DrumBeat: August 31, 2008
Rep. Bartlett pursues lonely energy crusade
WASHINGTON - Charts at the ready, notes spread out before him, Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett begins another address in the House of Representatives on the dangers of America’s dependence on oil.
The Western Maryland Republican has given nearly 50 such speeches at the Capitol in the past three years, most of them variations on a theme: that a coming decline in petroleum production, coupled with growing demand for energy, will have a calamitous impact on the global economy.
“The world as a whole, and our country included, has appeared to behave as if these fossil fuels were inexhaustible,” the former university professor lectures. “What we’ll see shortly is that - as everyone will know, if you stop and think about it - that oil is finite.”
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Up until Tuesday, oil was crashing down toward $110 a barrel as demand growth estimates have been clipped. So what happened to peak oil? Nothing happened; peak oil should still be a concern.
SchNews Drills For the Truth In Peak Oil Theory
All of this has some anarcho-primitivists jumping with glee at the prospect of the imminent collapse of earth-raping industrial capitalist society. But, before you stock up on tinned goods, shotgun cartridges and bottled water, here’s a few things to consider:
Firstly, there’s no oil shortage. This may come as a bit of a surprise to all those who’ve been watching the prices rise and rise. As the Saudis recently pointed out to outgoing President Bush - pumping more oil won’t lower the price. Actually, there’s a glut of oil in the supply markets. The Iranians (one of the oil nations pumping under their maximum capacity) have tankers full of the stuff that they just can’t shift because no one wants it. What’s lacking is refining capacity.
Cold season will push up oil price says Iran
Iran’s oil minister suggested on Sunday crude at $100 a barrel was the lowest appropriate level but said factors like the approaching cold season would push up demand and prices, an Oil Ministry website reported.
Oil sands: The storm over Canada’s hottest commodity
In this two-part series, the Independent Record examines Canadian oil sands production, its impact on the economy and the environment, and the potential connection to Montana’s own energy development.
It may be too soon to exit oil-dollar bet
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The long oil/short dollar bet may be off the table for now as energy prices ease and the U.S. currency rises, but inflation and inherent risks in commodities supply could bring this popular trade back.
Understanding Putin and the conflict in the Caucasus
And that brings us to the Caucasus/Georgia region, and why Putin pressed the Chechen war after he took office. He did so for good reasons – access to the oil and the Caspian Sea. Georgia itself holds the keys to a quantum leap in Russian income and power. There is a pipeline through Georgia from Baku that is the only exit for oil from Central Asia that does not pay toll to Russia. Seizing control of that pipeline will both give Russia income from that oil, and it will provide Russia with the means to strangle the Central Asian former provinces into submission. The significance of these nations for Americans is primarily the economic impact on our pocketbook when the price of oil rises again because Russia gets control of another 46 billion barrels of oil to increase its own 74 billion barrels of reserves. In the larger picture, those Central Asian nations can serve as a tool to bring the USA lower by more and more rapid wealth transfer as prices rise.
Nigeria militants: 29 military personnel killed
LAGOS, Nigeria - Nigeria’s main militant group claimed Saturday that it killed at least 29 military personnel in three separate attacks across the restive southern oil region.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in an e-mail statement that the near-simultaneous battles came in the three main oil producing states of southern Nigeria, leaving 29 dead and others unaccounted for after they jumped from their military boats.
The group reported that six of its own fighters were also killed in the clashes, which they say they launched as reprisals for attacks they allege the military carried out on civilians.
South Korea: ‘No Pole Sign’ System Troubles Refiners
Local oil companies are in trouble over a new policy starting today, which will demolish exclusive ties between them and gas stations.
Gas pumps will be allowed to sell oil products from all companies with the abrogation of what was called the ”pole sign policy.” A mixture of products from various companies will be also available as long as sellers inform consumers.
Under the previous policy, gas stations could only deal with the brand they displayed, with violation subject to legal punishment.
Will Brazil Really Nationalize Oil?
Brazilian oil workers with the FUP oil union have threatened a nationwide strike, in what seems like another step toward nationalized oil in Brazil
The saber rattling is aimed at Brazil’s biggest oil company, Petrobras. While contentious union relations at Petrobras are part and parcel of the company’s operations, what’s different here is that the conversation focuses on the pre-salt layer off Brazil, triggered by last year’s massive Tupi find.
