Geopolitics & resource wars

-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

-Smile now, cry later
-Perils of the Stationary State
-Erik Assadourian: our society needs some serious cultural engineering
-Who negotiates for nature?

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.

David Shields is a journalist and independent oil industry analyst based in Mexico City. Steve Andrews caught up with him yesterday and posed a few questions.

A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-From the IEA
-China
-CERA week
-Quote of the week
-Briefs

More than 100 countries around the world have found deposits of "combustible ice." "Combustible ice" reserves on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are estimated to equal at least 35 billion tonnes of oil, which could supply energy to China for 90 years. [Provincial Governor] Luo Huining said tapping this new energy resource should be given high priority in China's energy strategy.

A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-China's foreign trade

A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-Iraq's elections
-The National People's Congress
-Global warming
-Quote of the week
-Briefs

-Matt Simmons: Oil shortage spills into water
-Photographer Burtynsky recent focus on water rooted in political power, control
-Water and the War on Terror

The United States apparently has reached the point where it must either accept that Iran will develop nuclear weapons at some point if it wishes, or take military action to prevent this. There is a third strategy, however: Washington can seek to redefine the Iranian question. As we have no idea what leaders on either side are thinking, exploring this represents an exercise in geopolitical theory. Let’s begin with the two apparent stark choices.

A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-Looming electricity shortages
-China's macro control
-Quote of the week
-Briefs

A midweekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-Venezuela

We will not have smooth sailing with respect to oil prices during the next few years, as there are many geopolitical and economic events that could occur as early as this year. Most of these potential developments are likely to drive oil prices higher, but one or two could drive prices lower.

-Goldilocks and the three fuels
-Israel Urges Iran Oil Embargo Even Without U.N. Okay
-Why Peak Oil Is The Only Thing That Can Stop The Chinese Export Deluge

Some of you may know that over the last 3 or 4 years, I wrote extensively about our precarious oil supply. Since then I've broadened my outlook in so far as it's hard to choose among all the potential disasters on our doorstep.