tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91505877433356669392024-03-21T18:39:37.163-07:00Energy NewsCarolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.comBlogger515125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-36963227368933586102010-10-16T22:51:00.001-07:002010-10-16T23:36:38.269-07:00ODAC Newsletter - Oct 15<p> The Obama administration on Tuesday lifted its ban on deepwater drilling seven weeks ahead of schedule, saying new rules cut the risk of a repeat of the BP oil spill, the worst ever to hit the United States.</p> <p> The U.S. Interior Department said oil companies must comply with new regulations and demonstrate they can adequately respond to blowouts...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Analysts unimpressed by early lifting of deepwater drilling banSheila McNulty, FT Energy Source Blog, 14 Oct 2010View original article<p> Oil company stocks may have risen on the news that the Obama Administration was lifting the moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but analysts are not rushing to change their outlooks for these companies. The bottom line is that the decision does not mean it is business as usual for anyone operating in the Gulf of Mexico.</p> <p> The administration has imposed new regulations, including those requiring outside auditors to certify blowout preventers are in working order. The companies must file a more comprehensive cleanup plan than in the past, with enforceable obligations that ensure that containment resources are available. And chief executives must certify that they have complied with all the new regulations. Beyond that, the authorities plan to inspect rigs to ensure compliance before permitting them to get back to work...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> European bid to freeze deepwater drilling collapsesRoddy Thomson and Christian Spillmann, AFP, 13 Oct 2010View original article<p> A bid to freeze deepwater drilling in Europe in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster collapsed Wednesday under pressure from the multi-billion North Sea oil industry.</p> <p> European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger announced moves to tighten the issuing of drilling permits to ensure there is no repeat of the devastating Gulf of Mexico disaster in the United States...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> North Sea oil companies angry at new EU rulesRowena Mason, Telegraph, 14 Oct 2010View original article<p> The British oil industry has reacted with fury at Europe's new "centralised and prescriptive" restrictions on North Sea drilling after BP's Deepwater Horizon accident.</p> <p> The European Commission yesterday rowed back on original plans to impose a moratorium on deepwater drilling, but suggested instead that safety rules would be much tougher across the Continent...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> OPEC Maintains Oil Production Quotas, Urges Adherence Ayesha Daya and Grant Smith, Bloomberg, 14 Oct 2010View original article<p> OPEC ministers agreed to leave oil- production quotas unchanged and called on members to improve compliance to the self-imposed limits as mixed growth in some of the world's biggest economies damps demand.</p> <p> "The market is good, that's why" we rolled over quotas, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said today in Vienna. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which supplies 40 percent of the world's oil, need to improve their adherence to the group's production limits, he said. OPEC agreed to a record 4.2 million barrel-a-day cut in output in late 2008 as global demand fell 0.6 percent, the first decline since 1983...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Iraq increases oil reserves by 24%BBC Online, 04 Oct 2010View original article<p> Iraq has raised the level of the oil reserves it claims to own by 24% in its first revision since Saddam Hussein fell from power.</p> <p> The country has 143.1bn barrels of known and extractible oil, up from the 115bn barrels previously estimated...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Iraqi oil output plans overambitious - executivesHumeyra Pamuk, Reuters, 13 Oct 2010View original article<p> Problems with security, political instability and poor infrastructure mean plans by Iraq to expand its crude oil production dramatically over the next few years are overambitious, oil executives told an industry conference.</p> <p> Iraq is sitting on some of the biggest proven oil reservoirs in the world, which Iraqi officials said last week were as high as 143 billion barrels, giving it the world's fourth-largest reserves after Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Iran...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Disruptions At French Oil Refineries Continue, May ExtendWall Street Journal, 14 Oct 2010View original article<p> All French refineries but one Thursday suspended fuel deliveries as a consequence of strikes in oil and port industries, an official from the Confederation Generale du Travail union leader said.</p> <p> Workers at the oil refineries walked out Tuesday to protest against a government-sponsored pension reform that seeks to delay legal retirement age to 62 from 60 to help balance government accounts. A previous strike of port workers at the oil terminal of Fos-Lavera in southern France started Sept. 27 had already disrupted the supply of crude oil to several refineries in the country...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Dwindling oil supplies threaten economies [REPORT]stuff.co.nz, 13 Oct 2010View original article<p> The world faces decades of economic turmoil and a vicious cycle of recessions as oil supplies run low and prices spike, according to a Parliamentary research paper.</p> <p> The paper, The Next Oil Shock, says that known oil reserves would last for another 25 to 32 years, but an oil ''supply crunch'' could occur in 2012 or shortly afterwards as demand rises and supplies fail to keep pace...</p> <p> <i> View report</i> </p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Pentagon going green, because it has toOlivia Hampton, AFP, 13 Oct 2010View original article<p> The US military's heavy dependence on fossil fuels is a dangerous vulnerability, officials said Wednesday as they made a fresh push to develop renewable energy solutions for the battlefield.</p> <p> In the wake of a spate of deadly attacks on tankers carrying fuel to foreign troops in Afghanistan, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke of a "strategic imperative" for the US military to become more efficient and find new sources of energy...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> World oil consumption forecast raised by watchdogPA, The Independent, 13 Oct 2010View original article<p> An energy watchdog lifted its forecast for world oil consumption today but played down fears that prices will top 100 US dollars a barrel.</p> <p> Global demand is expected to reach 86.9 million barrels a day this year and 88.2 million barrels a day next year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said, revising up its previous forecast by 300,000 barrels for each year...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> North America's risky race to exploit oil sands and shalesKeith Schneider for Yale Environment 360, The Guardian, 01 Oct 2010View original article<p> The most direct path to America's newest big oil and gas fields is U.S. Highway 12, two lanes of blacktop that unfold from Grays Harbor in Washington State and head east across the top of the country to Detroit.</p> <p> The 2,500-mile route has quickly become an essential supply line for the energy industry. With astonishing speed, U.S. oil companies, Canadian pipeline builders, and investors from all over the globe are spending huge sums in an economically promising and ecologically risky race to open the next era of hydrocarbon development. As domestic U.S. pools of conventional oil and gas dwindle, energy companies are increasingly turning to "unconventional" fossil fuel reserves contained in the carbon rich-sands and deep shales of Canada, the Great Plains, and the Rocky Mountain West...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Shell offers spill system in AlaskaSheila McNulty in Houston, Financial Times, 11 Oct 2010View original article<p> Royal Dutch Shell is offering to spend "tens and tens of millions of dollars" building an oil spill containment system for Arctic conditions if the US government permits it to drill offshore Alaska...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Gas<p> </p> Outlook for Shale Gas in Europe Is UncertainJames Kanter, New York Times, 13 Oct 2010View original article<p> The chief executive of one the largest oil and natural gas services companies in the world said Wednesday that shale gas could be much harder to recover in Europe, compared with the United States, because of concerns about environmental damage and other issues.</p> <p> "We should not underestimate the challenge," said Andrew F. Gould, the chief executive of the company, Schlumberger...</p> <p> <i> View report</i> </p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> US to take on rivals in natural gasSheila McNulty in Houston, Financial Times, 11 Oct 2010View original article<p> The US could soon be competing with Russia and the Middle East to supply the world with natural gas, a shift in production that would reshape energy markets over the next decade, according to industry executives...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> UK to need more shipped gas in winterRowena Mason, The Daily Telegraph, 08 Oct 2010View original article<p> The power networks operator calmed fears that there would be a repeat of last year, when it was forced to issue a series of alerts forcing industrial customers to cut back their gas usage.</p> <p> Britain also came dangerously close to running low on gas the previous year, during a dispute between Ukraine and Russia that threatened European pipeline supplies...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Renewables<p> </p> Wind could provide 20 pct of world power by 2030: studyThe Independent, 13 Oct 2010View original article<p> Wind power could meet about a fifth of the world's electricity demand within 20 years, an industry group and environmental watchdog Greenpeace predicted in a new report released Tuesday.</p> <p> The global market for wind power grew 41.7 percent on year in 2009, beating average annual growth of 28.6 percent over the past 13 years, said Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the Global Wind Energy Council, or GWEC...</p> <p> <i> View report</i> </p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Floating turbines promise to deliver reliable wind, says reportBusinessGreen, The Guardian, 11 Oct 2010View original article<p> The higher up-front costs associated with developing floating wind turbines would be offset by the fact that they would be able to access areas of deep water off the coastlne of the UK where winds are stronger and reliable.</p> <p> That is the conclusion of a major feasibility study backed by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), which is due to be launched later today and will argue that floating turbines are both technically and economically viable...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> 10,000 Birmingham council homes to get solar panelsLarry Elliott, The Guardian, 05 Oct 2010View original article<p> Plans to fit power generating solar panels to council-owned properties in Birmingham will be pushed forward this week after the council agreed a "green new deal" scheme covering 10,000 homes...</p> <p> In the biggest proposal for retrofitting houses through an energy efficiency upgrade yet seen in the UK, the council agreed a £100m proposal last week designed to create jobs and meet the city's ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions. </p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Ofgem: Every household faces £60 bill to rewire BritainTim Webb, The Guardian, 04 Oct 2010View original article<p> Rewiring Britain's energy networks to hit the country's renewable targets will cost every household at least £60 over the next decade, according to the regulator Ofgem...</p> <p> Companies need to invest £32bn by 2020 to plug thousands of wind farms, mainly in Scotland, into a grid capable of distributing the electricity to where the country needs it. The money is also needed to build "smart grids" which move electricity and gas around new local networks to meet flexible demand. </p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Human waste turned into renewable gas to power homesTim Webb, The Guardian, 05 Oct 2010View original article<p> Pilot project is first in UK to produce domestic gas from sewage</p> <p> Next time you flush the toilet, you could be doing your bit for green energy. After being stored for 18 days, human waste will from today be returning to homes in the form of renewable gas...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> UK<p> </p> Fuel poverty doubles in five yearsHarry Wallop, Telegraph, 14 Oct 2010View original article<p> The number of households who are in "fuel poverty" has more than doubled in the last five years because of surging energy bills, according to official statistics.</p> <p> With the average British fuel bill climbing to well over £1,000 a year — for many pensioners the largest bill they have to pay all year — a worryingly large number of people are struggling to keep their homes warm...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> UK backs EU plan for controversial 'beyond A' energy labelsJessica Shankleman for BusinessGreen, The Guardian, 04 Oct 2010View original article<p> The UK government has promised to work with businesses to ensure customers understand new and potentially confusing "beyond A" energy labels for fridges, freezers, dishwashers and washing machines.</p> <p> The EU Commission outlined plans last week to reform energy label ratings for so-called "wet" appliances, with the introduction of three new "beyond A" grades: "A+", "A++" and "A+++"...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> CBI urges switch to incineratorsFiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent, Financial Times, 11 Oct 2010View original article<p> Local authorities should bury their objections to building incinerators for rubbish in order to take pressure off landfill sites and reduce carbon emissions, the CBI employers' organisation has urged...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/10/odac-newsletter-oct-1.html" rel="bookmark" title="ODAC Newsletter - Oct 1">ODAC Newsletter - Oct 1</a><a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/07/era-of-cheap-in-china-is-ending.html" rel="bookmark" title="Era of cheap ‘Made in China’ is ending">Era of cheap ‘Made in China’ is ending</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-57571190771785894212010-10-02T03:07:00.001-07:002010-10-07T14:51:16.417-07:00ODAC Newsletter - Oct 1<p> The United States military must entirely get off oil by 2040 if it wants to reduce operational vulnerabilities, reduce costs, stop new security risks caused by climate change and avoid the coming peak oil supply crunch. That's the word from the Center For a New American Security, whose Fueling the Future Force report details the hows and whys of the situation.</p> <p> Petroleum is 77% of Military Energy Supply<br /> Report authors Christine Parthemore and Dr. John Nagl say, "Reducing dependency on petroleum will help ensure the long-term ability of the military to carry out its assigned missions. Moving beyond petroleum will allow DoD to lead in the development of innovative technologies that can benefit the nation more broadly, while signaling to the world that the United States has an innovative and adaptable force."...</p> <p> <i> View report</i> </p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Crude Oil Rises to Seven-Week High on U.S., China Economic Data Ben Sharples and Yee Kai Pin, Bloomberg, 01 Oct 2010View original article<p> Oil rose for a third day, headed for its biggest weekly gain since May, after economic data from the U.S. and China bolstered optimism that demand is growing in the world's two biggest consumers of the fuel.</p> <p> Futures reached their highest level in more than seven weeks after the U.S. government yesterday reported economic growth and a decline in jobless claims that exceeded forecasts. China's purchasing managers' index rose in September at the fastest pace in four months, a report today showed...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Questions about what's next as offshore drilling ban expiresJuliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, The Washington Post, 30 Sep 2010View original article<p> Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is getting ready to take his finger off what he has called the "pause" button on deepwater oil drilling, with environmentalists and oil industry executives alike worried about what comes next.</p> <p> Thursday, Salazar will receive recommendations from Michael Bromwich, head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, based on information gathered at public forums and private meetings in the wake of the BP oil spill. Salazar could act on the BOEMRE report well before the drilling ban's expiration date, Nov. 30...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> BP ousts exploration chief, vows to boost safetyTom Bergin, Reuters, 30 Sep 2010View original article<p> BP Plc's incoming Chief Executive Bob Dudley has ousted the oil group's exploration and production chief following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and promised to restructure the company to boost safety.</p> <p> Echoing a move BP made after the Texas City blast in 2005, Dudley also said on Wednesday he was appointing a new safety guru, Mark Bly, who would ensure safe practices across the organization...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Oil firms reap benefit of Iran's build-up of crude stocksRobert Booth, The Guardian, 27 Sep 2010View original article<p> In March Barack Obama's argument for tougher international trade sanctions against Iran and its lucrative oil industry was brutally simple. "The long-term consequences of a nuclear-armed Iran are unacceptable," he said.</p> <p> The UN, EU and US Congress seemed to agree, passing into law fresh restrictions in June and July aimed at frustrating Iran's economic development and inhibiting its crude oil exports of 2.2bn barrels-a-day, representing 80% of all its trade abroad...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Oil: Can Ecuador see past the black stuff?John Vidal, The Guardian, 28 Sep 2010View original article<p> One of the most extraordinary people I have met in 10 days of travelling around Peru and Ecuador has been Alberto Acosta. He's head of Ecuador's leading research group now, but until 2007 was the second most powerful man in the country after the president, Rafael Correa. He was not only charged with masterminding the new constitution but was head of the assembly, or parliament, a founder of the ruling political party and minister of energy of the country that depends on oil.</p> <p> But Acosta will go down in history as the world's only serving oil minister to have ever proposed leaving a country's black stuff in the ground. That's like Dracula renouncing blood, or a sports minister saying it's better to play hide and seek than football. It just does not happen...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> OPEC crude oil production fell to 8 month lowBloomberg, arabianbusiness.com, 30 Sep 2010View original article<p> The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' crude oil output fell to an eight month low in September, led by Iraq, where a pipeline disruption curtailed shipments, a Bloomberg News survey showed.</p> <p> Production slipped 145,000 barrels, or 0.5 percent, to an average 29.055 million barrels a day, the lowest level since January, according to the survey...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Iraq to announce big rise in oil reserves MondayReuters, 30 Sep 2010View original article<p> Iraq will announce on Monday a "big increase" in its oil reserves, currently 115 billion barrels, a spokesman for the oil ministry said on Thursday.</p> <p> Iraq's crude reserves are the world's third largest but its production lags. The government has signed a series of deals with oil majors to ramp up output capacity to about 12 million barrels per day from around 2.5 million bpd now...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Shell plans rapid North American growthEd Crooks in New York, Financial Times, 29 Sep 2010View original article<p> Royal Dutch Shell is planning a rapid expansion of its North American business to raise production by 40 per cent to 1m barrels equivalent per day in 2014, including gas, Canadian oil sands and deepwater oil.