Kuwait inflation spurred by external factors: banker
KUWAIT CITY (AFP) - Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait Sheikh Salem Abdulaziz al-Sabah has said inflation in the oil-rich emirate, which has hit record levels, is mainly caused by external factors.
“Inflation in Kuwait is imported … since the country imports most of its commodities from abroad,” Sheikh Salem said in statements cited by the official KUNA news agency late Saturday.
External factors such as prices in exporting nations, insurance fees and transport costs influence Kuwaiti imports, said the governor, adding that 30 percent of Kuwaiti imports come from Europe and 14 percent from the United States.
Saudi Arabia positioned to become solar power
In the wake of the first Gulf War, the U.S. Army assessed Saudi Arabia’s solar energy resource potential in a classified effort to determine how oil fires had affected the region.
The results were clear and surprising. In addition to being a vast petroleum repository, the desert nation was also the heart of the most potentially productive region on the planet for harvesting power from the sun. In other words, Saudi Arabia was the Saudi Arabia of solar energy.
Indiana’s Amish embracing wind, solar power
GRABILL, Ind. - Northeastern Indiana’s large Amish community is starting to embrace wind and solar energy to power their homes’ lights, refrigerators and other equipment.
Although many Amish rejected high-voltage electricity in the early 1920s because of the power lines that would have connected their people to the outside world, limited use of site-generated, low-voltage electricity is acceptable to many Amish.
Solar panels are hot for the stealing
They turn the sun’s rays into usable electricity, with proponents calling it an environmentally friendly alternative that saves money on utilities.
But the growing number of solar panels being installed on roofs of government buildings, private businesses and homes are becoming a hot commodity in a way many say they didn’t expect.
The Heat is on: America’s next president must play a key role averting crisis over global warming
Reflecting a consensus of hundreds of scientists around the world, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, has affirmed that greenhouse gas emissions are raising the Earth’s temperature. The Earth is on a trajectory to warm more than 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit by around mid-century. Exceeding that threshold could trigger a series of phenomena: Arable land will turn into desert, higher sea levels will flood coastal areas, and changes in the convection of the oceans will alter currents, such as the Gulf Stream, that determine regional weather patterns.
Manhattan and Florida would be under water, while Nevada would have no water at all. Some Russians quip that they would welcome a more temperate climate, but they would probably be sorry to lose St. Petersburg. Countries such as Bangladesh and Mali do not have the resources to mitigate or even to adapt to the impact of climate change; millions would flee coastal flooding and the desertification of farmlands, creating instant “climate refugees.”
Ireland: Fears for landmark bridge
The National Conservation and Heritage Group believe higher tides caused by climate change are eroding the bridge’s structure and may have dangerously weakened its foundations.
The catastrophe behind climate change
As the estimated cost of measures proposed by politicians to “combat global warming” soars ever higher - such as the International Energy Council’s $45 trillion - “fighting climate change” has become the single most expensive item on the world’s political agenda.
As Senators Obama and McCain vie with the leaders of the European Union to promise 50, 60, even 80 per cent cuts in “carbon emissions”, it is clear that to realise even half their imaginary targets would necessitate a dramatic change in how we all live, and a drastic reduction in living standards.
Sierra climate change puts range’s species on the run
One century ago, alpine chipmunks owned the upper half of Yosemite. They skittered under logs and darted across rocks from the rugged Sierra crest down to the conifer forests at 7,800 feet. Today, they are missing in action below 9,800 feet.
”It’s lost half its geographic range,” Patton said. ”Climate is the culprit. I don’t think there is any iota of reason not to think that.”
For the first time in human history, the North Pole can be circumnavigated
Open water now stretches all the way round the Arctic, making it possible for the first time in human history to circumnavigate the North Pole, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. New satellite images, taken only two days ago, show that melting ice last week opened up both the fabled North-west and North-east passages, in the most important geographical landmark to date to signal the unexpectedly rapid progress of global warming.
Last night Professor Mark Serreze, a sea ice specialist at the official US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), hailed the publication of the images – on an obscure website by scientists at the University of Bremen, Germany – as “a historic event”, and said that it provided further evidence that the Arctic icecap may now have entered a “death spiral”. Some scientists predict that it could vanish altogether in summer within five years, a process that would, in itself, greatly accelerate.
But Sarah Palin, John McCain’s new running mate, holds that the scientific consensus that global warming is melting Arctic ice is unreliable.
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