Spaced out: The collective costs of suburban sprawl

Moving to the fresh air, opening the door, and shooing out the kids—the American dream—has devolved into an unhealthy, financially unsustainable, and ecologically destructive habit. Glimpsed through Flint's eyes, suburban development looks unstoppable, too bound up with the American pursuit of material comfort. The suburban split-level has become an addictive drug, offering a fantasy of escape. But after a blissful honeymoon, a new development rises next door, and traffic grows constipated. Local taxes rise to pay for new pipes and schools and wider roads. Craving cash, the town welcomes big-box stores and office parks. The physical toll keeps growing; water bans and power brownouts increase.

Renewable Energy Can't Save Consumer Society

Germany Debates the Future of Coal Mining

Some say the German mining industry is squandering too much money and that production should cease as soon as possible, whereas others argue that coal is the energy source of the future.

Hip to be green

Over the last 40 years, environmental issues have steadily seeped into mainstream thinking.

Look to the Sun to cultivate our energy

FROM climate change to volatile oil prices, all the signs point to a looming global energy crisis. Confronting the growing challenge means that humanity can no longer afford to ignore the inexhaustible resource found in the organic material that the Sun provides each day through photosynthesis.

Interior Deals on Flawed Leases Fail to Quell Critics

Deals inked yesterday between the Interior Department and five petroleum companies on payment of royalties from flawed Gulf of Mexico leases won't blunt Democratic plans to address the "royalty relief" issue more aggressively when the new Congress convenes.

African oil's allure increases as other regions tighten reins on foreign companies

DAKAR, Senegal: Angola is joining OPEC, African oil exploration is booming and China is investing. The stampede for African oil has continued, even as militant attacks in some countries and precarious governments in others make returns uncertain.

Iraq to Meet Iran, Kuwait on Cross-Border Oil Fields

Iraqi officials are to meet representatives from Iran later this month and Kuwait after that to discuss sharing oil production contracts in cross-border fields, Iraq's oil minister said Thursday.

Twelve Months: The Short Life of Comfortable Assumptions About Russia's Energy Policy in 2006

The Kremlin’s confiscatory assault on Royal Dutch Shell and threats to other Western energy majors in Russia on Black Tuesday, December 12 (see EDM, December 13) is the latest in a series of moves disproving Western wishful thinking about Russia’s energy policy.

Iran warns of painful revenge if sanctions imposed

Good question, Condi: Rice questions why Saudi might need nuclear energy

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday she wanted to know more about Gulf states' plans to study nuclear power and questioned why Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, might need atomic energy.

Geothermal test halted due to quake

Drilling work for a planned geothermal power plant in Basel triggered a small earthquake on Friday that caused minor damage to buildings.

U.K.: The way we will live

The Government's pledge to carbon neutralise every new British home by 2016 may sound ambitious now, but will appear pretty basic to the homeowners of the future, for whom zero carbon living will be a given. By 2080, the avant-garde may be living in houses on stilts (far right) with removable walls, kept cool by dirty bathwater, according to a new study by Arup Associates and Zurich Insurance.

Overconfidence Leads To Bias In Climate Change Estimations

Just as overconfidence in a teenager may lead to unwise acts, overconfidence in projections of climate change may lead to inappropriate actions on the parts of governments, industries and individuals, according to an international team of climate researchers.

Power from the people? Utilities leery of putting home-generated electricity on grid

Michael J. Economides: The Four Horsemen of the Energy Apocalypse

I have a simple credo, and a corollary. There is virtually no human need that is more important than energy and energy abundance. The corollary: all other human needs, such as food and water, are far easier to manage if there is abundant, cheap energy. Thus, in the topsy-turvy evolution of politics in Europe and the United States, energy abundance – were logic to prevail –would be the main issue for the populists. It should be treated no differently than other environmental/economic issues. In the U.S., it’s an issue that should belong to the Democrats. Instead, it has been relegated to the right-wing fringes of the Republican Party.

China urges oil consumers unite

BEIJING - China, hosting its first major energy summit on Saturday, urged top oil consumers to join together in the face of resurgent producer power and sought to paper over differences on how best to achieve energy security.

R&D shale oil extraction leases granted

DENVER - The Interior Department granted leases Friday for shale oil extraction experiments, a step allowing companies to determine how to tap into an estimated 100-year supply of oil locked in rock formations under Colorado, Utah, and southwest Wyoming.

The leases, the first granted in 30 years, were issued two decades after companies abandoned large-scale commercial efforts in western Colorado because coaxing oil out of rock was laborious and expensive.

Sydney asked to plunge into dark to spotlight climate change

SYDNEY - Residents of Sydney are being urged to plunge Australia's largest city into darkness for one hour in a bid to highlight the perils of climate change, officials said.

The Event Horizon Has Been Crossed

Not to be alarmist -- for the record, notions of apocalypse or armageddon in any religious sense are ludicrous to me -- but we have passed the point of no return. Geopolitically, things are now FUBAR, and the situation cannot be undone. Call me a Chicken Little. Believe me, I wish I were wrong.

San Francisco: Legislation introduced to prepare city for oil shortage

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi wants The City to create a Peak Oil Preparedness Task Force, to ensure San Francisco is prepared when the world’s oil supply reaches maximum production, resulting in major gas price increases that will threaten the local economy.

Global Warming Trend Continues in 2006, Climate Agencies Say

A decades-long global warming trend that most climate experts say is linked to rising levels of heat-trapping smokestack and tailpipe gases continued apace this year, according to summaries issued yesterday by several national and international climate agencies.

Scientist says new data backs sulfur climate plan

TEL AVIV - Nobel Prize laureate Paul Crutzen says he has new data supporting his controversial theory that injecting the common pollutant sulfur into the atmosphere would cancel out the greenhouse effect.

Planting trees to save planet `pointless' say ecologists

Planting trees to combat climate change is a waste of time, according to astudy by ecologists who say that most forests do not have any overall effect on global temperature, while those furthest from the equator could actually be making global warming worse.

Martha's Vineyard: Momentum Builds For Energy District

Aquinnah selectman James Newman this week authored a nonbinding referendum for the coming town meeting season aimed at creating an overlay district to promote and regulate energy efficiency and renewable energy across the Island.

Happy Birthday, Peak Oil!

If Dr. Deffeyes is correct, today is the one-year anniversary of peak oil.