Fossil Fuels

Lightering our way to abundance

by

One promising sign of a bottom to oil prices is the move by oil companies and Wall Street firms to secure tankers in which to store oil in order to play the contango in the oil market. By leasing a tanker and filling it with oil purchased at the current low price while simultaneously selling it on the futures market for delivery later this year at a significantly higher price, they can generate considerable profit–enough to pay for the costs of storage on the high seas and take home handsome paychecks to boot.

Peak oil, the web of debt, & our local future

by

A new set of high definition videos are now online: Richard Heinberg on peak oil, Thaddeus Owen on permaculture, Ellen Brown on financial collapse, Tim Husdon on the four futures, and Kim Hill on the auto industry crisis, and more.

Reality Report: Natural Gas Cliff and Credit Situation

by

In this edition of The Reality Report host Jason Bradford interviews Nate Hagens. Topics in this program highlight how the current financial melt down and impact the timing and severity of peak oil and natural gas–including the dreaded “natural gas cliff” as rigs go idle due to low prices. We discuss whether this means economic growth now over, and if so, how should societies adjust?

Sustainability and Resource Depletion: Survival Challenge for the 21st Century (video presentation)

by

Richard Heinberg identifies the essential axioms of sustainability and ties them to current economic trends such as the high and volatile prices of oil and other commodities. Species survival will require more than “Sustainability Lite,” a vague commitment to more environmentally benign practices, but instead an all-encompassing effort to live within the ultimate resource limits of the planet.

Peak Moment 130: Oil and Gas — The Next Meltdown?

by

Drawing parallels with the current financial meltdown, Matthew Simmons, the CEO of Simmons & Company International, expresses his alarm about gasoline stocks being the lowest in several decades and refinery production down following recent hurricanes. He warns that if there were a run on the “energy bank” by everyone topping off their gasoline tanks, the U.S. would be out of fuel in three days, and grocery shelves largely emptied in a week.

Deflation, reflation and our oil future

by

This overview of our economic future relates to the “peak oil” issue in a very straightforward way. Oil demand and prices will remain depressed during the deflationary period (2008 Quarter III–?) and then rebound as they did in recent years when inflation takes hold again.

Fuel emergency part 2: IEA plan

by

The issue of planning for and administering fuel emergencies is complex and multi-layered, involving a range of commercial interests, government agencies and a tangle of legislation, policies and jurisdictions, one of the largest and most influential of which is the International Energy Agency, an autonomous body within the framework of the OECD.