Australia: PM called talks to derail renewable energy
The Federal Government and fossil-fuel industry executives discussed ways to stifle growing investment in renewable energy projects at a secret meeting earlier this year.
Energy Policy
Not if, but when: Oil production peak will bring hard transition
The country and the world will have to adjust to declining oil supplies by switching to other energy sources and pursuing efficiency. The sooner that transition occurs, the less wrenching it will be. Instead, oil consumers are driving toward a cliff with their foot on the accelerator, with Americans in the lead.
Book Excerpt: Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Port-Carbon World
We live in a time in which several “storms” are colliding: resource depletion, continued population growth, declining per-capita food production, global climate change and other signs of environmental degradation, unsustainable levels of US debt and a potential dollar collapse and international political instability. Powerdown, the path of cooperation, conserving and sharing, seems the most sane response.
India: higher oil imports, tax cuts and a strategic petroleum reserve
India’s crude oil imports jumped by 23.3 % in July this year on increased demand for oil products, a senior Petroleum Ministry official said.
Indonesia: Tough decisions await Yudhoyono
The price of crude nearly doubled this year, but for Indonesians that meant nothing. A fuel subsidy scheme means the Government, not consumers, picks up the bill for the increased cost of petrol, diesel and kerosene used everywhere for cooking.
Bush Set to Open Oil Reserve Spigot
With oil near $50 a barrel, the Bush administration is set to allow oil refineries to borrow from the government’s emergency petroleum stockpile to make up for supplies disrupted by Hurricane Ivan, a congressional source briefed on the pending decision told Reuters last week.
The High Price of Oil (book review)
What is striking about both books [Blood and Oil by Klare and Oil: Anatomy of an Industry by Yeomans]… is that they argue that the United States can avoid the petro-military dystopia if Americans (a) get Bush out of office, (b) make a concerted effort to create and exploit alternative fuels, and (c) — in Klare’s words — “reduce American dependence on imported oil and … sever the links between our energy behavior and our overseas security commitments.”
Why does Wall Street continue to look down on renewable energy?
If alternative-energy companies are so hot, why are their stocks so unpopular? Record-high oil prices make wind and solar increasingly competitive. Fear of climate change should brighten prospects for any alternative to fossil fuels, which release the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Yet over the past two years, the worldwide stock-market value of companies developing renewable energy—which includes everything from wind and solar to recycling—fell from $13 billion to $10.7 billion, while the value of fossil-fuel companies surged to record highs of more than $1.2 trillion.
Winning the oil endgame
Winning the Oil Endgame offers a strategy for ending US oil dependence, and is applicable worldwide. There are many analyses of the oil problem; This synthesis is the first roadmap of the oil solution — one led by business for profit.
Have you run out of energy?
Imagine having your own annual greenhouse gas allowance which you ’spend’ each time you fill up with petrol or pay an electric or gas bill. It sounds like a scene from a futuristic movie, but this scenario could really happen in the next few years according to researchers at the UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Prediction.
Bottomline Decisions: Concerns about reliable supply will always trump the call for cleaner energy
Securing supply tops the energy-policy agenda. That is the message coming loud and clear from more than 60 energy-industry leaders, including big-company CEOs and senior government officials, recently surveyed by the World Economic Forum…. History shows that policymakers will put price and supply before social and environmental concerns.
Exxon CEO: Oil Isn’t Going Away, But…
“For the next 20 years, growth in the world economy is going to raise demand by oil and oil equivalents from something on the order of 65 to 85 million barrels a day, to 330 million [barrels], which is a huge, huge number. It’s like eight Saudi Arabias.”