</p> <p> The strategy, announced in Canada on Tuesday, is part of Europe's largest oil company's plan to meet its "aspiration" of producing 3.7m barrels per day in 2014, compared with 3.15m last year...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Obama says energy policy a top priority next yearJeff Mason, Reuters, 28 Sep 2010View original article<p> President Barack Obama said revamping U.S. energy policy would be a top priority next year and may have to be done "in chunks" rather than through one piece of legislation, according to Rolling Stone magazine.</p> <p> In an interview published on Tuesday, Obama lamented that more progress to fight climate change had not been made since he took office, and blamed the economy for that failure...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Greenpeace banned from intercepting oil-drilling shipSeverin Carrell, Scotland correspondent, The Guardian, 29 Sep 2010View original article<p> Greenpeace has been banned from intercepting a deep sea oil-drilling ship after the protest group sent "wave after wave" of swimmers into the north Atlantic to stop the vessel from reaching its drilling site.</p> <p> The US oil giant Chevron was granted a wide-ranging interdict, or injunction, by judges in Edinburgh today, ordering Greenpeace to stop any further direct action preventing the Stena Carron from reaching its destination or impeding its "lawful business"...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Gas<p> </p> Eni, Mitsubishi Among Companies Bidding to Develop Iraq Natural-Gas FieldsNayla Razzouk and Robert Tuttle, Bloomberg.com, 27 Sep 2010View original article<p> Eni SpA is among international companies interested in bidding to develop natural-gas fields in Iraq, while China National Petroleum Corp. and others reported progress producing oil there, officials and executives said.</p> <p> Italy's Eni and Mitsubishi Corp. of Japan are two of 13 companies to have registered to bid on gas contracts that Iraq is preparing to auction next month, Abdul Hadi al-Hassani, vice chairman of the oil and gas committee of the country's parliament, said today. Together with a dozen oilfield contracts awarded last year, the bidding round for gas rights planned for Oct. 20 marks a step forward in Iraq's campaign to boost the output of its most valuable commodities...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> House passes shale gas production taxTom Barnes, Post-Gazette, 30 Sep 2010View original article<p> Democrats and environmentalists praised it, while Republicans and gas industry officials pilloried it. But in the end, a bill to create Pennsylvania's first Marcellus Shale gas severance tax took a step forward Wednesday.</p> <p> Senate Bill 1155, after being totally rewritten by House Democrats, would slap a hefty levy of 39 cents per thousand cubic feet (MCF) of gas extracted from underground shale throughout Pennsylvania...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Coal<p> </p> EU to allow Spain coal plan to 2014Foo Yun Chee, Reuters, 27 Sep 2010View original article<p> Spain will win EU approval this week for a plan that would benefit domestic coal producers over importers until the end of 2014, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday.</p> <p> Under a decree passed by the Spanish government, power utilities would be required burn domestic coal instead of imports, which are usually cheaper. The executive European Commission has been examining the scheme to check whether it complies with the European Union's state aid rules...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Renewables<p> </p> Germany to wean itself off fossil fuelsGerrit Wiesmann in Berlin, Financial Times, 29 Sep 2010View original article<p> The German government has signalled its ambition to wean one of the world's largest economies off fossil fuels by pledging to generate enough renewable energy to meet 60 per cent of the country's energy needs by 2050.</p> <p> Norbert Röttgen, environment minister, said it was "the most ambitious energy programme ever seen, not only in Germany"...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Denmark eyes up fossil fuel-free futureBusiness Green, 29 Sep 2010View original article<p> Danish climate commission report predicts the country could switch to renewables by the middle of the century</p> <p> The falling cost of renewable energy and rising cost of oil and gas will allow Denmark to develop an energy network entirely free of fossil fuels by 2050, according to a report published by the government's climate commission tomorrow...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Britain's offshore windpower costs twice as much as coal and gas generated electricityRichard Alleyne, Telegraph, 28 Sep 2010View original article<p> Off shore wind farms cost twice as much to produce electricity as gas and coal powered stations and will need subsidies for at least 20 years, a major report warns.</p> <p> Britain's so-called "dash for wind" means that it is now the biggest off shore generator – producing as much as the rest of the world put together...</p> <p> <i> View report</i> </p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Mining and Minerals<p> </p> UN environment chief urges recycling of rare metalsAFP, 29 Sep 2010View original article<p> The UN's environment chief on Wednesday called for a global drive to recycle rare metals that have hit the headlines in a spat between Japan and China, warning that they are crucial for green technologies.</p> <p> Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said that demand for "rare earth metals" such as lithium and neodymium -- used in batteries for hybrid cars or components in wind and solar power -- was accelerating fast...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Japan May Spend on Rare Earths After China's Cut, Ohata SaysGo Onomitsu and Jae Hur, Business Week, 30 Sep 2010View original article<p> Japan may budget measures to secure supplies of rare earths after China curtailed exports of the minerals, said Japan's Trade Minister Akihiro Ohata.</p> <p> The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry "hopes" to ask for a supplementary budget to secure stable rare earth supplies, Ohata told Jiji Press today. The comments were confirmed by a ministry spokesman, who didn't want to be identified...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> ‘Rare earths' fears spur US reviewDaniel Dombey in Washington, Financial Times, 27 Sep 2010View original article<p> The US is trying to resume production of raw materials vital for defence equipment and green technology in response to rising fears about Chinese dominance of the sector...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Climate<p> </p> We can't use it — so why the heck are we prospecting for new oil?George Monbiot, The Guardian, 27 Sep 2010View original article<p> Forget, for a moment, the fragility of the Arctic environment and the likely consequences of a spill there. Forget the dangers of deepwater drilling in a strait plagued by storms and icebergs, and the difficulties — greater than in the Gulf of Mexico — of capping a leaking well there. There's an even bigger question raised by a British company's discovery of oil off the coast of Greenland. It's the same question that is invoked by the decision the British government is expected to make tomorrow: to allow exploration wells to be drilled in deep waters to the west of Shetland. Why the heck are we prospecting for new oil anyway?..</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Climate change crisis 'can be solved by oil companies'Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor in Lyon, The Independent, 27 Sep 2010View original article<p> Climate change can be solved in a snap by making oil, gas and coal companies take responsibility for burying all the carbon dioxide emitted by the fossil fuel products they sell, one of Britain's leading young climate scientists said yesterday.</p> <p> Government attempts to try to get millions of people to change their behaviour through taxes and incentives were doomed to fail, said Dr Myles Allen, head of the Climate Dynamics Group at the University Oxford, and an increasingly influential voice in the climate debate...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> China seeks binding climate treaty late 2011-reportChris Buckley, Reuters, 24 Sep 2010View original article<p> China wants the world to seal a binding climate change treaty by late 2011, a Chinese negotiator said in a newspaper on Friday, blaming U.S. politics for impeding talks and making a deal on global warming impossible this year.</p> <p> Li Gao, a senior Chinese negotiator on climate change, said his government would remain unyielding on issues of "principle" in the talks aimed at forging a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The first period of that key treaty on fighting global warming expires at the end of 2012...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/05/gulf-spill-won-dampen-us-appetite-for.html" rel="bookmark" title="Gulf spill won’t dampen U.S. appetite for oil">Gulf spill won’t dampen U.S. appetite for oil</a><a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/06/odac-newsletter-june-11.html" rel="bookmark" title="ODAC Newsletter - June 11">ODAC Newsletter - June 11</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-77144376156021574282010-09-25T14:09:00.001-07:002010-09-25T14:26:01.357-07:00ODAC Newsletter - Sep 24<p> Mr Huhne said the UK was having to prepare itself for "lots of shocks", forcing the price of a barrel of oil to double, mirroring the volatility last seen in the 1970s.</p> <p> The news came as Mr Huhne said he would only give the green light to more nuclear power stations if Chancellor George Osborne agreed to taking millions of the lowest paid out of income tax. "A deal is a deal," he said...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Obama's fiscal stimulus no substitute for cheap oilJeff Rubin, Globe & Mail, 22 Sep 2010View original article<p> There is nothing intrinsically wrong with President Obama's earmarking $50-billion (U.S.) for new transport infrastructure, or extending the Bush tax cuts to low- and middle-income American households—provided the country can afford them. But already burdened with a record budget deficit of over $1-trillion, most Americans probably think Washington's already done far too much for the economy as it is.</p> <p> After all, there seems precious little to show for all the fiscal stimulus. The U.S. jobless rate seems stuck at around 9.5 per cent, and the GDP remains miles below its pre-recession peak. And although the economy is indeed growing, its pace is a shadow of past recoveries, and a fraction of last cycle's growth rates...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> IEA's Birol says little supply impact from BP spillDavid Sheppard, Reuters, 22 Sep 2010View original article<p> The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will have little or no effect on the medium-term outlook for offshore drilling and supplies, the International Energy Agency told Reuters on Tuesday.</p> <p> Fatih Birol, the chief economist of the group that advises 28 industrialized economies, said while some projects may be delayed in the short-term, the need to increase future oil supplies meant governments will not impose draconian regulations in the wake of the BP (BP.L) spill that caused the United States' worst ever oil spill...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Oil sands emissions 6 pct above other oil -studyJeffrey Jones, Reuters, 21 Sep 2010View original article<p> Emissions from Canada's oil sands, from crude production to end use, are 6 percent higher than from other oil imported into the United States, a study said on Tuesday.</p> <p> While that is well below the levels cited by some environmental groups, meeting new rules on carbon emissions would still mean an unlikely halving of greenhouse gases from oil sands crude over the next 10 years, according to the study by energy think tank IHS CERA...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> BP well dead, but its effects live onBrett Clanton and Tom Fowler, Houston Chronicle, 20 Sep 2010View original article<p> Sunday's death knell for BP's Macondo well heralded a milestone worth noting but was largely symbolic given the ongoing personal, economic, legal and environmental fallout from the accident.</p> <p> The British oil giant and federal officials pronounced the well dead nearly five months to the day after the April 20 blowout 40 miles off the Louisiana coast that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killed 11 workers and triggered the nation's worst oil spill...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Oil Pares Loss as German Confidence Tempers U.S. Supply Concern Grant Smith, Bloomberg, 24 Sep 2010View original article<p> Oil erased earlier losses as a jump in German business confidence tempered concerns that fuel demand in the U.S. remains constrained by slack economic growth.</p> <p> Prices may drop next week on speculation that U.S. inventories will climb as fuel demand declines, a Bloomberg News survey showed. Yesterday the Labor Department reported claims unexpectedly increased by 12,000 to 465,000 in the week ended Sept. 18, as the unemployment rate holds near a 26-year high...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Gas<p> </p> Russia, China agree gas supply terms: GazpromAFP, 22 Sep 2010View original article<p> Moscow and Beijing have agreed on key supply terms for future Russian gas deliveries to China, which is seeking to secure energy resources to fuel its growing economy, Gazprom said on Wednesday.</p> <p> Russian gas giant Gazprom, keen to diversify its energy clients, has been in talks with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to start sending gas to China but the two countries have yet to agree on pricing...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Europe agrees plan to avoid gas shortagesOana Lungescu, BBC Online, 21 Sep 2010View original article<p> The European Parliament has approved proposals to improve co-ordination between European Union member countries if they face sudden gas shortages.</p> <p> Supplies to thousands of homes and businesses across the EU were cut last year due to a payment dispute between Russia and Ukraine...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Gas is the futureKiran Stacey, FT Energy Source Blog, 22 Sep 2010View original article<p> At least that was the message from a new report published today by Oil & Gas UK and written by Pöyry Energy Consulting.</p> <p> The report's authors reckon the government's commitment to renewables is coming at the detriment to affordability, security and decarbonisation. They say the target of providing 15 per cent of energy from renewables by 2020 should be pushed back and gas should be used to help bring down carbon levels in the meantime...</p> <p> <i> View report</i> </p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Electricity<p> </p> Ofgem launches wide-ranging energy review BBC Online, 22 Sep 2010View original article<p> The energy regulator, Ofgem, has announced a wide-ranging review into the costs of supplying electricity to the National Grid.</p> <p> It promises an "open, comprehensive and objective" review of the charges...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Study says heat pumps are not environmentally friendlyMichelle Ward, Green Wise, 22 Sep 2010View original article<p> A new report has found that UK air source heat pumps have the same carbon footprint as gaseous fuels used in conventional heating.<br /> Emissions of powerful greenhouse gas, hydro fluorocarbon (HFC) add another 20 per cent to the carbon footprint of UK air source heat pumps, according to a study released today from Atlantic Consulting...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Smart grids need smart attitudesGareth Morgan, New Scientist, 21 Sep 2010View original article<p> The drive towards a low-carbon economy has dramatically increased the need for electricity suppliers to seek out and develop renewable energy sources and for consumers to curb their appetite for power. Even so, in the UK the stark facts suggest that within a decade demand for electricity is likely to outstrip the nation's ability to supply it, says Luq Niazi of IBM Global Business Services. "We will simply have to live with less energy," he says...</p> <p> <i> Produced by New Scientist in association with IBM. Paid for by IBM. All editorial content commissioned and edited by New Scientist </i> </p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Nuclear<p> </p> President Barack Obama's Yucca Mountain decision is a blow to US nuclear powerGarry White, The Daily Telegraph, 20 Sep 2010View original article<p> This followed intense pressure from leading Democrat Senator Harry Reid, who didn't want all of America's nuclear waste stored in his home state of Nevada.</p> <p> Yucca Mountain has been planned for more than two decades and is one of the most extensively studied areas of geology anywhere on the planet...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Renewables<p> </p> US renewable energy bill faces battle in 2010Timothy Gardner, Reuters, 21 Sep 2010View original article<p> A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a bill on Tuesday that would require utilities to generate minimum levels of renewable power which environmentalists welcomed but analysts said had slim chances of passing this year.</p> <p> Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat and chair of the Senate's energy committee, and Sam Brownback, a Republican, introduced the bill which would create a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) requiring utilities to generate 15 percent renewable power by 2021...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Largest offshore wind farm opens off Thanet in KentBBC Online, 23 Sep 2010View original article<p> The world's biggest offshore wind farm off the Kent coast is being officially opened later.</p> <p> Swedish energy giant Vattenfall said the 100 turbines are expected to generate enough electricity to power 240,000 homes...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Scots renewable energy target surpassedBBC Online, 23 Sep 2010View original article<p> Scotland is on track to smash its target for expanding renewable power generation, according to research.</p> <p> It could move from 50% to at least 80% reliance on green energy sources within the next ten years...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Biofuels<p> </p> Where there's bugs, there's brass: UK firm lands $500m biofuel contractShanta Barley, The Guardian, 20 Sep 2010View original article<p> A British company that uses a genetically modified compost-heap bug to produce biofuel from rubbish has signed a $500m (£319m) contract with a US firm.</p> <p> TMO Renewables developed a strain of "turbo-charged" bacteria that can turn tea bags, cardboard, wood and other household waste into fuel for cars and trucks. The Guildford-based company signed a 20-year, $25m-a-year deal with US firm Fiberight...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Airlines chief urges more investment in biofuelsAFP, 17 Sep 2010View original article<p> The head of the world's biggest airline association, IATA, berated the oil industry and governments on Friday for investing "peanuts" in cleaner biofuels.</p> <p> "Biofuels could break the tyranny of oil and lift millions from poverty along with providing a sustainable fuel source for aviation," Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association said...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> UK<p> </p> Solar power subsidy under reviewFiona Harvey, Environment Correspondents, Financial Times, 24 Sep 2010View original article<p> The recent mini-boom in solar power could be in jeopardy, as the government has privately indicated that new feed-in tariffs that have fuelled the industry could be slashed.</p> <p> If such cuts are adopted, renewable energy experts fear that it will scare off investors — with repercussions throughout the industry...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Chris Huhne announces 250,000 green jobs to boost the economyPatrick Wintour, political editor, The Guardian, 21 Sep 2010View original article<p> A plan to create almost 250,000 jobs in green industries, including nuclear power and home insulation, will turbo-charge the economy and help offset budget cuts, the energy secretary, Chris Huhne, claimed today.</p> <p> The "green deal" will lead to thousands of workers modernising some 26 million homes to make them more energy efficient as part of the coalition's ambition to be the "greenest government ever"...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Government prepares fund to help small business become more energy efficientRichard Tyler, Telegraph, 20 Sep 2010View original article<p> The Government is preparing a radical multi-billion pound fund to finance the rapid "greening" of more than 4m small businesses.