Randy Udall

Searching the “Panacea Pantry” for a quick fix

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Last week a Colorado senator published an article that offered a nuanced take on the prospects for oil shale development. He concluded: “To the boosters who think they have found the answer to our energy crisis, I say: We welcome you to our quest to develop oil shale on a commercial scale. But first let’s put the horse back in front of the cart and all start pulling in the same direction. A reckless approach that heightens the risk of an oil shale bust would only set us back.”

United States & Canada – July 20

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Mark Morford: Here’s oil in your eye
The Southwest desert’s real estate boom (land needed for solar)
Los Angeles is home to new rush of oil drilling

Former officials call for an Earth systems science agency

Carbon capture can break the old energy equation
Both candidates talk the talk on green issues but who can deliver?

Peak oil & prices – July 20

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Even oilmen believe our planet is burning up, says Full Monty writer behind terrifying TV drama
California must wake up to looming fuel crisis (new)
The coming black plague? Oil and agriculture (new)
Paul Krugman: Oil outlook
Green ink: Oil in free fall

Neighbors to help neighbors through winter of high prices

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“The best security you have is a prepared neighbor,” said Paloma O’Riley a decade ago, when she was rallying people to prepare for an emergency of unknown proportions.

The comment still rings true, as we prepare for a hard winter in the short term and, in the medium term, what James Howard Kunstler calls the “long emergency” of declining fossil fuels and other challenges that lie ahead. Fortunately, people at all levels in Vermont are scrambling to prepare for this winter, and many of them are conscious that high food and fuel prices are more a harbinger of things to come than a one-time increase.

A boondoggle to end all boondoggles?

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Al Gore’s recent speech on energy was not bad as such speeches go. It says all the right things about the problems we face – things quite a few of us already know – and it makes us feel good to hear them said well and to a large audience. Whether that audience is capable of absorbing the message is another matter.

An ode to horse manure and other by-products called waste

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Either we must adopt a new attitude toward waste, or, as ecologists and city planners are warning, we will bury ourselves in it. Wastes must be seen as a natural part of the life cycle and food chain; decay is a necessary prelude to life. And if man has, in his infinite wisdom, invented brilliant materials like plastic that will not decay in a suitable length of time, then he must reuse them or go buy an empty planet someplace for a dumping ground.

Peak Oil — House of Representatives

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Madam Speaker, I want to begin this evening’s discussion by reading a little reminisce that was written by one of my staff members, Dr. John Darnell. He’s imagining that he is talking to his granddaughter at some future date, and this little reminisce is called, “Making It Through the Energy Crisis–Future Reminiscences with my Grandchildren.”

“Grandfather, tell us the story about the men who went to the Moon and barely made it back–and how that was like when the world discovered there wasn’t enough oil.