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Posted: admin on Aug 08 | Energy, Our Future
Business Matters: Surviving the Oil Crisis (audio)
Summer is here and with it comes high gas prices. However, when the pumps are already maxing out consumers’ pocketbooks, what can anyone do except grin and bear it? We’ll speak with Matthew R. Simmons, CEO of one of the largest investment banking firms serving the energy industry and Daniel Lerch, Program Manager for the Post Carbon Institute’s Post Carbon Cities program, in search for life after oil, and get the scoop from those inside the industry who have faith that we’re still stocked for the future.
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High Gas Prices Direct Assault on American Commuter-Consumer Lifestyle
Facing the probability that our economic lifestyle as we have built and lived it, is no longer sustainable, we are now forced to make serious choices about how to sustain the key elements of our national culture and character, without succumbing to the downward spiral of economic trends, fuel pricing, and failing consumer credit, if we try to sustain our lifestyle without the key infrastructure changes needed to enable this.
Glenn Beck: Drive naked, save America
If people really loved America, they would strip down, leave their clothes at home, and drive around buck naked. That would decrease the weight of our cars, which would increase our gas mileage so dramatically that we probably wouldn’t have to drill for any new oil!
Genius, right?
Of course, my idea has about as much of a chance to make a real difference in our energy crisis as the suggestion that Barack Obama recently made.
…It turns out that about two-thirds of vehicles already have properly inflated tires. That means we’d likely save somewhere around 800,000 barrels of oil a day if everyone else also complied. Meanwhile, the U.S. Minerals Management Service estimates that there are about 86 billion barrels of oil in the areas that we’re not allowed to drill. You do the math.
Dominican Republic: Drivers, homes start to feel the propane gas crunch
Victor Reynoso, head of the distributors grouped in Asonadigas, said the shortage is because the stations aren’t getting the fuel at full capacity, though affirmed the problem will be solved. “We’ve reached a bit of a difficult point; we are only receiving 60 percent of the amount we require to keep the market supplied.”
Electricity’s dark edge has Dominicans on the brink
Even when the country’s output is more than the demand, “the government’s decision to cap electricity prices, tolerate theft by end users and give free electricity has resulted in insufficient funds for state-owned electric distribution companies to cover their operating costs and pay private sector generators for contracted capacity.”
Nepal: Fuel smugglers rake it in as helpless NOC looks on
BIRATNAGAR - Traders have started smuggling petroleum products from bordering towns in India and selling them in Kathmandu at higher rates as Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) remains clueless about easing the longstanding fuel shortage.
Merchants based in Rangeli of this eastern city have been sneaking as much as 5,000 liters of diesel into the capital daily.
Petrol coupons traded as cash in Zimbabwe
Just a week after Zimbabwe got a new currency when the government lopped 10 zeros off bank notes to counter hyperinflation, a drastic shortage of cash has led to shops and businesses using petrol coupons as an alternative currency.
It also has counterfeiters switching from forging banknotes that cost as much to produce as they are worth to the far more lucrative business of turning out the £20 coupons that can be exchanged for a precious 20 litres of petrol.
Indoensia’s Energi Laga to Build New Oil Refinery
President of PT Energi Laga, Iqbal Miad said the oil refinery will have a production capacity of up to 200,000 barrels of oil fuel per day with crude oil feedstock to be imported from the Middle east.
The project is expected to help cope with Indonesia’s shortage of around 400,000 barrels of oil fuel per day, Miad said.
Toyota posts worst profit decline in 5 years
High gas prices are proving to be the kryptonite of the car world: Even mighty Toyota Motor Corp. has succumbed.
Burdened by a crashing market for big trucks and SUVs, the Japanese carmaker reported a 28% earnings decline for the first fiscal quarter Thursday, its worst profit decline in five years.
Nissan sold on electric cars, not hybrids
NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Nissan won’t be coming out with a model available only as a hybrid, opting instead to focus on electric vehicles for its green strategy, according to a senior executive.
