Shell’s discounted bid for Arrow reflects the present world oversupply of gas

The bid and Arrow’s decision to take it seriously despite the price discount reflect the much more complicated outlook for gas in the wake of the global financial crisis, and after the development of technology that is capable of doubling the world’s gas reserves.

There is an awful lot of gas in the ground, enough perhaps to break the nexus between gas prices and oil prices. The peak oil argument that oil prices will rise inexorably as producers fail to bring new production on stream fast enough and cheaply enough to replace diminishing reserves simply does not apply. That knowledge both impels the $3.2 billion offer Shell and PetroChina have launched, and dictates that Arrow take it seriously.

Saudi Aramco chief warns of ‘green bubbles’

Saudi Aramco chief Khalid Al-Falih warned today of “green bubbles” and expressed worry about “assumptions” in the political realm that alternative energy sources could “transform the face of energy overnight”.

Gazprom Neft Says Russian Taxes Tripping Up Deals, Expansion

(Bloomberg) — OAO Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russia’s gas export monopoly, said Russian taxes are hindering ventures with international oil companies and are the main obstacle for its expansion at home and abroad.

“The main problem is the tax regime,” Alexander Pankratov, head of business development at the St. Petersburg- based company, said yesterday in an interview at the CERAWeek conference organized by IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates in Houston.

US Crude Outlook – Improving crack spreads give lift

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Improving refinery crack spreads could boost feedstock demand and lift cash crude differentials, especially if oil futures back away from the $81 level as many analysts expect,

Chevron Drives Upstream Growth with LNG Projects

Chevron enters the decade with an upstream portfolio of major capital projects that uniquely positions the company for future growth, executives said today at a meeting with financial analysts in New York. In the downstream business, executives highlighted plans to improve returns by aggressively lowering costs, exiting markets and streamlining the organization.

Gabrielli: pre-salt supply chain tight

While operating in Brazil’s pre-salt region does require an array of technologies, Petrobras CEO Jose Gabrielli told a Houston lunch that a bigger challenge lies in meeting logistical demands for operating in deep waters offshore. During the Brazil-Texas Chamber of Commerce event on 9 March 2010, Gabrielli said it is important to focus on ‘the hubs that we must develop for our people and goods 300km from our coastline.’ For the pre-salt, he elaborated, ‘the main challenge that we have is much more on logistics, on the optimization of the knowledge we have.’

The opportunities in pre-salt, he said, are big, but they also require a new hub for suppliers. ‘We believe the most important constraint that we may have is in the supply chain,’ Gabrielli said.

Nigeria May Push for Higher OPEC Oil Quota, NNPC Says

(Bloomberg) — Nigeria may seek to increase its OPEC oil production quota if output remains free from militant disruption, an official from state-owned Nigeria National Petroleum Corp. said today.

Chevron cutting 2,000 jobs in refining restructuring

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Chevron Corp. said Tuesday it plans to cut 2,000 jobs this year as part of an effort to realize savings in its refining operations, as the oil major signals that recent woes in the business of making gasoline and diesel fuel will persist well beyond 2010.

Sinopec Shanghai Says China Should Raise Fuel Prices

(Bloomberg) — China should increase fuel prices to prevent domestic refiners from incurring losses in March and April, said a unit of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the country’s biggest refiner.

Egypt: Petroleum ministry denies diesel shortage

Sufficient amounts of diesel are available on the local market as planned, said the Ministry of Petroleum, despite recent overcrowding at gas stations and reports of shortages.

Clashes at gas stations as diesel crisis escalates

Diesel fuel shortages continued in Cairo and the governorates on Monday, leading to clashes between frustrated drivers lining up outside gas stations. The Petroleum Ministry, however, has denied the existence of any shortfalls in the quantities of diesel fuel supplied to gas stations.

Shortages of both 80-octane and 90-octane gasoline have also been reported in a number of governorates.

U.S. Sitting on Mother Lode of Rare Tech-Crucial Minerals

China supplies most of the rare earth minerals found in technologies such as hybrid cars, wind turbines, computer hard drives and cell phones, but the U.S. has its own largely untapped reserves that could safeguard future tech innovation.

Those reserves include deposits of both “light” and “heavy” rare earths — families of minerals that help make everything from TV displays to magnets in hybrid electric motors. A company called U.S. Rare Earths holds the only known U.S. deposit of heavy rare earths with a concentration worth mining, according to a recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

S.Korea unveils ‘recharging road’ for eco-friendly buses

South Korean researchers Tuesday launched an environmentally friendly public transport system using a “recharging road” — with a vehicle sucking power magnetically from buried electric strips.

The Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV), towing three buses, went into service at an amusement park in southern Seoul. If the prototype proves successful, there are plans to try it out on a bus route in the capital.

Short-staffed agency overseeing high-speed-rail effort draws fire

WASHINGTON — The federal agency in charge of $8 billion in economic stimulus spending on high-speed-rail projects doesn’t have the staff or expertise to properly oversee the money, government investigators and congressional critics say.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), whose main job until now had been keeping freight and passenger railroads safe, awarded the high-speed-rail grants in January — months later than planned.

Libraries

Even more useful than the books or activities, though, is the principle behind libraries, that we and our neighbours can pool our resources and hold things in common that all of us occasionally need. Most of the Western World, however, adopted this principle for books and then stopped, never extending it to other obvious areas of life.

In fact, the trend of the last few decades has been the opposite – people bought more and more of their own private stocks of anything, no matter how expensive or little-used: a row of ten family homes might have ten rakes, ten chainsaws, ten barbecue pits and ten Dora the Explorer videos, each of which is used for only a few hours a year.

More urbanites have their pick of fresh fruit

Last fall, Eric Alperin, a San Francisco artist, heard about blackberries, plums and loquats growing on public property in his city and free for the picking.

Armed with bags and a pole device for picking fruit from tall branches, Alperin and his wife went foraging.

“It was great,” he said. “We picked as much as we could carry and had beautiful, fresh, free city fruit,” Alperin said. “I’ll definitely go (picking) again.” Fruit-picking opportunities like that are becoming more common, as volunteers in cities including Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia and Madison, Wis., mobilize behind a goal of planting fruit trees on public land in city parks and neighborhoods.

Agritourism helps Tennessee farms stay in business

NASHVILLE — In a tough year for Tennessee’s state budget, the departments of tourism and agriculture have found a mutual silver lining: a boomlet in agricultural tourism.

Milking cows (sort of), wandering through corn and cotton mazes, watching chicks hatch, having a country wedding and picking melons are among the activities drawing city folks and their pocketbooks to farms around Tennessee.

CERAWeek panel: Developing nations key to future

A shifting center of gravity from the developed to the developing world will redefine the energy landscape over the next two decades.

That’s the theme that emerged from the first panel discussion of this year’s IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ IHS CERAWeek conference in downtown Houston. The discussion kicked off five days of panels and lectures featuring top energy executives, policy makers and analysts.

Growing economies in Asia, particularly China, and the Middle East, will shape the supply and demand dynamic of everything from oil and gas demand to electricity to the development of renewable energy sources.

“What will fill the demand?” asked Xizhou Zhou, a China expert with IHS CERA.

“The answer to that question is, really, everything.”

Energy takes stage: CERAWeek offers wealth of information

If you’re into energy, this week is Christmas in March in Houston. It’s CERAWeek, the five-day confab covering all things energy-related. For the cognoscenti, it’s brimful of gifts of information and informed opinion.

CERAWeek is the brainchild of Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power and chairman of IHS-Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), a leading think tank/consultant on energy topics.

CERAWeek offers something for everyone interested in energy — oil, alternatives, the environment, coal, utilities and on and on for a full five days. But this year our attention will be focused on Wednesday’s daylong session on natural gas. And T. Boone Pickens is why.

CERAWEEK – FACTBOX: What are the big issues for CERAWeek?

(Reuters) – The symbiotic link between oil and the economy will dominate CERAWeek, the CERA consultancy’s annual go-to gathering of elite energy and economic figures and thinkers that begins on Monday in Houston.

CFTC official wants more energy market transparency

Energy commodities regulators worldwide will need to move carefully and cooperatively if they expect to make global oil markets more transparent, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Scott D. O’Malia said in Tokyo on Feb. 26.

“We have to acknowledge that we’ve witnessed a paradigm shift in the global oil market over the past decade,” he said in remarks to the International Energy Agency and Institute of Energy Economics Japan’s Forum on Global Oil Market Challenges. “The paradigm has shifted in two significant ways…. First, oil is now a financial asset and its price movements are correlated to economic growth. Second, the growth in oil demand is being led by developing nations.”

2010 energy prospects promising, U.K. firm says

Oil and gas services company Petrofac said it was confident for 2010 as it expects further investment in oil and gas projects, after it doubled its order backlog and posted net profit above forecasts in 2009.

Pakistan: Power tariff-hike to destroy economy

FAISALABAD – Proposed increase of Rs1.2 per unit in electricity tariff would push the cost of exportable items, making Pakistani textiles costly and inflicting loss of millions of dollars. It will also cause closure of more industries as industrial sector will not be able to absorb this shock; leading to more unemployment & poverty in the country.

Plans to increase consumption of fuel by 31 percent due to electricity crisis

The Venezuelan government plans to increase its fuel consumption by a third in 2010 to fuel thermoelectric plants with which President Hugo Chávez hopes to overcome energy crisis.

Officials expect a total consumption of 104 million barrels in 2010, about 285,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (bpd) of fuel oil, diesel and gas, which will be used to increase thermoelectric capacity by 4,000 megawatts (Mw).

‘Energy crisis just artificial’

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Richard Gordon said the power crisis in Mindanao is artificial and may be part of a sinister plot, and demanded an explanation from the Arroyo administration.

“They should explain why there is a power shortage. From what I have heard – and I have just been to Mindanao – the water level in Lanao lake is normal. They just opened up a power plant in Cebu and they will open up a couple more. I don’t know what they are talking about,” Gordon, Bagumbayan party presidential candidate, told editors and reporters of The STAR yesterday.

“They have a lot of explaining to do.”

East Kalimantan Demand Higher Coal and Gas Supply

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: East Kalimantan administration pleaded to the central government for more allocation of gas and coal for to meet regional demand for energy. Governor Awang Faroek said on Tuesday (9/3) the province accounts for 54 percent of total national gas production and produces 50 million metric tonnes of coal every year, and “Its not funny if East Kalimantan should experience energy crisis.”

Green energy revolution expected in Kingdom

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia and the Gulf signalled their intention to kick-start a renewable energy revolution in the region on Monday.

A panel of experts at the ongoing Gulf Environment Forum in Jeddah, chaired by Assistant Minister for Petroleum Affairs Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman, said measures were in place to improve the energy mix and finally reduce Middle East dependence on oil.

Sarkozy: ‘Help poor countries go nuclear in energy crisis’

POOR countries should be helped to build their own nuclear power stations to help fight climate change, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said yesterday.

His vision won over international energy officials from India to Brussels, and French executives eager to market their expertise abroad, at a Paris conference. But some experts said Mr Sarkozy’s push was opening the door to risks of deadly technology getting into the wrong hands, and warned consumers to pay attention to the staggering price tag of potential nuclear energy growth – up to £2.6 trillion worldwide by 2050.

“We need nuclear energy” to meet international goals set for slowing global warming, Mr Sarkozy said.

A reactor to make nuclear affordable

One of nuclear’s biggest drawbacks, though, is the multi-billion-dollar price tag for all those new reactors. From the Marketplace Sustainability Desk, Sarah Gardner reports now on a way to make nuclear affordable.

Schools’ New Math: the Four-Day Week

Four-day weeks have been in place for decades in states like New Mexico, Idaho and Wyoming and initially came about as states were looking to combat growing energy prices. Last week, Pueblo School District 70 in Colorado said it would adopt the schedule next school year for its roughly 8,000 students.

The shift has drawn scrutiny from some education and parents groups who say the shorter week hurts students academically and complicates child-care efforts.

Mexico Oil Politics Keeps Riches Just Out of Reach

VENUSTIANO CARRANZA, Mexico — To the Mexican people, one of the great achievements in their history was the day their president kicked out foreign oil companies in 1938. Thus, they celebrate March 18 as a civic holiday.

Yet today, that 72-year-old act has put Mexico in a straitjacket, one that threatens both the welfare of the country and the oil supply of the United States.

The national oil company created after the 1938 seizure, Pemex, is entering a period of turmoil. Oil production in its aging fields is sagging so rapidly that Mexico, long one of the world’s top oil-exporting countries, could begin importing oil within the decade.

Mexico is among the three leading foreign suppliers of oil to the United States, along with Canada and Saudi Arabia. Mexican barrels can be replaced, but at a cost. It means greater American dependence on unfriendly countries like Venezuela, unstable countries like Nigeria and Iraq, and on the oil sands of Canada, an environmentally destructive form of oil production.

“As you lose Mexican oil, you lose a critical supply,” said Jeremy M. Martin, director of the energy program at the Institute of the Americas at the University of California, San Diego. “It’s not just about energy security but national security, because our neighbor’s economic and political well-being is largely linked to its capacity to produce and export oil.”

Oil drops below $81 after monthlong rally

Oil prices dropped sharply to below $81 a barrel Tuesday, due to a stronger dollar and profit taking on a monthlong run fueled by growing investor optimism about global economic growth.

Gasoline prices at high for the year

Motorists are well down the road to higher pump prices as warmer weather and the driving season approach.

Average retail gasoline prices, continuing a surge that started last month, have now matched their 2010 high on the way to prices that many analysts believe will top $3 per gallon this spring.

Exxon Lowers Bar, Buys Assets Previously Deemed Unattractive

(Bloomberg) — Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc and Total SA are investing in assets that previously weren’t worth their time or money after oil-rich nations reduced access to reserves and exploration drilling faltered.

Efforts to find new sources of crude and natural gas are failing more often, with San Ramon, California-based Chevron Corp.’s exploration failure rate jumping to 35 percent last year from 10 percent in 2008. Countries such as Venezuela are making it more expensive for companies to develop their resources, if they’re allowed in at all. And previously developed fields are drying up, reducing oil companies’ future supplies, or reserves.

Samsung Heavy Wins Order From Shell for Floating LNG

(Bloomberg) — Samsung Heavy Industries Co. won an order to build a floating natural-gas facility for Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the first deal between the two under a 15-year supply contract signed last year.

INTERVIEW – Algeria sees global LNG recovery in 2-3 years

ALGIERS (Reuters) – The global slump in demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) is temporary and demand will recover within the next two to three years, Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil said in an interview on Monday.

“If we look at the long term, definitely from the environmental point of view and from the point of view of satisfying global demand, there is going to be a big need for natural gas,” Khelil told Reuters.

A conventional fuel, an unconventional future

The recent announcement that Korea Gas Corp. would invest $1.1-billion to participate in the development of EnCana’s huge gas shale holdings in northeastern British Columbia is another signal that Canada’s natural gas industry has entered a profoundly important new stage that, at earlier times, government policies made impossible.

Shell’s Arrow Bid May Spur Coal-Bed Gas Takeovers

(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc and PetroChina Co.’s A$3.3 billion ($3 billion) bid for Arrow Energy Ltd. may spur more takeovers of Australian producers of coal-bed gas, a growing source of supply for Asian energy importers.

Sasol may abandon fuel liquids plant if no govt funding – paper

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Petrochemical group Sasol (SOLJ.J) may abandon its planned 80,000 barrel-a-day South African coal-to-liquid Mafutha plant if the government does not help finance it, the Business Day newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The paper quoted Sasol Chief Executive Officer Pat Davies as saying the world’s top maker of motor fuel from coal would let the government determine its funding component for the project, while the company proceeds with its preparatory works currently in feasibility stage.

Mitsui Said to Consider Returning to Singapore Oil Trading

(Bloomberg) — Mitsui & Co., the Japanese trading group that earns half its profit from energy, may restart oil product trading in Singapore after withdrawing from the city- state in 2007, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The Tokyo-based company pulled out from Asia’s biggest oil- trading center when it shut its Singapore unit Mitsui Oil (Asia) Pte in 2007 after losing $81 million from naphtha transactions hidden by a trader. The cover-up resulted in the imprisonment of three former employees by Singapore courts last year.

Time for ‘bold action’ to reduce oil use in Greater Sudbury

Canada’s economy is highly dependent on oil. Many Canadians believe western Canada’s oil sands deposits will be our salvation. The oil sands, however, are a major atmospheric carbon emitter, which will exacerbate global climate change significantly, while also fouling the region’s water supply.

Should we all be driving hybrids to prepare for the impending high oil prices and volatility? Perhaps, but the report asserts, “There is real danger that the focus on technological advances in cars is making consumers and governments complacent.”

EPA probes whether shale gas drilling contaminates water supplies

The top U.S. environmental regulator said she was “very concerned” about fluids blamed by some for polluting water supplies near sites where drillers use them to extract natural gas from shale deposits. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson said she hopes her agency will launch a study this year into the nature of fluids used in the hydraulic fracturing process of natural gas drilling.

Fracking Fluids Part I: A controversy coming to an energy investment near you

The controversy surrounding fracking fluids is getting louder. Websites and media savvy organizations are getting more press on this issue, using a very simple and powerful pitch – are the chemicals used in fracking fluids in oil and gas wells contaminating our drinking water?

North American investors have not been directly hit by this issue yet, meaning that a company’s stock hasn’t plummeted because they had to stop drilling over these concerns – yet.

Challenging conventional wisdom on renewable energy’s limits

In making the case for a rapid conversion away from heavily polluting energy sources like coal and nuclear power to cleaner generation, renewable energy advocates often confront the argument that their scheme is impossible due to the intermittent nature of sun and wind.

But a groundbreaking study out of North Carolina challenges that conventional wisdom: It suggests that backup generation requirements would be modest for a system based largely on solar and wind power, combined with efficiency, hydroelectric power, and other renewable sources like landfill gas.

Tuning the energy innovation engine at MIT

BOSTON–The MIT Energy Conference here on Saturday covered a little bit of everything–”China speed,” climate change, financing gaps, government policy, nuclear and natural gas, and, of course, science experiments–as entrepreneurs, business people, and academics tried to get their arms around big-picture energy challenges.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has become a hotbed for clean-energy innovation over the past four years, attracting students and faculty to the field, some of whom have spun out promising companies.

I.B.M. Opens Energy Lab in Beijing

In another sign of China’s emergence as an epicenter of green technology, I.B.M. has opened a lab in Beijing to develop smart grid software for the global market.

IEA: safety, non-proliferation key premises for nuclear development

Safety and non-proliferation are two key premises for global expansion of nuclear power and countries seeking nuclear use must adhere to these principles, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Nobuo Tanaka stressed here Monday.

UAE believes in responsible use of nuclear power

The United Arab Emirates’ interest in developing nuclear energy is motivated by the need to develop additional sources of electricity.

This is to meet future demand projections and to ensure the continued rapid development of the country’s economy, UAE Foreign Minister H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan affirmed here today.

Israel ‘to unveil plans to build nuclear power plant’

Israel is expected to unveil plans this week to build a nuclear power plant, reports say.

They say an announcement will be made by Israeli Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau at an energy forum in Paris.

Israel is facing a crisis over electricity supplies, but environmental objections have blocked efforts to build a new coal-fired plant.

Don’t buy Obama’s greenwashing of nuclear power

Last month, inspectors found dangerous chemicals in the groundwater near the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor. The situation demonstrates that from the mining of uranium ore to the storage of radioactive waste, nuclear reactors remain as dirty, risky, and as costly as they ever were. If President Obama’s recent enthusiasm for nuclear reactors has led you to believe otherwise, you’ve bought in to the administration’s greenwashing of nuclear.

Solar Industry Learns Lessons in Spanish Sun

Farmers sold land for solar plants. Boutiques opened. And people from all over the world, seeing business opportunities, moved to the city, which had suffered from 20 percent unemployment and a population exodus.

But as low-quality, poorly designed solar plants sprang up on Spain’s plateaus, Spanish officials came to realize that they would have to subsidize many of them indefinitely, and that the industry they had created might never produce efficient green energy on its own.

Lending Scheme to Bring Solar to Cambodia’s Poor

With access to solar-powered energy products for Cambodia’s rural poor extremely limited, the solar energy company Kamworks and the Cambodia Mutual Savings and Credit Network are partnering to provide low-interest loans to customers hoping to outfit their homes with solar panels, while Kamworks will provide and install the equipment.

