Sustainability and Environment Headlines – 11 August, 2005

Staff, Energy Bulletin

Voters prefer wind farms to new nuclear reactors / Solar Power is Hot — Too Hot /
Canadian municipalities have path to de-centralize services / If ENN Readers Could Have Written the Energy Bill… / Brasil launches new bio-energy program / Sugar on uncharted course, link to funds, energy / The Spud of Life / Malaysia Bans Open Burning around Kuala Lumpur and Central Selangor State as Haze Worsens / A ‘Gulley of Death’ That Gobbles Up All On Its Way / Roundup Is Killing Off Amphibians, Ecologist Says

How to Live Without Oil – New energy sources and efficiency could make petroleum obsolete.

With prices exceeding $50 a barrel, the world’s oil habit now costs $4 billion a day. Some experts warn that output will soon peak and prices will reach $100, but nobody really knows for sure (94 percent of reserves are owned by governments, which generally keep the data secret). Fortunately, it doesn’t matter: With cheap oil-saving technologies and alternative fuels already at our disposal, the sooner we get off oil, the sooner we’ll start making bigger profits.

Petrodollar Warfare: Dollars, Euros and the Upcoming Iranian Oil Bourse

Contemporary warfare has traditionally involved underlying conflicts regarding economics and resources. Today these intertwined conflicts also involve international currencies, and thus increased complexity. Current geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran extend beyond the publicly stated concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear intentions, and likely include a proposed Iranian “petroeuro” system for oil trade.

Fossil Fuel Headlines – 10 August, 2005

The Peak Oil Crisis: The Real Energy Bill / Transcript of Matthew Simmons Interview on Financial Sense Newshour / Terror fears push oil prices to 22-year high / ell Canada Oil-Sands Cost Target Jumps to C$7.3 Bln / What’s happened to British Nuclear Fuels Ltd? / Rate hike fears as oil prices hit new high / Why commodities should concern everyone / India not influenced by U.S. pressures over gas pipeline / Energy investments lure hordes of newcomers / Coup precedes oil exploration / U.S. strategic interests rise in West Africa’s oil-rich Gulf of Guinea / What’s next for Saudia Arabia / Belgium: Record oil prices send gas, electricity bills soaring

Sustainability and Environment Headlines – 8 August, 2005

Staff, Energy Bulletin

‘Prepare for when oil runs out’ :Senator Ramchand / Globalisation is an anomaly
and its time is running out / Dirty Oil: the West’s Saviour, the Greens’ Worst Nightmare / Viva Venezuela: Chavez and that great northern sucking sound /
Japanese company plans waste plastics-to-oil plant in China / Face climate reality, BP chief says / Chiapas Closes Mexico Oil Well / Nuclear energy can’t solve global warming
Other remedies 7 times more beneficial /

USAF fuel costs blowout cuts weapons research funding

Amy Butler, Aviation Week and Space Technology

The Pentagon is discovering it’s not immune from the high gas prices that have overwhelmed taxpayers’ checkbooks and dampened summer
travel plans across the U.S.
Defense Dept. planners are now estimating fuel costs may add as much as $4 billion to what was already expected to bc a shortfall of nearly $6 billion in Fiscal 2007 and each year following. This nearly doubles the predicted annual deficit of about $10 billion.

Big Oil warns of coming energy crunch

International oil companies have advertising campaigns warning that the world is running out of oil and calling on the public to help the industry do something about it.
Most of the executives ofThe world’s five largest energy groups generally maintain that oil projects are viable with the price at which they test a project’s viability is within the around $20 a barrel. range. But their advertising and some of their companies’ own statistics appear to tell a different story.

The Twilight Era of Petroleum

Several recent developments — persistently high gasoline prices, unprecedented warnings from the Secretary of Energy and the major oil companies, China’s brief pursuit of the American Unocal Corporation — suggest that we are just about to enter the Twilight Era of Petroleum, a time of chronic energy shortages and economic stagnation as well as recurring crisis and conflict.

Fossil Fuel Headlines – 8 August, 2005

Staff, Energy Bulletin

The crystal ball, though murky, is not empty / A half-truth is still a lie / Transcript of Matt Simmons online interview / US targets oil in Africa / Pemex spending on exploration rising, but infrastructure probs catching up / Kerr-McGee to exit North Sea / Howard seizes Northern Territory uranium / Why America Is More Dependent Than Ever on Saudi Arabia / Arab oil producers to increase production: OAPEC / Opec production level hits 26-year high / EU offering to back Iran as major oil route -France / Prices push out premium gasoline / Now anybody can bet on gas prices / Airlines add routes to where the oil is

Fuel’s gold – Turning corn into ethanol may not be worth it

Richard A. Lovett, San Diego Union-Tribune (US)

Most people would agree that the United States needs a new source of fuel: something renewable and nonpolluting with which to replace gasoline … something that could be produced right here at home. Deep in America’s heartland, a lot of people think they know the answer: ethanol, a fuel made from fermented corn.