The Joy of National Default
At 78 pages of scholarly, somewhat jargon-laden prose, ‘Trade-Off: Financial System Supply-Chain Cross-Contagion’ by David Korowicz is not quick reading, nor is it light reading, but it is important reading.
Fossil Fuels
Shale oil and gas – Aug 2
-Analyst: Calif. shale oil field results disappoint
-Drought strains U.S. oil production
-Gas liquids bloodbath brings shale pain to oil market
Shale gas – Aug 1
-Big Oil and Gas industry writing down billions in U.S. shale gas assets
-EPA finds remaining water safe in famous fracking town
-Shale gas drilling depths argue against Pennsylvania’s Marcellus
-The Real Story Behind the Fracking Debate
Energy – July 31
-Saudis, Emirates push nuclear power plans
-No easy substitutes for fossil fuels
-BP Statistical Review 2012 Part 2 Australia proved oil reserves overreported by a factor of 2
It’s time to reconsider our biofuel policy
As America’s corn and soybean crops wither in the current drought, it is time to reconsider our policy of mandating the conversion of a large percent of those crops into ethanol for our gas tanks. Even in a bountiful crop year, there is little sense in a food for fuel policy which takes nearly half of our corn crop for less than 10 percent of our gasoline supply. It can be sustained only by subsidies and mandates which increase prices for grains and the beef, poultry, and other products which depend on grain supplies.
Peak oil review – July 30
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-Middle East
-The Eurozone
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
A mountain-top take on the “flood of oil supply”
If Montana is a microcosm of the world, one message to glean is that we are not in the midst of a decades-long flood of oil supply in the United States, as many suggest. Instead, the red lights are blinking across the exuberant U.S. oil patch.
Monbiot peak oil u-turn based on bad science, worse maths
Plenty of ink has already been spilled by oil depletion experts exposing some of the wildly optimistic assumptions contained in Maugeri’s report. More damning is that the work is shot through with crass mistakes that render its forecast worthless. When I interviewed him, Mr Maugeri was forced to admit a mathematical howler that would disgrace the back of an envelope…
ODAC Newsletter – July 27
Lower oil and US gas prices saw Q2 profits down at most of the oil majors, though Exxon recorded another record quarterly profit of $15.9 billion due to asset sales…
Energy – July 26
-James Howard Kunstler on Why Technology Won’t Save Us
-Power by the People
-Nuclear power vs. people power
-Breakthrough Material for Carbon Capture Developed
-Effect of Global Warming on U.S. Energy Consumption
-The missing link to a $7 billion market
The Peak Oil Crisis: Middle Eastern Chaos
In surveying the multiple, uprisings, insurgencies, insurrections, confrontations and what have you currently going on in the Middle East, it is hard to believe that all this turmoil will not eventually find its way to our local gas pumps. In the last week the overall situation clearly has taken a turn for the worse with large numbers of Syrian insurgents infiltrating Damascus and Aleppo for the first time accompanied by the spectacular bombing of a security meeting that killed four of the regime’s top leaders.
Through the oil price looking glass – July 26
-High oil prices are caused by consumers, not speculators
-Oil Price Spike Exacerbated by Wall Street Speculation?
-Crude truths about oil prices
