Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Blackout offers scholars and activists an overview of projections on future coal production and their complexities, but social movements will need to look elsewhere for what is to be done about the historical burden of our coal question.
[Excerpts]
-IEA doubles global gas reserves estimates
-Shareholders challenge gas companies on fracking
-Gasland: the review
-UK government rejects calls for shale gas moratorium
The purpose of TEQs is not to limit the consumption of individuals per se, but rather to share out fairly the shrinking energy budget required by national circumstances, and to allow maximum freedom of choice within that.
-Biofuel jatropha falls from wonder-crop pedestal
(references new Friends of the Earth report)
-U.S. okays ethanol boost for more cars
-US offers $650m in loan guarantees for second-generation biofuel
-Court challenges stall new biofuel crops
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-Iran’s nuclear program
-China
-Unrest in the Arab World
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
Facing up to imminent peak oil and runaway climate change, the UK could start rationing fuel within ten years. Rationing sounds scary. But it’s much fairer than the alternative, which is to let high prices determine who drives and who doesn’t. And the Brits’ innovative plan for Tradable Energy Quotas would reward energy conservation while softening the blow of higher costs. Meanwhile, the US continues to be in denial about both climate and energy depletion. Is there any way this British plan could come to Washington?
BP increased its exposure to the ‘wild east’ this week through a new joint venture with the state-owned Russian oil giant Rosneft. Given the rocky history of its existing joint venture, TNK-BP, the deal illustrates the risks BP has been forced to take to gain access to meaningful oil resources…
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
-IEA calls for increased OPEC output
So what should we do? We must be explicit about why we want good domestic climate and energy policy. Let’s say that it is needed to achieve peace and stability. Let’s say that climate change and competition for dwindling energy reserves are both causes of instability and violence. We should make it clear that there the other causes of instability and violence – like nuclear proliferation and inequality – need to be dealt with too. Finally let’s be very clear that our vision for renewables and good domestic climate policy is totally inconsistent with the dominant approach to security.
A report launched today by the Lean Economy Connection, commissioned by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil, calls for a nationwide system for ensuring fair and equal access to fuel as energy scarcities develop. The report, entitled Tradable Energy Quotas, sets out a detailed proposal for a scheme which would ensure fair and equal entitlements to fuel and energy under conditions of scarcity, while also guaranteeing that the government meets its commitment to an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the Global Economy
-China’s coal production
-The Australian floods
-BP and Rosneft
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
-Shale gas: a provisional assessment of climate change and environmental impacts (report)
-Shale gas moratorium in UK urged by Tyndall Centre
-Warning over UK shale gas projects
-Opponents to Fracking Disclosure Take Big Money From Industry (NEW)
