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Polar Vortex Set to Bring More Snow on Return to U.S. This Week

Another blast of freezing air is forecast for the central and eastern U.S. this week as two storms threaten to bring disruptive snow to the Northeast. “After a mild and pleasant weekend for many, winter will make a harsh return to much of the central and eastern U.S.,” the National Weather Service said in a bulletin on its website at 10:41 a.m. U.S. East Coast time yesterday. “Frigid air will first impact the northern Plains on Monday before diving south and east throughout the week. By Wednesday, most of the Great Lakes will have single digit high temperatures and parts of the Tennessee Valley will struggle to rise above freezing.” Milder weather across the Northeast over the weekend pushed temperatures into the 60s Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius) in Washington and Philadelphia and the 50s in New York City and Boston , AccuWeather Inc. said on its website . Highs […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Keystone Review Goes to PSC Faulted Over Campaign Cash

A Nebraska agency faulted over campaign donations from regulated companies may soon decide the fate of Keystone XL, its first review of an oil pipeline. The Public Service Commission , which sets rules for phone companies and grain storage, gained oversight for oil pipelines about two years ago. Its five elected members were criticized by a watchdog group for accepting campaign donations from companies. They now may become targets for Keystone supporters and foes counting on getting the panel to rule in their favor. “They’re an elected body,” said Jane Kleeb, the head of Bold Nebraska , a local group fighting the pipeline. “So they hopefully will be listening to their constituents.” The commission emerged to rule on the fate of TransCanada Corp. ’s $5.4 billion pipeline after a Nebraska district court judge last week voided the approval issued a year ago by […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Arctic Oil Still Seen Decades Away as Producers Balk at Costs

Lundin Petroleum AB (LUPE) , the Swedish explorer focused on Norway , said there won’t be any oil production in the ice-filled waters of the Arctic for at least 15 years because of technical and logistical challenges. “I don’t think we’ll see any oil production in the Arctic any time soon — probably not this decade and not the next,” Chairman Ian Lundin said in a Feb. 20 interview in Stockholm. “The commercial challenges are too big.” The Arctic holds 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered natural gas reserves and 13 percent of its undiscovered oil, according to U.S. Geological Survey estimates. Still, exploration of the Arctic ocean floor, where 84 percent of these resources are thought to be trapped, has suffered setbacks in recent years. Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (RDSA) , Europe ’s biggest oil company, in January again halted drilling plans off Alaska after a court ruled […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Obama climate change agenda faces first Supreme Court test

The U.S. Supreme Court considers on Monday whether President Barack Obama’s administration overstepped its authority by imposing new regulations to reduce pollution in response to climate change. In a 90-minute oral argument, extended from 60 minutes because many parties are involved, the justices will examine a relatively narrow challenge by industry groups and Republican-leaning states to one aspect of a suite of regulations issued by Obama’s Democratic administration in 2009 and 2010. The regulations represent the first major federal effort to tackle greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are the driving force behind climate change. Obama has been going it alone on climate change, largely because of opposition from Republicans and some Democrats in Congress. The Clean Air Act has been the Environmental Protection Agency’s main tool for addressing emissions since the U.S. Senate rejected a cap-and-trade bill in 2010. The nine justices will weigh whether […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Transition Towns: The Solution To Peak Oil?

Page added on February 22, 2014 Peak oil is the ever approaching, if not already passed point in which the world’s crude oil production rate reaches its maximum output, and then falls into decline. 86 million barrels of crude oil are produced everyday, however as a planet, we are using around 88 million barrels a day (Transition Culture 2007), showing an uneven consumption rate which will aid the decline of available oil. The International Energy Agency stated that there could be as much as 20,000 billion barrels (Transition Culture 2007) of oil under the planet’s surface but that much of it will remain undiscovered. Additionally, a considerable percentage of oil has been found under protected sites such as reindeer sanctuaries in Alaska and the newly found oil in the Arctic; the question is whether the value of this oil is worth the destruction of these ecosystems and environments as […]

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Is ammonia the holy grail for renewable energy storage?

If you want to beat carbon, it’s the only way to do it unless you change the chemical charts." So says Jack Robertson about the prospects for making ammonia the world’s go-to liquid fuel and renewable energy storage medium. Robertson is chairman and CEO of Light Water Inc., an ammonia energy storage startup. The carbon he mentions refers, of course, to the major carbon-based fuels of oil, natural gas and coal that provide more than 80 percent of the world’s energy. The charts he mentions refers to the periodic table of elements , a listing of the basic elements of the universe which are about as likely to change their properties as the proverbial leopard is to change his […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Fantasizing About California, or Already Here: 5 Shocking Drought Facts to Make You Rethink the Golden State

There are likely a lot of East Coasters wishing they lived in sunny, dry (and comparatively warm) California right now. But Californians know their weather is anything but a blessing these days with a drought that’s being called “unprecedented.” The situation has even sparked a trip from President Obama, who visited the epicenter of California’s massive agriculture industry, the Central Valley, on Friday and announced $100 million in livestock disaster assistance, $5 million in targeted assistance for hard-hit areas, $5 million for watershed protection programs, $60 million for food banks and 600 new sites for a summer meals program, $3 million in emergency water assistance for rural communities, and a commitment from the federal government to reduce water use and focus nation-wide on climate resilience. While the funding and programs may be welcome for immediate assistance, solving California’s water crisis will require more than a big checkbook. Water in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Tackling food security with a growing population, climate change and peak oil

With a growing population and improving diets there is a need to double our food supply by 2050. Identify three measures you would take to meet this demand. Identify one of your measures from your list and post your solution into the discussion – be prepared to defend your choice! That is a big question to throw in a climate change course. I am presently doing an online course – Climate Change: Challenges and solutions – offered by the University of Exeter (UK). So please indulge me as I also use this blog for some climate course work. This article is for week 6, section 6.5 of the course on ‘Tackling food security’. Food security is one helluva big area to try and come to terms with. Earth’s population is just over 7 billion people. It is projected by the United Nations in a June 2013 report on global […]

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ConocoPhillips CEO: Skeptics’ warnings of shale bubble are unfounded

ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance targeted shale boom skeptics Friday, refuting arguments that the surge in oil and gas production will be short-lived. Speaking at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, Lance said he believes the country’s shale revolution is only in the “first inning of a nine inning game,” and critics shouldn’t assume growing shale production will stop any time soon. “What we’re learning is we’ve only scratched the surface of what technology can do to improve the outlook over the years,” said Lance, who’s also chairman of the Houston-based oil and gas giant. “This is the layer that can last for quite some time.” Some skeptics — notably Canadian geoscientist […]

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Oil Futures Slip on Concerns About Demand

Oil futures weakened Friday on indications that the U.S. crude-oil market is amply supplied. Light, sweet crude for April delivery fell 27 cents, or 0.3%, to $102.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are still poised for a weekly gain after reaching a four-month high earlier in the week. Brent crude on ICE Futures Europe wavered, recently trading up 2 cents at $110.32 a barrel. Domestic crude-oil supplies rose for a fifth straight week last week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Market watchers expect supplies to expand further in the coming weeks, as refineries shut down units to perform maintenance and prepare to blend summer-grade gasoline. "There’s a lot of crude, and we haven’t fully started the spring maintenance season yet," said Dominick Chirichella, analyst for the Energy Management Institute. Mr. Chirichella noted that supplies in the Gulf Coast, which has the largest concentration […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple