Fossil Fuels

We screwed up: A letter of apology to my granddaughter

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I wrote the following letter to my granddaughter, Madeline, who is almost four years old. Although she cannot read it today, I hope she will read it in a future that proves so much better than the one that is probable, and so terribly unfair. I’m sharing this letter with other parents and grandparents in the hope that it may move them to embrace their roles as citizens and commit to the hard work of making the planet viable, the economy equitable, and our culture democratic for the many Madelines to come.

Lack of systems thinking

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While it’s understandable to focus on a single problem, what succeeds in providing domestic energy may, for example, worsen global warming. Thus, we find triumphant articles that celebrate energy independence, as if extracting more domestic fossil fuel were an overall solution rather than, as it is, a continuation of a problem of a different kind.

Digging in the couch cushions for loose change: Or, why don’t we just create more resources?

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Let’s scrap the misleading language of “creating more resources.” When was the last time you made a fish or some oil? Instead, let’s try and get a real sense of what high oil prices are driving us to do – digging around in our couch cushions for loose change.

Why Saudi and American bluffing won’t lower oil prices (Hint: It doesn’t work when people know you’re bluffing)

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If you have the power and the desire to bring down oil prices, the best way to proceed is to start bringing them down. The easiest and fastest method would be to make more supplies available to the world market and keep adding until you reach your target price. The less you say about what you are doing, the better. When market participants are filled with uncertainty about your intentions, they have only the direction of prices to guide them. That means the speculative players can help you achieve your goals more quickly as they panic out of their positions.

This was not, of course, the path chosen by the United States, Great Britain and Saudi Arabia recently when they announced that they were contemplating intervention in the oil markets–in the form of releases from strategic petroleum reserves in the case of the United States and Britain and in the form of increased production by Saudi Arabia.

The New York Times exaggerates the significance of shale oil

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The New York Times has shown that it is not concerned about Peak Oil. On 23 March it headed page 1 with an article that reminds us that since Nixon’s time every president has had the same goal of giving the USA “independence from foreign energy sources”. One can interpret the article as saying that the USA is now on the way to reaching this goal but let us compare some of the statements in the article to what the USA’s Energy Information Agency (EIA) says.

ODAC Newsletter – Mar 23

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Brent oil prices flirted with $125/barrel again this week before dropping back on news of weaker than anticipated European and Chinese industrial activity. The political and economic pressure of surging prices prompted Saudi oil minister Ali Al Naimi to claim the kingdom can raise production by 25% (2.5 mb/d) immediately if necessary. But that was in flat contradiction to his recent admission that 700mb/d of Saudi’s claimed 2.5 mb/d spare capacity could not be brought on stream in under 90 days – three times longer than the standard definition.