Technology

Other Energy Headlines – 12 August, 2005

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Chinese gasoline stations jammed as fuel crisis deepens / Ghana has 350 Million dollar energy funding gap / Indian Official: Assam oil production ‘critical’ / Explosion at BP plant near Alvin comes on heels of Texas City closing / The only way is up for oil prices, but the world will not run out in the near future / Are record oil prices leading to exploitation of oil shales? / Electrical Inefficiency A Dark Spot for China / Shell Canada Oil Sands Expansion Costs Jump 83% / U.S.: Pricier Oil Won’t Send The Economy Into A Skid / More fuel for airlines’ woes

How to Live Without Oil – New energy sources and efficiency could make petroleum obsolete.

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With prices exceeding $50 a barrel, the world’s oil habit now costs $4 billion a day. Some experts warn that output will soon peak and prices will reach $100, but nobody really knows for sure (94 percent of reserves are owned by governments, which generally keep the data secret). Fortunately, it doesn’t matter: With cheap oil-saving technologies and alternative fuels already at our disposal, the sooner we get off oil, the sooner we’ll start making bigger profits.

The Ghost of Colonel Drake

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The life and times of Col. Edwin Drake, who drilled the world’s first commercial oil well near Titusville, PA in 1859. It is not overstating the case to say that the seed of the modern world, so dependent as it is upon energy and materials derived from petroleum, was planted by Col. Drake.

There’s no fuel like an old fuel

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Strongly reasoned case put for biofuels as the solution to decline of fossil oil supply. Dr Chia (cardiologist) calmly lays out the Hubbert/depletionists case, dismisses any central role for nuclear energy, and goes on to advocate bioengineered phyto-fuels (for biodiesel etc) and the development of artificial photosynthesis.

Could wind generators slow climate mixing and the arctic thaw?

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Thought-provoking comments from an alert Newfoundland reader, following on from the ‘methane-burps’ fears covered previously. Could suitably placed wind turbines reduce climate mixing, slow the warming of arctic regions, and so avoid catastrophic methane emissions from thawing tundra?

The Mitigation of the Peaking of World Oil Production

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Startling press release regarding a recently completed study of oil peak responses. Full report not yet received, but apparently claims all alternatives are incapable of meeting demand in the short term and argues that efficiency measures and drastic scaling up of production of substitute fuels is required.