</p> <p> Under the plans, firms will receive loans to replace old boilers, freezers and other pieces of energy hungry equipment, with the cash repaid from the savings made in their monthly energy bills...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Geopolitics<p> </p> Arctic summit in Moscow hears rival claimsBBC News, BBC News, 22 Sep 2010View original article<p> An international meeting to try to prevent the Arctic becoming the next battleground over mineral wealth is taking place in Moscow.</p> <p> One quarter of the world's resources of oil and gas are believed to lie beneath the Arctic Ocean...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> China Suspends Ministerial-Level Talks With Japan Over Boat ClashMichael Forsythe, Bloomberg.com, 20 Sep 2010View original article<p> Diplomatic ties between the world's second- and third-biggest economies soured as China escalated a dispute over Japan's extended detention of a fishing boat captain for a collision in disputed waters.</p> <p> China yesterday severed senior-level government contacts with Japan, halting aviation talks and suspending a meeting on coal because of the incident. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu pledged "strong countermeasures" if Japan failed to release the captain. Japan's government hasn't been informed of the measures, a spokesman said today...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Transport<p> </p> How to Get People Out of Their CarsPatrick Condon, The Tyee, 23 Sep 2010View original article<p> [Editor's note: This is the fourth excerpt from Patrick Condon's new book Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities: Design Strategies for the Post Carbon World. This series, running Wednesdays and Thursdays for four weeks, offers just a sampling of Condon's vital guide for green planning; interested readers are encouraged to seek out the book.]</p> <p> Many believe that electric cars and windmills will solve the climate change crisis, with no need for fundamental change in city form. This belief excludes an acknowledgment of the gargantuan energy and material demands consequent to such an ever more sprawling metropolitan pattern...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/pulaski-carport-taps-into-solar-power.html" rel="bookmark" title="Pulaski carport taps into solar power for TVA, autos">Pulaski carport taps into solar power for TVA, autos</a><a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/09/odac-newsletter-sep-10.html" rel="bookmark" title="ODAC Newsletter - Sep 10">ODAC Newsletter - Sep 10</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-51264587311040224762010-09-19T16:12:00.001-07:002010-09-25T14:25:58.723-07:00ODAC Newsletter - Sep 17<p> The three major organizations that forecast long-term oil demand and supply – the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) – along with oil companies and consulting firms, believe that OPEC will reconcile predicted global demand and non-OPEC supply. But they are wrong: OPEC output will not meet such projections, because they are based on flawed and outdated forecasting models...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Opec at 50: cartel faces new challengesJavier Blas, Financial Times, 14 Sep 2010View original article<p> As the Opec oil cartel celebrates its 50th anniversary, the club can reflect over its recent success. Amid the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and a savage reduction in oil demand, the cartel has, against the odds, fruitfully anchored oil prices at $75 a barrel...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Unconventional Gas and Raised Oil Recovery Are Focus for Saudi Aramco's Samuel Ciszuk - IHS, Commodities Now, 14 Sep 2010View original article<p> Having built up a spare crude production capacity of over 4 million b/d, Saudi Aramco's priorities will now be gas development—where an increasing focus on unconventional gas is needed—to meet spiralling domestic demand, while its oil position will be sustained through, over the long term, raising recovery levels to 70% at its main onshore oilfields.</p> <p> <i> IHS Global Insight Perspective</i> <br /> Significance Saudi Aramco expects to continue growing its oil reserves mainly through improvements to its recovery levels, hoping to raise those to 70% and add 40% to crude reserves "over time", while its domestic gas shortage is to be met over the long term by the company moving into the exploitation of unconventional gas reserves in the kingdom...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Bracing For Peak Oil Production By Decade's EndWallace Forbes, Forbes, 13 Sep 2010View original article<p> Charles Maxwell is senior energy analyst at Weeden & Co. Maxwell discusses where oil's production peak is and how that affects investments.</p> <p> Charles Maxwell: The use of petroleum in the world is now up to about 30 billion barrels per year. The rate at which we have found new supplies of petroleum over the last 10 years has fallen to an average, of only about 10 billion barrels per year...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> BP cited for North Sea safety failures: reportAFP, 15 Sep 2010View original article<p> BP failed to comply with emergency regulations on oil spills at four out of five of its North Sea installations which were inspected last year, a report said Wednesday, citing official records.</p> <p> The British oil giant had not complied with rules on regular training for offshore operators on how to respond to an incident, according to inspection records obtained by the Financial Times newspaper...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> BP insists deepwater drilling in North Sea will go aheadTerry Macalister, The Guardian, 15 Sep 2010View original article<p> BP is determined to press ahead with plans to drill deepwater wells west of the Shetlands despite criticism of its "outrageous" attitude to the risks of drilling in the US and worries about its North Sea safety record.</p> <p> The company is still in talks with the government and privately recognises the Deepwater Horizon disaster makes it a highly sensitive issue but said it would probably start work next year...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Obama asks for millions for oil, gas oversightAFP, 14 Sep 2010View original article<p> US President Barack Obama asked Congress for more than 90 million dollars to reform oversight of the offshore oil and gas industry, following the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.</p> <p> Some of the money would be raised by more than doubling the fees the government charges firms for inspecting their offshore facilities, Obama told House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi in a letter...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Oil spills hit on land, too: Aging pipelines imperil MidwestMark Guarino, Christian Science Monitor, 14 Sep 2010View original article<p> Two oil spills between late July and last week in Michigan and Illinois are expected to significantly raise prices at Midwestern gas pumps even as they raise questions about the aging infrastructure of pipelines delivering oil and natural gas from Canada to Midwestern refineries.</p> <p> The two broken pipelines are owned by one company: Enbridge Energy Partners of Calgary, Alberta, a firm that is poorly regarded by environmentalists for a large, and increasing, number of spills that have dumped millions of gallons of crude into the environment over the past decade...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> BP well could be 'killed' by Sunday: US spill overseerAFP, 15 Sep 2010View original article<p> BP is on the cusp of finishing drilling operations to seal its blown-out Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico and could declare it permanently "killed" by Sunday, a top US official said.</p> <p> "We're moving faster than we expected," retired US Coast Guard admiral Thad Allen said, adding that engineers were drilling the last 20 to 25 feet (six to 7.5 meters) of a relief well that will allow them to pour in a final seal of heavy drilling mud and cement...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Crude Oil Declines as Enbridge Says Midwest Pipeline Will Start TomorrowMargot Habiby, Bloomberg.com, 16 Sep 2010View original article<p> Oil fell the most this month as Enbridge Energy Partners LP prepared to start a pipeline that supplies Canadian crude to refineries in the U.S. Midwest.</p> <p> Futures dropped as much as 2.5 percent after Enbridge said it plans to send oil through the pipeline early tomorrow after repairing a leak in Romeoville, Illinois, that was discovered last week. The timetable is in compliance with an agreement with federal regulators. Another pipeline was shut in August...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Gas<p> </p> Shell CEO: Nat Gas To Play Prominent Global Energy RoleAngel Gonzalez and Mark Peters, Wall Street Journal, 13 Sep 2010View original article<p> Natural gas, boosted by recent breakthroughs in its production and its relatively small carbon footprint, will play a prominent role in the world's energy future, as long as global energy policies allow it to fill an increasing share of demand, Royal Dutch Shell PLC's (RDSA, RDSB) Chief Executive Peter Voser said Monday.</p> <p> "If we create space for natural gas to grow, natural gas will change the world's energy landscape for the better," Voser said at the World Energy Congress in Montreal...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Unconventional Gas: Cheap Gas Coming?Paul Stevens, Chatham House - The World Today, 14 Sep 2010View original article<p> In the last decade America has rapidly developed a new source of gas found naturally in rocks. It now provides a fifth of national needs. Such gas is present in Europe too, and whether or not it is practical to extract it, it is already having an effect on future supplies.</p> <p> In the last decade America has rapidly developed a new source of gas found naturally in rocks. It now provides a fifth of national needs. Such gas is present in Europe too, and whether or not it is practical to extract it, it is already having an effect on future supplies...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> EPA to Widen Drilling StudySiobhan Hughes - Wall Street Journal, Rigzone, 14 Sep 2010View original article<p> Environmental Protection Agency officials said that they plan to widen their investigation into a natural-gas drilling technique that the energy industry says is critical to tapping huge new supplies of natural gas.</p> <p> Controversy over whether the practice -- called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking -- poses a risk to drinking water and public health drew hundreds of people to an EPA hearing here Monday...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> UK to boost gas stashUpstream, 15 Sep 2010View original article<p> The UK's gas storage capacity is set to rise by 15% after the government today gave the go ahead to WINGAS Storage to convert its Saltfleetby onshore gas field into an underground gas storage facility.</p> <p> Saltfleetby in Lincolnshire is the UK's largest onshore gas field and will provide between 700 million to 800 million cubic metres of new gas storage capacity...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Coal<p> </p> Fears £9bn clean coal programme could be drastically scaled backTim Webb, The Guardian, 14 Sep 2010View original article<p> The Treasury is reviewing the government's £9bn clean coal programme amid growing fears in the energy department that it will be drastically scaled back.</p> <p> Senior sources within the energy department believe the plan for four new clean coal pilot plants – funded by a £9bn levy on consumer electricity bills – are the most vulnerable to cuts...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Electricity<p> </p> A Multi-Trillion-Euro Price Tag for Energy EfficiencyDer Spiegel, 13 Sep 2010View original article<p> Chancellor Angela Merkel's plan to make Germany's residential buildings the most energy-efficient in the world has run into resistance within her cabinet. The project's price tag could be as high as 2.4 trillion euros -- and the minister responsible told SPIEGEL it is impracticable.</p> <p> It was Berlin's decision to extend the lifespans of the country's nuclear reactors that has received the most attention. Since Chancellor Angela Merkel's government presented its new energy strategy last week, hardly a day has gone by without yet another voice being added to the national wrangling over atomic energy. This weekend will see a large anti-nuclear demonstration in Berlin...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Renewables<p> </p> World's largest offshore windfarm set to open off Kent coastTerry Macalister, The Guardian, 12 Sep 2010View original article<p> Vattenfall's Thanet farm set to open as National Grid confirms wind-generated electricity has hit a new peak</p> <p> The world's largest offshore windfarm, which cost over £750m to build, is poised to open off the coast of Kent, with 100 turbines producing enough electricity to supply heat and light for 200,000 homes...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> An ill wind blows for Denmark's green energy revolutionAndrew Gilligan, Telegraph, 14 Sep 2010View original article<p> Denmark has long been a role model for green activists, but now it has become one of the first countries to turn against the turbines.</p> <p> To green campaigners, it is windfarm heaven, generating a claimed fifth of its power from wind and praised by British ministers as the model to follow. But amid a growing public backlash, Denmark, the world's most windfarm-intensive country, is turning against the turbines...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> 'Privileged' opposition holding back wind farm developmentThe Ecologist, 10 Sep 2010View original article<p> Onshore wind sites being ignored because of threat of local resistance as analysis points to unfulfilled potential of community-driven projects</p> <p> Prime locations for wind energy are being ignored because of a 'privileged' and politically active local opposition, suggests new analysis of English windfarms applications...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Warning on target for green energyFiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent, Financial Times, 10 Sep 2010View original article<p> Drastic new measures will be needed if the UK is to meet its target of generating 15 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, the government's climate change watchdog has warned.</p> <p> The UK generates only 3 per cent of its energy from such sources, despite more than a decade of policy measures intended to raise that figure substantially...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Biofuels<p> </p> Biofuels May Replace Half of EU Gasoline by 2020 Using Waste, Study SaysBloomberg, 14 Sep 2010View original article<p> Biofuels made from plant waste and municipal trash rather than food crops could replace more than half of gasoline used in the European Union by 2020, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said.</p> <p> The 27-nation bloc could produce 90 billion liters (24 billion gallons) of next-generation ethanol in 2020, or about 65 percent of predicted fossil gasoline consumption, the London- based research group said today in a study. At least 100 refineries a year could be built in the region from 2013, according to the report...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Biofuels: Alternative fuels fail to live up to the hypeEd Crooks, Financial Times, 12 Sep 2010View original article<p> In the search for new feedstocks to provide the fuels of the future, one of the latest ideas is to use dirty nappies. Amec, the UK-based engineering group, is developing a process to use discarded disposable nappies and other plastic materials that are not now recycled to make a synthetic diesel fuel...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Plan to generate electricity from waste food in GwyneddBBC Online, 14 Sep 2010View original article<p> An anaerobic digestion plant to treat 15,000 tonnes of food waste annually and generate electricity as a result is being proposed for Gwynedd.</p> <p> It would be built at the Llwyn Isaf tip near Clynnog and would treat waste using "micro-organisms" to produce bio-fertiliser...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Climate<p> </p> Climate change advisers urge UK to prepare for changeRichard Black, BBC Online, 16 Sep 2010View original article<p> The UK needs to prepare itself quickly to deal with the impacts of climate change, government advisers warn.</p> <p> The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) says climate effects are already being felt in the UK in the form of higher temperatures and changing seasons...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Transport<p> </p> A Possible Solution to Europe's Clogged RoadwaysChristian Wüst, Der Spiegel, 06 Sep 2010View original article<p> Experts in the transportation sector are excited about CargoBeamer, a new German transshipment technology designed to shift more truck freight to the railways. The innovative system could ease congestion on the roads and help the environment.</p> <p> For some people, the profession of long-distance truck driver used to be considered a dream job. Those days are long gone...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Nottingham named England's least car-dependent cityDan Milmo, The Guardian, 14 Sep 2010View original article<p> Nottingham has been named as England's least car-dependent city in a survey that exposes inconsistent planning across the country with one of the nation's newest conurbations, Milton Keynes, labelled the worst for cyclists and bus users.</p> <p> Award-winning bus services, a European-style embrace of the tram and a bias against out-of-town shopping centres were cited as powerful incentives for residents of Nottingham to leave their cars at home, according to a report by the Campaign for Better Transport. By contrast, Milton Keynes, trumpeted as the epitome of modern urban dwelling in the 1980s, is criticised for a reliance on the motor vehicle to get people from A to B...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/08/americas-delusions-of-energy.html" rel="bookmark" title="America’s delusions of energy independence">America’s delusions of energy independence</a><a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/tn-loan-program-helps-businesses-go.html" rel="bookmark" title="TN loan program helps businesses go green">TN loan program helps businesses go green</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-24322810451431486952010-09-12T15:44:00.001-07:002010-09-25T14:25:56.207-07:00ODAC Newsletter - Sep 10<p> BP Plc, facing billions of dollars in damages and penalties for causing the largest U.S. oil spill, says its investigation shows other companies made mistakes that led to the Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion.</p> <p> BP managers had direct involvement in just one of the eight judgment errors and equipment failures that led to the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, according to the company's internal investigation. The explosion killed 11 workers and spewed crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico for almost three months...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> BP oil spill: after the human cost will come the cost of safer oil productionDamian Reece, Head of Business, The Daily Telegraph, 09 Sep 2010View original article<p> In the gloom of a Gulf night, 28 workers were either killed or injured as first mud violently and uncontrollably spewed on to the rig floor and then exploded skywards. All the time a great pressure was building beneath the sea floor forcing a fatal mixture of mud, sea water, oil and gas through the rig's pipework and vents, eventually raining the awful cocktail down on to the heads of terrified workers. All this in the space of just four minutes - no time for calm reflection on how to handle the situation.</p> <p> Yesterday's report logs the inevitable panicked call that came next. "The well is blowing out," by which time the 126 workers on the rig "were enveloped in a flammable mixture" and the noise that any drill operator fears most became audible - the dreaded hissing sound of gas escaping at high pressure. With terrible inevitablity the sound of ruptures gave way to the first alarm piercing the night air. Then a second alarm was triggered, then another, then another as the scale of the gas leak cloaking Deepwater Horizon was confirmed...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Offshore Drilling Agency Overwhelmed, Says ReportTenille Tracy, Wall Street Journal, 09 Sep 2010View original article<p> The federal agency that regulates offshore drilling rarely conducted unannounced inspections, allowed oil-rig operators to shop around for favorable decisions and gave its inspectors financial incentives for speeding up application approvals, according to an internal report released Wednesday by the Interior Department.