When the market fails
The market does some crucial jobs so well that we’re tempted to make a quasi-religion of it. But at other jobs it fails: for example, at giving a timely signal to prepare for “peak oil.”
Energy Policy
Energy: Recognizing how much isn’t there
Politicians don’t seem willing to face a difficult reality: There is no solution, if by “solution” we mean producing enough energy to maintain our current levels of consumption indefinitely.
Policy reform to 350
Let’s imagine for a moment that we’re at 2100, and the atmospheric CO2 level is slowly subsiding back toward 350, and the worst is over. Let’s try to figure out how we got there—reverse-engineer a century of halting but ultimately decisive progress.
Review of “The Impending World Energy Mess” by Robert Hirsch, Roger Bezdek and Robert Wendling
Five years ago Robert Hirsch headed the team that produced the first US government-sponsored report discussing the consequences of declining world oil production. The team which wrote the original “Hirsch” report is now out with a book that discusses the current state of the world energy situation and what we can expect in the decades ahead.
Peak oil & supplies – Oct 3
– German peak oil analyst on offshore oil drilling – costs and risks
– Verifying the Export Land Model – a different approach
– Venezuela elections: “Chávez really bought into the idea of peak oil”
Climate – Oct 1
– U.S. military prepares for the coming conflicts triggered by climate change
– Climate Change Crisis ‘Can Be Solved by Oil Companies’
– How global warming is aiding – and frustrating – archaeologists
ODAC Newsletter – Oct 1
This week saw the release of another influential report on peak oil. Fueling the Future Force, by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS)…recommends that the Department of Defence transitions entirely away from petroleum by 2040. The publication demonstrates once again that there is a freedom to engage with the issue in military circles which as yet does not exist in mainstream politics.
A high-risk fossil fuel boom sweeps across North America
Energy companies are rushing to develop unconventional sources of oil and gas trapped in carbon-rich shales and sands throughout the western United States and Canada. So far, government officials have shown little concern for the environmental consequences of this new fossil fuel development boom.
Editor’s picks: September 2010
Articles that we thought were significant this month.
Peak oil & energy – Sept 29
– Peak oil article in Portuguese newspaper Expresso
– Japan to drill for controversial ‘fire ice’ (methane hydrate)
– Report for the French government: “The Effects of High and Volatile Oil Prices” (NEW)
– CAE: Les effets d’un prix du pétrole élevé et volatil
– World unprepared for “convergent crisis”, international force needed?
Trends in world oil supply/consumption and net exports/imports
In this post I briefly present the results from my analysis of absolute and relative trends in world oil (all liquids) supply, consumption, net exports and net imports between 1980 and 2009.
ASPO-USA conference Oct. 7 – 9: agenda now available
ASPO-USA’s 6th Annual Peak Oil Conference will honor its traditional core focus with a full agenda and world-class speakers who understand the global peak oil energy crisis and its complex socioeconomic and geopolitical impacts. (Registration is still open.)
