Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
Project Energy on WCCO-TV
Don Shelby , WCCO-TV, Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
April 10 – 14, 2006 – 10:00pm (CDT)
One energy story per night will appear during the second half of the news program April 10-14. Each segment will be 7 minutes long.
The spots will be combined into a one-hour documentary that will be aired separately and remain up on the website.
WCCO-TV plans for a roll-out of 30 stories during April and May and additional stories to appear throughout the balance of the year.
Stories will be posted for downloading from the website: www.WCCO.com
Executive Producer and Lead Reporter for Project Energy is Don Shelby.
(April 2006, thanks to LW)
UPDATE: More on the series at peakoil-dot-com.
The great game of global gas
Matein Khalid, Khaleej Times
THE colossi of the Gulf sea lanes are no longer Suezmax VLCC crude oil tankers but the huge refrigerated gas tanker ships with their distinctive domes, filled with superchilled LNG, the new black gold of Qatar or Abu Dhabi to the storage tanks and gasification plants of Europe or the Far East.
…Governments spend untold billions to control reserves, built pipelines and regas plants, lease fleets of LNG tankers. Like crude oil, gas is the currency of power in the new millennium.
As the grim reality of Peak Oil dawns on an increasingly gas guzzling world, the smart money and Big Oil have rearranged the chessboard of international finance and power politics to stake their claim to the priceless reserves of the only hydrocarbon fuel that complement crude oil. Power generation, electricity, winter heating and industry are all derived from gas that, sometime after 2020, could emerge as the planet’s dominant energy source.
Matein Khalid is a Dubai-based investment banker
(6 April 2006)
More commentaries by Khalid.
U.S. senators unveil plan to rein in big oil, OPEC
Chris Baltimore, Reuters
Six U.S. senators on Thursday backed legislation that could spur more federal scrutiny of future mergers between oil companies, and trigger a possible price-fixing lawsuit against the OPEC oil cartel.
Meanwhile, 52 Democratic lawmakers asked the White House to hold a bipartisan “energy summit” to talk about securing future U.S. energy supplies as U.S. oil prices neared $70 a barrel and gasoline pump prices march closer to $3 a gallon in advance of the busy summer driving season.
(6 April 2006)
Opec toothless to tame high oil prices : UAE
Reuters via The Financial Express
Opec is powerless to bring down oil prices that are closing in on their record $70 a barrel high, United Arab Emirates’ oil minister Mohammed bin Dhaen al-Hamli said on Thursday.
“Fundamentally there is nothing we can do,” Hamli told reporters when asked how Opec might tame oil costs that are at their highest for a quarter of a century in real terms.
“Demand is very robust. The major crashes were supply-driven crashes. The prices we are witnessing now are supported by robust demand. At what level will demand start to get sluggish? I really don’t know, but it will at some point.”
(7 April 2006, thanks to KC)
US Energy secretary: oil prices eventually will impact economy
Terry Kosdrosky, Dow Jones via Cattle Netowrk
DETROIT –U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Thursday that he’s “surprised” that oil price increases over the last year haven’t had a greater impact on the U.S. economy but said, eventually, sustained high prices will have an economic effect.
Speaking during a question-and-answer session during his speech at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress, Bodman said he’s “worried” that the economy will suffer if oil prices stay above current levels.
“At some point in time we’re going to reach a limit and we will see a real impact of increased oil prices on our economic activity,” Bodman said. “Whether its $95 or something north of that I don’t know. I can tell you I’m worried about anything above the current levels.”
(6 April 2006, thanks to KC)
Chinese influence in Brazil worries US (ethanol) (video)
BBC Broadcast via Information Clearing House
Alarm bells ring in the US at China’s rising credibility in the developing world as a model for ending poverty.
Under the slogan of “peaceful rising”, China is selling itself to Latin America as an alternative model for ending poverty. The US deputy secretary of state is in Bejing to find out what is going on. Humphrey Hawksley reports from Sao Paulo.
(4 April 2006, thanks to WT)
WT suggests: “Go to the original to view the video – ethanol is an important part of it”
Iran: the next neocon target
Ron Paul, Congressional Record via personal website
(House of Representatives – April 05, 2006) [Page: H1555]
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Foxx). Under the Speaker’s announced policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul) is recognized for half the time remaining until midnight.
Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, it has been 3 years since the U.S. launched its war against Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. Of course, now almost everybody knows there were no weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein posed no threat to the United States. Though some of our soldiers serving in Iraq still believe they are there because Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11, even the administration now acknowledges that there was no connection.
Indeed, no one can be absolutely certain why we invaded Iraq. The current excuse, also given for staying in Iraq, is to make it a democratic state friendly to the United States. There are now fewer denials that securing oil supplies played a significant role in our decision to go into Iraq and stay there. That certainly would explain why the U.S. taxpayers are paying such a price to build and maintain numerous, huge, permanent military bases in Iraq. There are also funding a new $1 billion embassy, the largest in the world.
The significant question we must ask ourselves is, what have we learned from these 3 years in Iraq? With plans now being laid for regime change in Iran, it appears we have learned absolutely nothing.
(5 April 2006, thanks to GT)
GT says: “A very good speech on the floor of the house by Ron Paul (R TX 14).”
- Go to thomas.loc.gov/home/r109query.html
- Click on Paul, Ron and click on “sort results by Date
- The talk is titled: IRAN: THE NEXT NEOCON TARGET — (House of Representatives – April 05, 2006)
- It’s also available at a personal website: www.xecu.net/thorn/PO/RonPaul04-05-2006.html