</p> <p> The report, by a panel of top Interior officials, shed more light on the extent of the problems at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, formed from the agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> MPs warned on deep sea drilling banSylvia Pfeiffer, Financial Times, 08 Sep 2010View original article<p> Preventing the drilling of wells in the waters off the UK would send "a very negative message" to investors in the oil industry, the head of Oil and Gas UK, the industry body, has warned...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Oil Rises After U.S. Jobless Claims Decline, China Crude Imports IncreaseGrant Smith and Ben Sharples, Bloomberg, 10 Sep 2010View original article<p> Oil climbed to near a three-week high as economic indicators from the U.S. and Asia restored confidence that the recovery will stimulate fuel demand.</p> <p> Oil was set for a weekly increase of 1.5 percent as U.S. jobless claims fell, Japan boosted its estimate of economic growth, and China increased imports of crude. Prices gained after a leak prompted Enbridge Energy Partners LP shut a pipeline that can carry more than one-third of oil to the U.S. Midwest...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> BBC One Planet - Peak oil and happy cowsRichard Hollingham, BBC World Service, 05 Sep 2010View original article<p> Type the phrase 'peak oil' into any popular internet search engine, and you will not be short of results to wade through.</p> <p> Like the fuel itself, the topic generates a lot of heat and hot air. This week on One Planet, reporter Richard Hollingham seeks to define the term 'peak oil' before asking leading experts whether they believe the event is nearing...</p> <p> Listen</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Pricey Petrobras Oil Deal Removes Share Sale HurdleJeff Fick, Wall Street Journal, 03 Sep 2010View original article<p> A deal between Brazil's government and oil company Petroleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, has removed some doubts that the company can pull off the world's largest share offer later this month.</p> <p> Petrobras and the Brazilian government reached a $42.5 billion agreement late Wednesday that gives the oil giant the right to produce five billion barrels of crude oil in government-held areas...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Gas<p> </p> US test shows water problem near natgas drill siteJon Hurdle, Reuters, 01 Sep 2010View original article<p> U.S. government officials urged residents of a Wyoming farming community near natural gas drilling sites not to use private well water for drinking or cooking because of chemical contamination.</p> <p> "Sample results indicate that the presence of petroleum hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds in groundwater represents a drinking water concern," the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement about tests of 19 water wells around the town of Pavillion...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Pa. Senate GOP writes Marcellus Shale tax billMarc Levy, Business Week, 03 Sep 2010View original article<p> State Senate Republicans have begun drafting legislation for a sweeping overhaul of Pennsylvania's oil and gas law that includes proposals for a new tax on the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation and limitations on municipal zoning that affects drilling.</p> <p> Senate President Joe Scarnati said Friday the GOP plan is a sincere effort to keep the pledge Gov. Ed Rendell and lawmakers made in this summer's budget agreement to enact a severance tax by Oct. 1...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Electricity<p> </p> Smart meters alone may not save much energy -studyNina Chestney, Reuters, 08 Sep 2010View original article<p> Smart meters to boost energy efficiency in homes do not automatically achieve a significant reduction in energy demand, research showed on Wednesday.</p> <p> Smart meters record energy or water consumption and send the readings back to the utility for monitoring and billing...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Residents, industries in uproar over power cutsPan Yan, Global Times, 06 Sep 2010View original article<p> Residents and businesses in a county in Hebei Province are in an uproar over a measure taken by the local government aimed at reducing emissions by regularly cutting off power supplies.</p> <p> China National Radio (CNR) reported Sunday that Anping county began limiting electricity supplies to local residents and industries on August 27 in order to achieve power consumption targets set by authorities under the country's 11th Five-Year Plan, which stipulates that carbon dioxide emissions from 2006 to 2010 should be reduced by 1,500 million tons...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> German energy watchdog wants faster grid expansionVera Eckert, Reuters, 06 Sep 2010View original article<p> Germany's renewable energy future hinges on the fast expansion of power transmission grids, but planning authorities are dragging their feet, the head of the country's energy regulator said on Monday.</p> <p> "Many of the planned lines are waiting in local queues, among them ones that have priority," Matthias Kurth of the Bundesnetzagentur (BnetzA) told reporters during an energy conference...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Flexitricity aims to bolster power gridAndrew Bolger, Scotland Correspondent, Financial Times, 06 Sep 2010View original article<p> A Scottish start-up believes private industry can make millions of pounds annually, and help reduce the UK's carbon footprint, by selling spare electricity to the National Grid.</p> <p> Flexitricity has patented technology that brings together the capabilities of standby generators, combined heat and power units and heavy users of power such as commercial greenhouses, cold stores and distribution centres...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Nuclear<p> </p> Germany agrees to extend life of nuclear power stationsKate Connolly, The Guardian, 07 Sep 2010View original article<p> The German government today agreed to extend the working lives of its nuclear reactors by an average of 12 years, in a controversial move that will shape the energy strategy of Europe's largest nation for decades to come.</p> <p> Having put the seal on a deal that was hammered out after lengthy talks between politicians and power companies, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, hailed it as a "revolution in energy provision". She said it would help to ensure Germany's place at the forefront of "the most environmentally and worldwide most efficient" energy policy...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> 'Floating Chernobyls' to hit the high seasGarry White, Telegraph, 06 Sep 2010View original article<p> "Floating Chernobyls-in-waiting" are coming to a sea near you after a major international agreement was signed last week, according to critics of nuclear power.</p> <p> China and Russia agreed to expand co-operation over nuclear power, specifically on uranium exploration and safer power plants – but also on floating nuclear reactors...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Renewables<p> </p> Alex Salmond unveils plan to turn Scotland into 'world's first hydro-economy'Severin Carrell, The Guardian, 08 Sep 2010View original article<p> The state-owned utility Scottish Water is to be given new powers to build windfarms, hydro schemes and "green" power stations in partnership and competition with established energy companies.</p> <p> The company, one of the country's last remaining state-owned firms, could generate £300m or more in extra revenues by using its 80,000 acres of land and vast pipe network for renewable energy projects...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> UK 'heat pumps' fail as green devices, finds studyAdam Vaughan, The Guardian, 08 Sep 2010View original article<p> Government plans to subsidise green heating are challenged today by the largest ever field study of "heat pump" devices in the UK, which reveals 80% perform so badly they would not qualify as renewable energy under proposed European standards.</p> <p> The report, from the Energy Saving Trust, reveals the prevalence of badly installed heat pumps that are consequently under-performing. The controversial report could affect the government's plans to launch its Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) next April to pay householders for generating heat from such "green" ground and air source heat pumps. There are already fears the RHI could be a victim of spending cuts announced next month...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> China Supplants U.S. for First Time on Renewable-Energy Investor RankingAlex Morales, Bloomberg.com, 08 Sep 2010View original article<p> China overtook the U.S. to lead a quarterly index of the most attractive countries for renewable energy projects for the first time, according to a list compiled by the global accounting firm Ernst & Young.</p> <p> After sharing the lead with the U.S. in the first quarter, China moved ahead of the world's largest economy to rank as the most appealing nation for investing in wind and solar power projects, according to the report released today. The move follows the failure of U.S. Congress to pass legislation that would have required utilities to use clean energy...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Severn green energy project loses government fundingTim Webb, The Observer, 05 Sep 2010View original article<p> The government will this month sound the death knell for the world's largest tidal energy project – to be built across the Severn estuary between Somerset and south Wales – when it rules out public funding for the controversial £20bn plan.</p> <p> The announcement will please some environmentalists, who were worried about the impact on bird life in the estuary, but others say such spending cuts will make a mockery of David Cameron's pledge to be the "greenest government ever"...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> UK<p> </p> Britain's energy challenge: meeting energy generation and carbon emission targetsPaul Hatchwell, The Independent, 03 Sep 2010View original article<p> Energy policy in the UK is at a crossroads, and the decisions made now will reverberate for decades. At least 43 gigawatts of new electrical generation capacity, equivalent to half of Britain's current total, will be needed by 2020, as all but one of its nuclear plants are retired and coal-fired power stations closed to meet EU air pollution standards.</p> <p> A staggering £200bn of investment will be needed not only to maintain energy security against price spikes as North Sea resources dwindle and energy imports grow, but also to deliver the largest single contribution to a low-carbon economy...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Urban development - global solutionsGenevieve Roberts, The Guardian, 08 Sep 2010View original article<p> The ways cities around the globe can make themselves smarter are as varied and multi-layered as the different sizes and shapes of the world's urban areas.</p> <p> Cities face different problems. For one it might be dealing with transport, or crime, while for another sustainability, or streamlining public service provision and access to technology for all, might be important. There is no one-size-fits-all model...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Rising wheat prices raise fears over UK commitment to biofuelsJamie Doward, The Guardian, 04 Sep 2010View original article<p> The soaring price of wheat has raised questions about the UK's commitment to biofuels as it attempts to wean itself from its dependence on oil.</p> <p> A network of biorefineries that convert wheat and other crops into bioethanol that can then be blended with petrol are being developed as the UK looks to meet its EU renewable transport fuels obligations...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Climate<p> </p> Greens Seek `Fast, Furious' Movement on Climate Under Gillard GovernmentJames Paton, Bloomberg.com, 07 Sep 2010View original article<p> The Australian Greens plan "fast and furious" action to establish a climate change committee and impose a price on carbon emissions under a government led by the Labor Party's Julia Gillard.</p> <p> "This is the best political opportunity collectively we've ever had," Christine Milne, deputy leader of the Greens Party, said in Sydney today before Gillard won the support needed to form a government. With Labor retaining power, "this committee will be on track fast and furious," Milne said...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> A carbon border tax can curb climate changeDieter Helm, Financial Times, 06 Sep 2010View original article<p> As global growth picks up after the economic crisis, carbon emissions are going back up too. With China and India back on track to double their gross domestic product every decade, and with coal providing nearly 30 per cent of global energy, the chances of stabilising and reducing emissions are low. Indeed, little progress has been made in the last two decades. Only recessions lower emissions – and then only for a short time.</p> <p> Back to top</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/mazda-recall-to-fix-power-steering.html" rel="bookmark" title="Mazda recall to fix power-steering problems">Mazda recall to fix power-steering problems</a><a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/06/eia-from-forecast-of-oil-supply.html" rel="bookmark" title="EIA: From forecast of oil supply abundance to decade of stagnation">EIA: From forecast of oil supply abundance to decade of stagnation</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-32522129948785649262010-09-04T07:33:00.001-07:002010-09-06T16:05:50.935-07:00ODAC Newsletter - Sep 3<p> A study by a German military think tank has analyzed how "peak oil" might change the global economy. The internal draft document -- leaked on the Internet -- shows for the first time how carefully the German government has considered a potential energy crisis.</p> <p> The term "peak oil" is used by energy experts to refer to a point in time when global oil reserves pass their zenith and production gradually begins to decline. This would result in a permanent supply crisis -- and fear of it can trigger turbulence in commodity markets and on stock exchanges...</p> <p> <i> View report</i> </p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Mariner Energy Platform Explodes in Gulf of MexicoJoe Carroll and Aaron Clark, Bloomberg.com, 02 Sep 2010View original article<p> A Mariner Energy Inc. oil and natural-gas platform was ablaze in the Gulf of Mexico after an explosion that may prolong the U.S. drilling moratorium imposed after BP Plc's record crude spill.</p> <p> All 13 workers were rescued and will be transported to shore from the platform 90 miles (145 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Thomas Blue said in a telephone interview. Mariner, which agreed in April to be acquired by Apache Corp., tumbled as much as 16 percent in New York trading in the hours after the blast...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Greenpeace activists arrested after abandoning occupation of Arctic oil rigSeverin Carrell, Scotland correspondent, The Guardian, 02 Sep 2010View original article<p> Four Greenpeace activists who halted drilling by a British-owned oil exploration rig off Greenland have been arrested after they abandoned their occupation because of severe weather.</p> <p> Greenlandic police arrested the four after high winds buffeted the Stena Don drilling rig overnight, forcing them to abandon mountaineering-style platforms they had suspended by ropes underneath the platform less than 48 hours earlier...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Judge rules against U.S. government on oil drillingAnna Driver in Houston and Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington, Reuters, 01 Sep 2010View original article<p> A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the U.S. government's request to dismiss an industry lawsuit challenging its deepwater oil and gas drilling moratorium, dealing another blow to the Obama administration.</p> <p> Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc and other drilling companies sued the administration on June 7 after it first ordered a halt to deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico following BP Plc's well rupture that killed 11 workers and caused the world's worst offshore oil spill...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> US oil industry protests against drilling moratoriumSheila McNulty, Financial Times, 01 Sep 2010View original article<p> Thousands of oil industry workers rallied on Wednesday to lift the moratorium on new deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and head off new taxes and punitive measures in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill.</p> <p> Companies ranging from Chevron to Apache bussed in up to 5,000 employees to the Houston convention centre to underline to Washington the industry's contribution to the country...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> BP's internal probe faults its own engineers: reportSakthi Prasad, Reuters, 30 Aug 2010View original article<p> BP Plc's internal probe of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has placed some of the blame on mistakes by its engineers while finishing the deep sea oil well, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the report.</p> <p> The probe also blamed BP engineers for misreading pressure data which indicated a blowout was imminent, the news agency said...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Bad weather delays BP bid to recover blowout preventerAFP, 30 Aug 2010View original article<p> A bid to recover a key valve that failed to prevent the blowout of the BP well in the Gulf of Mexico has been delayed because of bad weather, the pointman for the US response to the oil spill said Monday.</p> <p> "We are in a hold pending calming of the current weather," retired coast guard admiral Thad Allen told reporters, adding that it would be two or three days before the operation could begin...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Deep-Water Drilling Moratorium No Longer Needed, Panel Probing Spill SaysJim Efstathiou Jr. and Alison Fitzgerald, Bloomberg.com, 26 Aug 2010View original article<p> President Barack Obama's moratorium on deep-water drilling is no longer needed because new rules reduce the risk of an uncontrolled spill, according to a report for a panel investigating BP Plc's blowout.</p> <p> Rules issued in June by the Interior Department "provide an adequate margin of safety to responsibly allow the resumption of deep-water drilling,” according to the report today from the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington-based research group. The rules, if followed by BP, Apache Corp. and other drillers, and enforced by regulators, "will achieve a significant and beneficial reduction of risk."...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> BP ad spending tripled after spill: US lawmakersAFP, 01 Sep 2010View original article<p> Energy giant BP spent more than 93 million dollars on advertising in the three months after the April 20 Gulf oil spill, triple what it spent over the same period in 2009, US lawmakers said Wednesday.</p> <p> Leaders of a key US House of Representatives Committee said the embattled firm, still reeling from the disaster's impact, told them Monday that it had shelled out 93.4 million dollars on ads from the spill through July 2010...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Crude Oil Trades Below $74 Amid Fears of Double-Dip Recession in the U.S.Rachel Graham and Grant Smith, Bloomberg.com, 02 Sep 2010View original article<p> Oil declined as equity indexes slipped and traders waited for signs whether the European Central Bank will extend emergency lending.</p> <p> ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet may signal at a rate meeting today that policy makers will keep offering unlimited cash to financial institutions through the end of the year. A U.S. government report yesterday showed crude stockpiles increased almost three times more than analysts forecast...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Oil, health, and health careAngela E Raffle, BMJ, 01 Sep 2010View original article<p> The April 2010 oil leak in the Mexican Gulf illustrates the risks being taken to extract oil from inaccessible fields, and in June a Lloyd's 360° risk insight report said, "we have entered a period of deep uncertainty in how we will source energy for power, heat and mobility and how much we will pay for it." The reason why such damaging extraction methods are pursued, and why Lloyd's are telling us we face a "new energy paradigm" rather than normal market volatility, is that oil discoveries peaked 40 years ago, and oil supply is probably at its maximum, with decline soon to follow. This has substantial implications for transport, food, jobs, health, and health care. Yet many people still haven't heard of "peak oil" and few are discussing it...