Ethanol Making Comeback as Valero Sees Profit Where Gates Lost

(Bloomberg) — Ethanol, the commodity that cost Bill Gates more than $44 million the last time prices collapsed, is poised to rally as much as 20 percent as the fastest drop since 2008 spurs demand.

Falling corn prices and record ethanol supplies have driven the price down 17 percent in three months to $1.634 a gallon, its worst run since 2008’s fourth quarter. It will average $1.96 a gallon at the peak of the U.S. summer driving season as refiners from Valero Energy Corp. to Sunoco Inc. mix more into gasoline made from increasingly pricey oil, according to the median of 10 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

European Activists Sue Over Biofuels Studies

Environmental lawyers and activists on Monday sued the European Commission for failing to release studies investigating the impact of biofuels on the environment.

Whetting Singapore’s thirst for rice

“To produce one bowl of rice it takes about 500 liters of water,” said Dr. Bouman.

“For a city like Singapore, the question is whether the 688 billion liters of water needed to produce the country’s rice will remain available.”

Worldwide, water for agriculture is becoming increasingly scarce as groundwater reserves drop, water quality declines because of pollution, irrigation systems malfunction, and competition from urban and industrial users increases.

Climate change will also reduce water availability in large parts of the world. And, by 2025, 15-20 million hectares of irrigated rice will suffer some degree of water scarcity.

Cool it on efforts against new rules, EPA chief asks

WASHINGTON — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday pushed back against lawmakers’ attempts to halt the EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gases from power plants, refiners and other industrial facilities.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency’s proposed new rules, which would take effect next year, could help ignite new demand for clean energy technology.

Instead of trying to block new rules, lawmakers should spend their energy focusing on “new legislation to do something” about climate change, Jackson told reporters after a speech at the National Press Club.

Asking “what would nature do?” leads to a way to break down a greenhouse gas

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – A recent discovery in understanding how to chemically break down the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into a useful form opens the doors for scientists to wonder what organism is out there – or could be created – to accomplish the task.

University of Michigan biological chemist Steve Ragsdale, along with research assistant Elizabeth Pierce and scientists led by Fraser Armstrong from the University of Oxford in the U.K., have figured out a way to efficiently turn carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide using visible light, like sunlight.

California to amend ‘cool cars’ rule

The state, which gave initial approval of the new rules in June, aims to sharply reduce solar energy in vehicles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The California Air Resources Board is working to finalize the regulations in the coming weeks. The final rules must be in place by May 7.

But the California Police Chiefs Association, California State Sheriffs Association, Crime Victims United of California and other groups warn that the new standards, requiring window glazing to keep car interiors cool, could degrade signals from cell phones, and from ankle monitoring bracelets worn by felons.

Fidel Castro warns of dangers threatening humanity

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro warned of many dangers currently threatening the planet and the humanity such as mass destructive weapons and climate change.

“For the first time, the human species, in a globalized world full of contradictions, have created the ability to destroy themselves,” Castro said in an article released on Monday.

How does America end up with such terrible national security strategies?

Last month I wrote a blog post on the appallingly, monumentally bad Quadrennial Defence Review (QDR) of 2010 — the document the US Defence Department is required to produce as a basis for developing the military force structure and strategic requirements for the next four years. This document, meant to analyse the threats to the United States, failed to mention radical Islam as a threat in its over 100 pages. It also passed over the threat of Iranian nuclear weapons with only a one-sentence mention. Yet the top officials of the Defence Department did not fail to notice the REAL threat facing the United States. The QDR devoted several pages to the serious threat inherent in… climate change.

Monbiot: The trouble with trusting complex science

There is no simple way to battle public hostility to climate research. As the psychologists show, facts barely sway us anyway.

Wild relatives of crops seen aiding climate fight

(Reuters) – Farm experts plan to track down wild relatives of crops such as rice or wheat with traits that make them able to resist global warming in a project costing perhaps $50 million, a leading expert said on Tuesday.

“The wild relatives of cultivated crops … are largely uncollected or conserved in gene banks,” said Cary Fowler, head of the Rome-based Global Crop Diversity Trust which co-manages a “doomsday” seed vault on an Arctic island north of Norway.

Move to train truckers to be greener

The UK government has launched a new proposal to encourage more lorry drivers to take eco-driver training in a move to save up to 3m tonnes of carbon emissions.

Over five years, a saving of around £300m in fuel costs could be achieved, according to transport minister Paul Clark.

India backs Copenhagen climate deal: minister

NEW DELHI (AFP) – India has decided to formally back a climate change accord struck in Copenhagen last year that includes non-binding limits on global warming, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said Tuesday.

Climate forest deal in sight: Indonesia

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Wealthy and developing nations should be able to seal an agreement this year on deforestation, unlocking a key part of the next treaty on global warming, Indonesian negotiators said Monday.

Should Scientists Fight Heat or Stick to Data?

You want to know why Al Gore and his movie have proven to be such an abject failure? (And yes, failure is the right word — polling shows no net increase in public concern about global warming in the years following the movie — for two decades its been roughly a third of the public who are seriously worried about global warming.) It’s for this very reason. A very dull and dispassionate voice was chosen to deliver a supposedly dire and passionate message. It was one of the worst cases of bad casting in history. Gore is ultimately “a scientist” when it comes to communication instincts. You can see it played out in his movie and two books as he’s slowly come to the realization that you need something more than information to reach the masses. Duh.

Post Carbon

Contrary to popular belief, young people are not more politically engaged on the issue of climate change than older Americans, according to a new climate poll conducted by researchers at American, Yale and George Mason universities.

The researchers found “adults under the age of 35 are significantly less likely than their elders to say that they had thought about global warming before today, with nearly a quarter (22 percent) of under-35s saying they had never thought about the issue previously. Only 38 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 34 say that they had previously thought about global warming either ‘a lot’ (10 percent) or ’some’ (28 percent), compared to 51 percent of those 35-59 and 44 percent of those 60 and older.

When the Water Rises

It’s easy to imagine an apocalyptically soggy future for New York—high waves soaking the hem of Lady Liberty’s robes, flash floods roaring through subway tunnels, kayakers paddling down Wall Street—and just as easy to dismiss it all as another end-of-days Hollywood fantasy. Global warming may be powerful and real, but so is denial, and the urge to postpone thinking about that particular item on the world’s to-do list is almost irresistible. Coastal cities, however, don’t have that luxury. For centuries, New York has been steadily expanding into its harbor; when the steroidal storms of the not-too-distant future start pummeling our shores, the waters will push back.

So Barry Bergdoll, the head of the Museum of Modern Art’s architecture and design department, divvied New York Harbor among five teams of designers and challenged them to figure out how a low-lying metropolis might deal with rising sea levels and violent storm surges. Their answers will appear (starting March 24) in the MoMA exhibit “Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront,” and they vary from spongy streets to reefs made of glass or oysters to apartment buildings dangling above the brine.

Developed countries outsource emissions: study

Developed countries are “outsourcing” more than a third of their carbon emissions associated with products and services to other countries, researchers say.

A study of trade data found that some countries in Western Europe have more than half of their total carbon dioxide emissions occurring elsewhere, especially in developing countries such as China.

How food and water are driving a 21st-century African land grab

We turned off the main road to Awassa, talked our way past security guards and drove a mile across empty land before we found what will soon be Ethiopia’s largest greenhouse. Nestling below an escarpment of the Rift Valley, the development is far from finished, but the plastic and steel structure already stretches over 20 hectares – the size of 20 football pitches.

The farm manager shows us millions of tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables being grown in 500m rows in computer controlled conditions. Spanish engineers are building the steel structure, Dutch technology minimises water use from two bore-holes and 1,000 women pick and pack 50 tonnes of food a day. Within 24 hours, it has been driven 200 miles to Addis Ababa and flown 1,000 miles to the shops and restaurants of Dubai, Jeddah and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Ethiopia is one of the hungriest countries in the world with more than 13 million people needing food aid, but paradoxically the government is offering at least 3m hectares of its most fertile land to rich countries and some of the world’s most wealthy individuals to export food for their own populations.

POLL – OPEC to keep oil production targets steady

LONDON (Reuters) – OPEC will keep oil production
targets on hold this month but could raise output later year as
the world recovers from recession, pushing up demand for fuel, a
Reuters poll showed on Monday.

Fourteen analysts were unanimous in saying the Organization
of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would roll over its
existing commitment to pump no more than 24.84 million barrels
per day (bpd), equivalent to about 30 percent of global demand.

ADNOC eyes 50% boost to drilling

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) will increase oil and gas drilling by 50% this year to sustain and enhance output, a senior company official said today.

Diesel shortage paralyzes Egypt’s highways

Diesel fuel shortages continued throughout Egypt on Sunday, causing cars and buses to form 500- meter-long queues at some gas stations, as supply quantities were cut by half in many areas of Cairo and the provinces. Several fights between drivers over limited supplies of diesel fuel were reported, with police having to intervene in some cases.

Lyondell files restructuring, rejects Reliance

MUMBAI/NEW YORK (Reuters) – LyondellBasell filed a restructuring plan on Monday, rejecting a takeover bid from India’s Reliance Industries that valued the bankrupt petrochemicals firm at $14.5 billion.

Gulf braces for huge petrochemicals expansion

The Gulf is undergoing massive capacity expansion in petrochemicals and will soon account for a lion’s share of world’s ethylene production, investment bank Alpen Capital has said in its new report.

Arroyo warned vs bypassing Congress in dealing with Mindanao power crisis

Opposition senators on Monday warned President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo against bypassing Congress in addressing the energy crisis in Mindanao.

Senator Francis Escudero said failure to seek the approval of the both the Senate and House of Representatives would make the contracts entered into by the government voidable.

The first wind farm in Venezuela will be installed in June and July this year

The towers of the 24 wind turbines of the first wind farm in Venezuela will be installed in June and July this year, said Stella Lugo, Governor of Falcon state, where the wind farm is built. The wind farm Paraguana will have 100 megawatts in its final phase.

The power plant is part of Venezuela policy to diversify its energy sources for electricity production, which now depends on more than 70% of hydropower.

Zimbabwe: Full-scale ethanol production on the cards

Government has set up a team of experts to finalise modalities on full-scale commercial blending of petrol and ethanol produced from sugarcane at Triangle in Chiredzi to ease petrol importation pressures on the fiscus.

The ethanol plant at Triangle resumed production in 2008 following refurbishment and last year produced over a million litres of fuel grade ethanol.

It Came From the Sea

Since mapping the human genome 10 years ago, J. Craig Venter has found plenty of work. The biologist now is burrowing into DNA in as many forms as he can discover, in organisms from the sea and deep underground. His goal: to use the building blocks found in naturally occurring DNA to make synthetic cells. He and his partners at Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC believe genetically engineered life forms hold great promise for energy and other industries.

China lawmakers call for more crude, fuel reserves

BEIJING (Reuters) – China should step up efforts to build up state reserves of crude oil and refined fuel to enhance the country’s energy security, state media cited lawmakers as saying.

National crude demand would exceed 550 million tonnes by 2020, compared with about 400 million tonnes in 2009, National People’s Congress member Chen Geng told the China Energy News in an interview published on Monday.

Chen, also a former general manager of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the country’s top oil producer, said it was unlikely China would increase domestic oil production above 200 million tonnes in the next 10 years.

“That means we have to import about 350 million tonnes of oil by then,” he told the newspaper.

Oil Advances to Two-Month High Above $82 on Economic Optimism

(Bloomberg) — Oil rose to a two-month high above $82 a barrel in New York amid growing confidence that the economic recovery is proceeding and set to bolster fuel demand.

Crude advanced for a second day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the group of nations using the euro is ready to rescue Greece should the government struggle to fund its deficit. Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators increased their bets on oil prices rising for a third week, according to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

India’s ONGC May Borrow $10 Billion to Buy Assets

(Bloomberg) — Oil & Natural Gas Corp., India’s biggest energy explorer, may borrow $10 billion over the next decade as it competes with rivals from China and South Korea to buy oil assets overseas to meet domestic fuel demand.

Essar Group Said to Plan $3 Billion Debt, Equity Sale

(Bloomberg) — Essar Group, owned by Indian billionaires Shashi and Ravi Ruia, plans to raise $3 billion overseas to fund acquisitions and expand its oil, power and steel businesses, two people familiar with the matter said.

CNPC sees China oil output up 1-2% in 2010

China’s crude oil output will rise by 1-2 percent this year, Yu Baocai, vice president of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), said on Sunday.

The forecast is slightly below a previous estimate of 2 percent given in a CNPC research report but above the 0.5 percent growth target issued by China’s planning ministry, the National Development and Reform Commission, in its 2010 economic plan.

Saudi Arabia to promote private sector: Saudi king

RIYADH – Top OPEC exporter Saudi Arabia has been largely unaffected by a global financial crisis and will continue to encourage private sector growth and pursue a moderate oil policy, King Abdullah said on Sunday.

Total to Invest in EDF LNG Terminal Near Site of Shut Refinery

(Bloomberg) — Total SA, under fire from unions for the planned closure of its Dunkirk refinery in northern France, will invest in a 1 billion euro ($1.4 billion) liquefied natural gas terminal nearby that’s being spearheaded by Electricite de France SA.

Basra has a ‘good feeling’ about vote

Turnout is 60% in the southern Iraqi city. Many voters express optimism about the nation’s fifth post-Hussein elections. But some fear rivalries could spill into violence.

Shell, PetroChina Offer $3 Billion for Australia’s Arrow Energy

(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc and PetroChina Co. made an offer worth more than A$3.3 billion ($3 billion) to acquire Arrow Energy Ltd., the holder of Australia’s biggest coal-seam gas acreage, triggering a record gain in the shares.

Queensland Coal Producers to Bid for QR Coal Network

(Bloomberg) — Queensland coal producers will bid for the state government’s rail network and counter a planned A$3 billion ($2.7 billion) initial share sale of the assets, the local resources council says.

Goldman Sachs partner Jeffrey Currie goes against the flow

The Goldman Sachs oil research team, which reports to Currie, who is global head of commodities research, consistently tops forecasting league tables. But in early 2008 it made an uncharacteristically poor call. Oil analyst Arjun Murti forecast oil could spike to $200 a barrel in two years if spurred by a 1970s-style oil crisis event. Murti’s claim carried weight as he correctly predicted oil’s rise to over $100 a year earlier.

Sasol’s First-Half Profit Falls 52% as Oil Declines

(Bloomberg) — Sasol Ltd., the largest producer of motor fuel made from coal, said first-half profit fell 52 percent as the rand strengthened against the dollar and as the price of competing crude oil declined.

Kairiki Energy Seeks Partners for 600 Million-Barrel Oil Field

(Bloomberg) — Kairiki Energy Ltd., an Australian oil explorer whose shares have tripled in the past year, is seeking partners to develop a crude field in the Philippines with potential reserves of 600 million barrels.

China positive toward resolving gas field dispute

BEIJING — China has a positive attitude toward addressing a dispute with Japan over gas field development in the East China Sea, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Sunday. ‘‘The attitude of China is positive, not negative,’’ Yang said at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament.

What’s wrong with exploiting nature?

The filmmakers interview local indigenous people whose lives have been disrupted by the works. Where once this was an isolated, tranquil landscape, it is now scarred by strip mining and the air in some areas reeks of ‘stink bomb’ fumes from the extraction process. But this is just the latest instance of the industrialisation of wilderness. What gives these indigenous inhabitants the right to the unfettered use of this land? While it is right that oil companies should leave the land in a state where it can be used for other purposes afterwards, there is nothing wrong with making use of natural resources.

Energy Group Proposes North Sea Electricity Super-Grid, FT Says

(Bloomberg) — A group of 10 companies including Areva SA and Siemens AG will propose a plan today for a North Sea electricity “super-grid” connecting the U.K., Germany and Norway, the Financial Times reported, citing the group.

ANALYSIS – Smart grid spending powers ahead in Asia

SEOUL/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Japan, South Korea and China are investing about $9 billion this year in infrastructure and information technology to make electricity networks more efficient, creating lucrative opportunities for niche technology and equipment providers.

The “smart grid” system, through computerised monitoring of electricity flowing through a power grid, allows utilities to automatically manage electricity usage in a way that is more reliable and flexible.

Asia’s spending on smart grids is expected to outpace the United States, with China alone seen investing $7.3 billion in the sector this year, according to Zpryme, a market research firm based in Austin, Texas.

Will smart meters help reduce energy bills?

Smart meters that monitor exact energy usage multiple times a day, resulting in accurate bills, have to be in all households by 2020, the government said last year. It is hoped they will also cut carbon levels by encouraging householders to pay more attention to energy usage and make more effort to control it. So should you switch to a smart meter now, and will it really save you money?

EBay Highlights Conservation as a Benefit of Buying Used

On the site, green.ebay.com, and in the ads, eBay makes the case that buying something used is as environmentally correct as conservation and recycling.

“Most people think you have to make a product in a certain way with a certain set of ingredients for it to be green,” said Amy Skoczlas Cole, director of eBay’s green team. “What we’re saying is you don’t have to make this new product at all.”

Australia: Why didn’t I get my personal financial ‘stuff’ sorted earlier?

The age pension makes up a third of the annual Federal Budget and is set to increase at double the inflation rate to reach $45 billion in four years.

Future governments will look to scale down this commitment as the number of future taxpayers declines.

It is clearly obvious that managing this expectation gap of future retirees is an understatement. With rising inflation and living costs and fundamental changes such as a reaching “peak oil” and the question of who knows whether the age pension will be around in 10 to 20 years from now, only add to challenges in managing the expectation of these future retirees.

A social conscience

Steve Earnshaw is talking the talk and walking the walk as the spokesman for Transition Timaru. Feature writer Claire Allison met the environmentally aware orthopaedic surgeon.

The painful limits of localism

Every field of endeavour produces its classic conundrums, the tough nuts it never quite cracks. For centuries, engineering sought the secret of perpetual motion. Applied physics keeps looking for an efficient means of storing electrical power. In democratic politics our age is not the first to struggle to devolve decision-making without throwing sand into the wheels of big national plans: to reconcile bottom-up with top-down.

Solon Shares Jump After Report Says State Aid May Be Approved

(Bloomberg) — Shares of Solon SE, the German maker of solar panels, jumped as much as 21 percent following a report that the unprofitable company may get state aid guarantees.

Small biofuel farm bears fruit

If the vision of father and son farmers Christian and James Twigg-Smith becomes reality, acres of now-fallow sugar cane land will be growing crops again.

But rather than producing food, the land would be used to grow fuel oil.

About two years ago they planted jatropha, an oil-rich nut native to South America, on 250 acres in Keaau on Hawaii island. They have leased another 750 acres that could be put into production if the crop is successful.

Deal to Save Everglades May Help Sugar Firm

When Gov. Charlie Crist announced Florida’s $1.75 billion plan to save the Everglades by buying out a major landowner, United States Sugar, he declared that the deal would be remembered as a public acquisition “as monumental as the creation of the nation’s first national park, Yellowstone.”

Standing amid the marshes at the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in June 2008, Mr. Crist said, “I can envision no better gift to the Everglades, the people of Florida and the people of America — as well as our planet — than to place in public ownership this missing link that represents the key to true restoration.”

Nearly two years later, the governor’s ambitious plan to reclaim the river of grass, as the famed wetlands are known, is instead on track to rescue the fortunes of United States Sugar.

Asia seen as growth driver for voluntary CO2 market

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Fear of Western-imposed carbon tariffs on goods and services from Asia is likely to drive growth in offsetting emissions by large firms in the region, a voluntary carbon market executive said.

The market, worth $705 million in 2008 and likely much less in 2009, relies on businesses to voluntarily manage their carbon emissions, for example from the energy they use to produce and transport goods around the globe.

The Maldives Buys a New Island – That Floats

Sea level rise creates new business opportunity and “green jobs” that we’ll see more of, borne from the effects of climate change, as sea levels rise. The first floating island has just been commissioned this week by the sinking island nation of the Maldives, from Dutch Docklands, whose past work includes part of the artificial islands comprising The World off the coast of Dubai.

Energy world is in a new mode

The title of this year’s conference, “Energy: Building a New Future,” reflects that renewed optimism. But it also suggests that, while the worst of recession may be over, what’s ahead for the industry is unlikely to look anything like the past.

That’s true not only in the short term, when the biggest issue remains what shape the economic recovery will take and how it will affect global energy demand, but also further out, when clean-energy policies from governments and shifting market dynamics could bring wholesale changes to the business.

