Chinese environmental issues

Peak oil notes – May 23

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A mid-week update. Oil prices have fallen $2-3 a barrel this week on weaker demand, increased US production, rising product stockpiles, and a stronger dollar. At the close on Wednesday, NY oil settled at $94.28 and London at $102.60 with the WTI-Brent spread climbing to $8.32. The weekly stocks report showed stocks at Cushing, Okla. increasing to by 450,000 barrels to 50.2 million last week. The report also showed US gasoline consumptionover the last four weeks at 8.5 million b/d, the lowest level in ten years.

China’s Infinite-Growth Haze

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A few weeks ago, air quality at the U.S. embassy in Beijing registered 755 on a scale to 500. A thick, choking haze enveloped the entire city. You couldn’t see from one high-rise office tower to the next; flights were cancelled, some highways were closed, schoolchildren were kept indoors, hospital admissions soared. China’s air quality problems aren’t limited to Beijing — a 2010 study found that air pollution led to 1.2 million premature deaths nationwide — and killer air is just one of the country’s ecological sorrows.