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Canada tar sands industry ignoring toxic river pollutionThe Ecologist, 01 Sep 2010View original article<p> Canada's rapidly expanding tar sands industry is causing the toxic pollution of its rivers, but the government of Alberta continues to deny there is a problem.</p> <p> A two-year study of the Athabasca River by ecologists at the University of Alberta found levels of arsenic, copper, cadmium, lead, mercury, nickel, silver and zinc far in excess of national guidelines downstream from industrial oil sands sites in the Canadian province...</p> <p> <i> View report</i> </p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Crude Oil Climbs After Reports Show Gains in U.S., Chinese ManufacturingMark Shenk and Margot Habiby, Bloomberg.com, 01 Sep 2010View original article<p> Crude oil surged the most in a month after manufacturing in the U.S. and China, the world's biggest energy-consuming countries, accelerated in August at a faster pace than forecast.</p> <p> Oil climbed 2.8 percent and equities rebounded from the biggest August slump in nine years after the Tempe, Arizona- based Institute for Supply Management's factory index rose to 56.3 from 55.5 in July. Futures gained even as U.S. crude oil supplies increased 3.43 million barrels to 361.7 million last week, an Energy Department report showed today...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Russia opens China pipeline for Siberian oilIsabel Gorst in Moscow, Financial Times, 31 Aug 2010View original article<p> Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, on Sunday opened a new pipeline to export east Siberian oil to China that will help Russia reorientate its oil trade towards the east.</p> <p> The pipeline, running 67km from Skovorodino in east Siberia to China's north-eastern frontier, is an offshoot of a new oil export route Russia is building to the Pacific Ocean, providing a strategic window on the fast-growing energy markets of Asia...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Gas<p> </p> Doubts over Chinese coal-bed methaneLeslie Hook in Beijing, Financial Times, 29 Aug 2010View original article<p> China's ambitious targets for the commercial production of coal-bed methane need "a reality check", according to a consultant's report into the country's efforts to extract the high-energy gas trapped in coal deposits.</p> <p> This autumn marks the fifth anniversary of China's first commercial CBM production. Beijing announced an aggressive target of 5bn cubic metres a year by 2010...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Coal<p> </p> Carbon capture companies want protection if acid leaks into the seaRobin Pagnamenta, The Times, 28 Aug 2010View original article<p> The energy industry wants the British taxpayer to shield it from the risk of new North Sea carbon capture and storage projects leaking and producing carbonic acid that could kill fish and other marine life at a catastrophic level.</p> <p> The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) set out new guidelines yesterday on how it intended to license CCS projects, which it hopes will play a significant role in cutting UK emissions by 80 per cent by 2050...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Facebook faces campaign to switch to renewable energyJohn Vidal, environment editor, The Guardian, 01 Sep 2010View original article<p> Social networking website Facebook is coming under unprecedented pressure from its users to switch to renewable energy. In one of the web's fastest-growing environmental campaigns, Greenpeace international says at least 500,000 people have now protested at the organisation's intention to run its giant new data centre mainly on electricity produced by burning coal power.</p> <p> Facebook will not say how much electricity it uses to stream video, store information and connect its 500m users but industry estimates suggest that at their present rate of growth all the data centres and telecommunication networks in the world will consume about 1,963bn kilowatt hours of electricity by 2020. That is more than triple their current consumption and more electricity than is used by France, Germany, Canada and Brazil combined...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Nuclear<p> </p> Merkel's Cabinet Backs Nuclear Tax in $102 Billion Savings PlanBloomberg, 01 Sep 2010View original article<p> Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet backed a tax on nuclear power-plant operators, shunning utilities and German industry as the government holds to budget cuts it says are needed to protect the euro.</p> <p> Ministers meeting in Berlin today approved the nuclear levy alongside a four-year program of spending cuts and revenue- raising measures worth about 80 billion euros ($102 billion), Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said. The draft legislation will now go to parliament for consideration...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Renewables<p> </p> August sees record rise in UK home solar panels fittedBBC Online, 01 Sep 2010View original article<p> A record number of homeowners had solar panels installed this month, according to energy regulator Ofgem.</p> <p> The devices have been fitted to 2,257 homes so far during August, up from 1,700 in July and 1,400 in June...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> China builds base to tap deep-sea energy: state mediaAFP, 27 Aug 2010View original article<p> China will build a multi-million-dollar research base on its east coast as it steps up its efforts to search for energy sources and rare earths on the ocean floor, state media said Friday.</p> <p> Engineers have started to design the base, which will cost an estimated 495 million yuan (72.8 million dollars) for the initial construction, the Xinhua news agency reported...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Biofuels<p> </p> Land grabs, biofuel demand raise global food-security risk Nick Amies, Deutsche Welle, 02 Sep 2010View original article<p> A new report says Europe's growing demand for biofuels increases the risk of conflict over land and impairs food security. The authors even warn of a potential global crisis.</p> <p> The report, compiled by international environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth (FoE), says that the amount of land being taken in Africa to feed Europe's increasing demand for biofuels is "underestimated and out of control." An area of arable land the size of Denmark – around five million hectares – has been acquired by foreign companies to produce biofuels, mainly for the European market, the report says...</p> <p> <i> View report</i> </p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> UK biofuels 'falling short' on environmental standardsMark Kinver, BBC Online, 02 Sep 2010View original article<p> The Renewable Fuels Agency says it is disappointed that the vast majority of biofuels sold on UK forecourts do not conform to environmental standards.</p> <p> The body said fuel suppliers were meeting legally binding volume targets but some were falling "well short" on achieving voluntary green standards...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Ethanol Surpasses Gasoline for First Time Since December: Energy MarketsMario Parker, Bloomberg.com, 01 Sep 2010View original article<p> For the first time since December, ethanol prices are higher than gasoline as corn surges and refiners profit from tax breaks.</p> <p> The alternative fuel jumped 22 percent since the U.S. driving season began in May, rising above gas, which has fallen 6.5 percent in the same period. Ethanol as a gasoline component rose 6.1 percent since early June to 799,000 barrels a day in the week ended Aug. 27, Energy Department data show. It touched a record 810,000 barrels in the week ended Aug. 20...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Geopolitics<p> </p> Middle East peace talks begin in WashingtonChris McGreal, in Washington, and Haroon Siddique, The Guardian, 02 Sep 2010View original article<p> The Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, begin direct talks in Washington today as Hamas pledged to scupper attempts to bring about peace after its second attack on Israelis in two days.</p> <p> Launching his initiative to forge a Middle East peace agreement within a year, Barack Obama described it last night as a "moment of opportunity that may not soon come again"...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Backlash over China curb on metal exportsAmbrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph, 29 Aug 2010View original article<p> China's draconian export curbs on rare earth minerals needed by the rest of the world for frontier technologies is escalating into a serious diplomatic and trade clash with the United States and other leading powers.</p> <p> Japan's foreign minister Katsuya Okada issued what amounted to a formal protest at top-level meeting with Chinese officials in Beijing over the weekend, saying the sudden cut-off was "affecting the global production chain"...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Event<p> </p> ASPO-USA 2010 Peak Oil ConferenceASPO-USAView original article<p> The ASPO-USA Peak Oil Conference, October 7-9, 2010 in Washington, DC, is the world's premier event focused on peak oil challenges and solutions. It is produced by the nonprofit Association For The Study Of Peak Oil & Gas - USA (ASPO-USA). The format includes keynotes, plenary sessions, concurrent educational tracks, networking receptions, and exhibits. The conference is supported by more than 30 publications, websites and partnering associations. ODAC newsletter subscribers can receive a $50 discount off the Peak Aware Package registration option by inserting the code mediapartner when prompted on the eRegistration page linked from www.aspousa.org/worldoil2010/.</p> <p> Back to top</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/08/americas-delusions-of-energy.html" rel="bookmark" title="America’s delusions of energy independence">America’s delusions of energy independence</a><a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/shipbuilders-repair-shops-feel-pain-of.html" rel="bookmark" title="Shipbuilders, repair shops feel pain of Gulf drilling ban">Shipbuilders, repair shops feel pain of Gulf drilling ban</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-35139821029134401792010-08-27T16:09:00.001-07:002010-08-27T16:16:45.323-07:00ODAC Newsletter - Aug 27<p> Cairn Energy Plc fell in London trading after its first well off Greenland found natural gas rather than crude oil.</p> <p> An exploration well encountered gas in thin sands in the Baffin Bay basin, the company said in a statement in London today. The find is "indicative of an active hydrocarbon system" and the well hasn't yet reached target depth, it said...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Danes block Greenpeace vessel in ArcticAlan Jones, PA, The Independent, 23 Aug 2010View original article<p> A Danish warship today confronted a Greenpeace ship which is on a mission to target "dangerous" deep sea oil drilling sites, the environmental group claimed.</p> <p> The incident happened in the freezing seas off Greenland as the protest ship Esperanza approached one of the world's most controversial oil drilling projects operated by the British company Cairn Energy, said Greenpeace...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> BP frozen out of Arctic oil drilling raceTerry Macalister in Nuuk, The Guardian, 25 Aug 2010View original article<p> BP has been forced to abandon hopes of drilling in the Arctic, currently the centre of a new oil rush, owing to its tarnished reputation after the Gulf of Mexico spill.</p> <p> The company confirmed tonight that it was no longer trying to win an exploration licence in Greenland, despite earlier reports of its interest. "We are not participating in the bid round," said a spokesman at BP's London headquarters, who declined to discuss its reasons for the reverse...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Oil companies warned on North Sea accidents Roland Gribben, Telegraph, 24 Aug 2010View original article<p> North Sea oil and gas companies have been taken to task about their safety record after a sharp increase in accidents to workers and oil and gas leaks from offshore installations.</p> <p> Steve Walker, head of the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) offshore division, has bluntly told companies that their health and safety record covering 27,000 workers is "simply not good enough."</p> <p> He said: "The industry has shown it can do better and it must do in future."...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> U.S. spill panel question drilling policyAyesha Rascoe, Reuters, 26 Aug 2010View original article<p> The BP oil spill was a massive "failure" in government oversight and administrations should be forced to consult with experts in the field before making expansive drilling policy, top officials of the White House's oil spill commission said on Wednesday.</p> <p> Commission Co-chairman Bob Graham, a former U.S. Senator from Florida, said regulators and offshore drillers were aware of the possibility of a major well blowout, such as the one that caused the BP spill, but ignored the risks...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Oil spill: safety valve was wrongly plumbed on rig, says BP executiveThe Daily Telegraph, 25 Aug 2010View original article<p> Harry Thierens, BP's vice president for drilling and completions, told a US political hearing that the blowout preventer was connected to a test pipe, rather than the correct one.</p> <p> "It would mean that the pipe rams could not be closed," Mr Thierens said in evidence to a federal panel on Wednesday. "I was frankly astonished that this could have happened."...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Job Losses Over Drilling Ban Fail to MaterializeJohn M. Broder and Clifford Krauss, New York Times, 24 Aug 2010View original article<p> When the Obama administration called a halt to virtually all deepwater drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon blowout and fire in April, oil executives, economists and local officials complained that the six-month moratorium would cost thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in lost revenue.</p> <p> Oil supply firms went to court to have the moratorium overturned, calling it illegal and warning that it would exacerbate the nation's economic woes, lead to oil shortages and cause an exodus of drilling rigs from the gulf to other fields around the world. Two federal courts agreed...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> BP Oil Spill Has Little Impact on Global DrillingClifford Krauss, New York Times, 25 Aug 2010View original article<p> As John Broder and I report in Wednesday's Times, the economic impact of the Obama administration's moratorium on new deepwater drilling since the BP accident has been far less than many people predicted.</p> <p> A negative impact has been even harder to find in other countries despite the fact that companies around the world use much the same equipment under similar industry protocols. Large offshore accidents in Mexican, British and Australian waters since the late 1970s barely slowed deepwater development, and history may well be repeating itself...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Peak oil alarm revealed by secret official talksTerry Macalister and Lionel Badal, The Guardian, 22 Aug 2010View original article<p> Speculation that government ministers are far more concerned about a future supply crunch than they have admitted has been fuelled by the revelation that they are canvassing views from industry and the scientific community about "peak oil".</p> <p> The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is also refusing to hand over policy documents about "peak oil" — the point at which oil production reaches its maximum and then declines — under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, despite releasing others in which it admits "secrecy around the topic is probably not good"...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Crude Oil Heads for Third Weekly Decline on Slowing Economy Grant Smith and Christian Schmollinger, Bloomberg, 27 Aug 2010View original article<p> Crude oil fell, heading for its third weekly decline as a slowdown in U.S. manufacturing added to concerns that the economic recovery is faltering.</p> <p> Prices have lost 0.5 percent this week following gains in U.S. crude inventories. The U.S. economy probably slowed in the second quarter even more than initially estimated as companies reined in inventories and the trade deficit widened, economists said before a report today...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Iraq<p> </p> Dozens Killed in Wave of Attacks Across IraqStephen Farrell and Anthony Shadid, New York Times, 25 Aug 2010View original article<p> Insurgents launched what seemed to be a coordinated wave of attacks on police forces across Iraq on Wednesday, intensifying their onslaught as the American military prepares to switch from combat operations to a training and assistance role at the end of the month.</p> <p> Security members gathered at the site of a bomb attack in Basra, Iraq, on Wednesday.<br /> In northern Baghdad's Qahira district, a car bomb killed 15 people and wounded more than 50 in an assault on a police station, according to an official at Iraq's Interior Ministry. The blast flattened the building and other houses nearby, spread rubble in the street and shattered glass more than half a mile away, according to reporters who visited the scene...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Gas<p> </p> US mounts global push for shale gasShaun Tandon, AFP, 25 Aug 2010View original article<p> The United States has offered to help major economies such as China and India develop shale gas, a rapidly growing sector in North America which US officials bill as a clean alternative.</p> <p> Twenty nations held two days of talks in Washington in first-of-a-kind shale gas talks initiated by the United States, where some forecast that shale -- a miniscule presence a decade ago -- could dominate the gas market by 2030...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Natural-Gas Futures Premium Is at Narrowest in Seven Years: Energy MarketsMoming Zhou, Bloomberg.com, 25 Aug 2010View original article<p> Natural gas for January delivery is trading at the smallest premium to September futures in seven years as traders speculate that economic growth will slow.</p> <p> January futures, covering the period when North American heating demand typically peaks, were 69.6 cents higher today than gas for September delivery. That compares with an average spread of $1.58 over the past 10 years. The difference is the narrowest for the day since the summer of 2003, when stockpiles indicated ample winter inventories...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Nabucco pipeline confirms feeder lines to Iraq, GeorgiaEurActiv, 23 Aug 2010View original article<p> The Nabucco pipeline project has taken another step forward by ordering engineering work for two feeder lines from Turkey to Iraq and Georgia. However, a third planned feeder line from Turkey to Iran has been put on the back-burner due to political considerations, the consortium announced.</p> <p> At a recent Steering Committee meeting in Ankara, Nabucco shareholders agreed to modify the feeder line concept, a press release says. Due to the current political situation, they decided to put on hold the third feeder line to the Turkish-Iran border...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Nuclear<p> </p> Merkel Rebuffs E.ON, RWE on Nuclear Tax, Demands AlternativesTony Czuczka and Brian Parkin, Bloomberg, 23 Aug 2010View original article<p> Chancellor Angela Merkel challenged German atomic-power plant operators E.ON AG and RWE AG to come up with alternatives to a planned tax on nuclear fuel that they oppose, sharpening her conflict with utilities and industry.</p> <p> Merkel, in her first television interview since returning from summer vacation, refused to budge on the tax on utility profits announced in June, saying the government needs the 2.3 billion euros ($2.9 billion) in annual revenue...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Safety regulator tells nuclear reactor makers to redouble efforts Rowena Mason, Telegraph, 26 Aug 2010View original article<p> It is increasingly unlikely that the UK's first nuclear reactors will get full regulatory approval by mid-2011, according to the Health and Safety Executive.</p> <p> Areva, the French atomic specialist, and Westinghouse, its Japanese rival, had been hoping to gain full permission for their designs by next June, after a lengthy and meticulous assessment process...