To address these issues, as in the past, CERAWeek will feature some of the biggest names in the energy world, including CEOs of major oil and gas companies and electricity providers as well as policymakers, academics and economists.

Oil oversupply too little to hurt market – Iran

DUBAI (Reuters) – Oil producers are pumping more crude than consumers need but the oversupply is insufficient to have a big impact on the market, Iran’s OPEC governor said on Sunday.

“There is some oversupply in the market,” Mohammad Ali Khatibi told Reuters in a telephone interview. “But it cannot damage the market. It can be absorbed into stocks.”

New Natural gas discovery is VITAL to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia holds large crude oil reserves, However, the Kingdom is very short in natural gas reserves.

India: Industrial sector reeling from power shortage

HYDERABAD: Expressing helplessness over power cuts and shortage of supply, Chief Minister K Rosaiah said in the present scenario, it is inevitable to impose restrictions.

The Philippijnes: Gov’t urged to consider putting up nuke plant

An opposition lawmaker urged the government Sunday to seriously consider putting up nuclear power plants that could generate sufficient power supply to Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, saying it could be the ultimate solution to the recurring energy crisis in the country.

Philosophy, Environment and Insanity

One of our most puzzling behaviours is our continued destruction of the natural environment that sustains us. When the consequences are so obviously disastrous and self-defeating, why don’t we stop? The answer to this perplexing question seems to be hidden deeply within our human psyche, buried somewhere beneath genes and character until it expresses itself in culture. Exploring this inner territory in search of answers is challenging.

Deep Economy. Read It!

Our ideas of growth and development can’t involve the rest of the world (or even Americans) living like Americans.

1. If the Chinese ate meat like Americans, they’d use 2/3 of the world grain harvest.
2. If the Chinese owned cars like Americans, they’d use more than all the oil currently produced globally.
3. If the Chinese ate fish like the Japanese, they’d consume more than the current global harvest which is already not sustainable.
4. Now think what if India, SE Asia, and Africa followed suit.

Bark beetle debate adds fuel to the wildfire

Across the Western USA, the complex relationship between forests, logging, wildfires, drought, climate change, and yes, even beetles, remains a controversial challenge for politicians, logging interests, and environmentalists.

Iran’s Ace (or Deuce): Its Oil Reserves

Diplomacy and energy are never far apart in the Persian Gulf. So, as American officials seek new international sanctions against Iran this week, it’s probably wise for them to remember how much the world’s global energy map has changed over the past decade.

Iran’s leaders certainly do, and they’ve been counting on their increased ties with Asian countries, especially China, as their trump card against efforts to hem in their nuclear program.

At the same time, the Iranians may want to reconsider just how much that trump card is worth. A number of experts say it is losing its value with each month that the stalemate over its nuclear program continues.

Africa’s oil exports to China only account for 13% of total

Africa’s oil exports to China accounted for only 13 percent of its total oil exports, lower than the amounts exported to Europe and the US, which both surpassed 30 percent, China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said during a news conference at the ongoing Third Session of the National People’s Congress on Sunday, xinhuanet.com reported.

Yang also said China’s investment in Africa’s oil sector accounted for only 1/16 of the world’s total investment in African oil, which is also much less than the amount invested by either Europe or the US.

Iraq extends gas MOU with Shell – oil minister

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq has extended a memorandum of understanding with Royal Dutch Shell on a natural gas venture around the southern oil hub of Basra for six months from March 2010, Iraq’s oil minister told Reuters on Sunday.

“We will resume talks with Shell after the election,” the minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, said after he cast his vote in the country’s second full parliamentary election since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Iran says to issue bonds worth 1 bln euro

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran will start offering bonds worth a total of 1 billion euro on March 9, the Oil Ministry’s website SHANA reported on Sunday.

Nigeria arrests 24 over ‘illegal’ refineries

LAGOS (AFP) – Nigerian security forces have arrested 24 people accused of stealing crude oil and illegally refining it, a military spokesman said on Sunday.

Is fusion power really viable?

2010 is a big year for nuclear fusion but experts fear that a lack of fuel could push the dream of cheap, safe, clean and limitless energy far into the future.

The biofuel era – not on horizon – yet

The world, it is said, belongs to those with the most energy. And the search for alternative energy, for a number of reasons – from political to environmental – continues. The price spike in 2008, preceding the recession the world is now desperately endeavoring to climb out – gave a fillip to the pursuit.

Catalyst could power homes on a bottle of water, produce hydrogen on-site

(PhysOrg.com) — With one bottle of drinking water and four hours of sunlight, MIT chemist Dan Nocera claims that he can produce 30 KWh of electricity, which is enough to power an entire household in the developing world. With about three gallons of river water, he could satisfy the daily energy needs of a large American home. The key to these claims is a new, affordable catalyst that uses solar electricity to split water and generate hydrogen.

The Wrong Kind of Green

Why did America’s leading environmental groups jet to Copenhagen and lobby for policies that will lead to the faster death of the rainforests–and runaway global warming? Why are their lobbyists on Capitol Hill dismissing the only real solutions to climate change as “unworkable” and “unrealistic,” as though they were just another sooty tentacle of Big Coal?

At first glance, these questions will seem bizarre. Groups like Conservation International are among the most trusted “brands” in America, pledged to protect and defend nature. Yet as we confront the biggest ecological crisis in human history, many of the green organizations meant to be leading the fight are busy shoveling up hard cash from the world’s worst polluters–and burying science-based environmentalism in return. Sometimes the corruption is subtle; sometimes it is blatant. In the middle of a swirl of bogus climate scandals trumped up by deniers, here is the real Climategate, waiting to be exposed.

Climate change skepticism a litmus test for GOP

WASHINGTON – — It wasn’t long ago that Marco Rubio and Tim Pawlenty, two of the brightest fresh faces in the Republican Party, supported legislation to limit the greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for global warming. But in recent weeks both have suddenly begun to express doubts about whether burning coal, powering cars with gasoline and other human activities in fact have anything to do with a warming Earth.

The shifts by Rubio and Pawlenty — as well as other prominent Republicans — reflect the rising power of climate change skeptics in the GOP, where global warming is becoming a litmus test for conservatives.

RealClimate: Arctic Methane on the Move?

Methane is like the radical wing of the carbon cycle, in today’s atmosphere a stronger greenhouse gas per molecule than CO2, and an atmospheric concentration that can change more quickly than CO2 can. There has been a lot of press coverage of a new paper in Science this week called “Extensive methane venting to the atmosphere from sediments of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf”, which comes on the heels of a handful of interrelated methane papers in the last year or so. Is now the time to get frightened?

No. CO2 is plenty to be frightened of, while methane is frosting on the cake. Imagine you are in a Toyota on the highway at 60 miles per hour approaching stopped traffic, and you find that the brake pedal is broken. This is CO2. Then you figure out that the accelerator has also jammed, so that by the time you hit the truck in front of you, you will be going 90 miles per hour instead of 60. This is methane. Is now the time to get worried? No, you should already have been worried by the broken brake pedal. Methane sells newspapers, but it’s not the big story, nor does it look to be a game changer to the big story, which is CO2.

Businesses will save $700m by cutting emissions: report

CLAIMS that even small greenhouse gas targets will hurt big industry have been undermined by a government report that found basic efficiency improvements could cut national emissions and save businesses more than $700 million.

Expensive oil to shorten supply chains: Top economist

Rubin said the price of energy will ultimately decide which modes of shipping will be used by supply chains in the future, but he disagrees with the PwC survey’s focus on only gas and diesel as possible fuel sources in the future. This is unlikely, Rubin believes, especially if price for a barrel of oil hits triple digits within the next two years as he predicts.

“Unlike in the 1970s and 1980s, there no longer are undiscovered fields of cheap, conventional oil,” Rubin says. “That oil has long been burned. So yes, we can get more (oil). But that new supply is going to come at an ever-increasing price tag on it.”

Land Rig Review: Accelerating Rig Count Underscores a Strong Recovery

Since the last Rigzone Land Rig Review was published, the recovery has gained steam with E&P companies continuing to increase their land rig contract portfolios. The optimistic outlook we highlighted late-last year may have actually been on the conservative side given the pace of the recovery so far. In fact, over the last four months, the U.S. land rig count has increased more rapidly on an absolute basis than in any other four-month period over the past decade.

Somali pirates demand $20m for hijacked tanker

Somali pirates have demanded a $20m ransom for a Saudi product tanker hijacked in the Gulf of Aden on Monday.

Arab News reported that a spokesman for the owner of the vessel, International Bunkering had confirmed that a ransom had been offered, although he was unaware of the progress of negotiations.

4 Tips to Beat the NEXT Crisis

After over 18 months of recession, world oil consumption is roaring back to its pre-crash peak. The International Energy Agency says oil demand will probably hit 86.5 million barrels a day this year. That is equal to a thousand barrels a second. The growth in demand isn’t in the U.S. — we’re using oil at 2005 levels. Instead, it’s the growth in China, India and other emerging markets that is driving global demand now.

Poorly maintained ships in Marshall Islands lead to fuel shortage

The second largest urban centre in the Marshall Islands, Ebeye, has been short of gasoline and kerosine for several weeks because poorly maintained ships are out of action.

Venezuelan businesses consider 1-day shutdown to curb energy consumption amid crisis

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan industries and retailers may close their doors one day a week in an effort to curb electricity consumption and help the government cope with an energy crisis.

Consumer group doubts power supply crisis in Mindanao

MANILA, Philippines – EmPower Consumers Alliance has raised doubts on government‘s pronouncements of a power supply crisis in Mindanao, saying it could be a play to force the use of nuclear energy and raise power rates.

Several towns in state of calamity due to drought

MANILA, Philippines – Local officials of several towns in Luzon and the Visayas plan to declare a state of calamity in their areas after agricultural crops and livestock were wiped out by the current dry spell brought by the El Niño phenomenon.

Ghana: Water Shortage Hits Takoradi

Mark Teiko Codjoe, Production Manager of GWC, attributed the acute water shortage in the Twin-City to the fact that the Pra River at Daboase and the Anankwa River at Inchaban, which served as the sources of raw water supply in the metropolis, were drying up.

He said as a result, the GWC treatment plants at Daboase and Inchaban could no longer supply the stipulated quantity of water to consumers in the metropolis.

Homeowners will ‘foot the bill’ for energy efficiency

People with an energy efficient home will save less than those with very inefficient ones, according to one expert.

Gareth Kloet, head of utilities at Confused.com suggested that the savings made by homeowners will depend on the body responsible for the installations, who ultimately want to “protect their revenue”.

He said: “We appear to be facing an energy crisis with an infrastructure that in Ofgem’s own words, is simply not fit for purpose and a government that has put us firmly on the hook for reducing our emissions.”

Exclusive: Famed NYT reporter tells Michael Moore capitalism driving humanity’s downfall

“All sorts of people who have spent their lives studying climate change, from Bill McKibben on down, have warned us that we don’t have a lot of time left,” Hedges said. “So it’s not just that capitalism has destroyed our economic system and hijacked our political system, but it literally is extinguishing the system that sustains life. If that’s not thwarted soon…then we will begin to see massive dislocations, environmental refugees, further depleting of natural resources. Overpopulation is also an issue. The UN estimates that by 2050 the size of the planet will double.”

Obama, politics and nuclear waste

President Barack Obama has pulled the plug on the entire Yucca Mountain enterprise, million-year safety study and all, by writing it out of his financial year 2011 budget, which begins in October.

Yucca Mountain’s death by budgetary axe defies logic. It coincides with Obama’s stated support for expanding nuclear power. More reactors mean more waste, now piling up above-ground at sites scattered around the country.

Setting Wind Power Records in Texas

Texas, the nation’s wind-power leader, set a new record for wind generation this morning, when — at 6:37 a.m. — about 19 percent of the electricity on the state’s main grid was supplied by turbines.

For Lighting, an Exception to ‘Buy American’

The Department of Energy has waived a “buy American” requirement for government projects receiving money from last year’s stimulus bill so that recipients can purchase energy-efficient lighting products for public buildings and roadways.

Our Toxic Waterways: Flushing Away Our Future?

Evidently, the world’s waterways are a giant toilet into which we can dump anything and everything, and then simply flush it all “away.” As if river currents and rolling waves will pull our pollution into some giant cosmic garbage disposal.

CERAWEEK – Stable oil prices shouldn’t breed complacency

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Oil company executives should not get too complacent about how oil prices settled in the $70-$80 a barrel range over the last several months as the economic recovery has yet to catch up, the head of consultancy IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates warned ahead of the CERAWeek conference next week.

While crude appears to have found a sweet spot, the global recession has eroded demand for gasoline and diesel, and Washington wants to regulate the carbon-intensive energy industry’s emissions.

And after two straight yearly declines in global oil demand took prices from their 2008 heights near $150 a barrel to about $32 in December 2008 before recovering to about $80 currently, sure signs of economic recovery that industry officials and government policy-makers crave aren’t quite there.

“One lesson we’ve learned about the oil price – never to be too confident about stability,” said Daniel Yergin, chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the oil industry, “The Prize.”

The heat continues to rise on the cost of producing shale gas

I try not to get into arguments over other people’s religious convictions. Even if you win your point, you make an enemy. That’s been a conventional understanding since the Thirty Years War. Sometimes, though, you have to clear your throat and carefully offer a heretical thought, if lives or large amounts of property are at risk.

For example, I think it might not be a bad idea to examine the faith-based assumption that the US has a virtually unlimited supply of natural gas from shale formations that can be extracted at a low price for the indefinite future. Perhaps the few people who think shale gas will be produced at a higher cost, and more slowly, than generally believed should be heard out, rather than be executed or sentenced to work in the salt mines. If you disagree, I will quickly withdraw that comment.

Ukraine’s president heads to Moscow to discuss gas

Ukraine’s new president Viktor Yanukovych has arrived in Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in hopes of getting Russia to cut gas prices for his country.

Yanukovych, who was sworn in last week, is anxious to review the 2009 gas deal with Moscow that bound Ukraine to pay European gas prices, which are much higher than Ukraine previously paid.

Abu Dhabi awards $300 mln Shah gas work-paper

DUBAI (Reuters) – Abu Dhabi and ConocoPhillips have awarded a 1.1 billion dirham ($300 million) construction contract for their Shah gas project to Al Jaber Group, Emirati newspaper al-Ittihad reported on Saturday.

Power Prices May Rise in Second Half, China Power’s Lu Says

(Bloomberg) — China, the world’s second biggest energy user, may increase wholesale electricity prices for coal-fired power plants in the second half, China Power Investment Corp. President Lu Qizhou said.

CNOOC, Total pitch oil plans to Ugandan government

KAMPALA (Reuters) – Global petroleum firms Total and China National Offshore Oil Corporation, CNOOC, have presented their investment plans in Uganda’s emerging petroleum industry to the government, an official said.

Why There Will Be No Recovery

When oil crossed $120 a barrel for the first time in May 2008, oil cornucopians knew they were in trouble…

Prices had quadrupled in just five years, yet had failed to bring new production online. Regular crude had flatlined around 74 million barrels per day (mbpd). The case for peak oil was looking stronger with every new uptick in crude futures.

The following month, prominent peak oil critic and cornucopian Daniel Yergin of IHS-CERA changed his stance: The peak oil threat would be neutralized by peak demand. Gasoline consumption had peaked in the U.S. and Europe, he argued, due to the combined effects of increasing efficiency, biofuels, and the recession.

Peak Oil task force

Having tried to interest people in the earthshatteringly important subject of peak oil for more than five years, I’m delighted – but also horrified – to see the likes of Richard Branson discussing the urgent need for society, businesses and individuals to take it seriously.

But when I posted about this recently I was dismayed to find that comments suggest some people don’t believe Branson is sincere. I’m at a loss to explain why somebody who runs an airline, train companies and bus fleets would pretend that there’s a problem about oil if there wasn’t.

Exxon Must Pay $1.2 Million for Workers’ Radiation Exposure

(Bloomberg) — Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest U.S. energy company, must pay $1.2 million to 16 Louisiana workers who claimed they were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation when they were cleaning used oil drilling pipes, a jury said.

Chesapeake swapped 25 mln shares for land in 2009

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Chesapeake Energy Corp, a natural gas producer known for a voracious appetite for land, issued 25 million shares to shore up its 2009 acquisition budget, an unusual move that was also dilutive for investors.

Low natural gas prices in 2009 hurt Chesapeake’s ability to generate cash, so the Oklahoma City company issued $429 million worth of its shares to trade for the right to drill, according to the company’s regulatory filings.

Peabody Declares Force Majeure at Australia Coal Mine

(Bloomberg) — Peabody Energy Corp., the biggest U.S. coal company, says production has halted and force majeure declared at its Wilkie Creek mine in Australia after heavy rain disrupted the rail network.

PVEV : A Match Made in the Heavens

What if you could do all your daily driving chores without ever stopping at a gas station to fill up?

What if you could provide your own fuel for such a vehicle at your own home?

What if this never contributed to pollution including noise pollution and was truly green and clean?

U.S. needs fresh look at nuclear waste issue: Chu

SANTA BARBARA, California (Reuters) – U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on Friday that the United States needs to come up with a better system for storing or disposing of radioactive nuclear waste than a planned repository near Las Vegas.

“The president has made it very clear that we are going to go beyond Yucca mountain. You should go beyond Yucca mountain,” Chu said. “But instead of wringing my hands, let’s go forward and do something better.”

Wind Turbine Syndrome, Part Myth, Part Mystery

Now, as though no one could ever be happy with a technology that was clean, renewable, and cheap in comparison to solar energy (many utilities offer wind power at premium prices of two to three cents a kilowatt-hour), comes a report that wind turbines produce what is being called, “Wind Turbine Syndrome”, a collection of symptoms that include heart disease, insomnia, migraines, panic attacks and vertigo. Wind turbines are also said to trigger epileptic seizures.

And this is just among the humans living near wind turbines. The cows are said to stop giving milk or wander away in a fugue. In the UK, a goat farmer says wind turbines near his goat farm caused 400 of the animals to “lose sleep and die.”

Demolishing Density in Detroit: Can Farming Save the Motor City?

So it’s come to this: Unable to provide basic services for all of his constituents, Detroit mayor Dave Bing is drafting plans starve his city down to a manageable size. Using proprietary data and a survey released by Data Driven Detroit, Bing and his staff will pick “winners and losers” amongst the city’s neighborhoods and seek to resettle residents from the losers, those deemed most unlivable. With Detroit’s tax base withering from the implosion of two-thirds of the Big Three, the housing crisis, and an ongoing exodus, Bing believes he has no other choice.

…Can Detroit really shrink its way back to greatness (or at least stop the bleeding)? Part of the problem is that it’s been hollowing out for decades. A city of 1.85 million residents in 1950, Detroit had just 951,270 as of the last national census a decade ago, and the next–which is key to obtaining millions of dollars in federal funding–is expected to turn up only 800,000 this year. Some believe it might eventually slide to 700,000 before all is said and done. A quarter of the city is nothing more than vacant lots–40 square miles of “urban prairie.” Bing plans to shrink the occupied portions further by tearing down another 10,000 buildings. That should earn praise from economists like Harvard’s Ed Glaeser, who’s suggested similar policies for other Rust Belt cities. And what will Bing do with all of that empty space? Turn over as many as 10,000 acres to John Hantz to farm.

School drawing new farmers

In the room were two couples in their 50s with high-tech backgrounds, three younger women, a retired man and a fellow originally from Indonesia. Their stories had several themes in common. They didn’t want to be in a university degree program where they’d sit in a classroom for four years, or as one person put it “never get their hands muddy nor even know what a package of seeds was for.”

Issues such as climate change, peak oil, seeking meaningful life changes or alternatives to create strong urban agriculture related food systems were some of the reasons why they were there. Plus the fact that this new school provides a balance of classroom theory and an apprenticeship approach which will include working in the fields and orchard of the Sharing Farm and other farms.

Disposal of spilled coal ash a long, winding trip

While the Tennessee Valley Authority’s cleanup has removed much of the ash from the river, the arsenic- and mercury-laced muck or its watery discharge has been moving by rail and truck through three states to at least six different sites. Some of it may end up as far away as Louisiana.

At every stop along the route, new environmental concerns pop up. The coal-ash muck is laden with heavy metals linked to cancer, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering declaring coal ash hazardous.

Xcel promises to cut Colorado pollution by 2017

DENVER (AP) — Xcel Energy is promising to cut air pollution over the next seven years.

