Energy Headlines 13 May 2005

May 12, 2005

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Peak Oil


Edenism by Olwe

ROE2(elist)/Peaknik(blog)
“One of the great things about getting older and possibly wiser is you find yourself combing over the old, simple givens of life and finding, lo and behold, something profound you missed long ago or took for granted. In this case I’m combing over the story of The Fall from the Garden of Eden. …
Before I knew what I was saying, I was claiming that, sure, God was upset with us and kicked us out for following the Serpent, but the stories of Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel, Sodom and Gommorah, the Great Flood–all could be read as God wanting us to renounce the Serpent’s ways
and beg for forgiveness and try to get back into Eden.
(11 May 2005)


A ‘Peak’ Behind the Curtain At The EIA

Searching for the truth (blog)
I have commented in the past on the startling disconnect that exists between the long term global oil supply and demand projections that are released each year by the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) and those that are offered by oil depletion experts such as Matthew Simmons, Kenneth Deffeyes and Colin Campbell. Deffeyes, for example, has predicted that Peak Oil wil occur in November 2005 at or near the present rate of about 84 Mb/d and then begin a slow terminal decline. My own analysis, which is based on current production, known rates of global oilfield depletion and an ODAC report of projects that will be coming online in the next few years, predicted a double peak in 2006 and 2008 at about 86.5 Mb/d, with production declining thereafter.
(11 May 2005)


The Rapture

Jim Kunstler/Clusterfuck Nation
When exactly the American public entered the Rapture is a little hard to say — maybe as long ago as the Reagan years — but it is not the same Rapture as the Born Agains are gleefully awaiting — the absurd cosmic vacuuming up to heaven that leaves behind all the rest of us sinners. No, the Rapture I speak of is the stupendous complacency of a people convinced that the future is going to be just like the past.
(May 9, 2005)


End of the Age of Oil

Dr. Elias Akleh*/Arab Media Internet Network
Humanity is facing, now-a-days, the beginning of the biggest and the most severe global crisis in its history. This crisis will touch the lives of all nations and will change the course of their history. It will destroy the economies of nations, overhaul global politics, incite extreme competitions, provoke power struggles, and break out devastating wars among nations. The savage wars against Afghanistan and against Iraq are just precursors to the world wars to come. This crisis is the end of the age of oil.
(9 May 2005)


Strategic Conundrum Of India’s Oil Pipeline Projects

R Hariharan/SAAG(India)
A silent colonial war is now on to gain access to world petroleum resources. …
India is a late entrant in this race. Its close relations with Iraq in the past had ensured Iraq’s oil resources flow to India. …
Two important government initiatives have been to plan for the construction of Iran-India pipeline in the West and the Myanmar-India pipeline in the East to ensure continuous and guaranteed petroleum supply through land routes. …
(12 May 2005)


Trading oil for biomass

Environmental Science & Technology Online
Enough biomass could be sustainably produced within the United States to replace 30% or more of the country’s current petroleum consumption without affecting food, feed, or export demands, finds a report by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
For more information, Biomass as Feedstock for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry: The Technical Feasibility of a Billion-Ton Annual Supply can be accessed at feedstockreview.ornl.gov/pdf/billion_ton_vision.pdf.
(April 27, 2005)


Energy-related News


Bush’s energy solution

Jim Hightower/Austin Chronicle (US)
Poor George. It’s not his fault. He was born with crude oil in his veins, so he just can’t help it. When it comes to framing an energy policy for America’s future, George W. simply can’t move beyond the same old plunder-and-pollute agenda of the Big Oil barons. …
So now we have the Bush Plan: Make America dependent on domestic oil.
(13 May 2005)


Five Arab countries and Turkey to be linked via power grids

PetroEnergy.I.N./Alexanders G&OC
Five Arab countries and Turkey will be linked through power grids by end of next year, Syrian electricity minister Muneeb Sa’em Al-dahr said. Al-dahr said Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey would be hooked up by electricity grids.
(11 April 2005)


Afghan ‘pipe dream’ draws closer to reality

S.Baldauf, Christian Science Monitor
A proposed gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Arabian Sea could boost jobs and investment. Back in the days of the Taliban, Mir Sediq was an engineer for Unocal, working on a pipe dream: bringing natural gas from Turkmenistan down through Afghanistan to Pakistani ports on the Arabian Sea. Today, Mr. Sediq is minister for Afghanistan’s energy, mining, and industrial sector, and he’s confident that the pipeline is coming close to reality.
(13 May 2005)


Solutions and Sustainability


Less-polluting hybrid locomotive begins operation

Environmental Science & Technology
A new diesel–electric hybrid locomotive that began working at a switching yard in Fresno, Calif., in April emits 80–90% fewer air pollutants and consumes 50–80% less fuel than a conventional diesel locomotive, according to Union Pacific Railroad officials. The hybrid locomotive is the first to be run on a permanent basis and is expected to help improve air quality in a state that has some of the dirtiest air in the United States.
(4 May 2005)