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Our Renewable Future

Or, What I’ve Learned in 12 Years Writing about Energy (7000 words, about 25 minutes reading time) Folks who pay attention to energy and climate issues are regularly treated to two competing depictions of society’s energy options. * On one hand, the fossil fuel industry claims that its products deliver unique economic benefits, and that giving up coal, oil, and natural gas in favor of renewable energy sources like solar and wind will entail sacrifice and suffering ( this gives a flavor of their argument ). Saving the climate may not be worth the trouble, they say, unless we can find affordable ways to capture and sequester carbon as we continue burning fossil fuels. On the other hand, at least some renewable energy proponents tell us there is plenty of wind and sun, the fuel is free, and the only thing standing between us and a climate-protected world of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Yemen risks disintegration as south rejects Shi’ite group’s takeover

SANAA (Reuters) – No sooner had Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi announced his resignation than his country’s tenuous political fabric began to disintegrate.     Provinces across a nation barely held together by a complex web of tribal and religious alliances said they would no longer take military commands from Sanaa after the Iranian-allied Shi’ite Houthi group besieged Hadi’s home and palace this week. The emerging fragmentation of the Arabian Peninsula country has sparked fears of the "Somalization" of a state which is home to a revitalized al Qaeda insurgency as well as a neighbor to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia.     For Washington, Yemen’s splintering would make it hard to carry out a counter-terrorism strategy against al Qaeda plotters who have targeted it and its ally Saudi Arabia and claimed responsibility for the Jan. 7 Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. Through Hadi, a supporter of U.S. drone […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Fresh blow to UK fracking as MPs call for moratorium

An anti-fracking protester at a drilling test site near Salford in Lancashire last year Britain’s nascent shale gas industry has been dealt a fresh blow by a committee of MPs that has called for a moratorium on fracking and warned that the government was rushing through “undemocratic” laws to help the industry. David Cameron, prime minister, has strongly backed the development of shale gas, insisting that exploitation of Britain’s reserves could drive down the price of domestic energy and lessen the need for imports at a time when North Sea oil production was falling. More On this topic IN UK Politics & Policy But the environmental audit committee says fracking is not compatible with the government’s commitment to cutting climate change emissions. The new technology could also cause significant localised environmental damage and risks to public health, the committee will say — a claim disputed by the industry. Industry […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S., Europe Threaten New Sanctions Against Moscow

ENLARGE A girl joins adults in lighting candles during a mourning ceremony in Kiev on Sunday for people who died during shelling in Mariupol. Photo: European Pressphoto Agency U.S. and European leaders threatened new sanctions against Moscow after a missile attack blamed on pro-Russian separatists killed 30 civilians in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the latest escalation in violence that has brought Kiev’s fight with rebels back toward full-scale war. Russia reacted with defiance, blaming Kiev and its Western backers for the surge in fighting, but it also called for urgent talks on implementing a September cease-fire. Separatists backed off earlier threats of a broad offensive on Mariupol and other targets, but shelling along the contact line between the two sides was extremely heavy over the weekend, Ukrainian military officials said. U.S. President Barack Obama said he was deeply concerned about the latest break in the cease-fire and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.K. Lawmakers Panel Calls For Moratorium on Shale Gas Fracking

ENLARGE FILE – A worker oils a pump during a hydraulic fracturing operation at an Encana Corp. well pad. Photo: Associated Press LONDON—A panel of U.K. lawmakers is calling for a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for shale gas even as companies are applying for permits to start exploration work in the fledgling sector. The recommendation from the U.K. parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee in a report published Monday comes as parliament prepares to vote on the Infrastructure Bill , which contains a measure that would allow companies to drill and frack at depth without the landowners’ permission. Committee member Caroline Spelman, a Conservative and former Environment Secretary in the coalition government until 2012, last week also proposed an amendment to the bill imposing a moratorium on fracking, in which water, sand and chemicals are used to free oil and natural gas from shale formations, because it could risk the U.K.’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Obama Administration Moves to Block Drilling in Parts of Alaska

ENLARGE The Hulahula River Canyon in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska in the summer of 2010. Photo: AlaskaStock/Corbis The Obama administration is moving this week to designate areas of Alaska off limits to oil and natural gas drilling in its latest effort to bolster its environmental legacy. The Interior Department announced on Sunday that it was proposing to preserve as wilderness nearly 13 million acres of land in the 19.8 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, including 1.5 million acres of coastal plains that is believed to have rich oil and natural gas resources. Later this week, the department also is slated to propose a draft offshore leasing plan that is expected to include more limits on future oil and gas production in Alaska. The efforts are drawing a strong rebuke from congressional Republicans. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) vowed to fight the administration’s moves from her positions […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. gas prices at April 2009 low, bottom in sight: Lundberg survey

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States fell 13.3 cents in the past two weeks, falling to its lowest level since late April 2009, but the end of a months-long slide may be near, according to the Lundberg survey released Sunday. Prices for regular grade gasoline fell to $2.07 a gallon in the survey dated Jan. 23 from the previous survey on Jan. 9. The recent drop has taken prices down more than $1.24 a gallon from the same period a year ago, a decline driven by losses in the crude oil market from its June peak. However, survey publisher Trilby Lundberg noted that the drop in pump prices was less steep than it had been in previous periods and that the price many wholesale customers paid for gasoline rose in the past 10 days, suggesting a bottoming-out or increase […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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How we went from peak oil to too much oil

How we went from peak oil to too much oil thumbnail It’s not the worry we’ll run out of fossil fuels that’s the problem any more. Quite the opposite. Al Gore at Davos: “Companies are insisting on their right to use our atmosphere as an open sewer.” A third of oil reserves, half gas reserves and over 80% of coal must remain in the ground. If you remember the 20th Century, you probably remember people worrying we’d run out of fossil fuel. It’s a worry with a long and often over-hyped history. As Matt Novak neatly demonstrates , people have been wrong about running out of oil for well over a hundred years. In 1909, it was thought the oil age had 25 or 30 years longer. In 1919, it was two to five years. In 1937, the director of US naval petroleum reserves, told the Senate Naval Affairs […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Yergin: Peak Oil Is Followed by Glut

IHS Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin speaks with Bloomberg’s Tom Keen about oil prices. They speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on “Bloomberg Surveillance.” How many victory laps? Do you feel like yes, i got it right? It is hard. Here, i remember people say you do not believe in peak oil. Not really. We have seen peak oil. It has been followed by a glut. New areas open up and new technology. U.s. oil production is up 80%. for our viewers in the middle east, in 1986, the price came down and went flat. Do you predict that again? There are analogies there.

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Rosneft to Raise $6.1 Billion in Ruble Bond Placement Today

OAO Rosneft will place 400 billion rubles ($6.1 billion) in ruble bonds today as Russia’s largest oil producer plans to repay loans raised for deals and growth. Rosneft completed collecting bids for the sale in 1 hour on Jan. 23 and set the coupon at 11.9 percent, the Moscow-based company said in a statement. Russian government bonds due in June this year yield 14.65 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sanctions on the Kremlin-led company related to Russia’s actions in Ukraine have restricted Rosneft’s access to international debt markets. At the same time, falling oil prices have reduced the availability of cash to service debts raised for deals that made Rosneft the world’s biggest publicly traded oil producer by output. The largest of the acquisitions was $55 billion for TNK-BP in 2013. Rosneft may utilize a similar plan as in December, when lenders purchased 625 billion rubles of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple