praised Peru's petroleum agency on Thursday for excluding areas where isolated tribes live from an auction of oil and gas concessions.

Rights groups say the decision is a turnaround for Perupetro, which previously had indicated it might open up the protected areas for bidding.

A Gulf in Giving: Oil-Rich States Starve the World Food Program

WFP internal documents show that the major oil producing nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) gives almost nothing to the food organization, even as skyrocketing oil prices and swollen oil revenues contribute to the very crisis that the U.N. claims could soon add 100 million more people to the world’s starving masses.

Food banks urge passage of farm bill; critical shortage of food as clients increase

All of the participating food banks said their agencies are seeing families and faces they haven't seen before — working people who never thought they would have trouble making ends meet. One food banker in Minneola, N.Y., noted, "The middle class is accessing food from our agencies." Another relayed the story of a professional consultant that asked about emergency food assistance, "because her clients had not paid her yet and she was concerned that she may possibly be in need."

Stamp Out Hunger

On Saturday May 10th, letter carriers in more than 10,000 communities will collect food items and deliver them to local food banks to help some of the millions of Americans, including an estimated 13 million children, who face hunger every day. Simply place bags filled with nonperishable food items like canned meats and fish, canned soup, juice, pasta, vegetables, cereal and rice next to your mailbox on Saturday, May 10th. (No glass containers, please.) Your letter carrier will pick up the bags and deliver them to your local food bank.