A deal announced Friday by Gov. Bill Ritter, the company and lawmakers will require Xcel to reduce pollutants by retiring or modifying Front Range coal-fired power plants by 2017.

White House replaces Bush-era cups

The last holdover from the Bush administration has officially been used up and tossed out: The White House has received its new, “green” hot beverage cups.

Capture and reuse phosphorus, think-tank urges

On Thursday, the International Institute for Sustainable Development – a Winnipeg-based environmental think tank – released a report examining how phosphorus spilling into Manitoba’s waterways doesn’t just promote the growth of ecologically devastating algae.

The failure to capture and reuse phosphorus could contribute to a global food crisis as supplies of the vital fertilizer run low, say the authors of a report that highlights ways phosphorus can be recovered from human and animal waste.

3 Questions: Hunt Alcott on behavioral economics and the energy crisis

Behavioral economics is used to examine how consumers make decisions about everything from their life savings to which brands of jam they select in a supermarket. Hunt Allcott, a behavioral economist with a two-year appointment as the Energy and Society Fellow in MIT’s Department of Economics and the MIT Energy Initiative, wants to apply his field’s insights to the realm of energy use.

Climate change debate grows heated

Less than a month after CNN proclaimed “Last Decade Was Warmest Ever,” a headline in Britain’s Daily Mail shouted that a top climate scientist had taken a “U-turn” and now “Admits: There Has Been No Global Warming Since 1995.”

Pity the poor reader, whipsawed in recent weeks by what appear to be conflicting signals on one of the most complex and momentous subjects of our time.

Regional Rainfall in a Warming World

Slowly but surely, a picture of climate change at the regional scale — where it really matters — is beginning to take shape.

Apart from the obvious warming at the high polar latitudes, which already is affecting Arctic sea ice, the rate of Greenland ice cap melting, and Antarctic ice shelves, new details are beginning to emerge about the impact of global warming in the Tropics — the boiler-room of Earth’s climate and weather.

Climate change human link evidence ’stronger’

In 2007 the IPCC’s report concluded that there was “unequivocal” evidence that the Earth was warming and it was likely that it was due to burning of fossil fuels.

Since then the evidence that human activities are responsible for a rise in temperatures has increased, according to this new assessment by Dr Peter Stott and colleagues at the UK Met Office.

John Rockefeller leads charge against EPA on greenhouse gases

To the applause of coal workers and dismay of environmentalists, lawmakers in the Senate and House led by Sen. John Rockefeller (D) introduced legislation Thursday that would delay by two years any regulation of greenhouse gases by the EPA.

Sen. John Rockefeller warned last week that he might present a delaying measure. He is part of a growing chorus of lawmakers unhappy with the EPA for its plans to start curbing emissions as soon as next year.

Cap-and-trade key to US energy reform – Exelon CEO

BOSTON (Reuters) – U.S. energy reform has stalled now that the Democrats have lost their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and Republicans drift to a more negative position, a top industry executive said on Saturday.

“What I see is a series of disjointed, piecemeal approaches that will not yield the optimal solution,” Exelon Corp Chairman John Rowe said in remarks prepared for a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Arctic melt to cost up to $24 trillion by 2050: report

(Reuters) – Arctic ice melting could cost global agriculture, real estate and insurance anywhere from $2.4 trillion to $24 trillion by 2050 in damage from rising sea levels, floods and heat waves, according to a report released on Friday.

“Everybody around the world is going to bear these costs,” said Eban Goodstein, a resource economist at Bard College in New York state who co-authored the report, called “Arctic Treasure, Global Assets Melting Away.”

Want the Good Life? Your Neighbors Need It, Too

We live in a world of deep inequality, and the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. We in the rich world generally agree that this is a problem we ought to help fix—but that the real beneficiaries will be the billions of people living in poverty. After all, inequality has little impact on the lives of those who find themselves on top of the pile. Right?

Not exactly, says British epidemiologist Richard Wilkinson.

For decades, Wilkinson has studied why some societies are healthier than others. He found that what the healthiest societies have in common is not that they have more—more income, more education, or more wealth—but that what they have is more equitably shared.

What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism

For those concerned with the fate of the earth, the time has come to face facts: not simply the dire reality of climate change but also the pressing need for social-system change. The failure to arrive at a world climate agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009 was not simply an abdication of world leadership, as is often suggested, but had deeper roots in the inability of the capitalist system to address the accelerating threat to life on the planet. Knowledge of the nature and limits of capitalism, and the means of transcending it, has therefore become a matter of survival. In the words of Fidel Castro in December 2009: “Until very recently, the discussion [on the future of world society] revolved around the kind of society we would have. Today, the discussion centers on whether human society will survive.”

Author to address ‘hidden scandal’ of U.S. hunger

Shopping on a severely reduced budget, he found he could afford mainly processed and salty foods — items such as generic cereal, frozen pizza and “the nastiest, cheapest chicken noodle soup in the store.”

The results of his experiment are one part of “Breadline USA: The Hidden Scandal of American Hunger and How to Fix It.” Abramsky weaves his own narrative in between chapters about high gas prices, rising health care costs, urban development and low-wage employment.

Oil Surges, Gasoline Rises to 17-Month High, on U.S. Job Report

(Bloomberg) — Crude oil surged and gasoline rose to a 17-month high after U.S. employment declined less than forecast in February, bolstering optimism that fuel demand will climb in the world’s biggest energy-consuming country.

“The employment numbers were quite good relative to expectations, so I’m surprised the market isn’t responding more,” said Michael Fitzpatrick, vice president of energy at MF Global in New York.

Baker Hughes: US Rig Count Up 83 to 1,350 for February

Baker Hughes reported that the international rig count for February 2010 was 1,068, up 21 from the 1,047 counted in January 2010, and up 48 from the 1,020 counted in February 2009. The international offshore rig count for February 2010 was 301, up 13 from the 288 counted in January 2010 and up 15 from the 286 counted in February 2009.

Rising oil sands costs ‘a worry’

As energy giants rush back into the oil sands, surging demand for labour and equipment threatens to drive construction costs skyward once again.

“It’s a worry,” said Steve Laut, president of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., one of Canada’s biggest energy companies. Mr. Laut in the past had called on the industry to carefully schedule its projects in a bid to avoid overlapping construction timelines, which ratchet up the demand pressure on labour and equipment.

But several major oil sands announcements this year from Husky Energy Inc., BP PLC, ConocoPhillips and Total have made it clear that the race to develop the oil sands is putting pressure on the industry’s cost burden.

PIW: Mexico puts finishing touches on new oil contract rules

Mexico is about to inch back its 1938 oil industry nationalisation that started the ball of nationalisations rolling across the oil-rich world. The finishing touches are being put on new contract rules for the junior partners of Pemex, the country’s national oil company, writes Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, the industry newsletter, in its current edition.

Mexican reforms could cause crude oil price rise in 2011

The Mexican government has signed an agreement with Petroleos Mexicanos to revise rules that allow the state-run firm to award cash-based incentive contracts with private oil companies. This comes as the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) threatens energy sector reforms made in 2008. These reforms gave Pemex greater financial autonomy. PRI argues that the reforms give private companies too much control allowing funds to flow directly into their hands. The move may slow oil increases.

FACTBOX – Key political risks to watch in Mexico

Mexico’s oil production, a boon for the country in the 1980s and 90s, has slid drastically in the last few years, with output down nearly a quarter from 2004 peaks, due mainly to a lack of new projects to replace the flagging Cantarell field.

Last year was the fifth year in a row that output fell.

The government says it has stabilized production and will pump an average 2.5 million barrels per day in 2010, but some analysts fear another decline if output at state oil monopoly Pemex’s flagship Chicontepec project remains sluggish.

Japan Opens Wallet for Mexico Oil, Gas Project

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation will lend $600 million to help Mexico’s state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) develop oil and gas fields in the Chicontepec Basin, northeast of Mexico City, the Nikkei reported in its Friday evening edition.

Mexico is a major producer of crude oil, but its output is expected to soon plunge if development efforts flag.

Analysts: Power generation goal hard to achieve in 2010

Energy experts are concerned about the fact that, despite the present energy crisis, the Venezuelan electric system is still “exploiting to the limit” its thermal and hydroelectric sources.

Concomitantly, the measures implemented to reduce electricity demand and increase power generation have failed to bear fruits so far.

Balochistan govt allocates land for oil city

ISLAMABAD (APP): Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani Friday said the government had allocated hundreds of acres of land at Pasni in District Gwadar for setting up an ‘Oil City’ where refineries, petroleum products units and other allied installations would be established. The Chief Minister said this while talking to Lutfur Rehman, Chairman/Chief Executive of a Canadian based Pakistani company, who called on him, said a press release issued here.

Pakistan: Harnessing Sun, Water And Fossil Fuel

Nadeem Babar is addressing Pakistan’s severe power shortage right where it’s needed the most: in the wheat and cotton fields and the textile factories spread across the vital Punjab province. Under Babar’s tutelage the Punjab government is installing several small hydro and solar power plants. The former will generate electricity from the runoff of the 25,000 miles of irrigation canals mostly set up by the British in this agriculture belt. The latter will utilize the sun that shines here for most of the year.

Craig Venter’s Hangout

J. Craig Venter, the entrepreneur whose company recently signed a $300 million deal with Exxon Mobil to develop renewable energy sources, uses solar energy to warm the water of his new home and heat his pool. He’s installed energy-efficient custom LED lights and drives a solar-powered Tesla.

He also owns a gas-guzzling Range Rover and an Aston Martin. “I try to drive the two motorcycles and the Tesla more often to balance out the others,” Dr. Venter said with a twinge of guilt, surveying the cars, motorcycles, surfboards, kayaks and other items parked in what he called his “toys and joys room.”

Wind farm faces Oregon fight: Union joins the resistance to turbines

Union, a town of about 1,900 at the south end of the Grande Ronde Valley, is fighting plans to install wind turbines on snow-capped Craig Mountain just outside town. The project, by developer Horizon Wind Energy of Houston, would also install turbines on Clark Mountain southeast of town. Quaint little Union, spitting distance from northeast Oregon’s spectacular Eagle Cap Wilderness, hasn’t changed much since horseback desperadoes tried to rob the town bank in 1900.

Hawaiian Utility Fights Solar Industry Over Private Installations

If Hawaii’s largest utility gets its way, the islands’ abundant sunshine may be wasted.

In February, the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) proposed a ban on a booming industry of rooftop solar installations, claiming that too much distributed power generation could destabilize the islands’ isolated power grids. It was forced to back off by the public backlash, but environmental groups and the solar industry say the utility is trying other tactics that will stifle the growth of renewable energy in the state.

Environmentalists see oilsands in Avatar

Environmental and aboriginal groups have launched a new ad that compares their fight against Canada’s oilsands to the intergalactic good-versus-evil battle portrayed in the blockbuster movie Avatar.

The special Oscar edition of the Hollywood trade publication Variety hit newsstands Thursday containing a full-page ad lobbying for Avatar to take home the best-picture award because of what environmentalists say are its links to Alberta’s oilsands.

‘Jordan does not owe Israel a drop of water’

AMMAN – Jordan receives its allocated water shares in full under the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty’s second annex and does not owe Israel a drop of water, Minister of Water and Irrigation Mohammad Najjar said on Thursday.

The minister described as false recent reports in the local media claiming that Jordan is not receiving its fair share of water as guaranteed under the treaty or that the Kingdom has a water debt to Israel.

Recalcitrant Carbon

KMO welcomes Albert K. Bates back to the program to talk about the themes of his forthcoming book, The Biochar Solution. Could a form of homebrewed carbon sequestration provide a stopgap measure that could buy us time to implement effective atmospheric remediation?

Embargo Our Way To Freedom?

A quartet of Yale-affiliated economic types have published a modest proposal for U.S. energy policy that would eliminate the specter of oil shortages in 10 short years. Just phase in an embargo of foreign oil imports, a little each year, until by 2020 the dastardly crude peddlers in Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Angola are on their own. The cost of doing nothing, they say, is the strong possibility of a disruption in supply that drives world oil prices to $400 a barrel and bleeds $100 billion or more from the U.S. economy.

Hurdles for Saudi power plans

Fuel shortages and other hurdles will put new electricity generation targets in Saudi Arabia out of reach, analysts say, as the kingdom prepares to use more of its valuable crude oil to keep domestic lights on and air conditioners running.

Saudi Arabia struggling with gas needs

Although it has large natural gas reserves – the world’s fourth-largest proven natural gas reserves, according to Oil & Gas Journal (cited by the EIA) but much of this is alongside oil reserves. But low prices for natural gas until recent years, and deliberately low production of oil to meet Opec quotas have both contributed to the relatively low natural gas production levels.

11-year-old spends $44 million on Dubai homes

Officials in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, declined to comment on how the president’s son — or at least an Azerbaijani schoolboy with the same birth date and the same name as the son’s — came to own mansions on Palm Jumeirah, a luxury real estate development popular with multimillionaire British soccer stars and others with cash to burn. Ilham Aliyev’s annual salary as president is the equivalent of $228,000, far short of what is needed to buy even the smallest Palm property.

Azer Gasimov, the president’s spokesman, declined to discuss the Dubai real estate purchases. “I have no comment on anything. I am stopping this talk. Goodbye,” he said when contacted by telephone and told about the names on the property records. Gasimov did not respond to requests for further comment sent by fax, e-mail and cellphone text message.

Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic blessed with plentiful oil and gas reserves yet blighted by widespread poverty outside its glitzy capital, has long had a reputation for corruption. But the Dubai purchases, which have not been reported before, could provide a rare concrete example of just how much money the country’s governing elite has amassed and of the ways in which at least part of this wealth has been stashed overseas.

Galileo’s Legacy Conference: Students Learn How to Go Green and Sustain Energy

The second conference focused on the diminishing amount of oil on the planet, and how our reliance on gasoline will play a huge part in our downfall. Presented by Kenneth Deffeyes, Professor Emeritus of Geology at Princeton University, the conference was titled “Beyond Oil: Sustainable Energy”. He spoke of how rising gas prices, the lowering amounts of oil and rampant oil drilling are negatively affecting the planet, leading to a dark outlook of the future.

“Someday, Kansas will look like Iran, with dry holes,” Deffeyes said. “Someday the whole world will look like that. This is how you get there.”

Online gathering spreads worthy ideas and ideals

“You listen to TEDTalks?” asked a handyman who glanced over at my computer screensaver on his way through the house with his toolbox. “I love those talks–they’re better than TV!”

TEDTalks? Although it might sound like a cable show hosted by a guy in camouflage pants, it actually stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. The online series is the spawn of an annual, multidisciplinary gathering of the world’s greatest creative thinkers, who pitch their insights before an invite-only crowd. But it’s hardly a Davos-style congress of privacy-mad movers and shakers. TED was launched in the mid-’80s in southern California, and was a low-key affair until its current “curator,” new media entrepreneur Chris Anderson, put all the material online in 2005, turning the website’s “riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world” into a global phenomenon.

Coastal Erosion Threatens Evolutionary Hotspots In Gulf Region

The loss of coastal barrier lands to erosion and the dredging of deep channels far inland allows salt water to infiltrate any fresh ground water and aquifers contiguous to these. This is exacerbated by over-pumping these sources for potable water and agricultural as is happening in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Salt water is also effecting agricultural lands in the critical Nile River delta. This is due to both the loss of fresh, unpolluted water and its rapid erosion. This erosion is due in part to the loss of sediment now trapped behind the Aswan Dam. Channel dredging and sea level rise accelerate this loss.

We’re dealing to coal addicts: Hansen

A leading climate scientist has likened Australia’s continued export of coal in the face of global warming to that of a ”drug dealer” feeding the world’s fossil fuel addiction.

James Hansen, the so-called grandfather of climate change and head of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, has become famous for his research on the Earth’s climate and his dogged attempt to bring the science of global warming to the world.

His solution is clear: ”We have to phase out coal.”

Oil-rich countries demand a bigger cut of profits

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Two of the world’s oil-rich countries may make it harder for oil companies to do business with them.

Both Brazil and Nigeria currently offer fairly good contract terms to international oil giants like Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell that operate within their borders. But now they’re hoping to collect a much bigger chunk of the profits from the oil produced in their countries.

“Host governments are trying to find ways to increase their share,” said Joseph Stanislaw, an independent energy adviser at Deloitte & Touche. “The terms are going to get more difficult over time.”

Analysts Split on Direction of Crude Oil Price, Survey Shows

(Bloomberg) — Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News were split over whether crude oil prices will rise or fall next week amid mixed economic reports and ample stockpiles, a Bloomberg News survey showed.

Fifteen of 40 analysts, or 38 percent, said oil will increase through March 12. Fifteen more respondents predicted that futures will decline. Ten said there will be little change in prices. Last week 58 percent of those surveyed forecast that the market would fall.

How Long Until Peak Natural Gas?

The natural gas paradox is this: In the past decade a technology called horizontal drilling was perfected and now shale rock, which was never before seen as a reservoir of natural gas or oil, is being exploited all across the country. This revolution is going full swing in the United States with areas like the vast Marcellus shale in the Northeast and the Haynesville shale in Louisiana, proving to hold trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. Even the die hard prophets of peak oil doom are finally waking up to the fact that we have many more years worth of this resource left.

We suddenly have over a one hundred year supply of natural gas at current consumption rates and that number has been growing by about one decade more each year since 2005. New discoveries such as the Eagle Ford shale in south Texas are adding trillions more cubic feet to the natural gas inventory. So, peak oil, yes. Peak natural gas, no way.

Shell CEO says (costly) oil here to stay

SANTA BARBARA (MarketWatch) — Royal Dutch Shell’s chief executive sought to manage expectations for new, alternative energy sources on Thursday, predicting that oil will remain the dominant energy source for decades — not to mention one that will become more difficult to obtain, and hence more expensive.

China to link natural gas price with oil

Zhang Guobao, CPPCC member and head of the National Energy Administration (NEA), made it clear March 4 that China’s natural gas price will be linked to the oil price. In regards to the current oil price trend, Zhang said that it is involved with too many financial factors and the price does not fully reveal the relationship between supply and demand.

Hayward Gets 41% Pay Raise as BP Beats Exxon in Oil, Gas Output

(Bloomberg) — BP Plc’s Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward received a 41 percent pay increase last year, after the company produced more oil and gas than Exxon Mobil Corp. for the first time.

Norway oil wealth fund has best year ever in 2009

OSLO—Norway’s vast fund for oil wealth posted a 25.6 percent return on investment for 2009 — its best ever — as international markets recovered from the global financial crunch, the central bank said Friday.

Yukos takes Russia to court in $109b suit

MOSCOW: The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is hearing the biggest case in its history, with managers from the defunct oil company Yukos claiming $US98 billion ($109 billion) in compensation from the Russian government.

Glencore to Sell $1 Billion of Assets to Fund Prodeco

(Bloomberg) — Glencore International AG, the world’s largest commodity trader, is seeking to sell at least $1 billion of assets in three to six months to help fund its repurchase of the Prodeco coal unit from Xstrata Plc.

Russia’s Shmatko says Ukraine gas price not discussed

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Ukrainian couterpart, Viktor Yanukovich, did not discuss lowering the price Ukraine pays for Russian gas when they met on Friday.

Sinopec, Kuwait Refinery Still in Prelim Work, Official Says

(Bloomberg) — China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and Kuwait Petroleum Corp.’s proposed refinery in the city of Zhanjiang in southern China’s Guangdong province is still undergoing preliminary work, Zhanjiang Mayor Chen Yaoguang said today after a meeting of the National People’s Congress.

Lobster prices too low for harvesters’ taste

“They are certainly in a financial squeeze right now,” he said. “When they fish harder, they use more bait and more fuel, and those are huge costs for them.”

Lapointe said fuel cost is consuming as much as 40% of a lobsterman’s take, up from 10% to 15% in recent years.

$100 Million in Stimulus Funds for Green Tech

The Department of Energy announced this week that $100 million in stimulus funds would be distributed to help accelerate innovation in green technology.

“The idea is to get a whole ecosystem of innovative technologies,” said Arun Majumdar, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, which is managing the program.

Russia Will Own Majority of Turkish Nuclear Plant, Zaman Says

(Bloomberg) — Russia is likely to own at least 51 percent of the shares in the company building Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, Zaman newspaper reported, without saying how it got the information.

Town Finds Good Neighbor in Nuclear Plant

VERNON, Vt. — A storm knocked out Kathleen Halvey’s power for eight hours last Wednesday, an event she found both disruptive and prescient.

