Peak Oil Review — July 21st, 2008
An executive summary of weekly news from a US peak oil perspective, featuring:
– Production and Prices
– China’s Energy Shortages
– British Petroleum in Russia
– Energy Briefs
Fossil Fuels
Prices & supplies – July 21
There may be oil offshore, but…
Off-Shore drilling pluses and minuses (podcast)- interview with Robert Kaufman
Offshore drilling safer, but small spills routine
United States & Canada – July 20
Mark Morford: Here’s oil in your eye
The Southwest desert’s real estate boom (land needed for solar)
Los Angeles is home to new rush of oil drilling
Former officials call for an Earth systems science agency
Carbon capture can break the old energy equation
Both candidates talk the talk on green issues but who can deliver?
Peak oil & prices – July 20
Even oilmen believe our planet is burning up, says Full Monty writer behind terrifying TV drama
California must wake up to looming fuel crisis (new)
The coming black plague? Oil and agriculture (new)
Paul Krugman: Oil outlook
Green ink: Oil in free fall
A boondoggle to end all boondoggles?
Al Gore’s recent speech on energy was not bad as such speeches go. It says all the right things about the problems we face – things quite a few of us already know – and it makes us feel good to hear them said well and to a large audience. Whether that audience is capable of absorbing the message is another matter.
Deep thought – July 20
Imagine what comes after green
Oil shock
The Apocalypse makes us dumb
Monthly Review: The political economy and ecology of biofuels
ODAC Newsletter – July 18
A digest of news and commentary from a UK peak oil perspective.
Demand bifurcation point
The future of the global economy will, in my opinion, turn more on this question than any other: Will demand destruction hit India and China, or will their oil consumption continue to rise? The answer here will determine much of how peak oil plays out.
Peak oil is a done deal
I now believe that the hypothesis of a near or medium-term peak in the world’s oil supply is confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt. A shift in emphasis that speaks to reducing our demand for oil and examining alternatives to oil is now required. I will be taking that road in the future, leaving specific concerns about the oil supply behind.
The peak oil crisis: The blackouts spread
Of the 266 distinct nations or entities on the world today, nearly 100 are now reporting continuing energy shortages, mostly in the form of inadequate electricity supply, but in a growing number of cases, shortages of liquid fuels and natural gas.
Get ready for the last oil war
Despite the clear evidence of rising depletion limits on Iranian oil production, Western media continues presenting Iran as having the third or fourth-largest oil reserves in the world. This implies oil export ‘underperformance’, repeating media claim’s of Iraqi oil reserves versus its pumping ‘performance’ in the run-up to invasion in 2003.
As tensions escalate between Iran and the West, Andrew McKillop presents a view on the prospects for conflict.
Matt Simmons and the Five Psychological Stages of Grief
This is a wonderful clip. When Matt Simmons was recently asked to go on CNBC’s ‘Fast Money’ to discuss the high oil prices, he clearly stunned the presenters with his forthright analysis of society’s current perilous situation. When asked if $147 a barrel is a ‘wake up call’ he replied “yes, but we’re not having a wake up call, we’re having a witch hunt for who got us here”, a succinct analysis of the current world situation.
Rob Hopkins uses the reaction to the situation by the studio panel to illustrate the Five Psychological Stages of Grief that he believes people go through in coming to terms with this information.
