Qatari minister: Angola to become OPEC member this week

ABUJA - Angola, sub-Saharan Africa's second-biggest oil producer, could be approved as the 12th member of OPEC at a meeting of the oil exporters' group on Thursday, Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said.

Need a parking place? Good luck

In the past four decades, the number of registered vehicles has risen nearly 170% and the ranks of licensed drivers have doubled, Federal Highway Administration figures show.

The infrastructure is struggling to accommodate the crush. Many cities are experiencing downtown rebirths with new condos, hotels and office buildings, but the amount of parking on streets remains largely a fixed asset.

New-car miles-per-gallon estimates will drop next year - but only because they are changing the way they are calculated. Mitsubishi worries that the new formula will hurt the Lancer, the first car that will be rated under the new system.

Cost of gas falls for first time in five weeks

US lawmakers exit with a last nod to oil drilling

As one of its final acts, the 109th Congress Friday approved opening to oil and gas development 8.3 million previously protected acres off the Gulf Coast - a last bid to influence energy and environmental policy before the Democrats assume control.

Long Beach LNG Proposal Caught in Political Squeeze

While its sponsors continue to talk confidently, the proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in the Long Beach, CA, harbor Monday was suspended in a political vise about to be squeezed between the city political leaders and the separate Port of Long Beach. Port officials are dragging their feet on completing a final environmental impact statement and report (EIS/EIR) jointly with FERC. That final report now is not expected to be released until the first quarter next year, if ever.

Can't Handle the Truth? - Updated

While the NSTA rejected the Truth DVDs on the grounds that accepting them would violate its 2001 policy against endorsements, David points out that the policy "didn't stop them from shipping out 20,000 copies of a whopping 10-part video funded by ConocoPhillips in 2003." The series, which credits NSTA Executive Director Gerald Wheeler as an executive producer, cites only one scientist in its "largely dismissive global warming section," according to David. The scientist is Dr. Robert Balling, "a well known global warming skeptic" who has acknowledged taking at least $400,000 from the fossil fuel industry.

Arctic Ice Melting Faster Than Expected

New studies project that the Arctic Ocean could be mostly open water in summer by 2040 — several decades earlier than previously expected — partly as a result of global warming caused by emissions of greenhouse gases.

Risks of exploiting low-quality sources of oil

Soaring oil prices and demands for energy security are boosting the attractiveness of low-quality sources of petroleum, such as tar sands and coal, at the risk of causing significant environmental damage and increasing emissions of greenhouse gases, according to a new study.

The Cost of an Overheated Planet

The iconic culprit in global warming is the coal-fired power plant. It burns the dirtiest, most carbon-laden of fuels, and its smokestacks belch millions of tons of carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas.

So it is something of a surprise that James E. Rogers, chief executive of Duke Energy, a coal-burning utility in the Midwest and the Southeast, has emerged as an unexpected advocate of federal regulation that would for the first time impose a cost for emitting carbon dioxide. But he has his reasons.

Opec’s daily output to rise by 2m barrels

RIYADH: The decades old policy of thinning the ranks of Opec has gone sour. Three countries, Angola, Sudan and Ecuador are knocking at the oil cartel’s doors in Vienna with membership applications and the fourth one, Cuba, may not be far off too. These new members will add two million barrels to the Opec’s daily output.

Things have indeed turned a full cycle. Gone are the days, when some were itching to get out of the Opec on one pretext or the other and the world’s largest consumer, the United States may not be, too, happy with the proposition.

Elephants and Quagmires: Peak Oil and the Bush Denial

While the Bush administration, the media and nearly all the Democrats still refuse to explain the war in Iraq in terms of oil, the ever-pragmatic members of the Iraq Study Group share no such reticence.

Elephants Not in the Room

That the "shy mullahs" of Iran are seeking a nuclear bomb is axiomatic for Palast. After all, "Iran has zero need of 'peaceful’ nuclear-generated electricity. It has the second-largest untapped reserve of natural gas on the planet, a clean, safe, cheap source of power. There’s only one reason for a 'nuclear’ program." This glaring contradiction comes from the same Palast who devotes a sizeable chunk of his currently promoted book, Armed Madhouse, to Peak Oil. Apparently, Iranians are not affected by Peak Oil. But maybe the Shah of Iran was when the US assisted Iran in starting up its nuclear power program.

Trouble in the Russian oil patch

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is poised to yield control of its troubled $20-billion (U.S.) Sakhalin-2 project to state-owned OAO Gazprom, as the Kremlin continues to tighten its grip on Russian oil and gas assets in the world's emerging energy superpower.

Eni Lifts Force Majeure on 60,000-bpd Nigeria Oil

Russian oil: a slippery substance: Moscow's thin coating of petrodollar wealth may wash off all too easily.

Halliburton Workers Attacked in Algeria

Assailants hurled a bomb and shot at two vehicles carrying employees of an affiliate of U.S. company Halliburton near Algiers Sunday, killing one driver and injuring nine people.

...The attack threatened to stain the oil-rich North African nation's international security image just as it is enjoying an oil boom and increased foreign investment after a bloody insurgency that wracked Algeria in the 1990s.

In Praise of Sweet Darkness

In recent years I have written articles with titles like “Dark Clouds Over America” and “Torture Memories.” Our nation’s war-making and other threatening behavior have disturbed me. My study of Peak Oil and Climate Change has convinced me that we are in for a dark time as we run low on fossil fuels and over-heat this special planet. At first, I found this depressing. I have come to see that the loss of cheap energy can also be a great opportunity, depending on how we respond.

The Basis of Sustainable Community Energy Policy

Renewable energy policy and sustainable community issues place an enormous strain on society and its institutions. For good or ill, the fossil energy economy created a sense of independence. But times are changing. There is an increasing awareness that energy supply is somehow connected to nearly all aspects of modern life: diplomacy; international conflict; health care issues; environmental quality; international development; food supplies; and sustainable living conditions in general.

Survey: E&P Spending to Cool Off in 2007

After two years of massive increases, the pace of oil and gas capital spending growth will slow down in 2007, as U.S. companies temper their North American budgets in the wake of weakening natural gas prices, according to a survey released Monday by Lehman Brothers.

Exxon, Chevron far from topping out: Merrill Big Oil is poised to get even bigger.

Even with cheaper oil, energy hot in '07

...many analysts are looking for crude-oil futures next year to average more than $60 a barrel, but to hover below the 2006 average (through November) of almost $67 a barrel. Oil peaked above $78 in July.

Oil habit hard to break, experts say

Energy experts agreed Thursday the U.S. won't wean itself off imported oil any time soon even in the face of growing national-security threats in the Middle East and concern about global warming.

Nation's energy grid could power almost 185 million electric cars

Why a hydrogen economy doesn't make sense

Cutting The Carbon-Energy Cord: Unplug From (Or Sell To) The Central Grid

Sustainable nuclear energy moves a step closer

Wilfred van Rooijen's research, conducted at the Reactor Institute Delft, focused on the nuclear fuel cycle and safety features of a Gas-cooled Fast Reactor (GFR), one of the so-called 'fourth generation' nuclear reactor designs. These designs have a sustainable character: they are economical in their use of nuclear fuel and are capable of rendering a great deal of their own nuclear waste harmless. The ability to actually build such reactors is however still in the very distant future.