Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
“The energy world faces unprecedented uncertainty”, so begins the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook, released on Tuesday. The annual report from the energy watchdog guides the energy policies of OECD member countries including Britain.
The IEA’s position is summarized in the graph – conventional crude oil production has already peaked in 2006! Suddenly, the subject of impending peak has gone from not worthy of discussion to in the past already!
The WEO 2010 report just released by the International Energy Agency makes quite a number of assumptions that seem wrong, and omits important ideas. Here are a few that Oil Drum staff members have mentioned.
A mid-week roundup of peak oil news, including
-Developments this week
– Why Is Obama Cuddling Up to Karl Rove and His Gas Drilling Friends?
– A Taxpayer-Funded Sucker Play for the 21st Century
– UC Davis study: Stock market expectations suggest that oil will run dry before substitutes roll out
It’s been a long time coming, but the uber-significant Peak Oil issue has finally started to infiltrate the corridors of power. What they’ll do with this information remains to be seen…
With an aggressive campaign focused on advertising, lobbying, and political contributions, America’s coal industry has succeeded in beating back a challenge from environmentalists and clean-energy advocates. The dirty truth is that Big Coal is more powerful today than ever.
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-The US elections
-Iraq
– Asher Miller: Muddled up in climate politics
– California exceptionalism or a rising green tide?
– Barack Obama’s Green Agenda Crushed at the Ballot Box
– Alberta’s dirty oil image cleaned by U.S. midterms
– Republicans go climate sceptic
– Capitalism and the Curse of Energy Efficiency: The Return of the Jevons Paradox (Monthly Review)
– China pulls back from US Treasuries; buys hard assets instead
– The end of the world. That is, the end of the world we’ve known since WWII
– A New Economics for the 21st Century
Oil rose to a six-month high of more than $87/barrel as the Federal Reserve embarked on a new round of quantitative easing worth $600bn and Saudi Oil Minister Ali al Naimi raised his target oil price to $70-90 per barrel. Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corporation said the price should be higher still, at around $100/barrel…
At the ASPO Conference in early October 2007, Robert Hirsch presented his view of the impact of peak oil on the economy and society. While most of his assertions are readily supportable, the historical record is nevertheless perhaps more nuanced and deserves consideration in thinking about future events.
