Energy Policy

Egypt, a classic case of rapid net-export decline and a look at global net exports

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Consider the first 15 minutes after the Titanic hit the iceberg versus the last 15 minutes before the ship sank. In the first 15 minutes, only a handful of people knew that ship would sink, but that did not mean that the ship was not sinking. In the last 15 minutes, it was readily apparent to everyone that the ship was sinking, but by then it was far too late to try to get to a lifeboat.

Why Saudi is now in play

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Oil prices are going through the roof today, and gasoline prices at the pump will follow, as we get the first regime-rattling news in a major oil-producing state. What’s happening is that the sketchy news out of Libya makes the country look like it’s on fire – Col. Muammar Qaddafi may be spending his last days in power. And even though no oil supplies have been disrupted, traders are engaging in some casino behavior and bidding up prices to new two-year highs.

ODAC Newsletter – Feb 18

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Brent crude surged to $104 this week as anti-government protests spread to Libya and Bahrain, prompting a violent reaction from the authorities in both countries. 24 protesters are reported killed in Libya, and in Bahrain 4 have been killed and hundreds injured. Unlike Libya, Bahrain is not a significant oil producer, but there are fears that instability there could spread to its neighbour Saudi Arabia…

Bill McKibben: Climate change is our most urgent challenge

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Bill McKibben, author and founder of the international environmental organization 350.org, says that without a global campaign to curb climate change, the ecological devastation of our warming climate will make our planet uninhabitable. His appeal to citizens and policy-makers, the seventh video in the series “Peak Oil and a Changing Climate” from The Nation and On The Earth Productions, is a call to action as much as it is a sobering account of the damage we’re already doing to our environment.

A real chance to cut subsidies to Big Oil?

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Oil subsidies of nearly $40 billion will be on the block if Democrats have their way. And though the GOP and the industry claim cutting the handouts will cost American jobs, a former Shell CEO says that when prices are high enough, Big Oil doesn’t need help. What’s for sure is that, to have any hope of getting America prepared for peak oil, we’ll need an energy policy that stops encouraging people to use more of the oil that we’re already running out of.

Peak Oil – Sicherheitspolitische Implikationen knapper Ressourcen

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Last year a German military report on peak oil was leaked: “Peak Oil: Implications of Resource Scarcity on Security.” Last month, the final report was officially released by the Future Analysis department of the Bundeswehr Transformation Center. It is available online in German. [Excerpt]

Commentary: An oil shock in 2012?

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The price of oil is once again daily in the news. The Western Europe benchmark Brent crude has hovered near $100 / barrel for much of the last month, and the IEA is again warning of the burden of oil consumption. Is this a harbinger of things to come, or a mere statistical blip in a market that is “well supplied”? How will events play out in oil markets in the coming year or two?