“I said to my husband, ‘This is what it will be like without Vermont Yankee,’ ” Ms. Halvey, 65, a retired nurse, recalled saying on the day the State Senate voted to close the plant here by withholding its operating certificate.

The Newest Hybrid Model

Across 500 acres north of West Palm Beach, the FPL Group utility is assembling a life-size Erector Set of 190,000 shimmering mirrors and thousands of steel pylons that stretch as far as the eye can see. When it is completed by the end of the year, this vast project will be the world’s second-largest solar plant.

But that is not its real novelty. The solar array is being grafted onto the back of the nation’s largest fossil-fuel power plant, fired by natural gas. It is an experiment in whether conventional power generation can be married with renewable power in a way that lowers costs and spares the environment.

Not “The Great Transit Oriented Development Swindle?”

Under a cursory examination of the concrete realities on the ground, in San Francisco, Transit Oriented Development is a Green bait and switch designed to promote developer profits while exacerbating the very conditions which lead to increased emissions, climate change, congestion and slower, less reliable surface transit. Simply because desirable aspects of a policy appear to work on paper does not mean that they work that way in reality, or that other aspects of the policy don’t actually work against preferred aspects. Compact urban development can lead to denser more walkable communities, but only with sufficient investment in regional infrastructure to discourage auto ownership by making transit more attractive. In the absence of that level of investment, the economic characteristics of this type of development in San Francisco will most likely diminish transit reliability by increasing auto trips–the precise opposite of TOD’s stated goals.

Prophet of Doom Finds Joy as Film Stirs Efforts to Survive Oil Crisis

Think of humanity as a herd of caribou living on an arctic island with no predators and abundant sustenance. We reproduce wildly until inevitably the sustenance, the energy source, is overtaxed and collapses.

Then we begin to die. In the case of humanity, billions of us.

The analogy and the dark prophecy are Mike Ruppert’s. And he argues it already has begun, this great dying, and there is nothing we can do to stop it.

China May Start Its First City-Wide Carbon Market

(Bloomberg) — China may start its first city-wide carbon cap-and-trade system by June as the world’s biggest polluter seeks to rein in emissions, a project adviser said.

The northeast port city of Tianjin plans to impose a mandatory limit on energy used to heat buildings in the first half of this year, John Shi, chief executive officer of the carbon credit trader Arreon Carbon U.K. Ltd., said in an interview. Property managers able to reduce energy use to below the limit will earn credits they can then sell, he said.

Humans must be to blame for climate change, say scientists

Climate scientists have delivered a powerful riposte to their sceptical critics with a study that strengthens the case for saying global warming is largely the result of man-made emissions of greenhouse gases.

The researchers found that no other possible natural phenomenon, such as volcanic eruptions or variations in the activity of the Sun, could explain the significant warming of the planet over the past half century as recorded on every continent including Antarctica.

Food production in Cuba plummets despite reforms

HAVANA, Cuba – Food production in Havana province is 40 per cent below target this year, causing shortages in the Cuban capital despite reforms under President Raul Castro, official media said on Wednesday.

Cuba’s most populous province, which includes the capital city of Havana, is also the country’s biggest food producer.

Residents have been complaining about a lack of basics such as sweet potatoes and other root vegetables in the markets.

An article in Communist Party newspaper Granma said the government had not provided enough farm supplies or fuel and that state regulations had hampered delivery of farm products.

Methane seen as growing climate risk

WASHINGTON – Methane, a potent global warming gas, is bubbling out of the frozen Arctic faster than had been expected.

Methane had become trapped in the permafrost over time and a warming climate is now resulting in its release, researchers report in Friday’s edition of the journal Science.

“The amount of methane currently coming out of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is comparable to the amount coming out of the entire world’s oceans,” said Natalia Shakhova, of the University of Alaska Fairbanks International Arctic Research Center and the co-author.

EU draws up plans for first direct tax with fuel levy

The European Union is drawing up plans for its first direct tax with a “green” levy on petrol, coal and natural gas that could cost British consumers up to £3 billion.

ConocoPhillips, Vitol Charter Tankers to Ship Fuels to Chile

(Bloomberg) — ConocoPhillips and Vitol Group have booked tankers to ship fuels to Chile, whose refining industry was disrupted by the Feb. 27 earthquake. Morgan Stanley has also chartered a tanker.

Peak oil? How about snake oil!

I keep hearing about peak oil. We are running out of oil. The price can only go one way – up. US production peaked in the 1970s, and as fields decline, they’re producing less and less (the average decline in production is 9% a year once a field has passed its peak). No one is finding any new oil, reserves are running down, it’s time to panic and within ten years we’ll be living in an apocalyptic wasteland reminiscent of Mad Max and the Thunderdome.

Yeah right. Actually there are some very big problems with the peak oil scenario. One is that it’s usually the new mantra for those people who in 2007 were telling me that UK residential property could only go up in value because ‘They’re not making land any more’. No, they’re not making land any more – and a good thing too, because if you were making it right now, you’d probably be going bust. Or at least you’d have fired half the staff you had two years ago! Sorry, but peak oil does not guarantee that putting your money in oil stocks is a one-way street. And here’s why.

Plumbing the depths: A recent wave of advances is enabling oil companies to detect and recover offshore oil in ever more difficult places

Growing resource nationalism in countries that hold most of the world’s onshore oil reserves is forcing private oil companies to go farther afield. Inconveniently, that means looking for oil in deep water, miles offshore.

This poses daunting physical challenges. Drill strings, the interlocking sections of pipe that are used in offshore drilling, are heavy: the pipe used by Transocean, an offshore-drilling company, weighs over 30kg per metre, for example. Deeper water means a longer and heavier drill string, which in turn requires a bigger platform to support such a large “hook load”. Ever-larger platforms and the increasing use of drill ships—giant vessels that are even heavier than moored platforms—have given companies the heft required to work at greater depths.

Natural Gas Drops to Three-Month Low After U.S. Supply Report

(Bloomberg) — Natural gas futures fell to a three- month low in New York after an Energy Department report showed that stockpiles dropped less than anticipated last week, indicating slowing demand for the heating fuel.

A gas supply surplus to the five-year average expanded to 1.2 percent from 0.7 percent a week earlier, the department said. Forecasts for mild weather and economic reports showing a slow recovery from the recession also weighed on prices. Industrial users account for about 29 percent of gas demand.

How the Big Oil Executive Sees Electric Cars

When asked about the theory of “peak” oil in the world and whether that theory was now dead, Mr. Voser said “I think what is dead is cheap oil.”

Gazprom Boosts Output 14% in January-February on Economy, Cold

(Bloomberg) — OAO Gazprom increased output 14 percent in January and February compared with the first two months of last year as the economy began to recover and Russia and Europe used more fuel during the cold winter.

Petrobras Buys Stake in Block From Repsol, Statoil

(Bloomberg) — Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer, received approval to buy 30 percent of an offshore block from Repsol YPF and Statoil ASA, the South American country’s oil regulator said.

Have We Reached Peak Tuna?

Barry Foy, author of the fictional culinary reference manual, The Devil’s Food Dictionary, once wrote a story called, “Bluefin tuna finally extinct: ‘Well worth it,’ say sushi fans.” The piece described heads of state and film producers in Japan nibbling on raw beef and watermelon, both substitutes for tuna. Not everyone understood the story was an attempt at satire. And those who were in on the joke weren’t sure there was anything funny about the tuna’s extinction, which, to many, resembled the awful truth. This was nearly two years ago. Things are much worse now.

Lester Brown: Plan B 4.0 by the Numbers – Data Highlights on China’s Changing Energy Economy

Over the past several decades, China has largely relied on coal to provide energy for its rapidly expanding economy. Coal consumption has grown quickly in recent years, doubling from 2002 to 2008. Although it accounts for a smaller share of electricity production, natural gas consumption has been increasing even more quickly, nearly tripling over the same period. Oil, largely used for transportation, is also on the way up, growing by an average of 7 percent each year.

Going forward, however, the picture may be changing, as China is investing heavily in renewable energy. Wind energy in China has grown nearly 10 times faster than fossil fuel consumption, expanding from less than 500 megawatts of capacity in 2002 to over 12,000 megawatts in 2008. The exponential growth of China’s wind energy sector is expected to continue, with major projects moving forward including the Wind Base program’s seven mega-complexes, each with a capacity of 10,000 to 30,000 megawatts. Once built, they will together exceed the entire world’s wind generating capacity at the start of 2008. These ambitious projects are just scratching the surface; a study published in the journal Science calculates that China could generate more than seven times its current electricity consumption from the wind alone.

Plot to grow vegetables outside Belsize Park Tube station

TUBE station forecourts are usually the haunt of newspaper sellers or smokers grabbing a ­cigarette, but the pavements outside Belsize Park Tube could become a mouth-watering vegetable garden if green group Transition Belsize get their way.

Whither Our Exit?

In Jean Paul Sartre’s No Exit — a play I once directed — one of the character opines, “Hell is other people.” Alan Farago’s article, “The Potemkin Village Economy,” is a good example of why this statement is so often true. It is also a superb illustration of the forces impeding our ability to limit our ecological footprint. Think Kunstler meets Kafka. Kunstler being James Howard Kunstler. A new urbanist, author of The Long Emergency, and star of the documentary Escape from Suburbia. Kafka needs no introduction. Suffice to say both men meditate usefully on how hard it is to escape ‘The system’.

Somali pirates seize Saudi tanker: official

NAIROBI (AFP) – Somali pirates have captured a small Saudi tanker and its crew of 14 in the Gulf of Aden, a Kenyan maritime official said Wednesday.

The MT Al Nisr Al Saudi, a 5,136 deadweight-tonne tanker, was seized Monday with its Greek captain and 13 Sri Lankan crew members, said Andrew Mwangura, who heads the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme.

“It was on its way from Japan to Jeddah” in Saudi Arabia, he said.

Syria denies concealing nuclear activities

VIENNA — Syria on Thursday denied hiding nuclear activities from the world and said Israel was the source of suspicious uranium particles found at a Syrian desert complex bombed two years ago by the Jewish state.

Libya warns US oil players over row

Libya’s top oil official today summoned the local heads of US energy companies to tell them a diplomatic row with Washington could have a negative impact on US businesses in Libya, the state oil company said.

Hedging Against Cheaper Oil

Maria asked, “Do you think the price of oil is about to spike higher because Israel and the U.S. will soon attack Iran to stop it from making a nuclear bomb? If so, do you recommend that I buy oil company stocks, or an oil ETF?”

No to the first question and, thus, no to the second.

Bangaladesh: Sloppy handling hurts govt’s ambitious gas exploration

The government’s ‘fast-track’ gas exploration programme involving foreign companies drilling wells in state-owned onshore gas fields is limping thanks to a lack of coordination among the energy ministry high-ups, officials said Wednesday.

It could not short-list the aspiring foreign bidders even after five month’s of receiving the expression of interest (EoI) from them to carry out the much-needed gas exploration and seismic activities in the unexplored gas fields.

Asia supply to ease China’s gas shortage

China will avoid a gas shortage this year thanks to increased supplies from sources such as Central Asia, the country’s energy chief said after a winter supply squeeze led to gas rationing.

Power Cuts From Drought Will Hit Manila

MANILA — The city of Manila and several neighboring provinces will experience blackouts in the coming days as the energy crisis worsens in the Philippines, utilities officials said Thursday.

…The Philippines are struggling with shortfalls in power generation because of a drought — created by the weather phenomenon El Niño weather — that has devastated more than a dozen provinces, many of which rely on hydroelectric plants.

Striking a blow for wind power

(CNN) — Wind power provides a fifth of Denmark’s electricity, most of it generated by giant wind farms built on land and in the country’s coastal waters.

But the tiny Danish island of Samso is proving bigger isn’t necessarily better by generating all its electricity using wind turbines of its own.

Electric vehicle range: What, me worry? – Studies show ‘range anxiety’ may be low hurdle for EV acceptance

To all those cities worrying about how they are going to get wired for electric vehicles: Fret not. “Range anxiety” may not be as acute as you think.

Studies of drivers who already have electric cars are finding that they prefer the convenience of charging at home, and despite their vehicles’ limited range, most are able to avoid public charging.

Energy Department Files to Withdraw Yucca Mountain License Application

WASHINGTON—The Energy Department filed to withdraw an application for a nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain, formally seeking Wednesday to reverse a Bush administration policy.

The Uncertainty Factor

In the late ’60s, one year after Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) was first given permission to begin construction on the plant, geologists discovered a monster fault capable of generating a 7.5 earthquake just three miles offshore of Avila Beach. The discovery of the Hosgri Fault — named after the two Shell Oil geologists who mapped it — sent Diablo Canyon’s future into a tailspin for six years. An animated, grassroots anti-nuke campaign began, during which 10,000 people were arrested for acts of civil disobedience. At last, and at great expense, Diablo Canyon was rebuilt to withstand the worst Hosgri quake probable, and by the mid 1980s, the plant was delivering 2,200 megawatts of electricity a year, enough to power nearly two million California households. For the last 22 years, the Hosgri Fault was the defining seismic factor concerning the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant.

But 15 months ago, the seismic picture got a whole lot more complicated. And more troubling.

John Michael Greer: An Exergy Crisis

In last week’s Archdruid Report post, I discussed the difference between energy and exergy, or in slightly less jargon-laden terms, between the quantity of energy and the concentration of energy. It’s hard to think of a more critical difference to keep in mind if you’re trying to make sense of the predicament of modern industrial civilization, but it’s even harder to think of a point more often missed in the rising spiral of debates about that predicament.

The basic principle is simple enough, and bears repeating here: the amount of work you get out of a given energy source depends, not on the quantity of energy in the source, but on the difference in energy concentration between the energy source and the environment. That’s basic thermodynamics, of the sort that every high school student used to learn in physics class back in those far-off days when American high school students took physics classes worth the name. Put that principle to work, though, and the results are often highly counterintuitive; this probably has more than a little to do with the way that even professional scientists miss them, and fumble predictions as a result.

Richard Heinberg: Life after growth – What if the economy doesn’t recover?

In late 2009 and early 2010, the economy showed some signs of renewed vigor. Understandably, everyone wants it to get “back to normal.” But here’s a disturbing thought: What if that is not possible? What if the goalposts have been moved, the rules rewritten, the game changed? What if the decades-long era of economic growth based on ever-increasing rates of resource extraction, manufacturing, and consumption is over, finished, and done? What if the economic conditions that all of us grew up expecting to continue practically forever were merely a blip on history’s timeline?

It’s an uncomfortable idea, but one that cannot be ignored: The “normal” late-20th century economy of seemingly endless growth actually emerged from an aberrant set of conditions that cannot be perpetuated.

That “normal” is gone. One way or another, a “new normal” will emerge to replace it. Can we build a different, more sustainable economy to replace the one now in tatters?

An Ominous Drilling Sign for the Truth

The Interior Department under Barack Obama offered for sale more acres of dry-land drilling on public lands than the Bush Administration had at the same point in 2008.

An economy in a state of rigor mortis doesn’t need oil to lubricate an engine that blew up on October 29, 2008, and our way of life won’t come back if the oil industry creates a handful of jobs or we reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Oil falls toward $80 after 2-day jump

A stronger dollar pushed oil prices down toward $80 a barrel Thursday after a two-day jump fueled by growing investor optimism that global crude demand is recovering.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for April delivery was down 38 cents to $80.49 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract climbed $1.19 to settle at $80.87 on Wednesday after rising 98 cents on Tuesday.

Terrorist Group Planning Malacca Oil-Tanker Attacks

(Bloomberg) — A terror alert from the Singapore navy to oil tankers in the Malacca Strait, a shipping lane that’s almost six times busier than the Suez Canal, may be linked to regional groups associated with al-Qaeda.

Singapore’s navy has “received indication” that a terrorist group is planning attacks on oil tankers in the Malacca Strait, according to an advisory today from its Information Fusion Centre.

“The warning should be taken seriously,” Rohan Gunaratna, the head of the Singapore-based International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, said in an interview. “There are terrorist groups in the region that have the intent to carry out terrorist attacks and some of these groups have relationships with al-Qaeda.”

FACTBOX – Malacca Strait is a strategic ‘chokepoint’

REUTERS – Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia said on Thursday they are stepping up security in the Strait of Malacca, a key shipping lane for world trade, following warnings of possible attacks on oil tankers in the area.

Here is some key information about the strait.

Nigeria rebel faction says attacks Agip oil facility

ABUJA (Reuters) – A militant faction in Nigeria’s restive Niger Delta said on Thursday it had blown up an oil manifold operated by Italy’s Agip in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

China, Russia Agree on Gas Supply Pricing Formula

(Bloomberg) — China reached an initial agreement with Russia on the pricing formula for the supply of natural gas to the world’s second-biggest energy-consuming country.

Pricing was the “most difficult part” of the negotiations, Zhang Guobao, the head of China’s National Energy Administration, told reporters after a meeting of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body to the country’s legislature. Prices of Russian gas sold to China will be linked to oil prices under a formula, Zhang said, without elaborating.

Norway 2010 spending outlook cut

Norway’s national statistic agency today cut its oil and gas investment forecast for 2010 to Nkr135.6 billion ($23 billion), down Nkr3 billion from its forecast in the last quarter of 2009.

Iraq Opening to BP, Exxon Mobil, Shell for First Time Since 1972

(Bloomberg) — BP Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. took the best deal they could get in Iraq last year when they won the largest oil contracts since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. Oil companies may wait a long time to get a better one.

Parliamentary elections may produce a weak or unstable government incapable of tendering new oil contracts, said Samuel Ciszuk, a London-based analyst at IHS Global Insight. He said he does expect the 10 technical-services contracts won by Exxon, BP and 20 other companies to be honored.

Reliance Said to Have No Plans to Raise Lyondell Bid

(Bloomberg) — Reliance Industries Ltd. has no plans to increase its bid for bankrupt chemicals maker LyondellBasell Industries AF following the rejection of its $14.5 billion offer, two people briefed on the matter said.

Market conditions didn’t justify raising the offer further, the people said yesterday, declining to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak to the media. Chairman Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, may be prompted to spend Reliance’s $3.5 billion of cash elsewhere, analyst Victor Shum said.

Shell Aims for ‘New Nigeria’ as Qatari Plant Starts

(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc spent $19 billion to build the world’s largest gas-to-liquids project, triple the original estimate. Now, it’s pay-off time and the plant may generate $6 billion a year for the company and Qatar.

China all at sea over Japan island row

Japan’s Okinotori Island, which has a Tokyo postal address even though it lies roughly 1,770 kilometers south of the capital and it is actually a pair of tiny islets, has become a bone of contention for China.

Among other things, China refuses to grant it island status, and refers to it instead as an atoll, reef or simply a rock. By doing so, China hopes to throttle back Japan’s plan to create an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) there. The dispute over Okinotori, which Japan calls Okinotorishima, persists because it involves strategic concerns and rights to undersea resources over an area that is roughly equivalent to the entire land mass of the four main Japanese islands.

US, EU, urge Syria to drop nuclear secrecy

VIENNA — The U.S. and the European Union are urging Syria to stop stonewalling attempts by the International Atomic Energy Agency to investigate its nuclear activities.

Clinton Fails to Win Brazilian Support for UN Sanctions on Iran

(Bloomberg) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Brazil failed to win support for tougher United Nations penalties on Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program.

China car sales speed past U.S. as world’s top auto market

The Chinese auto industry grew nearly 50% last year after the government unleashed $15 billion in auto incentives, about five times the size of the U.S. auto industry’s cash-for-clunkers program. But analysts question how much of the Chinese market’s growth is sustainable. Manufacturers here are struggling to appeal to consumers in their own market. And the quality of Chinese brands, while improving, still lags behind foreign ones.

Hummer, symbol of machismo, may be headed to graveyard

A single sticky note, left on Russ Builta’s 2005 Hummer, sums up the emotion stirred by the super-sized SUVs. “You are polluting our air and abusing our national resources,” the unsigned note said. “And all because of greed and selfishness. You should be very ashamed of yourself.”

Builta, who served in the Marine Corps, still gets mad: “It was not even on recycled paper!”

Builta installed a supercharger that gave his Hummer a whopping 600 horsepower. When he really mashed the pedal, it got 1 mile per gallon. “It would just move,” he told CNN iReport.

Senators Want ‘Buy American’ Rule in Stimulus

Four Democratic senators are calling on the Obama administration to halt spending on a renewable energy program in the economic stimulus package until rules are in place to assure that the projects use predominantly American labor and materials.

