Boulder votes for carbon tax

Voters in a Colorado university town nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains have passed the country’s first municipal carbon tax to fight global warming. Boulder, Colo., will charge residents and businesses the carbon tax based on how much electricity they use. Most electricity in Boulder is generated at plants that use coal, which produces more of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, than natural gas or oil.

IEA sees tighter oil market ahead

Surging demand and lower OPEC production may start to deflate world fuel stockpiles that have been filling at the fastest rate in 15 years, the International Energy Agency said on Friday.

... "Demand growth in the fourth quarter is expected to be exceptionally strong," said Lawrence Eagles, head of the IEA's Oil Industry and Markets division.

"And that is not even allowing for a cold winter. If we see a cold winter it will be even stronger."

Mexico's energy crisis has arrived: Our NAFTA partner is running out of oil, and that's trouble for Canada

Mexican president-elect Felipe Calderón was in Canada last week to meet his NAFTA counterpart, talking trade and co-operation. Behind the smiles and warm words, however, there are serious questions brewing about just how Mexico will deal with a burgeoning energy crisis. Simply put, Mexico is running out of oil, and that could put extraordinary pressure on Canada and upset the global energy scene.

A Quick Look at Foreign Oil

The concentrated distribution of the world’s most important natural resource in so many unstable and dangerous localities is truly one of modernity’s cruelest realities. Many of the most prevalent oil producing countries are hostile towards the West, despite their reliance on the U.S.’s oil demand for survival; Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria, Iraq, and Columbia to name a few.

Kenya's Maasai plead for help against global warming

NAIROBI (AFP) - Members of Kenya's Maasai tribe have appealed for "urgent action" to fight climate change, saying global warming for which they are not responsible is destroying their traditional way of life.

On the sidelines of crucial UN climate change meeting in the Kenyan capital, they said their time-honored, cattle-based society is unjustly threatened by greenhouse gas emissions from developed countries far from their homes.

Albania near energy crisis

Albania is expected to suffer long hours of blackout from January 2007, which will be caused by the impossibility to import electric power, a source from state owned monopoly KESH said yesterday.

Energy Tribune Speaks with Guy Caruso

Since 2002, Guy Caruso has been head of the Energy Information Administration, the arm of the Department of Energy that tracks energy data. Caruso has over 30 years of experience in the energy sector and has held a number of positions within the Department of Energy. Before taking over the top job at the EIA, he was executive director of the strategic energy initiative project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He also has worked at the International Energy Agency and the United States Energy Association. Caruso spoke to ET’s managing editor, Robert Bryce, on September 27 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, during a meeting of the U.S. Association of Energy Economics.

Norway Oil Unions Mull Strike in Sympathy with UK Divers

Norwegian workers engaged in sub-sea oil and gas activities, excluding divers, are currently awaiting approval to strike at an unnamed field in the Norwegian North Sea, in sympathy action with U.K. divers who are on strike over wages, Norway union representatives have said.

Ecuador: Energy Crisis Looming

Oil Majors at Crossroads in Venezuela's Tar Oil Patch

Six hundred former employees from the likes of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) and Repsol YPF SA (REP) were chanting pro-government slogans on Tuesday, offering a preview of what the corporate atmosphere at four multi-billion-dollar Venezuelan tar oil projects will look like in a year's time.

Six western oil majors must forfeit operational control or face the wrath of an administration steeped in oil nationalism at the peak of a domestic electoral cycle.

Nine Kidnapped Oil Workers Escape in Southern Nigeria: 50 taken hostage from oil platform

Alternative Energy Will Become Cost Competitive by 2007: Analyst

Alaska Votes No on North Slope Tax

Alaska voters shot down a proposal to tax oil companies $1 billion a year until they build a pipeline to take the largest reserve of natural gas in the United States from the North Slope to Midwestern markets, election results showed on Wednesday.

Saudi Accelerated Oil Plan May Offset Supply Crises

Saudi Arabia has accelerated its near-term production expansion plans and may add up to an additional 1.5 million barrels a day in crude output in 2010-2011 to mitigate potential supply disruptions and meet growing global demand according to a new report published by a Riyadh-based government consultancy.

Nawaf Obaid, managing director of the Saudi National Security Assessment Project, said in a presentation given to U.S. federal energy, policy and security agencies that the kingdom plans to increase output capacity to as high as 13.5 million b/d by 2012.

Green Fuel to harness unused coal

A new type of coal-based fuel, which will soon be commercialized with federal backing, could harness America's vast low-rank coal reserves and make the country energy self-sufficient for the next 300 years or significantly supplant oil consumption, the chief of Fairbanks, Alaska-based Silverado Green Fuels.