Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
In recent years, we have heard statements indicating that it is possible to decouple GDP growth from energy growth. I have been looking at the relationship between world GDP and world energy use and am becoming increasingly skeptical that such a decoupling is really possible.
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-The Middle East in transition
-Turmoil in Europe
-The IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2011
-Quote of the Week
-Briefs
The following is the text of an address by Richard Heinberg to the Moana Nui Conference in Honolulu, November 12, 2011. Honolulu was concurrently hosting the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Conference; as a response to that secretive international trade meeting, the International Forum on Globalization and Pua Mohala Ka Po collaborated to organize Moana Nui.
US oil prices rose this week on news that the glut of crude stocks at Cushing Oklahoma, which has depressed the benchmark WTI contract for months, may soon be drained. Enbridge is to buy the Seaway pipeline which runs from the Houston area to Cushing, and plans to reverse its flow.
A midweekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
Day 2 of the ASPO-USA Truth in Energy conference continued the wide ranging discussion about our current energy predicament, the reasons society isn’t talking about it, and potential ways to begin preparing for a world with increasingly scarce liquid fuels.
– Investment firm to encourage Arctic drilling
– Climate change: there is no plan B
– Battle to Save an Unsung Fish Critically Important to Ocean’s Ecosystem (menhaden)
– Obama Re-election Strategy Is Tied to a Retreat on Smog
– BBC drops Frozen Planet’s climate change episode to sell show better abroad
– Libya Seeks UK Firms to Develop Oil Sector and Construction Industry
– The push is on to discredit clean energy investment
– Tom Whipple on cold fusion
– Peak oil conference in London Dec 6: Assessing PO’s economic impact on global oil supply
– N. American oil output could top 40-year-old peak
– Peak oil and significant change for rural Australia
US production of crude oil peaked in 1970 at 9.637 mbpd (million barrels per day) and has been in a downtrend for 40 years. Recently, however, there’s been a tremendous amount of excitement at the prospect of a “new era” in domestic oil production. The narratives currently being offered come in the following three forms: 1) the US has more oil than Saudi Arabia; 2) the US need only to remove regulatory barriers to significantly increase production; and 3) the US can once again become self-sufficient in oil production, dropping all imported oil to zero.
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-The IEA’s November Oil Market Report
-The IAEA’s report on Iran
-The Keystone pipeline decision
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
– U.S. to Delay Decision on Pipeline Until After Election
– Is the Pipeline Victory a Turning Point for the Climate Movement
– Bill McKibben on pipeline delay: We won, you won
– Depressing climate-related trends – but who gets it? (bad trend in arctic sea ice)
