Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Local and regional authorities aren’t planning strategically for peak oil, and it is not a concern reflected in their policy making. They may not even understand it. Without a clear statement of concern about the issue, any further steps or actions on the issue will not have a foundation.
A weekly roundup of peak oil news:
-Oil and the Global Economy
-Replacing Libyan oil
-The Middle East upheaval
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
Only two years ago Chesapeake Energy Corp. president Aubrey McClendon was telling us about the limitless future of natural gas in North America. It is a good thing that McClendon, who still runs Chesapeake, isn’t taking his own advice these days.
– NYT: Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers
– NG industry tried to get “Gasland” doc disqualified from Oscars
– Lower second tier oil producers – Norway, Brazil, Iraq and Algeria
– How the U.S. may win the battery race
– New book from WebHubbleTelescope: “The Oil ConunDRUM”
– Libya celebrates as Gaddafi’s remote strongholds rise against him
– Building a new Libya
– Britain and Libya: “No line in the sand”
– The Vacuum After Qaddafi
In a world of blatantly increasing food insecurity — driven by population, dietary trends, rising oil prices, and growing climate instability — America’s policy of burning one third of our corn crop in our engines (soon to be 37% or more) is becoming increasingly untenable, if not unconscionable.
Investigative journalist and author Greg Palast says the era of cheap fuel is over. Now energy companies are scouring the globe for oil, often extracting resources in more expensive and more environmentally sensitive conditions.
As much as a quarter of Libyan oil output has been shut down, Reuters calculations showed on Wednesday, as unrest prompted oil companies to warn of production cuts in Africa’s third-largest producer.
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
Let’s say that Libya’s entire oil production shuts down, a process that currently seems under way. Would Saudi Arabia genuinely make up the difference, as its energy minister, Ali al-Naimi, has said in Riyadh? The answer is crucial.
-Revolutions could rob Opec of its ability to manipulate supply
-IEA sees oil price danger, ready to use stockpiles
-Saudi Denial Not What it Seems
-Judge Tells Government to Resume Permits for Drilling
-Gulf spill’s effects ‘may not be seen for a decade’
As elsewhere in the region, the main foreign powers involved — France, Spain, and the US — don’t seem to care much as long as the oil and gas flows, the country implements World Bank/IMF structural adjustment programs to modernize the oil industry to increase output, and their ‘strategic interests’ are protected. As long as these things happen, the country can go to hell in a hand basket – as it has. None of them have lifted a finger in protest to government practices and corruption.
