Shale Oil

To ‘Frack’ or not to ‘Frack’?

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Ohio, the home of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, and site of the world’s largest oil-producing provinces in the late 19th century, is again at the center of the action in domestic fossil fuel production as a controversial drilling technique, known as fracking, is draining Ohio’s remaining oil and gas reserves. With global oil production peaking and the number of new large oil finds dwindling, is increased domestic production in Ohio and other states through fracking a vital contribution to our energy security, or a fate to be fought?

Freaked out by fracking – Jan 17

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-Shale gas: a provisional assessment of climate change and environmental impacts (report)
-Shale gas moratorium in UK urged by Tyndall Centre
-Warning over UK shale gas projects
-Opponents to Fracking Disclosure Take Big Money From Industry (NEW)

Living better in ‘the finite world’

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Economist Paul Krugman almost addressed the Limits to Growth in his recent article “The Finite World”, but pulled back before reaching the brink of suggesting there may be physical limits to economic growth. A Nobel Prize may await whomever finds a workable model to prosper human welfare under conditions of depleting resources. Will economists solve this problem, or ordinary people who are learning to live better in The Finite World?

Review: The Impending World Energy Mess by Robert Hirsch, Roger Bezdek and Robert Wendling

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In The Maltese Falcon a character tells detective Sam Spade, “By Gad, sir, you’re a character, that you are! Yes, sir, there’s never any telling what you’ll do or say next, except that it’s bound to be something astonishing.”* I’m telling Bob Hirsch the same thing. There’s no denying the man’s considerable credentials within the energy industry, nor his contribution to peak oil scholarship as principal author of the first major U.S. government report to take the issue seriously. But neither is there any predicting what outlandish thing he’ll propose next in his efforts to spread the message.

Peak oil & supplies – Oct 6

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– Is Venezuela the Next Flashpoint for Oil?
– Iraq Is Back In The Game
– Jim Baldauf of ASPO-USA in “The Hill”: the end of oil as we know it
– Jeff Rubin: Depletion Is Economic, Not Just Geological, Concept
– Shale oil boom underlines importance of innovations on another fuel – oil shale
– LNG Trumped

A high-risk fossil fuel boom sweeps across North America

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Energy companies are rushing to develop unconventional sources of oil and gas trapped in carbon-rich shales and sands throughout the western United States and Canada. So far, government officials have shown little concern for the environmental consequences of this new fossil fuel development boom.

Exponentially on purpose: a century-and-a-half of ignored warnings

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The peak oil debate is a case of history repeating itself: people have been ignoring warnings about exponential use of finite resources for a century and a half. No-one wants to hear the argument. Even International Energy Agency forecasts of record world oil demand, and warnings that the “era of cheap oil is over” made barely a ripple in the media.

Plotting the coming oil shock

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A study based on the Hubbert model of peak oil suggests a coming global oil shock may begin as early as 2014 – which ties in with the timeline suggested in a variety of other reports and statements. Despite getting a showing online, and in the occasional business report, [peak oil is] yet to break into the mainstream media. I recently considered three major energy reports published so far in 2010 which take a number of different views on the issue.

Peak oil and gas prices and supplies – Aug 6

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-Independent Study: Oil Shale Is a Poor Energy Source
-Scientists Cast Doubt on Claims BP Spill’s No Threat to Gulf
-Ecuador pledges no oil drilling in Amazon reserve
-Deepwater oil drilling moratorium job-loss picture is getting clearer
-We Fight for the Oil We Need to Fight for the Oil
-Oil company, law enforcement block media access to public sites hit by Michigan oil spill