Mitsuhiko Yamashita, Nissan Motor Co. Executive Vice President overseeing research and development, said Nissan will likely pack its hybrid system in a model already available as a conventional gasoline-powered car.
Hybrids, he said, will soon be so commonplace they will no longer be the conspicuous-consumption status symbols they now seem to be for owners.
Coal. It’s what lights up the world
What the utilities know that isn’t getting enough press is that as much as we all want to power the country with wind, solar, hydro, biomass and even nuclear, all those advances in alternative energy combined are forecasted to make up only about 7% of our nation’s power needs by 2020 — and that’s if all the stars line up for rolling out these new technologies.
Coal is here to stay. In fact, according to government statistics, coal is responsible for 47% of the power generated in the U.S. today. By 2030 the Department of Energy forecasts that coal will account for 51% of power output, an increase of 4% in the wake of all the momentum behind alternative energy. That’s a bit of a reality check for the green movement. We need a lot more power generation sooner than the green industry can deliver.
Coal isn’t the climate enemy, Mr Monbiot. It’s the solution
We must draw on existing resources as part of an integrated energy policy, not flirt with nuclear, the most dangerous option.
The Decline Of Suburbia?: Experts Predict Exodus From Far-Flung Neighborhoods Back To Urban Living
It sounds hard to believe, but some experts are now predicting that this could be the beginning of the end of suburbia — that far-flung neighborhoods could be tomorrow’s slums.
Author James Howard Kunstler has been predicting the decline of the suburbs for more than 15 years.
“I think the project of suburbia is over,” he says.
Energy crisis is fuel-injecting election up and down the ballot
It is not just Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama who are trying to convince voters this year that they have the answers to ease the nation’s reliance on foreign oil.
Candidates down the ballot as well as third-party interest groups are taking to the airwaves to offer their own energy plans or to try to discredit opponents in slickly produced 30- and 60-second campaign commercials.
There is no question that this is an energized election.
Water-Powered Cars: Hydrogen Electrolyzer Mod Can’t Up MPGs
After batting down the hype over startups and DIYers claiming they could run a car on water, Popular Mechanics‘ senior automotive editor installs a hand-built HHO kit—only to find he was right the first time. Can bad chemistry keep the myth of the water car alive? More heavy testing in the Popular Mechanics garage will tell.
India to Increase LPG Imports Next Year as Reliance Cuts Sale
(Bloomberg) — India will need to double imports of liquefied petroleum gas in the year starting April 2009 after Reliance Industries Ltd., operator of the world’s third-biggest refinery, reduces domestic sales of the fuel.
Reliance plans to cut annual supplies by more than half to 1 million tons from March, said Gyan Chand Daga, director of marketing at Indian Oil Corp., which negotiates fuel purchases on behalf of state-run refiners. Reliance plans to produce alkylate, used to make cleaner gasoline, for export to the U.S. and Europe, he said.
Tajikistan: The Upcoming Energy Crisis
The summer is not over yet, but one can hear more and more about the upcoming energy crisis and all its consequences in Tajikistan. The memory about the last severely cold winter is still fresh in the minds of people. They expect one more winter which is going to be according to weather forecasters not less cold.
The main provider of electricity in the country, Barki Tojik (Electricity of Tajikistan) is striving to introduce the schedule of regular electricity cut-offs in August, whereas this schedule is usually introduced in October each year and lasts till April. This year the schedule was abandoned only in May. The early introduction of electricity cut-offs according to Barki Tojik is necessary due to lack of water in the water reservoir of the biggest hydropower station Norak, which generates more that 80 per cent of electricity in Tajikistan. The more electricity we save the more water we will have in the resevoir to be used during the winter.
The great oil bubble has burst
If the trend continues into September at anything like the same rate of descent, most of the inflationary spike of the past 12 months will miraculously have been sliced away. This is a dramatic reversal, and it is worth trying to work out why it is happening and what it means.
