Fossil Fuels

Peak Oil and Worldwide Economic Recession Soften Oil Prices: Lull Before the Storm

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In the first half of 2008 we saw oil climb to approach $150 a barrel amid the pundits’ warning of oil rocketing to $200 a barrel and way beyond due to the phenomenon of Peak Oil. In the wake of those heady days we have now witnessed the slumping of oil prices to well under $100 a barrel into October.
So what is happening to cause the retreat of oil prices?

Cassandra’s View

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This year’s ASPO-USA conference in Sacramento approached the surreal at times, with implausible “solutions” to the peak oil crisis presented cheek by jowl with troubling news about the limits already closing around industrial civilization, in the setting of a luxury hotel sustained by exactly the kind of resource use the future will not be able to sustain. Chalk it up to a used copy of Bulfinch’s Mythology, but images out of Greek legend proved impossible for a visiting archdruid to push aside.

The peak oil crisis: bailouts & shortages

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We are witnessing one of the most eventful weeks in modern history. Stocks and oil prices plunged on Monday and bounced on Tuesday; credit markets seem to be freezing; the Congress remains in gridlock as members watch the approaching elections fearful of what could happen to their incumbency.

Delay and Fail

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Last week, speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York, Al Gore suggested that young people should engage in civil disobedience to stop the building of new coal power plants “that do not have carbon capture and sequestration.”
I sympathize with Gore’s intent. Coal is the most polluting of the fossil fuels, and if we burn more of it there is little hope of averting catastrophic climate change.
But is carbon capture and storage (CCS) a solution?

Review: Depletion and Abundance by Sharon Astyk

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Why are so few peak oil authors women? There’s been much debate about this, and no one has yet arrived at a definitive answer. But whatever the reason, Sharon Astyk has established herself as a true rarity within the peak oil community by virtue of being a woman who has chosen to write about peak oil. The perspective that she offers is thus both uncommon and vital.