The senators said that more than three-fourths of $2 billion spent on wind-energy projects supported by the stimulus package had gone to foreign companies. They said that effectively undercut the purpose of the stimulus program — formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — which is to jump-start the American economy and create jobs here.

Is ARPA-E Enough to Keep the U.S. on the Cutting-Edge of a Clean Energy Revolution?

Just 37 technologies qualified for government funds, with each getting an average $4 million. They were selected from 3,700 applications and from among the 75 percent that weren’t disqualified for violating the first or second law of thermodynamics, according to Arun Majumdar, ARPA-E’s first director. Yet, the bulk of them are old ideas dusted off after years of storage.

From California, Chinese Solar Maker Looks East

Yingli, the Chinese solar module maker that captured nearly a third of the California market last year, has struck a deal to supply a New Jersey developer with more than 10 megawatts of photovoltaic panels.

The agreement announced Tuesday with SunDurance Energy for the first time brings Yingli’s reach to the East Coast. SunDurance, owned by a construction and engineering firm, the Conti Group, will install the Yingli solar panels on rooftops, in carports and in ground-mounted solar farms.

Wave, Tidal Energy May Power 1.4 Million U.K. Homes

(Bloomberg) — Wave and tidal energy may provide 2,000 megawatts of power to the U.K. by 2020, enough for about 1.4 million homes, Energy and Climate-Change Minister David Kidney said.

“We have faith in these industries proving themselves and being a big contributor to fighting climate change,” the U.K. minister said today in London.

Report: SC depleted uranium likely unfit for Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — A report commissioned by an environmental group says several thousand tons of depleted uranium from a former nuclear weapons complex in South Carolina is likely unfit for disposal in Utah.

That includes some low-level radioactive waste that may already be buried in the state.

The report released by Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah on Wednesday says the amount and type of material doesn’t meet the federal requirements for disposal at EnergySolutions Inc.’s site.

Can Wild Bison Repopulate the Plains?

After three years of meetings and study, a broad array of conservation groups, government scientists and other experts on North American wildlife policy have produced a road map for restoring some large free-roaming populations of bison in the North American plains.

The Earth has its own set of rules

By far our most prevalent view of nature derives from a rudimentary human desire for more. This is the basis of the economic model that currently directs our relationships with one another and with our environment. It has produced stupendous human population growth and dramatic, deleterious effects on nature. Recognizing these effects, efforts have been marshaled to change the self-serving economic model with notions of Earth “stewardship,” eloquently advanced decades ago by then-Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, and, most recently, to infiltrate the economic model with “ecosystem services” by assigning monetary values to functions performed by the Earth that are beneficial to people.

All of these views are fundamentally and dangerously flawed, because all are anthropocentric. They begin and end with humans. This isn’t the way the Earth works.

Earth Charter Group To Hold Saturday Summit (Connecticut)

The Earth Charter Community of the Lower Valley will host its annual summit event on Saturday, March 6, at the Gelston House.

Keynote speaker for the event will be James Howard Kunstler, author of a number of books focused on ecology.

That Whole Internet Thing’s Not Going To Work Out: How to suss out bad tech predictions

In 1995, Clifford Stoll, an astronomer, author, and mad-scientist type, published a column in Newsweek with a doozy of a headline: “The Internet? Bah!” The piece was based on Stoll’s book, Silicon Snake Oil, in which he argued that we were all being taken for a ride by tech pundits who offered dreamy visions of a coming “information superhighway.” “Baloney,” Stoll wrote. “The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.”

…Given how wrong they tend to be, it’s generally a good idea to ignore all predictions. The future is unknowable — especially in the digital age, when we’re constantly barraged with new technologies. Still, we’ll never stop being obsessed with the future. With that in mind, it would be nice to have some idea of which predictions to trust and which to dismiss. Here are a few rules for separating the good from the bad.

Shifting Soil Threatens Homes’ Foundations

Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association indicates that since the 1990s there has been an accelerating trend nationwide toward more extended dry periods followed by downpours. Whether due to random climate patterns or global warming, the swings between hot and dry weather and severe rain or snow have profoundly affected soil underneath buildings.

NAELS 2010 Staying Afloat: Adapting to Climate Change in the Gulf Coast and Beyond

Beginning March 4, 2010, the Environmental Law Society at the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law will host the 2010 Annual NAELS Conference — Staying Afloat: Adapting to Climate Change in the Gulf Coast and Beyond.

The Conference will bring together top attorneys, engineers, business leaders, environmentalists, scientists, and planners from New Orleans, Louisiana, the US, and the world to discuss how New Orleans, hundreds of low-lying coastal cities like it, and an interdependent world community will adapt to ever-increasing populations and a rapidly changing climate in the coming century.

France’s sea walls battered by recent storm

L’AIGUILLON-SUR-MER, France – The moon was full, the wind roared, the tide was high and people died by the dozens.

After a wall of ocean water engulfed picturesque towns along France’s Atlantic coast, residents, officials and experts are all asking why.

Was it due to climate change? A freak storm fueled by hurricane-force winds? The result of human greed over desirable land or bungling actions by government officials?

Katrina victims seek to sue greenhouse gas emitters

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Victims of Hurricane Katrina are seeking to sue carbon gas-emitting multinationals for helping fuel global warming and boosting the devastating 2005 storm, legal documents showed.

The class action suit brought by residents from southern Mississippi, which was ravaged by hurricane-force winds and driving rains, was first filed just weeks after the August 2005 storm hit.

Texas-based refiners pledge to fund fight against California’s global warming law

Two Texas-based refinery giants have pledged as much as $2 million to fund signature gathering for a ballot initiative to suspend California’s landmark global warming law, according to Sacramento sources.

The companies, Valero Energy Corp. and Tesoro Corp., own refineries in California that would be forced under the law to slash emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

Major change is needed if the IPCC hopes to survive

Well before the recent controversies, the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was marred by an unwillingness to listen to dissenting points of view, an inadequate system for dealing with errors, conflicts of interest, and political advocacy. The latest allegations of inaccuracies should be an impetus for sweeping reform.

‘Missteps’ Don’t Negate Climate Science, Obama Adviser Says

(Bloomberg) — The disclosure of research “missteps” hasn’t shaken the consensus that manmade emissions from burning fossil fuels are contributing to climate change, President Barack Obama’s top science adviser said.

The release of scientists’ e-mails and errors in a report by a United Nations climate panel show researchers are human, John Holdren said today at an energy conference in Washington’s Maryland suburbs. The errors don’t alter the reality that carbon dioxide emissions are warming the earth, he said.

Darwin Foes Add Warming to Targets

Critics of the teaching of evolution in the nation’s classrooms are gaining ground in some states by linking the issue to global warming, arguing that dissenting views on both scientific subjects should be taught in public schools.

…The linkage of evolution and global warming is partly a legal strategy: courts have found that singling out evolution for criticism in public schools is a violation of the separation of church and state. By insisting that global warming also be debated, deniers of evolution can argue that they are simply championing academic freedom in general.

Rate of Glacier Melting May be Key Clue to Tracking Climate Change

The vast amounts of water stored in glaciers play crucial roles in river flows, hydropower generation and agricultural production, contributing to steady run-off for Ganges, Yangtze, Mekong and Indus rivers in Asia and elsewhere.

But many are melting rapidly, with the pace picking up over the past decade, giving glaciers a central role in the debate over causes and impacts of climate change.

Stuart Staniford: The US in a High Emissions Scenario

Given that emissions are growing faster than the IPCC has studied, that the world has been unwilling or unable to agree on any meaningful global treaty, with the largest emitters, China and the United States, in particular unwilling to make any meaningful attempt to limit emissions, I wanted to look at the question “How bad are things in a high emissions scenario?” In particular, in this post, I look at the period 2080-2100. My children were born in 2000 and 2002, so 2080-2100 represents the likely end of their lives, all being well. So this is a summary of the changes they will experience over the course of their lives.

Food security tests Africa’s unity agenda

An immediate paradox is the reality that we continue to face hunger and poverty in a context where large tracks of agricultural land remain under- and unused.

A second and related paradox is that, we are witness to a situation where many of our farmers are moving from the growing of staple foods to the production of high-value agricultural products for export, including bio-fuel, hence forcing many countries to import basic and staple agricultural products.

Losses wipe out equity of Mexico’s Pemex

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The equity in Mexico’s state oil monopoly Pemex was wiped out in the final quarter of 2009 as losses on refined product sales, lower crude output and high taxes offset higher crude prices.

Pemex said on Monday it lost 16.6 billion pesos ($1.3 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2009, pushing the full year loss up to 46.1 billion pesos.

Pemex Closes Two Crude Oil Export Terminals in Gulf

(Bloomberg) — Petroleos Mexicanos closed its largest and smallest oil export terminals in the Gulf of Mexico because of heavy rain and winds.

India Fuel Exports Rise on Increasing Shipments to U.S., Japan

(Bloomberg) — Bookings of tankers to export fuels from India’s west coast, the home of two Reliance Industries Ltd. refineries, rose in February as India sold more gasoline to the U.S. and Japan.

Senators Seek Change in Alaska’s O&G Structure

A two-week study of Alaska’s oil and gas tax structure has convinced some state senators that the Legislature needs to act fast to change the system or risk the plundering of state riches.

The cost of doing nothing is “colossal,” up to $2 billion in lost revenue a year under some scenarios, says Sen. Bert Stedman, a Republican from Sitka who co-chairs the Senate Finance Committee. He’s been holding hearings for two weeks on Alaska’s oil and gas tax system, and on Friday said he’s preparing legislation to settle the issue before the session ends in April.

Gazprom May Reduce 50% South Stream Stake, Allowing EDF Entry

(Bloomberg) — OAO Gazprom, an equal partner with Italy’s Eni SpA in the South Stream natural-gas pipeline project, may reduce its stake to allow Electricite de France SA to buy shares in the venture.

BP Deal to Expand US Shale-Gas Operations – Sources

BP PLC is expected to announce Tuesday an expansion of its U.S. shale-gas operations through a joint-venture deal in Texas with privately held Lewis Energy Group worth at least $160 million, people familiar with the situation said.

Oil production helps community escape recession

Oil production in North Dakota has helped a run-down area get through a tough economic climate.

Unemployment in the state was five percentage points below the US average in December, at 4.3 per cent, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Local ranchers have been turned into millionaires by selling oil companies access to oil underneath their properties.

In some areas of North Dakota the oil production has even created a labour shortage. In Dickinson, McDonald’s has been offering people $300 in bonuses when they sign to work for the food giant.

Kenya: Paper mill recovery hinges on cheaper energy

The previous management that abandoned the factory when creditors came knocking put its power costs at 33 per cent of the total operational costs.

This is the highest single operational cost and does not even factor in the heavy diesel the company uses to run some of its boilers.

Ethiopia: Fuel Shortage Mystery Plagues Drivers

The delayed delivery of ethanol might have caused the petrol shortage in Addis Abeba during most of last week, although power failures shared the blame at some places.

New no. 1? Ford sales top GM

Ford reported a 43% jump in sales compared to a year earlier, which was the worst month for the industry in 19 years. It topped the forecasts of sales tracker Edmunds.com, which had estimated a 35% increase. Ford’s results were also up 22% compared to January.

Consumerism ‘doomed’, investment forum told

Western governments may not realise it yet, but consumerism as we know it is doomed and resource war with China inevitable, the world’s biggest fund managers were told yesterday.

The unsettling message, which focuses on the potentially destabilising shortfall of the rare “technology metals” used in everything from mobile phones to guided missiles, was issued in Tokyo yesterday at the close of one of Asia’s largest annual investment forums.

Are America’s Fears of a Greentech Race with China Unfounded?

While some U.S. politicians and commentators still paint China as the global pollution villain, especially after the disappointing outcome at Copenhagen, others are beginning to take green China seriously — as a threat. Last fall, for instance, when Senator Charles Schumer got wind of a planned wind farm in west Texas, announced by a partnership of American and Chinese companies, that would use some wind equipment made in China and potentially create new jobs across the Pacific, he recommended blocking stimulus money from the project, rather than help boost green China. The stimulus money “is supposed to create jobs in America,” he wrote in a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu. (The new wind farm would also have created 300 jobs in Texas, but Schumer was worried that a greater number could be created in China.)

Climate debate missing the point

My considered view is that nuclear power will end up forming the backbone of any effective real-world clean energy plan, but I’d be just as happy if other prospective technologies, such as concentrating solar power or enhanced geothermal systems, are able to take a major role.

Yet, even if you disagree with my plan (or anyone else’s for that matter), you shouldn’t seek to ‘block’ any qualifying technology. And if you wish people to take your plan seriously, you must be prepared to tell them how much it will likely cost, what sort of support it will need to be put into action, and consider its implications for electricity grid stability, energy storage and sustainability.

Israel to review nuclear power plant construction

Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission and the Israel Electric Corporation signed a deal to develop the infrastructure needed to construct nuclear power plants, Israel Radio reported on Tuesday.

Energy surge

HOW would you like to generate your own electricity, and make money from it? If things go according to plan, the impending introduction of a new feed-in tariff law that is set to revolutionise Malaysia’s renewable energy production will make it easy for everyone to generate renewable electricity and sell it back to the national power grid.

Power plants in private hands contribute to rotating blackouts

MANILA, Philippines – While the privatization of power plants was expected to provide efficiencies that evaded them when they were state-run, the rotational blackouts that hit Luzon on Monday proved otherwise.

Being Ready, in Quake Zones or Snow Zones

A little preparation and training can go a long when when disaster strikes, at any scale.

How the Men Reacted as the Titanic and Lusitania Went Under

Records from two nearly 100-year-old shipwrecks, the Titanic and the Lusitania, have given researchers new insight into human selfishness — and altruism.

On one boat, it seems, the men thought only of themselves; on the other, they were more likely to help women and children. This occurred for one key reason, researchers said: time. The Lusitania sank in about 18 minutes, while the Titanic took nearly three hours. Women and children fared much better on the Titanic.

Shrinking Glaciers Threaten Tajikistan’s Economic Dreams

Like many other farmers in the remote village of Barchid, lying in the shadow of Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains, Makbulsho Yakinshoev knows little about issues like greenhouse-gas emissions or global warming.

But the 65-year-old Tajik farmer knows what he sees, and for years he has seen his fruit and vegetable harvests decline as the glacier that looms above his village retreats.

Are you a farmer at heart? Start a ‘Crop Mob’

A growing number of young people are finishing college and resisting the pressure to plunk down in a cube behind a computer. Others skip college altogether—given the spiraling costs involved, it’s hard to blame them—and yearn for meaningful, hands-on work.

Community-scale organic farming has emerged as an attractive profession for such talented, energetic youth. But there are problems with this choice. Hours are long, the pay too often stinks, and land prices remain crushingly high. To top it off, our nation lacks universal health coverage.

Yet youthful zeal to farm abides, and hasn’t let up, as far as I can tell. This is a major asset to the sustainable food movement. As our nation’s million or so active farmers nears retirement age, an emerging generation of landless farmers is rising.

For Pennies, a Disposable Toilet That Could Help Grow Crops

A Swedish entrepreneur is trying to market and sell a biodegradable plastic bag that acts as a single-use toilet for urban slums in the developing world.

Once used, the bag can be knotted and buried, and a layer of urea crystals breaks down the waste into fertilizer, killing off disease-producing pathogens found in feces.

Saudi crude output still down from 2008 – Aramco

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s oil production is still down compared with 2008, having fallen in 2009, state oil company Saudi Aramco’s chief executive was reported as saying on Tuesday.

Oil drilling for production has declined, although exploration activities are increasing, Khalid al-Falih was also quoted as saying in the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

CFTC official sees transparency challenge in global energy markets

Energy commodities regulators worldwide will need to move carefully and cooperatively if they expect to make global oil markets more transparent, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Scott D. O’Malia said in Tokyo on Feb. 26.

“We have to acknowledge that we’ve witnessed a paradigm shift in the global oil market over the past decade,” he said in remarks to the International Energy Agency and Institute of Energy Economics Japan’s Forum on Global Oil Market Challenges. “The paradigm has shifted in two significant ways…. First, oil is now a financial asset and its price movements are correlated to economic growth. Second, the growth in oil demand is being led by developing nations.”

Avoiding Exxon: The Oil Investment Trap

Two weeks ago, ExxonMobil announced their 2009 reserves replacement. (Simply put, the reserves replacement is the amount of new reserves compared to oil produced.) In 2009, ExxonMobil added 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent to its reserves, replacing 133% of its production during that year.

ExxonMobil — one the world’s largest publicly traded oil companies — shouldn’t be so quick to gloat. These new reserves aren’t easy-to-get from conventional sources, and the reality is that Exxon’s saving grace lies in developing unconventional oil, such as oil sands.

In other words, developing those new barrels will be costly.

Venezuela struggles with energy emergency

CARACAS, Venezuela (UPI) — Venezuelan plans to cut electricity demand amid a looming energy crisis are not feasible for businesses in Caracas, the chamber of commerce said.

Climate Change: “The Great Squeeze”

Hassan Abu Bakr, professor and researcher at Cairo University’s faculty of agriculture, led the discussions that followed the film and answered questions posed by the febrile crowd.

The documentary attempted to illustrate how human actions and the excessive use of energy for the past 200 years had led to the consumerist behavior that today threatens our very survival. Since the discovery of fossil fuels that led to the Industrial Revolution, we have embraced a vision whereby the world revolves around oil consumption.

Have we reached an oil peak yet? Some experts say so, while others predict it will happen in the years ahead. However, since the 1960s, the discovery of oil sources has been declining regularly, and, as one of the experts interviewed in the film says, “once we pass this oil peak, no country will be able to get enough oil unless another one gets less.”

War over the Arctic? Global warming skeptics distract us from security risks.

Global warming skeptics must recognize that real – not predicted – climate change is already turning the Arctic into a potential military flash point.

Russia February Output Nears Post-Soviet Record on TNK-BP Gains

(Bloomberg) — Russia crude production neared a post-Soviet record in February as TNK-BP, the venture owned by BP Plc and a group of billionaires, raised output at new fields in both western and eastern Siberia.

Crude production reached almost 10.08 million barrels a day, a gain of 3.3 percent from a year earlier and 0.2 percent from the previous month, according to preliminary data from the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK unit. Output, which has exceeded 10 million barrels a day for six months in a row, was slightly below November’s record.

Oil gains to around $79 amid mixed US data

Oil prices hovered near $79 a barrel Tuesday as investors considered mixed signals about the strength of the U.S. economy and the dollar’s fluctuations against the euro.

Demand for OPEC Oil May Drop in 2010 on Weak Economy

(Bloomberg) — Demand for OPEC crude may drop by 100,000 barrels a day this year as stockpiles are higher than the five-year average and the global economy is weak, the United Arab Emirates oil minister said.

Demand for crude produced by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries could drop this year after last year falling by 2.3 million barrels a day to 28.7 million barrels a day, Mohamed Al-Hamli said in a speech in Abu Dhabi today.

Analysts see the cost of gas rising: ‘There is no legitimate fundamental reason’

It may not make much sense, given that the economy remains weak, but the cost of filling up your car is about to go higher.

Seasonal influences are strong this time of year and account for much of the expected increase that many analysts say will push gasoline to a nationwide average of at least $3 per gallon this spring.

Saudi Arabia Raises April Oil Prices to U.S. on Most Grades

(Bloomberg) — Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest state-owned oil company, raised its official selling prices for all crude grades, except Arab heavy, for customers in the U.S. for April, a company official said today.

Enbridge Says Oil Pipelines May Run at Reduced Rates Until 2017

(Bloomberg) — Enbridge Energy Partners LP, the Houston-based pipeline partnership controlled by Canada’s largest pipeline company, said it may take seven years to fill new crude oil pipelines from Canada to the U.S. because of excess capacity.

“It may be 2017 before we see all the pipes that are being planned to be full,” said Stephen Letwin, managing director of Enbridge Energy Co., the general partner of Enbridge Energy Partners, during an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “The fact that these pipes are not filling until 2017 is not critical because we know we are going to get our value back.”

‘Buy farmland and gold,’ advises Dr Doom

The world’s most powerful investors have been advised to buy farmland, stock up on gold and prepare for a “dirty war” by Marc Faber, the notoriously bearish market pundit, who predicted the 1987 stock market crash.

…One of Dr Faber’s darker scenarios involves growing military tension between China and the United States over access to limited oil resources.

