Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
A flurry of new mainstream media articles telling people not to worry about Peak Oil and hydrocarbon depletion have begun appearing on financial sites like Bloomberg, Forbes or The Wall Street Journal. I though it would be worthwhile to analyze some of their arguments. At least some media outlets are willing to even discuss peak oil at all—most remain completely silent.
On January 23, 2012, Chesapeake Energy announced that it would curtail drilling in shale gas plays in the United States. Subsequently, other operators have followed suit. While the outcome of this announcement is unclear, it is a signal that the industry is in distress. One can argue that this distress stems from a lack of discipline as market price began to decline.
As Gasland director Josh Fox is led away in handcuffs, a Congressional Committee proceeds to attack the EPA for discovering ground water contamination in Wyoming. We hear from victim Fred Fenton, and then audio from the Hearing. Then to “the rest of the story” – the seldom covered AIR pollution from fracking, as explained by Theo Colborne of TEDX, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange. Ends with the story of the EPA whistleblower who won, Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo.
If we could see the world with a particularly illuminating set of spectacles, one of its most prominent features at the moment would be a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark. As yet — as we shall see — it’s unfortunately largely invisible to us.
– Peak Oil Scare Fades as Shale, Deepwater Wells Gush Crude
– Oil, Food, Water: Is Everything Past Its Peak?
– Fulsome Fossil Fuels And The ‘Peak Oil’ Myth
– Peak Oil–No Longer the Right Question
(Note: several of these articles actually concede most of the points made by peak oilers.)
– Kunstler interviews Arthur E. Berman, Petroleum Geologist: Magical Thinking and Fracking (audio)
– Coal Lobby Warns Wind Farms May Blow Earth Off Orbit (video from The Onion)
– Energy.gov: Where information goes to die
In a detailed analysis submitted to the National Energy Board, Robyn Allan, the former president and CEO of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, concludes that “Northern Gateway is neither needed nor is in the public interest.” Moreover the project, if built, would raise the price of every oil barrel by $2 to $3 dollars in Canada over the next 30 years, and thereby create an inflationary price shock that would have “a negative and prolonged impact… by reducing output, employment, labour income and government revenues.”
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-The Iranian confrontation
-Gasoline
-In the Congress
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
The current boom in drilling for ‘unconventional’ gas has helped raise US production to levels not seen since the early 1970′s. This has been an incredible boon to consumers and has kept spot prices contained below $5 per million BTU for the past year, recently dropping below $3/mmbtu. Unfortunately, this price is below the cost of production for many of these new wells. When the flood of investment currently pouring into natural gas drilling operations dries up, the inevitable bust will be as scary as the boom was exciting.
High oil prices ensured that profits at the major oil companies rose again in 2011 – Shell’s full year profits leapt 54% to $28.6 billion while Exxon’s increased 35% to $41.1 billion. With this kind of money at stake it is no surprise it is almost impossible to get a sensible debate about our energy future…
– Science: Live Chat: Peak Oil—Is the Well Running Dry? (NEW)
– Michael Lynch: The Unfounded Fear of the ‘Peak Oil’ Monster
– Science: Technology Is Turning U.S. Oil Around But Not the World’s
– Once, men abused slaves. Now we abuse fossil fuels
– Thomas Homer-Dixon: Our peak oil premium
– The End of Elastic Oil
– Power paradox: Clean might not be green forever
– How Much Energy Does Energy Efficiency Save?
Cesare Marchetti proposed hydrogen (H2) as a large-scale energy vector almost fifty years ago. The main concern then was to find a simple way to feed transport systems with what seemed to be a fountain of energy about to come from the expanding nuclear park. The nuclear dream is largely gone, but hydrogen lives on. Is this dream about to come true as a piece in the transition puzzle to a post-fossil fuel world? That’s what I was expecting to find out at a renewable energy / efficiency conference the University of Lorrain.
