Energy Bulletin -

It's time to deal with Peak Oil

kristinsponsler — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:41:07 -0700

The "Peak Oil" concept -- that the world’s petroleum-production rate will soon reach its maximum and commence an inevitable decline, with negative economic consequences — has been around in scientifically articulated form at least since 1998; long enough to see it confirmed in significant ways.

ODAC Newsletter - Mar 19

Simone — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:09:50 -0700

OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna this week caused no surprises in deciding to keep production quotas unchanged. Saudi oil minister Ali Al-Naimi described current prices as "beautiful". Indeed as the group met the oil price rose to $82/barrel, close to its 2010 high despite only 53% compliance by OPEC to its quotas and low US demand.

Post Carbon Exchange #1: Richard Heinberg & Lester Brown (transcript added)

kristinsponsler — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:09:22 -0700

In this premier Post Carbon Exchange, Post Carbon Institute Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg talks with Lester Brown, Founder of the Earth Policy Institute, about hopeful developments in alternative energy, as well as the importance of Brown's updated path toward a sustainable future, "Plan B 4.0".

Petroleum Demand Lessons from the Late 1970s

kristinsponsler — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:06:50 -0700

A collapse in demand for petroleum products happened in the late 1970s and early 1980s. JD, proprietor of the blog Peak Oil Debunked, examined this briefly in this 2007 post about what he termed ”The Big Glitch”...

A Conversation About Energy with Howard Lindzon

kristinsponsler — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:45:51 -0700

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to do a freewheeling, videotaped chat with StockTwits founder Howard Lindzon on the present and future realities of energy...Topics included peak oil, the end of economic growth, reversing globalization, oil prices, alternatives, and lots of other topics.

Peak oil, prices and supplies - Mar 18

kristinsponsler — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:22:24 -0700

-Money spent on tar sands projects could decarbonise western economies
-China's oil demand increase 'astonishing', says IEA
-OPEC sticks to its guns, demand rising

Where Dark Green Meets Cleantech (Or, Beyond Shades of Green)

Lakis — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:59:01 -0700

A little while ago, Alex Steffen of World Changing offered a critique of the permaculture-inspired Transition Towns initiative--a grass-roots, peak oil/climate change adaptation movement that has gone viral around the world in the past three years . . . Steffen would describe these people as “dark greens,” a brand of environmentalist who emphasizes local community action but can tend toward collapse-thinking or doomerism.

Joint Operating Environment 2010: Oil Supply Concerns (review)

kristinsponsler — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:23:01 -0700

The United States Joint Forces Command regularly (about every two years) issues its “perspective on future trends, shocks, contexts and implications for… the national security field.”...Amid the multitude of security threats, energy has moved rapidly to the forefront, and it is the oil supply issue which is the focus of this review.

Peak oil notes - Mar 18

kristinsponsler — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:00:24 -0700

A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-China

World Has Much at Stake in Nuclear Power Decision

cseverance — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:31:54 -0700

Just days before French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged attendees at a Paris energy conference to buy more nuclear power plants, a very different nuclear power conference was held in Potsdam, Germany. The Brookings Institution and the Global Public Policy Institute convened 35 people from governments, academia, think tanks, and industry to consider nuclear power's future. Craig Severance offers his own insights, and his conference presentation on why new nuclear power should undergo a rigorous business oriented "Due Diligence" process.