Fossil Fuels

Environment – May 16

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– WWF Report: Consumption of Earth’s resources unsustainable
– Monthly Review: Marx’s ecology and the understanding of land cover change
– New report from Club of Rome warns about humanity’s ability to survive without a major change in direction
– The Big Fix: documentary exposes BP, U.S. Gov’t on Gulf disaster/Interview: the Tickells, filmmakers
– James Hansen: Game Over for the Climate

U.S. coal generation drops 19 percent in one year, leaving coal with 36 percent share of electricity

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Power generation from coal is falling quickly. According to new figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, coal made up 36 percent of U.S. electricity in the first quarter of 2012 — down from 44.6 percent in the first quarter of 2011. That stunning drop, which represented almost a 20 percent decline in coal generation over the last year, was primarily due to low natural gas prices. As EIA explains, natural gas generation will climb steadily this year, while coal will see a double-digit drop by the end of 2012…

Free energy does not occur in nature

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It’s not just that what we generally think of as free energy doesn’t occur in nature, but also that free energy does occur in the everyday lived environments of people in industrial nations, which we might thus say are unnatural. So what are instances of free energy that we experience in our lives, and why do they matter?

Energy and peak oil – May 14

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– Peak Oil – Forbes author concedes on “Net Exports” debate
– Oil prices could double by 2022, IMF warned
– Jeff Rubin argues in “The End of Growth” that central bankers must focus on high energy prices
– Jevons paradox busted by new emissions fee mechanism.
– No clear correlation between energy use and growth rate of the economy in the EU

Updating world deepwater oil & gas discovery

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Deepwater oil production will help reduce the decline in world oil production from aging fields. The IEA claims that four Saudi Arabias need to be discovered up to 2030 to replace the present decline in production (about 5 %/a). The deepwater ultimate is likely to represent less than half of Saudi Arabia’s oil ultimate. It is not enough!

ODAC Newsletter – May 11

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Fears of a new phase in the European debt crisis, a decline in oil imports to China in April, and the prospect of a new round of international talks on Iran’s nuclear programme have seen oil prices drop back from recent highs in the past two weeks. Despite all this however, and reports from OPEC that it bolstered supply by 320,000 barrels in April, Brent oil still stands around $112/barrel.