Just possibly, it means that what investors refer to in shorthand as the great “oil up” story has finally revealed itself not as the fundamental reflection of scarce supply that its adherents liked to claim, but as a simple, speculative bubble that was always going to burst.
OPEC looks on calmly as oil price falls
“At the moment, and at this level, there is no movement within OPEC to do anything,” an OPEC source told Reuters this week. “I don’t think ministers will change output. I think at less than $80 for OPEC oil, maybe they would do something.”
OPEC has been reluctant to disclose a target oil price, but even members of the group who have traditionally favoured higher prices have said they would be comfortable with a market below current levels.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez earlier this week described oil’s decline as “a good thing” and has repeatedly said $100 was a fair price for oil.
OPEC President Chakib Khelil said prices were abnormal last week, when a barrel cost around $123. He said the price could fall to $70 to $80 a barrel in the long term.
Looming oil supply ‘crunch’ to lead to over $200 price spike - study
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The world will go through an oil supply ‘crunch’ that will potentially lead to oil price of over $200 a barrel, international think tank Chatham House said in a report.
The supply crisis is expected to occur within the next five to 10 years if demand kept on rising. It has nothing to do with resource constraints below the ground or arguments relating to ‘peak oil’ but rather inadequate investments by oil companies, it said.
Kurdish rebels claim pipeline blast: report
ANKARA (AFP) - Separatist Kurdish rebels claimed responsibility Friday for a blast that cut a strategic oil pipeline in Turkey and sent international prices higher.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline at Refahiye in eastern Turkey has been on fire since the blast on Tuesday night and is expected to be closed for 15 days.
BP Turkey Pipeline Is Still Burning, Delaying Repairs
(Bloomberg) — A fire that’s closed BP Plc’s Baku- Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline in eastern Turkey may keep burning today and tomorrow, delaying the start of damage assessment, Turkey’s Energy Ministry said.
About 70,000 barrels of oil had burned by late last night, leaving another 30,000 barrels to burn out before experts can start assessing damage to the 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) stretch of the pipeline in eastern Turkey where the fire occurred, Mehmet Akif Sam, a spokesman for the ministry, said in a phone interview today. That may not happen until Aug. 10, he said.
Military wants to lead U.S. into the green
FORT IRWIN, California (Reuters) - The U.S. military has a history of fostering change, from racial integration to development of the Internet. Now, Pentagon officials say their green energy efforts will help America fight global warming.
By size alone, the Defense Department can make waves. It accounts for 1.5 percent of U.S. energy consumption.
The military has set a goal that 25 percent of its energy should come from renewable sources by 2025 and aims to create machines and methods to help Main Street America reach similar targets, said Alan Shaffer, a retired Air Force officer who leads the Pentagon’s research and engineering arm.
Congress’s unsound fury over Big Oil: Movie theaters capture more windfall profit than oil companies.
Washington - With this summer’s high gas prices, Americans are trading in their traditional vacations for “staycations” – vacations much closer to home.
But compared with other things Americans might do, driving is still a bargain.
The company’s second-quarter earnings looked profoundly disappointing to me but were glossed over because they compared favorably with year-ago numbers. But unless downstream earnings recover by year end, favorable comparisons must end. The only variable that can save Exxon’s 2009 profits is an uptick in oil futures from the present $120 level to $150 a barrel.
This holds for all international oil producers. Their refining margins have turned paper-thin, production has slowed and chemicals divisions remain cyclically vulnerable. Belatedly, Exxon’s management has begun to allocate more capital to drilling and exploration, now a third higher than a year ago.
BG Group Makes `Material’ Oil Discovery in Brazil
BG found 30 degrees API light crude in the Iara well within the BM-S-11 concession area, the Reading, England-based company said today in a statement. The well, operated by Petroleo Brasileiro SA, is still being drilled to evaluate deeper targets, BG said.