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Russian atomic agency looks to diversifyBernard Simon in Toronto and Isabel Gorst in Moscow, Financial Times, 25 Aug 2010View original article<p> Rosatom plans to use its proposed majority stake in Canada's Uranium One as the starting point for global diversification, according to Sergei Kiriyenko, the Russian atomic agency's chief executive.</p> <p> "The acquisition of Uranium One is not the end of the line for us in developing our uranium strategy", Mr Kiriyenko told the Financial Times on Tuesday...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> West jittery as Iran completes its first nuclear reactorJonathan Owen, The Independent, 22 Aug 2010View original article<p> Iran's ambitions to become a nuclear superpower edged closer to realisation yesterday, with the opening of the country's first energy-producing nuclear reactor.</p> <p> The long-awaited project, dogged by opposition from the US since plans were first drawn up in the 1970s, is now complete...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Renewables<p> </p> Sunny outlook for solar panelsFiona Harvey and Luke Sampson, Financial Times, 25 Aug 2010View original article<p> A record number of homeowners installed solar panels this month, in a sign of Britons' enthusiasm for domestic renewable energy generation.</p> <p> But some householders are in danger of signing up for solar panel deals for which they will gain only a limited benefit, experts warned on Tuesday...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> British Gas introduces solar PV panel schemeRenewable Energy Focus, 22 Aug 2010View original article<p> The utility firm takes advantage of the UK Government's recent feed-in-tariff (FITs) to encourage people to generate their own low-carbon energy including solar photovoltaic (PV) panels.</p> <p> British Gas is the latest company in a host of firms offering to install electricity-generating systems on homes in order to take advantage of a UK Government scheme that will pay the owners of solar PV panels for the electricity they generate...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Biden says country on track to double renewable energy capacityReuters, 26 Aug 2010View original article<p> Government stimulus spending has put the country on track to double renewable energy production capacity by 2012 and halve solar power costs by 2015, Vice President Joseph Biden said on Tuesday.</p> <p> President Barack Obama's stimulus spending poured $814 billion into the U.S. economy, including more than $100 billion for science, technology and innovation projects...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> £70m tidal power scheme goes on display in AngleseyBBC Online, 23 Aug 2010View original article<p> Plans to harness tidal power off the coast of Anglesey are going on public display.</p> <p> Marine Current Turbines and RWE npower renewables hope to generate a fifth of the island's electricity needs from the £70m project...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Food<p> </p> Straw theft is omen for the future of foodGarry White and Rowena Mason, Telegraph, 22 Aug 2010View original article<p> Mining giant BHP Billiton has made its bid for Canadian group PotashCorp of Saskatchewan because it sees a bright future for agricultural commodities. It looks like a very sensible move — providing the price is right.</p> <p> Demand for potash will increase as the global population grows — and prices are likely to move higher. This means grain prices are likely to rise too.</p> <p> This is bad news for farmers — and ultimately consumers — because it means the price of rearing animals is probably going to rise because of increasing feed costs. But it's not just feed prices that are going up and squeezing farmers' margins — the price of straw and hay is also heading higher...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Climate<p> </p> Putin ponders climate change in Arctic RussiaDarya Korsunskaya, Reuters, 23 Aug 2010View original article<p> Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin traveled beyond the Arctic Circle on Monday to look into evidence for climate change after a record heatwave ravaged central Russia this summer.</p> <p> Putin, who has in the past displayed a light-hearted approach to global warming by joking Russians would have to buy fewer fur coats, flew to a scientific research station in the Samoilovsky island at the delta of Siberia's Lena River...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Event<p> </p> ASPO-USA 2010 Peak Oil ConferenceASPO-USAView original article<p> The ASPO-USA Peak Oil Conference, October 7-9, 2010 in Washington, DC, is the world's premier event focused on peak oil challenges and solutions. It is produced by the nonprofit Association For The Study Of Peak Oil & Gas - USA (ASPO-USA). The format includes keynotes, plenary sessions, concurrent educational tracks, networking receptions, and exhibits. The conference is supported by more than 30 publications, websites and partnering associations. ODAC newsletter subscribers can receive a $50 discount off the Peak Aware Package registration option by inserting the code mediapartner when prompted on the eRegistration page linked from www.aspousa.org/worldoil2010/.</p> <p> Back to top</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/pulaski-carport-taps-into-solar-power.html" rel="bookmark" title="Pulaski carport taps into solar power for TVA, autos">Pulaski carport taps into solar power for TVA, autos</a><a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/07/odac-newsletter-july-30.html" rel="bookmark" title="ODAC Newsletter - July 30">ODAC Newsletter - July 30</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-55332757201072008472010-08-20T16:47:00.001-07:002010-08-20T16:58:21.641-07:00ODAC Newsletter - Aug 20<p> Crude oil fell to a six-week low as rising U.S. jobless claims and a contraction in manufacturing in the Philadelphia area bolstered concern that the economic rebound in the world's biggest oil-consuming country is slowing.</p> <p> Oil declined 1.3 percent after the Labor Department said initial jobless claims rose to the highest level since November. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's general economic index dropped to the lowest reading since July 2009. Total U.S. petroleum inventories are at the highest level in at least 20 years, according to the Energy Department...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> OPEC Raises Its Forecasts for Worldwide Oil Demand for This Year and NextGrant Smith, Bloomberg.com, 13 Aug 2010View original article<p> The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries boosted its global oil demand forecast for this year and next as emerging economies in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America push consumption higher.</p> <p> OPEC bolstered its outlook for 2010 and 2011 by 140,000 barrels a day each in its monthly report today. Worldwide crude oil use will increase by 1.05 million barrels a day, or 1.2 percent, next year to average 86.56 million a day, the organization's Vienna-based secretariat said...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Final BP well plug delayed until September-US govtKristen Hays, Reuters, 19 Aug 2010View original article<p> BP Plc likely won't put the final plug in its blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well until September to allow replacement of a critical piece of seabed equipment, the top U.S. oil spill official said on Thursday.</p> <p> Concern over how to safely proceed after pouring cement in the Macondo well from the top, as well as weather delays, pushed the last step past the U.S. Labor Day holiday on Sept. 6 from mid-August, retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said at a briefing in Washington...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> BP oil spill: scientists find giant plume of droplets 'missed' by official accountSuzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent, The Guardian, 19 Aug 2010View original article<p> Scientists have mapped a 22-mile plume of oil droplets from BP's rogue well in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, providing the strongest evidence yet of the fate of the crude that spewed into the sea for months.</p> <p> The report offers the most authoritative challenge to date to White House assertions that most of the 5m barrels of oil that spewed into the Gulf is gone...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Drilling Permits for Deep Waters Face New ReviewJohn M. Broder, New York Times, 16 Aug 2010View original article<p> The Obama administration said Monday that it would require significantly more environmental review before approving new offshore drilling permits, ending a practice in which government regulators essentially rubber-stamped potentially hazardous deepwater projects like BP's out-of-control well.</p> <p> The administration has come under sharp criticism for granting BP an exemption from environmental oversight for the Macondo well, which blew out on April 20, killing 11 workers and spewing nearly five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> BP's cash driveLex column, Financial Times, 19 Aug 2010View original article<p> Pictures of Barack Obama swimming in (or close by) the Gulf of Mexico are good news for BP. If the water is clean enough for the US president, it can only bode well for the company's potential oil spill liabilities. It estimates these to be a little over $30bn and has embarked on an extraordinary cash drive to fund them – and more...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Florida Weighs Billing BP More Than $1 Billion to Plug Fund Gap Jim Snyder, Bloomberg, 19 Aug 2010View original article<p> Florida may send BP Plc a claim for more than $1 billion to close a budget gap after the largest U.S. oil spill as neighboring Gulf Coast states weigh their options.</p> <p> Steve Yerrid, a Tampa lawyer chosen by Florida Governor Charlie Crist to advise him on legal issues concerning the spill, said the state may seek an initial payment in the “lower range” of billions of dollars to make up for lost tax revenue...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Rockhopper admits Falklands well is dry Jamie Dunkley, Telegraph, 19 Aug 2010View original article<p> British oil explorer Rockhopper has confirmed that the latest well to be drilled in the Falkland Islands under a controversial exploration programme is a dry hole.</p> <p> The drilling of Rockhopper's Ernest prospect had been widely anticipated since the company's Sea Lion well - drilled in the same basin in May - made a significant oil discovery, sending Rockhopper's shares soaring by over 500pc.</p> <p> The company will now carry out further tests on the Sea Lion discovery to help it plan a potential appraisal campaign, Sam Moody, Rockhopper's managing director, said...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> US oil speculators fined for $100-a-barrel "vanity trade" James Quinn, Telegraph, 18 Aug 2010View original article<p> The US commodities regulator has imposed a $12m (£7.7m) fine on oil traders responsible for speculatively pushing the price of oil above the $100-a-barrel mark for the first time in January 2008.</p> <p> The Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined a former division of ConAgra Foods for its involvement in the so-called "vanity trade" which was responsible for purposefully pushing up the price on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX)...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Iraq<p> </p> Last US combat troops leave IraqAdam Gabbatt, The Guardian, 19 Aug 2010View original article<p> The last US combat troops have left Iraq, seven-and-a-half years after the US-led invasion, and two weeks ahead of President Obama's 31 August deadline for withdrawal from the country.</p> <p> The final troops to leave, 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, rolled in convoy across the border and into Kuwait this morning, officially ending combat operations which began in March 2003...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Gas<p> </p> Shell Expects to Spend Up to $50 Billion in AustraliaJames Paton, Bloomberg, 19 Aug 2010View original article<p> Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to spend as much as $50 billion in Australia over the next decade, more than in any other region, as Europe's largest oil company continues a shift to gas production.</p> <p> “The stars have aligned for Australia” because of improving technologies and increasing demand in Asia for cleaner-burning fuel, Ann Pickard, Shell Australia's chairman and executive vice president for exploration and production, said in an interview in Brisbane today...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Boon or bane?The Economist, 19 Aug 2010View original article<p> POLISH politicians have of late tended to avoid saying anything that smacks of bipartisan consensus. One exception has been the near-universal belief that, thanks to abundant reserves of shale gas, the country is set to become "a second Norway", a land of energy-fuelled plenty with a highly functional state and exemplary social justice.</p> <p> There are three problems with this proposition. First, it is far from assured that Poland's shale-gas reserves will live up to the hype provided by pundits eager for the country to free itself from Gazprom, the Russian monopolist that currently provides well over half of Poland's 13.6 billion cubic metre annual uptake. True, companies such as ConocoPhillips or Exxon Mobil have been sanguine about Polish gas, and the former has already begun prospecting. However, this is hardly proof that they will find anything worth extracting. At this stage no one actually knows how much gas is trapped in Polish shale. Estimates range from 150 billion cubic metres to over 20 times that figure. This should, at the very least, give optimists pause...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Coal<p> </p> Coal-fired power stations win reprieveAllegra Stratton, The Guardian, 15 Aug 2010View original article<p> The coalition is watering down a commitment to tough new environmental emissions standards, raising the possibility of dirty coal-fired power stations such as Kingsnorth going ahead.</p> <p> Green groups are aghast that a flagship policy called for in opposition by both Lib Dems and Tories, and which they last year tried to force on the Labour government, will now not be implemented in the coalition's first energy bill to be published this year...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> UK needs clean coal for new energy policy - governmentKwok W. Wan, Reuters, 17 Aug 2010View original article<p> New coal-fired power plants will need to fit carbon removing technology to comply with the upcoming Emission Performance Standard (EPS), energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne said on Monday.</p> <p> The British government is to consult in autumn on the EPS, which aims to limit carbon emissions from power generators and is expected to influence whether utilities build coal or gas power plants...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> More opencast mine bids 'likely on greenfield sites'BBC Online, 15 Aug 2010View original article<p> Applications for opencast mining on greenfield sites are likely to increase to meet the UK's demand for energy, the British Geological Survey has said.</p> <p> The research council says the stock of brownfield sites suitable for opencast mining is now running out...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Nuclear<p> </p> The reality of nuclear energy is inconsistent with dreams of a renaissanceMichael Dittmar, The Guardian, 16 Aug 2010View original article<p> Repeatedly in recent years there have been calls for a revival of nuclear power. Yet that renaissance never seems to come.</p> <p> Of the more than 200 countries in the world, only 30 use nuclear power. In July 2010, a total of 439 nuclear power plants with a net installed capacity of 373.038 gigawatts (GW) were connected to various national electricity grids, about 1.2GW more than at the beginning of 2006...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Britain is struggling to power the nuclear revolutionRowena Mason and Abigail Townsend, The Daily Telegraph, 14 Aug 2010View original article<p> China started generating electricity from the first fourth generation nuclear station without fanfare last month, using largely home-grown technology that reduces waste, increases efficiency and vastly brings down costs compared with existing plants.</p> <p> It's only a trial project, with the first commercial-scale model planned for 2020, but nevertheless is a step towards production-line nuclear plants that it aims to produce for the world. If it can bring down costs, China is likely to have customers galore rushing to reduce their carbon emissions by providing the equivalent of Ikea flat-pack parts for countries from Belarus to Ghana...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Sheffield Forgemasters' expansion into nuclear power may go ahead if Government loan is approvedRichard Tyler, The Daily Telegraph, 15 Aug 2010View original article<p> The coalition Government caused a storm when ministers decided in June to cancel an £80m loan for the project.</p> <p> Sheffield Council's Liberal Democrat leader Paul Scriven has told The Daily Telegraph that the loan could be partly financed through a bid by the planned Sheffield City Region local enterprise partnership (LEP) to the regional fund...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Renewables<p> </p> Europe shows how local communities can make money from renewablesKate Hathway, The Ecologist, 13 Aug 2010View original article<p> Kate Hathway from the local communities charity Urban Forum says we should look to Europe for tips on successful community renewable energy projects<br /> Standing on the streets of Freiburg in Germany is frustrating. It's the same in Kristianstad in Sweden or on the Baltic island of Gotland. Why? Well the same green investment that has been happening in the UK with so little effect has worked on these European streets...</p> <p> <i> View report</i> </p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Drilling to begin for Cornwall geothermal power plant in 2011The Ecologist, 16 Aug 2010View original article<p> Planning approval for attempts at the first commercial geothermal power plant in Cornwall could see renewable heat and electricity being generated as early as 2013<br /> The UK could soon have its first commercial geothermal power plant after an exploratory drilling project was granted local planning permission in Cornwall.</p> <p> Engineers will begin drilling a 4.5km deep borehole early next year at a site near Redruth, with a further site at the Eden Project still awaiting approval...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Plan for first floating wind farm off ScotlandBBC Online, 16 Aug 2010View original article<p> First Minister Alex Salmond is seeking to establish the world's first floating wind farm off the coast of Scotland.</p> <p> The prospect came as he arrived in Norway as part of a mission to strengthen trade links...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> UK<p> </p> We have to create a more local, decentralised energy systemGreg Barker, Climate Change Minister, The Daily Telegraph, 14 Aug 2010View original article<p> When David Cameron became Prime Minister he pledged that the new Coalition would be the greenest government ever. As Climate Change Minister my job is to help deliver this promise.</p> <p> However, I am glad to say that the old debate of green energy versus energy security has become increasingly irrelevant. That is because in the 21st century energy security and climate change are two sides of the same coin...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Winter fuel payment cuts to hit millions of pensioners James Kirkup, Telegraph, 18 Aug 2010View original article<p> Older people will have to wait at least six years longer to receive winter fuel payments, under government plans to cut the welfare bill.</p> <p> The Daily Telegraph has learnt that ministers have resolved to increase the qualifying age for the annual payment from 60 to at least 66. Talks are under way about an even bigger rise...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Economy<p> </p> China overtakes Japan as world's second-largest economic powerDavid Prosser, Business Editor, The Independent, 17 Aug 2010View original article<p> A sharp slowdown in the pace of Japan's economic recovery has enabled China to overtake it as the world's second-largest economy, leaving only the United States in front of it.</p> <p> Data released yesterday revealed that the Japanese economy grew at an annualised rate of 0.4 per cent over the three months to the end of June, a substantial reverse following the 4.4 per cent growth seen in the first quarter...