Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
One of the world’s foremost educators on Peak Oil, Richard Heinberg, in an exclusive interview for MMNews: “We are currently seeing the end of economic growth as we have known it.” Further on, he talks about the financial / economic crisis, monetary changes vis-à-vis a shrinking energy supply, and the Century of Declines: “Peak Everything.”
In this final installment of the Minimum EROI series we calculate the minimum EROI required from our energy sources to support the current transportation infrastructure of the U.S.
Now, if you are wondering why a falling water level in the Venezuelan highlands should be if interest to Americans, the answer is easy. Despite years of political tensions between the Chavez government and Washington, the U.S. is still importing some 800,000 barrels a day of crude from Venezuela.
– Blood on the streets in Kyrgyzstan revolt
– Upheaval in Kyrgyzstan as leader flees
– Kyrgyzstan at the hub of superpowers’ plans
– Bloodshed on streets of Kyrgyzstan as government cracks down on protesters
– The Pentagon also expects an imminent oil shock
– Peak oil man [Colin Campbell] shifts focus to peak price, demand
– DECC start to ‘get’ peak oil… or maybe not
– Saudi Arabia’s crucial role in the crude price outlook
I was very struck by a piece by Steve Randy Waldmann at Interfluidity yesterday, entitled Capital Can’t be Measured. He is basically arguing that modern financial institutions are sufficiently complex that the concept of their “capital” is subject to measurement errors of the same order of magnitude as the capital itself. This rang true to me, and put into words something that had nagged at me in reading about financial reforms, but had not come clearly to the surface of mind.
When I began writing about peak oil professionally in 2006, it was generally considered a tinfoil hat theory. The notion that oil production might peak around 2012, plus or minus, was only taken seriously by a few analysts who were considered extremely pessimistic.
During the pre-recession years of the 21st century, we experienced wide-ranging nonrenewable natural resource (NNR) scarcity on a global scale for the first time. Supplies associated with an overwhelming majority of the global energy resources, metals, and minerals that enable our industrialized way of life failed to keep pace with increasing global demand during the 2000-2008 period, resulting in global NNR supply shortfalls.
As a subscriber to the Oil & Gas Journal, lots of email alerts roll into my inbox. But sometimes there’s a missive startling enough to actually get my attention. This is one of those times.
Peak oil – arriving or already arrived – is placing a tremendous strain on the world’s economy. Because of this strain, the kind of money used for maintaining roads is quickly disappearing and the result is the return of unpaved roads. … in the coming years we’ll see more and more roads returning to gravel, as it was commonplace in the Western World up to about 50 years ago.
A weekly review including:
– Production and prices
– China shifts on Iran
– A busy week in Washington
– World Energy Conference
– Quote of the Week
– Energy Stat of the Week
– Briefs
Last week President Obama announced that he would open [some] federal waters to oil and gas exploration and development… A stated objective of this move is to reduce United States dependence on foreign oil. Implied within the objective is that opening these offshore areas to oil drilling will lead to a long-term increase in the U.S. oil production rate. The possibility of that happening is zero. The best that can be hoped for is a slight decrease in the annual decline rate of U.S. oil production.