Iara is in the same exploration block as Tupi, a field with as much as 8 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
Overpopulation: the real crisis
If we continue to go on with this steadfast refusal to recognize limits in a finite world, it will be our undoing. Current global economic systems based on perpetual expansion of capital require population growth to increase markets and cheap labor. Coupling such growth-crazy economic systems with human greed will ultimately result in the collapse of civilization.
Peak oil talk draws large crowd of the local faithful: Author Richard Heinberg of Post Carbon Institute says “I told you so”
SEBASTOPOL — Free bicycle parking and vegetarian fare waited for the people who journeyed to Sebastopol last Saturday night to hear presentations by Richard Heinberg and Julian Darley of the Post Carbon Institute.
A crowd of about 250 attended “Kiss Your Gas Goodbye” at the Sebastopol Veteran’s Hall, where Heinberg, a senior fellow at the Institute who is considered to be one of the leading experts on the effects of peak oil, warned about the coming effects of peak oil on societies around the globe, and that “our dependence on oil is a threat to our way of life.”
Drive For Natural Gas Vehicles Faces Big Test In California
SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- The notion of spending taxpayers’ money to help fill U.S. roads with natural gas-fueled vehicles faces a major test when voters in California, the nation’s largest auto market, go to the polls in November.
Natural gas providers are spending millions of dollars on advertising to convince Californians to pass a ballot initiative allowing the state government to invest in the now-tiny market for natural gas-fueled cars and trucks. The push comes as gas producers, emboldened by a windfall of domestic production, press federal lawmakers to help expand the market for gas as a means for reducing dependence on foreign oil and cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.
Nuclear Power Less Popular Than Other Energy Strategies: Conservation-oriented proposals draw widest support
PRINCETON, NJ — John McCain has ramped up his longstanding call for building more nuclear power plants — 45 new ones by 2030 — drawing the sharpest distinction between himself and Barack Obama on energy policy, but also, to some degree, throwing the political dice.
According to a July USA Today/Gallup poll, the impact of a candidate’s favoring greater use of nuclear power is mixed. Forty-seven percent of Americans say they are more likely to back a candidate who favors expanding nuclear power, while 41% say they are less likely to back such a candidate. But on a relative basis, the nuclear option is near the bottom of a list of possible solutions to the energy situation.
Sweden Requires Fuel-Efficient Driving Lessons (audio)
Sweden is known as an eco-friendly country — except when it comes to people’s preference for big cars with gas-guzzling engines. In order to meet carbon dioxide emissions standards set by the European Union, Sweden is requiring motorists to learn to drive with greater care toward fuel efficiency.
Dry California OKs huge desalination plant
OCEANSIDE, Calif. - The California Coastal Commission approved a plan to build the Western Hemisphere’s largest desalination plant north of San Diego — a move aimed at relieving water shortages in the nation’s most populated state.
(It looks like the plant will be built beside and be powered by the Encina Power Plant. So the energy used for desalination will be electricity generated by natural gas.)
Tropical downpours worsening, say scientists
OSLO (Reuters) - Tropical downpours are becoming more frequent and the trend seems worse than expected, bringing greater risks of flash floods, scientists said on Thursday.
“As the tropics warm are seeing an increased frequency in the heaviest rainfall,” said Richard Allan of the University of Reading in England, who co-authored a study of tropical rains with Brian Soden of the University of Miami.
The satellite review of tropical rainstorms since the 1980s gave the first observational evidence to confirm computer models that predict more intense cloudbursts because of global warming stoked by human activities, they said.
EU says U.N. carbon market link to start October
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union’s executive Commission plans to link an EU market in carbon emissions permits with a related U.N. trading scheme in the first half of October, it said in a statement on Thursday.
The connection will allow European companies to use carbon offsets, earned from funding emissions cuts in developing countries, to meet EU caps on greenhouse gases.
World Bank: Climate Resilient Cities
Climate change is no longer a distant possibility but a current reality. Loss from flooding and hurricanes is an all too frequent occurrence in many countries in the Region, particularly in cities where people and assets are concentrated. Urban centers must be prepared with specialized tools to deal with climate change impacts and early warning systems.
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