</p> <p> Back to top</p> <p> </p> Sharp upturn in use of shipping containersRobert Wright - FT, CNN, 19 Aug 2010View original article<p> The use of shipping containers, a barometer of the global economy, has risen sharply this year, surpassing even the record levels of 2008.</p> <p> Two of the most important companies in container trade -- Denmark's AP Møller-Maersk and Dubai's DP World -- on Wednesday reported further evidence of the recovery in the trade in the boxes that carry the world's manufactured goods...</p> <p> Back to top</p> </p> Event<p> </p> ASPO-USA 2010 Peak Oil ConferenceASPO-USAView original article<p> The ASPO-USA Peak Oil Conference, October 7-9, 2010 in Washington, DC, is the world's premier event focused on peak oil challenges and solutions. It is produced by the nonprofit Association For The Study Of Peak Oil & Gas - USA (ASPO-USA). The format includes keynotes, plenary sessions, concurrent educational tracks, networking receptions, and exhibits. The conference is supported by more than 30 publications, websites and partnering associations. ODAC newsletter subscribers can receive a $50 discount off the Peak Aware Package registration option by inserting the code mediapartner when prompted on the eRegistration page linked from www.aspousa.org/worldoil2010/.</p> <p> Back to top</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/pulaski-carport-taps-into-solar-power.html" rel="bookmark" title="Pulaski carport taps into solar power for TVA, autos">Pulaski carport taps into solar power for TVA, autos</a><a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/07/odac-newsletter-july-23.html" rel="bookmark" title="ODAC Newsletter - July 23">ODAC Newsletter - July 23</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-58621113001194376662010-08-19T15:15:00.007-07:002010-08-19T15:29:08.585-07:00La Via Campesina: Fighting for food sovereignty, social justice, land rights and gender equity<p> ...Dena Hoff talks about La Via Campesina’s vision of social change, and how the agricultural challenges faced around the world are not always so different from those faced in the U.S.</p> <p> Name: Dena Hoff</p> <p> Affiliation: Co-coordinator for North America for La Via Campesina</p> <p> Location: Eastern Montana</p> <p> Bio: Dena Hoff is a farmer and activist in Eastern Montana, where she has raised sheep, cattle, alfalfa, corn, edible dry beans and other crops, with her husband since 1979. In addition to her work with Via Campesina, Hoff is Vice President of the National Family Farm Coalition and former Chair of the Northern Plains Resource Council.</p> <p> Via Campesina has been credited with coining the term “food sovereignty.” Can you describe what it means and how your work supports and promotes it?</p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/dena.jpg" alt="Fighting for food sovereignty, social justice, land rights and gender equity" /></p> </p> <p> <i> Dena Hoff (left), and Edgardo Garcia from La Via Campesina Central American Region, accept the Food Sovereignty prize in Des Moines last fall on behalf of La Via Campesina. (Photo credit: Carlos Marentes)</p> <p> </i> </p> <p> Food sovereignty is about a system of agriculture where people get to decide their own food and agricultural policies in their own countries without being dictated by foundations or institutions like the WTO or the IMF or the World Bank or trade agreements. People decide what they’re going to eat, who’s going to produce it, what’s going to be produced. And more than that, it’s a whole life system that is sustainable, that respects Mother Earth, that respects human rights and the rights of people to live in dignity, to be well-fed, to be reasonably taken care of, have a decent standard of living. Everything that food sovereignty encompasses is human rights, women’s rights and education: everything that makes a good life and protects the planet.</p> <p> Via Campesina is a very large social movement. We’re not a legal entity at all, but we are made up of groups around the world. We think that we have as many as 300 million members, though we’ve never been able to get a direct number. We’re growing, growing, growing because people realize that we can only change the world into a place where everybody can live and a world where everybody wants to live by banding together, standing together, sharing each other’s stories and showing solidarity. We need to educate people: people who are not farmers but who of course are eaters, people who care about the environment, people who care about human rights and social justice and the environment – they need to be part of this movement. It’s going to take everyone.</p> <p> There are too few people who control the power, who control the resources, who control the wealth of the world, and the destiny of the rest of us. I don’t like anybody pulling my strings. I am not a puppet, I am an independent human being and I have wishes and dreams and fears for my own family, my children, my grandchildren, my nieces, my nephews, my community. And I want to see these things become reality and I’m just willing to just keep working forever.</p> <p> The biggest part of that responsibility is educating other people, and getting them to stand up to power and that’s a very difficult thing. People do not like conflict, people do not like to stand up to power. They have some idea that the people who are in power are smarter than they are and have something that they don’t have – if only they knew that those people who are controlling their lives are just ordinary people!</p> <p> Until we give people the confidence to take back control of their own lives and their communities, nothing is going to change. It’s a big, big, task. But it should hearten people to know that there are millions, and millions, and millions, and millions of people around the world who are very dedicated to doing this, and who are willing to do it.</p> <p> What role does gender play in La Via Campesina’s work?</p> <p> Gender is extremely important, because most of the world’s farmers are women! And a lot of those women are hungry women, because they are the people who are being forced off land, have no access to resources and no access to credit. We also started a campaign in Mozambique at our Fifth International Assembly against violence against women. So we have that international campaign, and the young people have just taken it up! They have put on plays, and they have dramas, and they are doing literature and are going around to communities and educating people on why it is so important that women have an equal voice, equal rights and equal opportunities.</p> <p> Gender balance is very important to us. There will never be any real equity in the world until women are seen as equal partners, standing shoulder to shoulder with men. One of our original seven pillars was gender. We also fought very hard in 2000 for gender parity on our coordinating committee, and we got it – we have a male and a female for each of the assigned regions.</p> <p> We have a lot of programs in a lot of countries also for training women: in agriculture, in literacy, and also in political training. So that they have an understanding of what’s impacting their lives. We also have programs that help them develop means of making a living, so it’s very important.</p> <p> What are some of the similarities between what’s happening to agriculture across the world, and what’s happening here in the U.S.?</p> <p> Land grabs happen in this country too (see: Large Scale Land Investments Do Not Benefit Local Communities). In my neighborhood, groups of bankers or lawyers or investors are investing in farmland because I guess they think they’re going to get a better return than on some other thing. And farmers have no recourse. I mean no-one here who wanted to expand or who wanted to help one of their children get started in agriculture, they can’t possibly match those prices. The land is lost for agriculture. A great big and lovely farming ranch along the Yellowstone River went to a real estate developer from Maryland who’s now running for the legislature in Montana. Land is being turned into hunting or fishing places or little retreats – it’s not being used for agriculture.</p> <p> Look at what’s happening in Detroit. They have torn down about forty buildings in downtown Detroit, they’re going to tear down about that many more. And there are a lot of vacant lots that can be used for urban agriculture. But, there’s a big developer who wants to commercialize it for profits instead of the city giving the lots over to the community for urban farming. So there’s a big fight going on in Detroit – that’s land grabbing, isn’t it?</p> <p> I belong to the Northern Plains Resource Council, that’s my state organization in Montana. They have, for years, been trying to protect family agriculture, educate people about the importance of it and protect it from energy developers and speculators. The National Family Farm Coalition has been involved since 1987 in policy work in Washington, DC, trying to get a decent farm bill so that we can protect our family agriculture. But when you go lobby, you hear “We don’t need American farmers, we can import everything cheaper.” Congressmen will actually say that to you.</p> <p> So my question has always been: If transportation, communication and energy are a matter of national security, shouldn’t food be a matter of national security? Shouldn’t water be a matter of national security? Instead of just a commodity for someone to make money from?</p> <p> How does global agriculture and trade policy affect the environment, global hunger, and poverty?</p> <p> <p><img src="http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ronit.bmp" alt="Fighting for food sovereignty, social justice, land rights and gender equity" /></p> <br /> <i> <p> “We want people to take an interest in the policies of their own countries, in the plight of family agriculture, family fishermen, migrant workers and landless workers, and get educated about what these people face” (photo credit: Bernard Pollack)</p> <p> </i> </p> <p> We had all the hype about how industrial agriculture was going to end hunger, how GMOs were going to end hunger, and look what’s happened. There’s a billion hungry people, almost a half a million of those are in the United States. Hunger is increasing, poverty is increasing, and all of the industrialization hasn’t done one single thing to end hunger, and we’ve been destroying the environment. So the solution actually turned out to be very, very damaging – far more damaging than the problems that we had before industrial agriculture was proposed as the solution to hunger and the environment.</p> <p> Look at the deforestation for biofuels in Brazil, the destruction of traditional agriculture in Indonesia in favor of palm plantations for biofuels. Shoving people off the land and forcing them to the cities where there are no livelihoods is not the solution. Or forcing them to become slaves as is happening all over the world. We like to think that we’re in the twenty-first century, and slavery is something of the past: it isn’t. It’s worse. It’s getting worse every day. There are so many examples of people being forced into slavery, literally having their livelihoods taken away from them because somebody else wants to make a profit off of the resources that they made a modest living with. And then if they wish to survive they can become practically slave labor for these people who just took away their livelihood. So if that’s not slavery, I don’t know what the definition is.</p> <p> Why are large scale land acquisitions, or land-grabs, problematic?</p> <p> It’s problematic because there are a lot of places where land is owned communally, or there’s not a deed to the land, and it’s just land that communities have made their living with, in some places for over 1000 years, maybe more. And suddenly, this has a value beyond somebody’s livelihood, beyond somebody having to have food and shelter. And someone finds out they can make a profit, and they come in and take it.</p> <p> Now in the case of Mali, Mali has put food sovereignty in their constitution – and then their President leases large amounts of arable land to the Saudis, for ten years. That’s totally against the constitution, it’s totally illegal, but there doesn’t seem to be a national or international mechanism to force governments to abide by their own laws and their own constitution. It just seems like increasingly the world is a more lawless place, where anything goes if it makes money.</p> <p> What policies or programs are needed for more robust protection of land rights and land reform?</p> <p> Well, first of all I wish the international court would actually take a look at what’s happening in countries where a lot of land grabbing is going on, and tell governments that this is not acceptable, and that you are being held up to international public scrutiny, and we’re not going to allow you to do this. Ultimately I guess it’s just the people having to take control. And that’s difficult, especially in governments where they just send the army in to kill you if you protest.</p> <p> Do you think there’s any role for multinational corporations to play in improving the situation for farmers and peasants here and across the world?</p> <p> I’m not sure that’s the role they want. Their mission is their bottom line, to pay dividends to their investors. Their mission is not to do good. Their mission is not to protect the environment or nurture societies. They’re doing what they’re set up to do, and they’ve been given far too many rights and too much power. I mean, equal protection under the law for a corporation? A friend of mine who was inside used to say, “What kind of craziness is that?” Corporations have no soul to save and no ass to kick and they are totally unaccountable to anyone.</p> <p> What happens when they do something ugly that causes people to lose their lives? If I would do something accidentally like kill someone in a traffic accident, that would be manslaughter, I would be brought up on charges, I would have to suffer the consequences. You don’t really hear about anyone in a corporation having to take responsibility for the lives they cause to be lost through their greed and negligence. They have the same protection as any individual, but I guess they don’t have the same responsibility.</p> <p> How could agencies like the World Bank and UN Food and Agriculture Organization do a better job to support La Via Campesina’s mission?</p> <p> They could do a better job by ensuring that people in countries that need food aid have access to means of production so that they can feed themselves, and not rely on charity. To make them self-reliant. Education, condemning the privatization of water, health care – the poorest people don’t get those basic things and they don’t get basic services, because they simply can’t pay. And all this hype about corporations being able to produce more – producing more is not the answer. You can go to the markets in the poorest countries and you can see mountains of food, and people starving to death right nearby. If they have no means to a livelihood, they have no means to feed themselves, and no means to make a living, then they can’t buy food. There can be all the extra food in the world, but if they don’t have money, they die.</p> <p> How can people get involved to help La Via Campesina’s efforts?</p> <p> We always need people to hook up with our organizations in all of our countries, and support legislation in those countries that will turn governments around – so that they do the right thing for civil society and are not totally governed by corporations. We have six organizations in the U.S. that belong to Via Campesina. And we’re always looking for people who can help with translation.</p> <p> We want people to take an interest in the policies of their own countries, in the plight of family agriculture, family fishermen, migrant workers and landless workers, and get educated about what these people face. And also how it impacts you! Because even if you think you are isolated and insulated from all the trouble that’s happening, it impacts everybody because everybody eats. Everybody eats!</p> <p> If there are only huge massive plantations producing our food with basically slave labor, if workers have no rights, and the environment is just sneered at (because no-one enforces environmental laws), if human rights are not protected, and people are allowed to be brought into the country illegally or otherwise and then just dumped if they’re injured or hurt, and are not well paid – that does not reflect very well on us as a society or as people. Especially people that like to call themselves “good Christians”, and think that anybody who doesn’t look just like them should be shipped out, or denied services. That they shouldn’t be allowed to eat, that they shouldn’t have health care, that they shouldn’t be allowed to be educated because they “don’t belong.”</p> <p> My family came as immigrants from Europe, and they had things to overcome too. I think people in this country should realize that unless you’re a Native American, you’re an immigrant – and [they should] identify with the new immigrants.</p> <p> So much of La Via Campesina’s work is about mobilizing people. What agricultural or economic policies do you think could be implemented to address the needs of small-scale farmers and agricultural producers in order to help create the change you envision?</p> <p> Certainly a decent farm bill with a farmer-owned reserve, and a farm bill that actually gives farmers a price so that they can live and support their communities. Because it isn’t just about farmers –I mean, the money they make supports a whole entire community, our states. And I think people need to understand the importance of agriculture to this country, and what happens to countries that let their agriculture go, and depend on importing all their food from somewhere else. There are plenty of examples in the world of countries that can no longer feed themselves because somebody decided it was cheaper or more intelligent to buy all their food from somebody else, and concentrate on economies that don’t feed people, and concentrate the wealth into the hands of just a very few.</p> <p> Final thoughts:</p> <p> Everybody has to become an activist, even if it’s just educating themselves. Even if it’s just making a phone call or planting a garden, or looking around and seeing if your neighbors are one of the one-in-eight people who are hungry. Be aware of what’s going on around you!</p> <p> Ronit Ridberg is a research intern for Nourishing the Planet project.</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/06/home-construction-fails-to-lift.html" rel="bookmark" title="Home construction fails to lift recovery">Home construction fails to lift recovery</a><a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/06/haitian-farmers-so-all-can-eat-produce.html" rel="bookmark" title="Haitian farmers: so all can eat, produce it here">Haitian farmers: so all can eat, produce it here</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-73631811168361385672010-08-19T15:15:00.005-07:002010-08-19T15:29:06.471-07:00Peak oil notes - Aug 19Supply and demand<p> Oil prices fluctuated between $75 and $76 a barrel until the American Petroleum Institute released their report Tuesday evening showing that US crude stocks had increased by nearly 6 million barrels last week. This news sent prices falling below $74 on Wednesday morning. When the EIA’s weekly and better based stocks report was released Wednesday morning showing that crude stocks had actually declined by 800,000 barrels, the markets reversed to close at $75.42. Despite the correction, the EIA report still showed that US oil stockpiles are at the highest level in 27 years. When combined with concerns about the course of the global economy, the markets are concerned that there will be too much oil supply available for the foreseeable future. In general the oil markets continue to move in step with the equity markets rather than following inventory and supply/demand signals.<br> <br /> A contrary opinion is held by analysts and Goldman Sachs who note that in the past two months crude inventories stored on tankers has fallen by some 40-50 million barrels to an 18-month low, more than offsetting the onshore crude buildup. Goldman Sachs believes that demand for oil exceeded supply by 600,000 b/d in June and July resulting in the drawdown of oil stored on tankers. The analysts expect that demand for oil will increase in the second half of 2010, leading to $85-$95 a barrel oil.<br> <br /> Iran continues to defy UN sanctions by announcing that it will build new nuclear enrichment sites. Beijing approved another 24 electric power plants as China’s electricity consumption continues to set records.<br> <br /> The US Interior Department will restrict the use of categorical exclusions as it moves to tighten offshore drilling regulations.