Iran plans tenders for eight new blocks

Iran plans to hold tenders soon for eight new oil and gas exploration blocks, Mahmoud Mohadess, head of the exploration office at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said today.

BP Aims to Boost Profits by $3 Billion, Forecasts Rising Output

(Bloomberg) — BP Plc, vying with Royal Dutch Shell Plc as Europe’s largest oil company, plans to increase annual pre-tax profitability by $3 billion over the next two to three years by bolstering production and cutting costs.

BP will increase average annual oil and gas output by 1 to 2 percent through 2015, the company said in a annual strategy update today in London. Most of the increased profitability will come from making the refining and marketing business more efficient. The company will centralize exploration and production project management to save money, it said.

Energy exec: Israel could soon export natural gas

TEL AVIV, Israel – A U.S. energy company says Israel’s longtime dependence on natural gas imports could soon come to an end.

Noble Energy chief executive Charles D. Davidson said in Tel Aviv on Tuesday that two undersea gas fields his company is developing off Israel’s coast are set to become operational in 2012.

Nord Stream to Complete Gas Pipeline Financing Deal This Month

(Bloomberg) — Nord Stream will complete the financing to build a gas pipeline from Russia directly to western Europe this month, Alexei Miller, chief of OAO Gazprom, the majority shareholder in the project, said.

Iraqi minister says oil deal with Japan failed: report

TOKYO (AFP) – Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has said that talks over a huge oil development deal with a Japanese energy consortium had broken down, a leading Japanese newspaper reported Tuesday.

Baghdad would “promote the development (in the Nasiriyah oil field) centred around an Iraqi state-owned company”, he was quoted as saying by the Asahi Shimbun.

India seeks closer ties with Saudi to fuel recovery

RIYADH (Reuters) – India said it expects its economy to rebound to 9-percent annual growth rates within two years and wants to expand its energy ties with top OPEC exporter Saudi Arabia to help fuel the recovery.

India PM visit to Saudi shows rising security ties

RIYADH (AFP) – Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to oil and regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia has been underpinned by India’s thirst for energy, and its need to battle radical Islamists.

The first prime minister to visit Saudi Arabia in 28 years, Singh emphasised New Delhi’s direct stake in the various conflicts of the Middle East region and its desire to work with Riyadh on them.

E.ON Said to Consider Sale of U.S. Unit to Trim Debt

(Bloomberg) — E.ON AG is examining the sale of its U.S.-regulated utility business, valued at about 4 billion euros ($5.4 billion) by analysts, to reduce debt, according to a person briefed on the matter.

BP to quit 5 African states

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Oil major BP Plc said on Tuesday it would pull out of five countries in southern Africa following a strategy review, but would still invest to grow its market share in Mozambique and South Africa.

The company said it plans to sell its marketing businesses in Namibia, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana, but said Mozambique and South Africa offered better synergies with its supply portfolio.

Three reporters seized in Nigeria: police

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria – A South African sports journalist and two Nigerian colleagues have been kidnapped in Nigeria’s restive oil-producing Niger Delta, South African media and a Nigerian police source said on Tuesday.

The South African reports said the three, from the SuperSport satellite channel, were kidnapped near Warri, an oil industry hub, as they headed for the airport on Monday.

Lyondell Said to Reject $14.5 Billion Reliance Bid

(Bloomberg) — The board of bankrupt LyondellBasell Industries AF rejected a $14.5 billion bid from Reliance Industries Ltd., an oil refiner and explorer controlled by India’s richest man, two people briefed on the matter said.

Abu Dhabi’s IPIC Hires Banks for $2.5 Billion Loan

(Bloomberg) — International Petroleum Investment Co., the Abu Dhabi government-owned energy investor, hired banks to raise $2.5 billion of loans, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Suncor unveils new tailings pond technology

CALGARY — Suncor Energy Inc. is moving forward on a new tailings pond technology it believes will rapidly speed up its ability to reclaim the areas of northern Alberta it has strip-mined as it extracts bitumen buried beneath the Earth’s surface.

Seismic Effect on Fish Shows Increased Catch in Norway Study

(Bloomberg) — A study showed limited damage to fish from seismic surveys of oil reserves off Vesteraalen in northern Norway as the country debates whether to open more of its coveted Arctic to petroleum and gas exploration.

The Institute of Marine Research study in some cases even found increased catches of haddock and halibut after the fish were hit by sound waves used to map oil and gas reserves, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said today.

U.S. analyst has two Canadian picks for peak oil

The recession has really taken supply and demand in the energy business – which was quite tight, as we had a rising demand and a flattening supply in the world of 2009 – and turned it around temporarily. The high prices of 2005 and 2008 got a lot of people interested in energy conservation and efficiency, or they ran through the money that they had, which forced them to use less energy. In many poor countries, that’s what happened.

Iran’s nuclear swap option revived

Yukiya Amano, the new director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has raised hopes that a “confidence-building” plan for a swap of nuclear material between Iran and a third party could still be salvaged.

Shell defends continued focus on fossil fuel – paper

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc \Chief Executive Peter Voser defended the oil giant’s retreat from some green technologies to concentrate on oil and gas production in an interview with the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Shell withdrew from its solar business because it was not prepared to make the required investments, Voser told the newspaper adding that alternative fuel for cars remained problematic.

EPA Approves World’s First 100% Natural Gas 2010 Taxi

ASHEVILLE, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Altech-Eco Corporation of Asheville, North Carolina announced today that they have obtained a Certificate of Conformity (COC) from the EPA for their DEDICATED 2010 Ford Transit Connect compressed natural gas (CNG) conversion system. The “Dedicated” system means that the vehicle runs entirely on 100% natural gas, and needs absolutely zero gasoline ever.

Electric Car Strategy: Follow the Fleet

Like other automakers, Ford Motor Company is betting heavily on electric vehicles as the economy recovers. That decision has been powering the prospects of Azure Dynamics, a company in Oak Park, Mich., that makes electric drive trains and other components for hybrid commercial fleet vehicles like courier vans.

Heat From Power Generation Could Trim U.K.’s 2050 Energy Needs

(Bloomberg) — Capturing heat from power plants could help reduce Britain’s future generation capacity, projected to exceed 150 gigawatts by 2050, by 13 percent, according to a Combined Heat and Power Association report.

Diversifying the ways heat is supplied and using combined heat and power, or CHP, plants would reduce peak demand, making it easier to manage electricity usage, the report said. Heat represented 41 percent of Britain’s total final energy consumption in 2007.

Chain reaction: The nuclear debate is among the most pressing of our times

Following the precautionary principle, avoiding the construction of more nuclear power stations worldwide is a sensible idea.

But this doesn’t hide the fact the planet is facing an energy crisis. While plenty of alternative and renewable sources of power exist, whether they can be adopted in sufficient time, or provide the true volumes required seems uncertain.

Qatar, Germany set up solar power joint venture

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A state-run foundation in the natural gas-rich state of Qatar says it is setting up a joint venture plant with Germany’s SolarWorld to produce the main ingredient in solar panels.

Qatar Foundation says the deal marks “the first phase” in the Persian Gulf state’s push into the solar energy field.

Transition Milwaukee

For some, the future is bleak. Imagine, if you will, a nightmarish apocalypse of oil shocks and climate change that leave everyday Americans groping around alone, cold in the dark, cranking induction flashlights to illuminate cars that won’t run, big-box retailers devoid of merchandise, and decaying cities peopled by zombie-like citizens who can tap out text messages with precision but go hungry without microwavable meals.

For others, the forecast of a world without cheap and abundant oil is motivation to start building a brighter future today. A growing vanguard of people around the planet are rejecting a vision of self-imposed apocalypse and embracing this second future, with an emphasis on humanity and sustainability customized at many local levels.

A Warning on Europe’s Forests

Europe’s forests have been expanding for the last 60 years. But the rate at which forests are growing in Europe is slowing, and forested areas face even more acute challenges in the future because of climate change, Janez Potocnik, the E.U. commissioner for the environment, warned today.

“Europe’s forests are a precious resource,” he said at a news conference at E.U. headquarters in Brussels. “Their wide range of social, economic and environmental functions means that the stakes are high.”

British scientist in climate row admits ‘awful’ emails

LONDON (AFP) – A British climate researcher at the centre of a row over global warming science has admitted he wrote some “pretty awful” emails to sceptics when he was refusing their requests for data.

But Phil Jones, of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, defended Monday his decision not to release the data about temperatures from around the world, saying it was not “standard practice” to do so.

South Dakota legislature declares that astrology can explain global warming

Wow! The South Dakota legislature has declared, by majority vote, that the ancient pseudoscience of astrology “can effect world weather”! Astrology, of course, is a superstitious belief that the movements of stars and planets can affect our daily lives here on Earth, a belief that has no basis in science. Some people – including, apparently, the South Dakota legislature – still take it seriously, although most view astrological forecasts as light entertainment.

Expert: Climate change effort will take centuries

Climate change won’t be solved by the passage of one bill. It’s something we’re going to have to manage over hundreds of years.

The best outcome of whatever policy we implement is that nothing happens. That’s the most difficult thing about it. This is a long-term problem. It will keep coming up until we deal with it. That’s difficult in the current political climate. Moderates are scarce and the bases of the parties are miles apart. Eventually the public will demand action. But that doesn’t mean nothing should be done now.

Asia buys record volume of W. African oil in Q1

LONDON (Reuters) – Asian buyers are taking record volumes of West African crude oil this year as fuel consumption rises in India, China and other East Asian countries, a Reuters survey of trade sources showed on Monday.

Imports of cargoes of unrefined oil from Nigeria, Angola and other African producers via Atlantic ports averaged around 1.79 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter, up from about 1.53 million bpd in the fourth quarter and close to 1.1 million bpd a year ago.

In the first three months of this year, Asia consumed about 40 percent of all the West African crude produced, up from around 25 percent in Q1 2009, the Reuters survey shows.

Saudi Arabia May Nearly Double Oil Supply to India

(Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia, the biggest oil exporter, agreed to almost double crude shipments to India and study “enhancement” of joint projects as Asia’s third-largest economy seeks to increase supply for planned refineries.

Ali al-Naimi, oil minister in the biggest Arab economy, agreed to raise crude supply to India to 40 million tons a year, or about 770,000 barrels a day, from 25.5 million tons a year, at a meeting today with counterpart Murli Deora, India’s Oil Ministry said in a statement on its Web site.

Bangalore: Power cuts short-circuit India’s Silicon Valley

Frequent power blackouts are taking a toll on the confidence of India’s Silicon Valley. Bangalore, which fetched Rs 68,500-crore foreign exchange for the country last year, is reeling under frequent unscheduled power cuts – sometimes lasting 3-4 hours. This has not only infuriated small-scale enterprises but also the 1,800-company strong IT/ITes sector in the IT city. According to estimates by the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI), the power cuts are resulting the IT hub’s industrial belt losing around Rs 400 crore a day.

Bangalore requires 33 million units (mu) per day but it is currently receiving only around 30 mu. The demand may increase by another 2 mu per day during the summer months. So the worst is probably yet to come.

Ukraine Cuts Electricity Exports to 3 EU Nations

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine says it has cut off electricity exports to EU nations Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, for at least a month due to a coal shortage.

Malta: Fenech insists growth, not protests, is solution for higher tariffs

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said today that oil prices were expected to continue to rise, and the government was helping the economy to deal with them.

Spring Is Coming

The experts say very little about coal and natural gas – because they are cheap. When or if coal and gas were priced at the same dollars-per-unit energy rate as oil costing $80 a barrel, their price would be about $14 per million BTU for gas, and $400 a ton for energy coal, which to be sure would revolutionize the outlook for green energy.

Simply because oil is already out of the price box, it has an almost mystical impact on political leaders of importer countries, and the battalions of hungry consumers they lead. Without oil and its intrigue, shadowy and mysterious wars in far-off lands, political coups and putsches to install better-performing ‘democrats’ in exporter countries, and the exciting Madoff-style merry-go-round of oil trading, life would be slower and dimmer.

When or if other fossil energy sources, which with oil supply 85% of world energy at this time, cost as much as oil we could fear that coal wars and gas wars would join today’s oil wars.

The importance of envisioning “community”

Presently most of us are like deer in the headlights, watching with both excitement and horror the approaching social, economic, ecological “collapse”, with each of us envisioning both our worst fears and our best hopes (like many did with Obama). In lieu of direct action, or in addition to it, many of us spend a lot of our time “envisioning”. How will this collapse play out, and what is the timing? What are the possibilities of change? What exactly are the changes that need to happen? Like the deer, we know we should bolt (act), but which way, when? It is all so confusing.

No Third Runway campaigners defend community

COMMUNITY activists from the group Transition Heathrow moved into an abandoned market garden in Sipson today.

Around 20 people “swooped” on the land in Sipson around lunchtime today.

After securing the site, the group immediately informed their new neighbours and local residents of their intention to reopen the old market garden for the benefit of the local community.

The ‘Grow Heathrow’ project aims to encourage and support locally grown produce in an area that once had some of the most fertile soils in Britain. Transition Heathrow has launched the project to highlight the need for a community controlled food supply in order to remain resilient to the impacts of peak oil and climate change.

ExxonMobil’s Spending Exceeds Cash Flow in 2009

Exxon Mobil Corp.’s spending exceeded its cash flow in 2009, drawing down one of the oil industry’s largest treasure troves in a year of weak energy prices.

The Texas oil giant received $29.9 billion in cash from operations and asset sales last year while spending $53.12 billion in capital investments and money given to investors via dividends and share buybacks. Exxon’s cash reserves — padded by years of booming energy prices — shrank to $10.7 billion at the end of 2009 from $31.4 billion at the close of 2008, according to an annual filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

To Nuke or Not to Nuke

Minnesota and seven other states currently outlaw new nuclear energy production: Wisconsin, Illinois, California, Hawaii, and three coal states, West Virginia, Kentucky and Montana (which also lacks sufficient water for nuclear cooling).

The Minnesota legislature passed a moratorium on new nuclear power plants in 1994. A new nuclear power plant would take at least 10 years to bring online and cost $12-billion or more. Within 10 years the price for solar photovoltaics will come down while nuclear power costs will rise. Nuclear will be the most expensive form of electricity to generate, therefore the most profitable for utility investors. At this time nuclear energy is 17-cents per kilowatt hour while efficiency costs two-cents/kw according to Bill Grant from the Isaac Walton League’s Midwest Chapter.

Rulings Restrict Clean Water Act, Foiling E.P.A.

Thousands of the nation’s largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act’s reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law, according to interviews with regulators.

As a result, some businesses are declaring that the law no longer applies to them. And pollution rates are rising.

Niall Ferguson – Complexity and Collapse: Empires on the Edge of Chaos

What if history is not cyclical and slow moving but arrhythmic — at times almost stationary, but also capable of accelerating suddenly, like a sports car? What if collapse does not arrive over a number of centuries but comes suddenly, like a thief in the night?

Great powers and empires are, I would suggest, complex systems, made up of a very large number of interacting components that are asymmetrically organized, which means their construction more resembles a termite hill than an Egyptian pyramid. They operate somewhere between order and disorder — on “the edge of chaos,” in the phrase of the computer scientist Christopher Langton. Such systems can appear to operate quite stably for some time; they seem to be in equilibrium but are, in fact, constantly adapting. But there comes a moment when complex systems “go critical.” A very small trigger can set off a “phase transition” from a benign equilibrium to a crisis — a single grain of sand causes a whole pile to collapse, or a butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazon and brings about a hurricane in southeastern England.

Oil falls back below $80 as dollar strengthens

Oil prices lost early gains Monday to retreat below $80 a barrel, as the effects of a rising dollar offset the strength in other commodities markets, such as copper, and increases in equities.

Saudi Arabia Lowers March LPG Prices as Heating Demand Falls

(Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the largest supplier of liquefied petroleum gas to Asia, lowered prices for cargoes loading in March as the end of the Northern Hemisphere winter cuts demand for heating fuel.

Pakistan Lowers Domestic Oil Prices in Line With Global Costs

(Bloomberg) — Pakistan lowered domestic fuel prices by as much as 4 percent in line with international crude rates, the Islamabad-based Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority said in a statement.

The government decreased the price of gasoline by 1 percent to 70.57 rupees (83 cents) a liter. Light diesel oil prices were lowered by 3 percent to 59.47 rupees, according to the regulator’s statement on its Web site.

Korea, Japan Yet to Get More Diesel Orders From Chile

(Bloomberg) — Asian oil refiners that can make ultra-low sulfur diesel used in Chile have yet to receive any spot purchase orders even as the Latin American country sought to boost imports following an 8.8-magnitude earthquake.

Chile, the fourth-largest oil consumer in South and Central America, plans to buy diesel from overseas after closing the bigger two of its three refineries, according to state-owned Empresa Nacional del Petroleo. The country, which imports about 20 percent of its fuel needs, has enough diesel supply for 10 days’ consumption and gasoline for two weeks, the company known as ENAP said Feb. 27 in an e-mailed statement.

Kuwait sees $9 bln China refinery deal by year-end

DUBAI (Reuters) – Kuwait expects to receive approval to develop a $9 billion refinery in China by the end of the year, a Kuwaiti oil executive said on Monday.

In remarks carried by state news agency KUNA, Kuwait Petroleum Corp’s (KPC) chief executive Saad Al-Shuwaib said the project’s investors were still hoping to commission the 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery by 2013.

Mol Says Earnings May More Than Double Through 2012

(Bloomberg) — Mol Nyrt., Hungary’s largest oil company, is seeking to more than double profit in three years by raising crude output and making its refineries more efficient.

Aramco steps up gas chase

Drilling for oil in top oil exporter Saudi Arabia in 2010 is expected to remain the same as last year, industry sources said, but state oil giant Aramco would increase gas drilling activities.

Saudi Aramco seeks bids for Red Sea seismic survey

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – At least three companies are bidding for a seismic survey in the Red Sea for state oil giant Saudi Aramco, industry sources said on Monday.

…Aramco is planning to start drilling in deeper offshore frontiers in 2012, Aramco’s chief executive Khalid al-Falih said in November.

Shell to Sell Assets to Fund $28 Billion Spending, FT Reports

(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc is selling assets including fields in the North Sea and its European liquefied petroleum gas business to help finance its $28 billion capital spending program this year, the Financial Times said, citing unidentified people involved in the proposed transactions.

TNK-BP 2009 reserves rise, income falls

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s third-biggest oil and gas producer TNK-BP said it replenished its hydrocarbon reserves in 2009 due to new discoveries and a rise in oil prices while its full-year net income fell 5.7 percent.

TNK-BP, half-owned by BP, said on Monday that under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s methodology, which uses the year-end spot price and applies to the economic life of a field, reserves rose in 2009 to 8.6 billion barrels from 8.1 billion in 2008.

More people apply for energy assistance to help with heating

A record number of U.S. households are applying for help to pay home heating bills with 17 states fielding application requests that are up more than 20% from last year, the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association says.

Almost 9 million U.S. households are expected to need help paying winter energy bills. That’s up 15% from the record-setting 7.7 million last year, the association says.

Fla. deadliest state for walkers, cyclists

MIAMI, Florida — Florida is the deadliest state in the U.S. for pedestrians — and bicyclists don’t fare any better.

In 2008, the most recent year for which federal statistics are available, 11.1% of pedestrians and 17.4% of bicyclists killed in the U.S. died in the Sunshine State, which has 6% of the nation’s population.

Kunstler: Winter Mind Games

I am confident in the “emergent,” self-organizing capablities of human societies. We are now faced with the task of emergently re-organizing medicine downward to the community clinic level — and sooner or later probably toward a simple, straightforward pay-as-you-go in cash basis with doctors you know, with all the bureaucratic barnacles scraped away. Like a lot of other things in the years ahead — education, retail trade, transport, even banking — medicine is likely to be much less dazzling than the way it is practiced today. But when all is said and done we’ll still possess the germ theory of illness and the recipe for lidocaine and a few other things that will make existence tolerable.

Sumitomo, IFC to Advise Indonesia on Energy Finance

(Bloomberg) — Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. agreed with the World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development to advise Indonesia on funding renewable energy projects as the country plans to boost power generation.

A stink in Central California over converting cow manure to electricity

Air-quality rules in the region leave dairy farmers facing costly changes to generators used to burn methane to produce power. Some have put their renewable-energy plans on hold.

AGL May Build Wind Farm on Revised Clean-Energy Plan

(Bloomberg) — AGL Energy Ltd., Australia’s largest electricity retailer, said it expects to build the A$800 million ($719 million) Macarthur wind farm after the government revised a plan to spur renewable energy investment.

