Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Several recent developments — persistently high gasoline prices, unprecedented warnings from the Secretary of Energy and the major oil companies, China’s brief pursuit of the American Unocal Corporation — suggest that we are just about to enter the Twilight Era of Petroleum, a time of chronic energy shortages and economic stagnation as well as recurring crisis and conflict.
The crystal ball, though murky, is not empty / A half-truth is still a lie / Transcript of Matt Simmons online interview / US targets oil in Africa / Pemex spending on exploration rising, but infrastructure probs catching up / Kerr-McGee to exit North Sea / Howard seizes Northern Territory uranium / Why America Is More Dependent Than Ever on Saudi Arabia / Arab oil producers to increase production: OAPEC / Opec production level hits 26-year high / EU offering to back Iran as major oil route -France / Prices push out premium gasoline / Now anybody can bet on gas prices / Airlines add routes to where the oil is
Details of an upcoming Peak Oil conference in Denver organised by a new group: ASPO USA, a non-profit, non-partisan educational association “to study, communicate, mitigate and otherwise respond to the impending Peak Oil phenomenon”.
ASPO August Newsletter / Oil Supplies and the “Infallible” Goddess of the Marketplace / Kuntsler on Yergin / Get ready for return of the bad ’70s / Malaysia: Cut air-conditioner usage / King Fahd of Saudi Arabia dies / Long-lived the kings / Appetite for destruction
Our voracious oil consumption corrupts mideast policy / Energy Bill Raises Fears About Pollution, Fraud, Critics Point to Perks for Industry / Democrats and the energy bill / Energy bill criticized as lacking new policy / An energy policy about half right
…the global peak in oil production is likely to lead to economic chaos and extreme geopolitical tensions, raising the spectres of war, revolution, terrorism, and even famine, unless nations adopt some method of cooperatively reducing their reliance on oil. The Oil Depletion Protocol provides a way forward…
Matthew Simmons, an oil industry analyst and CEO of Simmons & Company International, will be online Thursday, August 4, at 3 p.m. ET to discuss Saudi oil supplies.
The Second U.S. conference on “Peak Oil” and Community Solutions will be held September 23-25, 2005, in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
…the peak oil Cassandras — Kunstler included — are perfectly positioned to trigger the kind of anxiety-induced focus needed to accelerate a move away from petroleum dependence.
The first oil wells, paraffin and President Lincoln.
Here, then, is a significant report produced by an independent research company for the US Department of Energy, warning of a global problem of “unprecedented” proportions with economic, social, and political impacts that are likely to be extremely severe. The authors forecast “protracted economic hardship” for the United States and the rest of the world. It is a problem that deserves “immediate, serious attention.” Yet, half a year after release, discussion of the Hirsch report is conspicuously absent from the press and the halls of Congress. [updated version late 7/31]
Energy experts like to call coal a bridge fuel leading to a future society based on hydrogen and other renewable energy sources.
Using the Trans Canada Railroad as an analogy, King recounts the timeline of geologic history up to the present. Within the span of the last few inches of a 4,500 mile timeline, humankind will have consumed all of the Earth’s oil heritage.
