ODAC Newsletter – July 27
Lower oil and US gas prices saw Q2 profits down at most of the oil majors, though Exxon recorded another record quarterly profit of $15.9 billion due to asset sales…
Energy Policy
Like a Bad Boyfriend, XL Keeps Coming Back
The pipeline debate is often framed in terms of whether the jobs it will create justify its environmental risks. Let’s ignore those risks for the moment. Forget climate change. Forget leaks. Forget potential damage to streams and aquifers. Now does the pipeline make sense?
Not much.
Shale gas – July 25
-Frackers Fund University Research That Proves Their Case
-Doing Some Math on Fracking Propaganda
-Industry money and questionable ethics contaminate UT Austin fracking study
-Nationwide Mutual Declines to Cover Fracking
-U.S. calls New York anti-drilling lawsuit premature
Energy – July 24
– Chris Nelder: Is peak oil dead?
– Oil, politics and resource wars (interviews with Robert Hirsch, Michael Klare … )
– The Unfinished Story of Iraq’s Oil Law: An Interview with Greg Muttitt
– Will Drought Cause the Next Blackout?
ODAC Newsletter – Jul 20
Oil prices rose this week as geopolitical tensions trumped economic concerns. The Syrian conflict, oil sanctions against Iran, and a suicide bombing of an Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria, which Israel blamed on Iran, all added to fear of disruption in the region…
Shale gas – July 20
-Near drought conditions impacting Marcellus shale gas drilling
-EPA study on fracking and water questioned
-Gas drilling a boom for drug traffickers, too
-Shale Energy Divides French Government, Putting Ban In Question
Maugeri on peak oil
Carpe Diem, Reuters, FTalphaville, and WhaleOil are among those calling attention to a new paper by Leonardo Maugeri, senior manager for the Italian oil company Eni, and Senior Fellow at Harvard University. Here I take a look at some of the details of Maugeri’s analysis.
Oil – July 18
-«Denying the imminence of Peak Oil is a Tragic Error », says ex- IEA petroleum expert
-Oil prices could be rigged by traders warns G20 report
-Shell’s Arctic Drilling Venture Stumbles Toward Reality
Peak oil review – July 16
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-The Iranian confrontation
-The IEA’s monthly assessment
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
Resilience through simplification: revisiting Tainter’s theory of collapse (part 2)
While Tainter’s theory of social complexity has much to commend it, in this paper I wish to examine and ultimately challenge Tainter’s conclusion that voluntary simplification is not a viable path to sustainability. In fact, I will argue that it is by far our best bet, even if the odds do not provide grounds for much optimism. Moreover, should sustainability prove too ambitious a goal for industrial civilisation, I contend that simplification remains the most effective means of building ‘resilience’ (i.e. the ability of an individual or community to withstand societal or ecological shocks) [Part 2]
ODAC Newsletter – July 13
The IEA forecast this week that non OECD oil demand overtake OECD demand for the first time next year. The agency advised that economic slowdown is likely to keep a lid on oil prices in 2013, but there was still a chance of “nasty supply surprises”…
Peak oil oppositional disorder: neurosis or psychosis?
What happens to individuals also happens to entire societies. Take a neurotic Peak Oil-denying industrial civilization, put it through a terrible global financial crisis, tell it that economic growth is over forever, and what you get a psychotic, delusional industrial civilization.
