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ODAC News - 03 June
Oil Depletion Analysis Centre
Headlines and commentary from a peak-oil perspective.
(3 June 2007)

Scientist David Fridley on energy, China and globalization (Video and audio)
Julian Darly, Global Public Media
David Fridley, staff scientist at Lawrence-Berkeley National Laboratory, discusses biofuels, China, globalization and high fuel prices with Global Public Media's Julian Darley. Choose any of the three video interview segments or listen to the complete audio of the interview by clicking any of the links below.

David Fridley is part of Lawrence-Berkeley's Energy Analysis Program, Environmental Energies Technology Division. The EAP generates and interprets information to inform governments and international institutions on energy-related issues to assist in the formulation of energy and environmental policies. Fridley is also deputy group leader of Lawrence-Berkeley's China Energy Group, which collaborates with the Chinese on end-use energy efficiency, industrial energy use, government energy management programs, data compilation and analysis, medium and long term energy policy research.
(26 May 2007)

API blogger conference call on hurricane preparedness
American Petroleum Institute (API), Energy Tomorrow
...MS. VAN RYAN: Great. Thanks, Chris. Okay, here's who I have so far and we may have some others that'll be joining us late. I've got Chris Miller from Oil Drum. I've got Carter Wood from ShopFloor, Alan Drake from Oil Drum, Craige Moore from Platts', and Byron King from the Daily Reckoning. Is there anyone else? All right, well thank you all for coming.

Let me tell you who I have in the room today. Our main spokesperson today, of course, will be API's president and CEO, Red Cavaney, who just this moment returned from a news conference about hurricane preparedness that was held over in the Minerals Management Service auditorium. You all have received some materials about that. You have the statement; you have a news release that we put out this morning. And in addition to that, we also sent you earlier a PowerPoint presentation and an article from API Insight magazine and a link to a news article by John Porretto at AP regarding hurricane preparedness. So I hope I haven't buried you in materials, but I thought all of that might be useful for you as we start this conference call today.

The topic once again is hurricane preparedness. If you have other questions that you want to ask and we have the right people in the room to answer them, we'll be happy to take those questions as well. You know the ground rules. This is very open and transparent. We're going to try to have a reasonable conversation and we expect all the participants to respect one another on the call.
(1 June 2007)
The audio is online at energytomorrow.org/media_center/events.html

Reliance on foreign gasoline is growing
U.S. refineries are unable to meet surge in demand
Brett Clanton, Houston Chronicle
As domestic refineries hit their limit and gasoline demand continues to rise, oil companies are importing more gasoline from beyond U.S. borders to keep America driving.

Gasoline shipped in from abroad now accounts for more than 11 percent of the total gasoline used in the U.S., roughly double the share of imports a decade ago, according to Energy Information Administration data.

Importing energy to power the world's biggest economy is nothing new. The U.S. already brings in more than 60 percent of the crude oil it uses to make gasoline, diesel fuel and other products from rubber tires to plastic bags.

But the sharp growth in imported gasoline is a relatively recent phenomenon.
(1 June 2007)

Baghdad Burns, Calgary Booms
Naomi Klein, The Nation
The invasion of Iraq has set off what could be the largest oil boom in history. All the signs are there: multinationals free to gobble up national firms at will, ship unlimited profits home, enjoy leisurely "tax holidays" and pay a laughable 1 percent in royalties to the government.

This isn't the boom in Iraq sparked by the proposed new oil law--that will come later. This boom is already in full swing, and it is happening about as far away from the carnage in Baghdad as you can get, in the wilds of northern Alberta. For four years now, Alberta and Iraq have been connected to each other through a kind of invisible seesaw: As Baghdad burns, destabilizing the entire region and sending oil prices soaring, Calgary booms.

Here is how chaos in Iraq unleashed what the Financial Times recently called "north America's biggest resources boom since the Klondike gold rush." Albertans have always known that in the northern part of their province, there are vast deposits of bitumen--black, tarlike goo that is mixed with sand, clay, water and oil. There are approximately 2.5 trillion barrels of the stuff, the largest hydrocarbon deposits in the world.

It is possible to turn Alberta's crud into crude, but it's awfully hard. One method is to mine it in vast open pits: First forests are clear-cut, then topsoil scraped away. Next, huge machines dig out the black goop and load it into the largest dump trucks in the world (two stories high, a single wheel costs $100,000).
(1 June 2007)
Another version is at AlterNet: Turning Tar into Oil: An Economic and Environmental Disaster Looms.

5 bucks a gallon to clear the mind
Tom Mast, Jackson Hole Star
...An official with the Society of Consumer Psychology thinks $3.50 could be the magic point at which profound change will be ushered in, while a marketing professor at the University of Southern California says $4.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll found Americans would significantly cut back on driving if gasoline hits $4.38 a gallon on average.

Clearly, Americans are prepared to pay a lot before reducing use of their automobiles or switching modes of transportation.

In a USA Today/Gallup poll, people overwhelmingly said they would not move or change jobs in order to cut commuter miles, or use mass transit as their main transportation, even if gasoline prices climb to over $10 a gallon. In fact, they reportedly wouldn't take such actions no matter how high the price goes.

What might be more surprising is that 41 percent of the respondents said they would not replace their cars for models that get better mileage no matter how high the price of gasoline climbs.

Such responses probably include a heaping teaspoon of bravado. Myself, I'm thinking $5 a gallon would truly focus the mind. Of course, I don't have any better evidence for this price point than anyone else has for theirs, except to say that forking over a fin for a gallon of gas when a couple of bucks formerly sufficed would be a Zen moment for many.

And if advocates for Hubbert's peak oil theory are correct, such an awakening might be closer than is comfortable to suppose.
(3 June 2007)