How do you convince people of global warming in a snowstorm?

“Gloomy unemployment numbers, public frustration with Washington, attacks on climate science, and mobilized opposition to national climate legislation represent a ‘perfect storm’ of events that have lowered public concerns about global warming even among the alarmed,” says Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change.

China eyeing perks of ice-free Arctic: study

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – China has started exploring how to reap economic and strategic benefits from the ice melting at the Arctic with global warming, a Stockholm research institute said Monday.

Chinese officials have so far had been cautious in expressing interest in the region for fear of causing alarm among the five countries bordering the Arctic, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said.

“The prospect of the Arctic being navigable during summer months, leading to both shorter shipping routes and access to untapped energy resources, has impelled the Chinese government to allocate more resources to Arctic research,” SIPRI researcher Linda Jakobson said.

Kurt Cobb: An uneven collapse (Hint: It’s already happening)

When we think of collapse, we often think of a building or bridge or other structure suddenly giving way. We have a tendency to take this physical model of collapse and translate it into the social and political world.

Thus, when Joseph Tainter or Jared Diamond write of societal collapse, we are inclined to think of a relatively rapid process that acts equally across an entire area and even perhaps across the entire globe. But I believe that the collapse of the globalized society we now inhabit will be exceedingly uneven geographically and one that is spread over many years. And, I believe that that collapse has already started to appear in places which might be considered the periphery of our global system.

Govt must get serious about peak oil

John de Bueger looks at the implications of “peak oil” and suggests New Zealand should be getting serious about it.

The other strategic petroleum reserves

In December, Abu Dhabi delivered the first shipment of oil to a new Japanese strategic petroleum reserve.

The crude is being stored in facilities that the Japanese government borrowed last year from Nippon Oil, the national petroleum company, then offered to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. The UAE company aims to use Japan as a base for Asian oil trading. In return for providing storage, however, Tokyo has priority purchase rights to up to 4 million barrels of immediately accessible crude in the event of an energy crisis.

If oil is relatively cheap, why not buy it and store it? Strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) are a legacy of the Arab oil embargo of 1973, an event that thrust the concept of energy security to the top of the list of priorities for developed oil importing countries of the time.

PDVSA could drop Curacao refinery lease – report

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan oil company PDVSA may withdraw from the 320,000 barrel-per-day Isla refinery it operates in Curacao to protest U.S. military operations on the Caribbean island, Ultimas Noticias newspaper reported on Saturday, citing an interview with Venezuela’s oil minister.

Venezuela may order state-run PDVSA to abandon its lease of the Isla refinery because the U.S. military has been staging “provocations” on Venezuela from Curacao, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez was quoted as saying.

Iraq, Nippon Oil group oilfield talks at “dead end”

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) – Talks between Iraq and a Japanese group led by Nippon Oil Corp (5001.T) to develop the Nassiriya oilfield have reached a “dead end”, the head of Iraq’s South Oil Co. said on Sunday.

Gazprom Price Change to Last 3 Years

Gazprom on Friday detailed the concessions it was giving to its four largest customers, saying its long-term contracts would take into account the much-lower spot price for gas for only three years.

Energy chief asks Arroyo: Use emergency powers

MANILA, Philippines—A power crisis in Mindanao must be declared in Mindanao to allow the government to use “emergency powers” in addressing the worsening supply shortage in the island, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said.

In a statement, Reyes said his recommendation to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would allow the government to invoke Section 71 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira).

Young People ‘Needed To Save UK Farming’

It is feared the UK’s farming industry could suffer a critical shortage in skilled labour if younger people aren’t attracted into the profession.

The challenges of climate change and food security mean it’s vital that a new workforce gets the training so desperately needed.

North Sea oil ‘viable for 30 more years’

THE North Sea has a viable future for the next 30 years, or beyond, provided oil heads above $200 a barrel, an industry expert has forecast.

Matt Simmons, the founder and chairman emeritus of energy investment specialist Simmons & Company International, said there was a bright future for the UK sector of the North Sea “if we come up with attractive investment opportunities”.

“It’s in everyone’s interest to keep oil and gas infrastructure alive,” he said. “But the game changes. We don’t have any fabulous new fields to find, unless we get really lucky.

“Basically, we now need to mitigate the declines while we look at how we can start replacing oil. Oil prices need to go way higher though. You couldn’t start to rebuild the oil and gas infrastructure at what they are today.”

Oil prices hit a record peak of almost $147 a barrel in July 2008, triggering soaring prices at the petrol pumps. After falling to the low $30s less than six months later, they have since recovered to stand at about $80.

Simmons described even the near-$150 level as “dirt cheap”. Asked if $200 was a more realistic price to sustain investment in oil and gas assets, the industry veteran replied: “I’m not sure that’s high enough.”

Jan Lundberg: Social and Individual Breakdown Pent up toward Collapse

The U.S. appears to be breaking down on all levels, probably taking the rest of the modern world with it. Noticing this helps us understand the hopelessness of our intrinsically flawed system. Also, recognizing breakdown is helpful for seeing impending collapse in a new light.

Breakdown should be seen in such a way to realize that order is becoming an illusion. Breakdown is preceding and adding to future collapse. Simultaneously there are myriad magnificent yet small-scale efforts to improve people’s lives and the health of our Earth. Overall, however, I detect a quickened intensity of breakdown across the board that cannot be cured under current conditions. It is manifested in many areas, such as minimal civic involvement in one’s own life-and-death interest.

Greenhouse project promotes self-sufficiency

BROOKSVILLE, Maine — A grass-roots project seeks to promote self-reliance and self-sufficiency by making low-cost greenhouses available to interested individuals and institutions.

Ag expertise needed to feed, fuel world’s skyrocketing demands for food, energy

World food demand is expected to increase 100 percent by 2050 due to a rapidly expanding population in countries such as China, India and the United States. And, yet 963 million people, 14 percent of the world’s population, are already chronically hungry.

“To increase the supply of safe, nutritious and affordable food, we all share in the responsibility to ensure those responsible for producing food have the knowledge required to do their jobs,” said Jackman. “For millions of people, it could be the difference between sustenance and starvation.”

Additional agricultural crops will also be needed to meet growing energy demands. For example, without biofuels such as ethanol produced from corn, the United States would have used 7.2 billion more gallons of gasoline in 2008. And, earlier this month President Barack Obama announced a series of steps his administration is taking to boost biofuel production to enhance America’s energy independence.

Scientists see biochar as promising fuel source

Scientists in Eastern Washington are at the forefront of research into an ancient practice that shows promise as a clean fuel source, a way to improve soil condition and to capture carbon that otherwise would be released into the atmosphere.

Refiners facing tough times

TEXAS CITY — Last year was a dark one for the refining industry. This year isn’t going to be much better, industry observers said.

“It’s going to be rugged,” said Tom Kloza, analyst with the Wall, N.J.-based Oil Price Information Services.

A recession that has curbed demand for fuel, left a glut of refining capacity and deflated margins is behind one of the most brutal downturns in recent memory, putting an end to the industry’s so-called “Golden Age” of record profits.

Abu Dhabi Deepens April Cuts for Murban Oil Shipments

(Bloomberg) — Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., the United Arab Emirates’ state-run producer, deepened cuts for shipments of Murban and Umm Shaif crude in April because of OPEC limits on members’ output.

Shipments of Murban, the largest export grade, and Umm Shaif will be 15 percent less than contracted amounts for April, Adnoc said in a statement today. That’s a deeper cut than the 10 percent reduction in March liftings for those crudes.

BP joins the rush for gas

The global oil group BP is to signal its intention to rapidly increase the gas arm of its business – including controversial shale gas – when it announces its strategic plan for investors this week.

Chesapeake CEO Wins Dismissal of Investors’ Excess Pay Lawsuit

(Bloomberg) — Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s Chief Executive Officer Aubrey McClendon won dismissal of a shareholder lawsuit claiming the company paid him too much money in 2008.

Russia exports East Siberian oil to Japan for 1st time

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia — Russia has started exporting East Siberian crude oil to Japan for the first time, trading industry sources said. A tanker, which will left the port of Kozmino near the Russian city of Nakhodka, on Friday, will dock at the Keiyo Sea Berth in Tokyo Bay in early March, the sources said.

Argentinian veterans plan protests at Falklands oil rig

Argentinian veterans of the 1982 Falklands war are planning to use civilian ships to mount protests in front of the British rig that has begun drilling for oil off the islands.

They say that their mission is to “spread Argentina’s position in international waters”. The group also plans to “enlighten” staff at the Argentinian offices of the Chilean airline LAN about the need to halt all flights from Chile’s mainland to the islands. It is also calling for a national boycott of all British companies and goods.

India, Saudi Arabia set to sign 10 pacts

RIYADH: India and Saudi Arabia today finalised 10 pacts, including an Extradition Treaty and agreements in the economic sphere for signing during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ongoing visit to this oil-rich country.

South Korea cuts big gas deal with Canada

South Korea’s state run Korea Gas has won a 1.1 billion dollar deal to jointly develop natural gas fields in Canada with a Canadian gas firm Encana.

A natural choice

IN AMERICA’S climate debate, one of the most promising developments of recent months has been the growing recognition in Washington that natural gas may play a key role in curbing carbon emissions. The resurgence of gas comes through the discovery of massive deposits in Appalachian shale formations and elsewhere — a reserve that offers the prospect of stable domestic supplies and relatively low prices. Since burning natural gas produces half the emissions of burning coal, switching the two fuels could put a significant dent in America’s carbon footprint.

China needs more hydropower projects: lawmaker

BEIJING: China should build more large hydropower projects so it can live up to its promise to the international community, Wang Shucheng, vice chairman of the Finance and Economic Committee under the National People’s Congress (China’s top legislature), said on Saturday.

China in 2007 promised to make renewable resources supply 15 percent of its total energy consumption by 2020, in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainable economic growth.

China says moving to enforce greenhouse gas goals

BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Sunday it will spell out greenhouse gas emissions goals and monitoring rules for regions and sectors in its next five-year plan, with monitoring to show it is serious about curbing emissions.

The Chinese government said in November it would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from human activity, emitted to make each unit of national income by 40 to 45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels.

New “Low Carbon World website” to Accelerate Transition to Green Economy

Bali – The internet is successfully facilitating a transition from traditional so called “brown” business models to new green growth strategies. The “Low Carbon World” website, a web-based communications platform – www.LowCarbonEconomy.com – was officially launched today (Thursday) in Bali, Indonesia at the United Nations Environment Programme’s annual Governing Council.

The new website, a joint project between Low Carbon Economy.com and the United Nation’s Climate Neutral Network (CN NET) http://www.unep.org/climateneutral/ aims to facilitate the move to global low carbon economies, a necessary imperative if we are to combat dangerous and escalating climate change.

Pickens expects approval of key natural gas plan

While the U.S. may never achieve energy independence, billionaire Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens predicts Congress will pass key energy legislation by Memorial Day that can “start us back in the right direction.”

“I think Congress is ready to address the problem. The problem is we are dependent on oil from the wrong places,” he said in a meeting Thursday with the Houston Chronicle editorial board.

The legislation, known as the Natural Gas Act, would dramatically expand the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel among heavy- duty fleets. House and Senate versions of the bill provide tax breaks for natural gas-powered vehicles and fueling stations.

Oil Comfortable Around $80, But Will Demand Rise?

Nobuo Tanaka, head of the International Energy Agency noted Friday that so far this year, the global economic recovery has yet to strengthen demand for oil.

“Demand numbers have not been as strong as the macro economists say the economic recovery has been,” the IEA executive director said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

Newsom, however, believes that demand could potentially accelerate during the upcoming driving season, slated to begin at the end of May and peak in the summer months from June-July.

Saudi oil drilling to be stable in 2010

Drilling for oil in top oil exporter Saudi Arabia in 2010 is expected to remain the same as last year, industry sources said on Saturday, but state oil giant Aramco would increase gas drilling activities.

Aramco’s focus on gas came as the kingdom continues to step up efforts to meet soaring gas demand and after it completed last year a crude expansion project to boost output capacity to 12 million barrels per day (bpd).

“We see it (oil drilling) stable. We are not increasing, we are not dropping. We are trying to maintain around 100 rigs for the rest of the year,” one source said.

Chevron Secures Shale Exploration Rights in Poland

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday, Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, confirmed that it has secured exploration rights for an additional Polish shale gas concession, although the size of the acreage was not divulged.

A Confucian Mess: Natural Gas Pricing in China

China has a stated goal of increasing its natural gas consumption. But gas only accounts for less than 3% of the country’s primary energy consumption while coal provides more than 70%, a share not seen in the West since the nineteenth century. The paltry gas consumption in China is miniscule even compared to primary consumption levels in Asia and around the world. Gas accounts for about 8.8% of primary energy use in Asia and for about 24% of total energy worldwide.

Analysis: Caribbean Contributes Natural Gas

The Caribbean is not just the birthplace of the steelpan, a beach vacation destination, and home of a spectacular Carnival celebration. The Caribbean islands are also working toward energy independence; however today the islands are predominantly net energy importers.

Environmentalists question coal’s place in Obama policy

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, a longtime believer in “clean coal,” is launching an ambitious and expensive plan to help the energy industry lock climate-changing gases from coal-fired power plants deep underground.

The Dirty Truth Behind Clean Coal

If you’ve tuned in to the Winter Olympics this past week, you likely sat through repeated showings of a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign paid for by Big Coal regarding the potential laurels of “clean-coal” technology. The premise of the 30-second spot is simple: Coal can be clean and America needs to wean itself off of foreign crude and create jobs back home by tapping our nation’s vast coal reserves.

Solar power’s amazing rise

Think solar panels are relics of Jimmy Carter’s White House? Actually, attempts to harness the sun’s energy date to the Romans, who warmed bathhouses with sunlight streaming through large and strategically placed southern windows. But it was fear of coal shortages in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that fueled interest in solar technology.

Building green

GERMANY—The concept of green buildings started in the 1970s, when the energy crisis and environment pollution became a concern of everybody. Originally, green buildings were built out of the need and desire for more energy-efficient and environment-friendly construction practices. There are a number of motives to building green, including environmental, economic and social benefits. Also known as sustainable design, this concept integrates the building an environment using green practices employed with a design purpose.

Water fallout: Utah’s first nuclear plant won’t float without water rights

The Green River proposal has sparked intense skepticism. Critics ask where the funding will come from, where the electricity will go, and, of course, what will happen to the waste. But the first hurdle is more immediate. In the Utah desert, this possible climate change solution is colliding with one of its projected consequences: water scarcity.

Alternate Reality Game ‘EVOKE’ Uses Gamers to Change the World

To hear exactly what “EVOKE” entails is to immediately be struck by the scope of the venture. It’s at once a pie-in-the-sky project based around empowering people to make positive changes to the world around them, but based around social gaming conventions to lure in people familiar with online games. “EVOKE” is like “World of Warcraft,” but instead of vanquishing orcs you’re fighting hunger; instead of raiding dark dungeons, groups band together to solve the energy crisis. If it sounds like a game with an agenda, that’s because it is.

Nuclear Reactors, Dams at Risk Due to Global Warming

As climate change throws Earth’s water cycle off-kilter, the world’s energy infrastructure may end up in hot water, experts say.

From hydropower installations in the Himalaya to nuclear power plants in Western Europe, energy resources are already being impacted by flooding, heat waves, drought, and more.

Traditionally power plants and energy facilities have been built for the long haul—the circa-1936 Hoover Dam in Nevada is still a major hydroelectric generator.

But in a rapidly warming world, a site that looks ideal when it’s built may be in a much different environment 50 years later. For instance, a facility built on permafrost in the Arctic may collapse due to the melting tundra.

Oil settles near $80 a barrel again

NEW YORK – Oil prices hit $80 a barrel Friday to end a wild trading week that saw prices swing in the opposite direction every day.

Crude barrels have wavered between $70 and $80 all year, and the latest batch of economic reports failed to give a clear picture of when energy demand in the U.S. would pick up.

TNK-BP Seeks ‘Game Changing’ Unconventional Gas in East Europe

(Bloomberg) — BP Plc’s Russian venture, TNK-BP, is considering unconventional gas opportunities in eastern Europe, as hard-to-extract deposits start to “make sense” with available technology and pricing conditions.

“That’s a game changer,” Chief Operating Officer Bill Schrader said in an interview. “It will have an impact globally. As economic activity recovers, that gas will be developed.”

Petrobras project sticks to schedule

Despite recent economic headwinds that forced some rivals to retrench, Petrobras remains on track to launch its biggest project ever in the U.S. in coming months, a senior official with Brazil’s state-owned oil company said Friday.

Petrobras, keeping with its original timeline, is set to begin producing oil by mid-2010 from two ultradeep- water fields in the Gulf of Mexico known as Cascade and Chinook, said Cesar Palagi, a Gulf of Mexico asset manager for the company.

Mexico Aims to Produce 3.3 Million Oil Barrels Daily by 2024

(Bloomberg) — Mexico’s government aims to boost oil production to 3.3 million barrels a day by 2024, the Energy Ministry said.

Western Oil Companies Feel the Heat in Kazakhstan

A consortium of Western oil companies developing a huge natural-gas field in Kazakhstan was slapped with a $21 million fine Friday, the latest step in a pressure campaign that is raising concern among investors in the oil-rich Central Asian state.

The move, against the group developing a field called Karachaganak, is reminiscent of tactics deployed by Russia, which also used penalties and investigations to coerce Western oil majors into giving state companies stakes in their projects.

Nabucco Gas Link to Europe May Secure Turkmen Supply by April

(Bloomberg) — The Nabucco pipeline, conceived to bring natural gas to Europe via Turkey from around the Caspian Sea, may clinch a supply contract with Turkmenistan in April, a partner in the negotiations said.

As Clock Ticks, Nuclear Plant Searches for Leak

VERNON, Vt. — At Vermont Yankee, a nuclear reactor on the ropes, the search for a tritium leak that may doom the plant is proceeding as quickly as possible — which is to say, at a painstaking pace.

Managing Peak Demand With Water Heaters

Most programs for reducing peak electricity demand involve air-conditioners or (in farm states) irrigation. In Idaho, for example, the main power company pays homeowners to allow their air-conditioners to be cycled on and off in 15-minute intervals during some summer afternoons, and farmers are paid to turn off their water pumps during those times.

Water heaters can also be set up to reduce strain on the power system. Dan Tepfer, who works on “demand response” issues for the Kandiyohi Power Cooperative, a small utility in central Minnesota, said that customers are paid $12.50 per month to take part in a program that allows the water heaters to use electricity only at night — between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. During those hours, the utility has plenty of spare electric capacity — unlike the daytime, when people run their computers and dishwashers and other gadgets.

How Will Global Warming Affect Regional Climates?

While much attention has been given to the potential global impact of climate change, less has been paid to how a warmer planet would affect regional climates. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that the global average temperature will rise about 1°C by the middle of the century, but the global average does not tell us anything about what will happen to regional climates, for example rainfall in the western United States or Hawaiian Islands.

Supply and Demand: Climate study looks at risks to water source

Water managers and scientists tracking climate change said Friday that they hope a new $2 million study will produce strategies for dealing with Southern Nevada’s primary water source on the Colorado River if supply dwindles and demand increases during the next 50 years.

The two-year study, which is under way, will look at risks to the supply if temperatures continue to increase as they have in the past decade, said Terry Fulp, the Bureau of Reclamation’s deputy regional director for the Lower Colorado Region. The study is funded by the bureau and the seven Colorado River Basin states.

The US Chamber of Commerce: A record of obstruction on climate action

In 1883, New York faced an environmental crisis, but intervention from the city’s Chamber of Commerce led to the creation of the Adirondack Park – a move that is a far cry from the US Chamber of Commerce today.

Most Credible Climate Skeptic Not So Credible After All

Patrick Michaels has more credibility than your average climate skeptic. Unlike some of the kookier characters that populate the small world of climate denialists—like Lord Christopher Monckton, a sometime adviser to Margaret Thatcher who claims that “We are a carbon-starved planet,” or H. Leighton Steward, a retired oil executive and author of a best-selling diet book who argues that carbon dioxide is “green”—Michaels is actually a bona fide climate scientist. As such, he’s often quoted by reporters as a reasonable expert who argues that global warming has been overhyped. But what Michaels doesn’t mention in his frequent media appearances is his history of receiving money from big polluters.