Oil

Energy – Dec 6

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– Tertzakian: Look for oil price between $80 to $100 per barrel in 2011
– Analysis – Colombia defies “peak oil” but for how long?
– Andrew McKillop: Black Hole For Oil Price Policy (Petro-Keynsian growth?

Why oil shortages may make nuclear a less viable option

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The decline of oil supplies is likely to increase the risk of nuclear accidents, decrease the likelihood that the funds for decommissioning will be available, and increase the likelihood of inadequate uranium supply. An estimate of oil supply at 2080 is provided, based on Collin Campbell’s forecast to 2050 in April 2009.

Reaping whirlwinds: Peak oil and climate change in the new political climate

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Political prognostication is a dangerous game, but one of the certainties of the latest election was that the US will not be enacting any significant federal climate legislation. If inaction is certain on climate change, it may be that all is not entirely hopeless if we reframe the terms to addressing our carbon problem. Peak-oil activism could accomplish many of the goals of climate activists. Unlike climate change, peak oil doesn’t carry the ideological associations with the left that climate change does. Could peak oil provide a framing narrative for political action to address both climate change and peak oil?

ODAC Newsletter – Dec 3

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The Obama administration announced this week that it has reversed its decision to open up new leases in areas of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast. The intention to lift the moratorium which had been in place since 2006 was made weeks before the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. See the recent UKITPOES paper for more on the likely impact of the Gulf of Mexico disaster on oil production…

Interview: James Howard Kunstler

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James Howard Kunstler, author of “The Long Emergency” and two World Made by Hand novels, talks to Transition Voice about recent Wall Street scandals, the role of oil and what he thinks of the Transition movement. Along with the keen analysis that readers are used to from Kunstler, this piece explores a side of his work that is not as well known. And we think that’s cool.

Oil price spike: blame greedy speculators or peak oil? (book review)

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Matt Taibbi’s new book “Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America” relentlessly hunts down the Wall Street crooks who destroyed the economy. Whether sleazy mortgage brokers who’d sell their own grandma for a quick buck, arrogant whiz kids pushing pump-and-dump schemes or smooth vampires in $4,000 suits who masterminded the whole plan to suck the middle class dry, Taibbi is not afraid to name names. And don’t forget the craven regulators like Alan Greenspan who aided and abetted the whole mob. But when it comes to energy and the oil price spike of 2008, does Taibbi check his skepticism at the door?