Middle East – March 6
– WSJ: U.S. Wavers on ‘Regime Change’
– Video: Libya rebels control oil port
– Saudi Arabia bans public protest
– Muammar Gaddafi’s opposition: How Libya’s revolt has stalled
Fossil Fuels
ODAC Newsletter – March 4
Continued violence in the Middle East kept oil prices high this week. Libyan exports are down at least 1 million barrels a day and fears are escalating that the stand-off there could turn in to a protracted civil war. The unrest spread to Oman this week where security forces clashed with demonstrators. Meanwhile news of the arrest of a Shi’ite cleric demanding democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia sent the Saudi Tadawul stock exchange down 11%.
Future oil supply: The changing stance of the International Energy Agency (paper)
As the upheavals in the Middle East drive the oil price ever higher, the report identifies a litany of questionable assumptions that underpin the forecasts of the International Energy Agency (IEA), on which UK policy is based.
The dangerous dance of rising food and energy prices – March 4
-The Invisible Food Crisis
-Food prices reach record highs
-Climbing fuel prices trigger alarm
-Caught in the Food Pirates’ Trap
Oilquake in the Middle East
Whatever the outcome of the protests, uprisings, and rebellions now sweeping the Middle East, one thing is guaranteed: the world of oil will be permanently transformed.
Peak oil notes – March 3
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
Drilling down – March 3
-Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers
-Wastewater Recycling No Cure-All in Gas Process
-Politics Seen to Limit E.P.A. as It Sets Rules for Natural Gas
Corporations are fueling our peak oil crisis
Radio and television host and author of The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight Thom Hartmann talks about ways we can all help combat global warming. Speaking from the grounds of Wisconsin’s 2010 Fight Bob Fest, Hartmann insists that Americans need to change the way we live if we are going to save the planet, and the first step has to be getting active in the political process.
Energy, food, revolution – an inextricable link
What we see is fairly simple – and incredibly complicated. The intertwining of markets, of energy and food, tied by biofuel production and national policies, and the fact that we are not in control of either one. And that when food and energy prices spike, the world is transformed.
Frozen Assets
Southwestern Michigan caught winter’s blast last week. It’s not nice to lose power in the coldest month of the year, especially when you’re sick of snow, ice, heavy coats and that frozen bleakness that makes you feel as though winter will never end. It’s been 35 years since I’ve had to live through a long power outage but this one gave me an opportunity to consider some new meaning in the value of energy and its effect on life both at home and in my community.
Interview: Richard Heinberg
I sat down with Richard Heinberg in late December via Skype to learn about his forthcoming book, The End of Growth, and to hear more about what he thinks lies ahead as energy declines accelerate and the world economy sinks further into recession.
‘Fracking’ comes to Europe, sparking rising controversy
As concerns grow in the U.S. about the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to extract natural gas from shale, companies have set their sights on Europe and its abundant reserves of this “unconventional” gas. But from Britain to Poland, critics warn of the potentially high environmental cost of this looming energy boom.