<br> <br /> President Medvedev has called on world leaders to take action to fight against global warming in the wake of the unprecedented heat wave that continues to ravage Russia. Moscow is starting to get the message that global warming can be dangerous and is likely attributable, at least in part, to anthropogenic climate change.</p> Iraq<p> Baghdad too is engulfed in a heat wave which has sent day time temperatures to 120ВєF (40ВєC) and is sending the demand for electricity to new highs, although the electric grid can only provide a fraction of the necessary power. The demand for gasoline and diesel to power home generators has led to fuel shortages across Baghdad. The government has banned public protests against electricity shortages and has deployed security to prevent crowds from forming. In the meantime a suicide bomber killed 45 and wounded 129 men lined up to join the Army.<br> <br /> The political situation in Iraq is far from stable. It has been five months since the elections and the country is still not able to form a new government. With US combat forces about to complete their withdrawl, the chances that the country will be able to achieve a substantial increase in its oil production looks increasingly tenuous.</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/08/peak-oil-notes-aug-12.html" rel="bookmark" title="Peak oil notes - Aug 12">Peak oil notes - Aug 12</a><a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/pulaski-carport-taps-into-solar-power.html" rel="bookmark" title="Pulaski carport taps into solar power for TVA, autos">Pulaski carport taps into solar power for TVA, autos</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-5860298830755819992010-08-19T15:15:00.003-07:002010-08-19T15:29:04.850-07:00On the death of Matthew Simmons<p> Last week Matt Simmons, who was America's preeminent proponent of the idea that world oil production was about to peak, died at the age of 67. Simmons was unique among those talking and writing about peak oil in that he came from the very heart of American capitalism, a self-made investment banker for the oil industry. Unlike most who are outspoken on the issue of peak oil, Simmons was a Republican, an energy advisor to President George W. Bush, and commanded the attention of the financial and mainstream media.</p> <p> Whenever the price of gasoline got a little too high for comfort, the worthies of the Fourth Estate would summon the unorthodox-but-acceptable Simmons to explain to obviously skeptical interviewers just why he believed that cheap gasoline would not be around much longer.</p> <p> In the days following Simmon's death some 400 obituaries appeared on the web, on television broadcasts and in hard copy publications around the world. Some of these were written by people and organizations who understand the threat of peaking world oil supplies and praised Matt for his leadership in analyzing and publicizing the issue. Others were written by hostile skeptics who sought to play down his significance or focused on those instances in his voluminous pronouncements where he was wrong. A few even attributed his death to assassination at the hands of the CIA or BP because of recent anti-BP comments on the Gulf oil spill.</p> <p> Many of the obituaries however were prepared by mainstream and financial news organizations that are either agnostic about peak oil or hold plainly hostile attitudes towards the concept because of the threat a falling oil supply holds for the American way of life or perhaps even to capitalism. Forced to say something because of Simmon's position in the business community, it is interesting to see just how peak oil treated is in the various obituaries that appeared in the financial press.</p> <p> Most of the major publications relegated the story of Simmon's death and works to their blogs. In an era of dwindling advertising revenue, however, this has become normal and should not be taken as an effort to downplay the story. Nearly all the stories had some reference to Simmon's global prominence as a proponent of peak oil. One or two even said he invented the concept. Most mentioned his 2005 book Twilight in the Desert which discussed in detail the prospects for Saudi Arabian oil production</p> <p> The most interesting distinction, among the major publications' mentions of peak oil was the use of the word "theory" as a means of denigrating the concept. Many put the term in quotes as another sign of denigration, but a few devote a phrase or two explaining what it means.</p> <p> Now anybody following peak oil soon learns that 50 years ago, when the concept was seriously introduced, peak oil could easily be called a "theory." Today, however, with global production stagnant, the peak oil story has been reduced to a handful of numbers denoting how much oil was actually produced in a given year. This can be the actual number of barrels of oil produced in a single year - currently around 31 billion -- or is more commonly expressed as the average daily production during the year, currently about 86 million barrels per day. When the number of barrels of oil or equivalents produced each year becomes generally smaller in successive years, then you have peak oil.</p> <p> There really is not any "theory" in this concept, for a declining number series is about as much of a fact as anything in this life can be.</p> <p> With dozens of obituaries prepared for mainstream and financial media outlets, the treatment of peak oil varies widely. Among the most favorable treatment of peak oil was that of Llewellyn King writing for the Hearst newspapers who took the occasion of Simmon's obituary to remind us that peak oil is an open secret that haunts the oil industry.</p> <p> The Wall Street Journal landed somewhere in the middle of the controversy by concluding that peak oil remains hotly contested and the information about reserves from less than forthcoming oil-rich nations such as Saudi Arabia and Nigeria is incomplete.</p> <p> At the other end of the scale a few writers were almost gloating that Simmons was gone and as evidenced by cheap and plentiful gasoline, peak oil was still nowhere in sight. One even suggested that the whole concept of peak oil might have died with Simmons.</p> <p> And so the debate goes on. Even in death Matt Simmons, as evidenced by the unprecedented widespread treatment of the subject, made yet another contribution to spreading the word about peak oil. For the time being, however, it would seem that for many peak oil has much in common with Harry Potter's dark lord, Voldemort - something so terrible that it cannot be spoken of or written about.</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/08/critical-examination-of-matt-simmons.html" rel="bookmark" title="A critical examination of Matt Simmons’ claims on the Deepwater spill">A critical examination of Matt Simmons’ claims on the Deepwater spill</a><a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/electric-plane-idea-keeps-show-abuzz.html" rel="bookmark" title="Electric plane idea keeps show abuzz">Electric plane idea keeps show abuzz</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-54148654192407287062010-08-19T15:15:00.001-07:002010-08-19T15:29:03.026-07:00Standing together in climate disasters<p> Dear Friends,</p> <p> Sometimes 'climate change' can seem like an abstraction. That is, until you see it in action, as we have this summer in Pakistan, in the mountains of China, in Ladakh, and in the overheated peat bogs of central Russia.</p> <p> This is all part of the reality we face in our current world of 392 ppm CO2. Our main work is to try and slow down the climate crisis before it gets worse--by getting to work on climate solutions that can get us back to 350. </p> <p> But working to create a safe climate future doesn't mean we don't need to try and help the victims of the climate crisis along the way. When our comrades and colleagues issue a call for assistance, we do everything we can to respond.</p> <p> The recent floods in Pakistan have displaced 20 million people, and nearly a fifth of the country is literally underwater. The scale of the suffering is difficult to fathom--and though relief efforts are underway, reports from the ground indicate that the response has been far too small and slow to provide the level of relief needed. </p> <p> That's why we hope you'll take a moment to send some money off to the relief agencies and local groups dealing with the recent climate disasters:</p> <p> www.350.org/disasters</p> <p> All of the countries recently devastated by the floods, mudslides, and heatwaves were hugely active in the International Day of Climate Action last October 24 (check out the photos below) and they're all planning events for 10/10/10: the Global Work Party. It's both tragic and inspiring to see the pictures of a fifth of Pakistan underwater--and in those same areas see amazing events registered 10/10/10.</p> <p> In the face of a changing climate, we hope you'll send some money to the victims of climate disasters--and that you'll keep working in your community to build this movement.</p> <p> Many thanks,</p> <p> Bill McKibben for the 350.org Team</p> <p> P.S. We're sure you've seen the heart-wrenching images of Pakistanis underwater, Russians coping with fire, and the Chinese recovering from devastating mudslides. We thought you might like to see a more hopeful set of pictures from these countries:</p> <p> <p><img src="http://energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/pakistan_oct24.jpg" alt="Standing together in climate disasters" /></p> Pakistan</p> <p> <p><img src="http://energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/russia_baikal_oct24.jpg" alt="Standing together in climate disasters" /></p> Russia</p> <p> <p><img src="http://energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/china_oct24.jpg" alt="Standing together in climate disasters" /></p> China</p> <p> <i> 350.org is an international grassroots campaign that aims to mobilize a global climate movement united by a common call to action. By spreading an understanding of the science and a shared vision for a fair policy, we will ensure that the world creates bold and equitable solutions to the climate crisis. 350.org is an independent and not-for-profit project.</p> <p> What is 350? 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM-a "people powered movement" that is made of people like you in every corner of the planet.</p> <p> You should join us on Facebook by becoming a fan of our page at facebook.com/350org and follow us on twitter by visiting twitter.com/350</p> <p> To join our list (maybe a friend forwarded you this e-mail) visit www.350.org/signup</p> <p> 350.org needs your help! To support our work, donate securely online at 350.org/donate<br /> </i> </p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/06/geithner-credit-conditions-won-stall.html" rel="bookmark" title="Geithner: Credit conditions won’t stall economic recovery">Geithner: Credit conditions won’t stall economic recovery</a><a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/07/dems-roll-over-abandon-climate-bill.html" rel="bookmark" title="Dems roll over, abandon climate bill. will citizenry follow suit?">Dems roll over, abandon climate bill. will citizenry follow suit?</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-78137421827799993202010-08-18T16:23:00.005-07:002010-08-18T16:55:51.093-07:00Population: The multiplier of everything else<p> <p><img src="http://www.postcarbon.org/Reader/PopulationCover.jpg" alt="The multiplier of everything else" /></p> <br /> <br /> </p> <br /> EXCERPT:<p> When it comes to controversial issues, population is in a class by itself.</p> <p> Advocates and activists working to reduce global population growth and size are attacked by the Left for supposedly ignoring human-rights issues, glossing over Western overconsumption, or even seeking to reduce the number of people of color. They are attacked by the Right for supposedly favoring widespread abortion, promoting promiscuity via sex education, or wanting to harm economic growth. Others think the problem has been solved, or believe that the real problem is that we have a shortage of people (the so-called “birth dearth”). Still others think the population problem will solve itself, or that technological innovations will make our numbers irrelevant.</p> <p> One thing is certain: The planet and its resources are finite, and it cannot support an infinite population of humans or any other species.</p> <p> A second thing is also certain: The issue of population is too important to avoid just because it is controversial.</p> The Magnitude of the Problem<p> The Big Picture of Growth Globally and in the United States</p> <p> The world’s population is growing by about 80 million people annually—the equivalent of adding a new Egypt every year. The total population is approaching 7 billion, seven times what it was in 1800. Every day approximately 156,000 people die, but 381,000 are born—a net daily growth of 225,000 human beings.</p> <p> The cost in human suffering that results from unplanned and excessive childbearing is staggering: 500,000 women and girls die worldwide every year from pregnancy and childbirth1—a figure equal to all of the U.S. deaths in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined. Most of the women who die are in their teens and early twenties, forced by their societies into bearing children too young and far too frequently.</p> <p> But the developing world is so capital starved owing in large part to its high population growth rate that allocating some portion of government budgets to reproductive health care is often extremely difficult. For its part, the developed world as a whole has failed to come close to meeting the commitments for population assistance made at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994. To achieve the commitments made in Cairo, both developed and developing countries would need to triple their current contributions. The lives of billions of people are being rendered increasingly desperate by being denied access to family-planning information and services they want and need.</p> <p> The top three countries for population growth are India, China, and the United States. India grows by about 17 million per year, China by about 7 million per year, and the United States by about 3 million per year. These three countries, plus Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Indonesia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Brazil, and the Philippines, are poised to grow by 1.6 billion by 2050, representing 63 percent of the world’s projected growth of 2.6 billion in the coming four decades. These projections are based on assumptions about reduced fertility rates in all twelve of these countries. If the expected fertility reductions do not occur, the world’s population could double to 13.6 billion by 2067.</p> <p> </p> Read the full report:<br /> <br /> » Download the PDF (1.6 MB)Read other reportsFrom the Post Carbon Institute/Watershed Media Book:<p> <p><img src="http://www.postcarbon.org/new-site-files/Blogs/cover_PCI-Reader_med1.jpg" alt="The multiplier of everything else" /></p> </p> The Post Carbon Reader<p> Managing the 21st Century’s Sustainability Crises</p> <p> <i> Edited by Richard Heinberg and Daniel Lerch</i> </p> <p> Overview<br /> <br /> Table of Contents<br /> <br /> Content available for download<br /> <br /> Order the book</p> about The Post Carbon Reader<p> How do population, water, energy, food, and climate issues impact one another? What can we do to address one problem without making the others worse? <i> The Post Carbon Reader</i> features essays by some of the world’s most provocative thinkers on the key issues shaping our new century, from renewable energy and urban agriculture to social justice and community resilience. This insightful collection takes a hard-nosed look at the interconnected threats of our global sustainability quandary and presents some of the most promising responses.</p> <p> <i> Contributors to The Post Carbon Reader are some of the world's leading sustainability thinkers, including Bill McKibben, Richard Heinberg, Stephanie Mills, David Orr, Wes Jackson, Erika Allen, Gloria Flora, and dozens more.</i> </p> <p> <i> Published by Watershed Media</i> <br /> <br /> Forthcoming in October<br /> <br /> 440 pages, 6 x 9“, 4 b/w photographs, 26 line illustrations<br /> <br /> $21.95 paper 978-0-9709500-6-2</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/healthier-ford-will-again-pay-chairman.html" rel="bookmark" title="Healthier Ford will again pay chairman">Healthier Ford will again pay chairman</a><a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/07/beyond-limits-to-growth.html" rel="bookmark" title="Beyond the limits to growth">Beyond the limits to growth</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-81912070529858616202010-08-18T16:23:00.003-07:002010-08-18T16:55:48.976-07:00Confessions of a recovering environmentalist<p> Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity … and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is imagination itself - William Blake</p> <p> Scenes from a younger life # 1:</p> <p> I am 12 years old. I am alone, I am scared, I am cold and I am crying my eyes out. I can’t see more than six feet in either direction. I am on some godforsaken moor high up on the dark, ancient, poisonous spine of England. The black bog-juice I have been trudging through for hours has long since crept over the tops of my boots and down into my socks. My rucksack is too heavy, I am unloved and lost and I will never find my way home. It is raining and the cloud is punishing me; clinging to me, laughing at me. Twenty-five years later, I still have a felt memory of that experience and its emotions: a real despair and a terrible loneliness.</p> <p> I do find my way home; I manage to keep to the path and eventually catch up with my father, who has the map and the compass and the mini Mars-bars. He was always there, somewhere up ahead, but he had decided it would be good for me to “learn to keep up” with him. All of this, he tells me, will make me into a man. Needless to say, it didn’t work.</p> <p> Only later do I realise the complexity of the emotions summoned by a childhood laced with experiences like this. My father was a compulsive long-distance walker. Every year, throughout my most formative decade, he would take me away to Cumbria or Northumberland or Yorkshire or Cornwall or Pembrokeshire or the Welsh marches, and we would walk, for weeks. We would follow ancient tracks or new trails, across mountains and moors and ivory-black cliffs. Much of the time we would be alone with each other and with our thoughts and our conversations, and we would be alone with the oyster-catchers, the gannets, the curlews, the skylarks and the owls. With the gale and the breeze, with our maps and compasses and emergency-rations and bivvy-bags and plastic bottles of water. We would camp in the heather, by cairns and old mine-shafts, hundreds of feet above the orange lights of civilisation, and I would dream. And in the morning, with dew on the tent and cold air in my face as I opened the zip, the wild elements of life, all of the real things, would all seem to be there, waiting for me with the sunrise.</p> <p> Scenes from a younger life # 2:</p> <p> I am 19 years old. It is around midnight and I am on the summit of a low, chalk down, the last of the long chain that wind their way through through the crowded, peopled, fractious south country. There are maybe fifty or sixty people there with me. There is a fire going, there are guitars, there is singing and weird and unnerving whooping noises from some of the ragged travellers who have made this place their home.</p> <p> This is Twyford Down, a hilltop east of Winchester. There is something powerful about this place; something ancient and unanswering. Soon it is to be destroyed: a six-lane motorway will be driven through it in a deep chalk cutting. It is vital that this should happen in order to reduce the journey time of travellers between London and Southampton by a full thirteen minutes. The people up here have made it their home in a doomed attempt to stop this happening.</p> <p> From outside it is impossible to see, and most do not want to. The name-calling has been going on for months, in the papers and the pubs and in the House of Commons. The people here are Luddites, Nimbies (“not-in-my-backyard” people), reactionaries, romantics. They are standing in the way of progress. They will not be tolerated. Inside, there is a sense of shared threat and solidarity, there are blocks of hash and packets of Rizlas and litres of bad cider. We know what we are here for. We know what we are doing. We can feel the reason in the soil and in the night air. Down there, under the lights and behind the curtains, there is no chance that they will ever understand. We are on our own.</p> <p> Someone I don’t know suggests we dance the maze. Out beyond the firelight, there is a maze carved into the down’s soft, chalk turf. I don’t know if it’s some ancient monument or a new creation. Either way, it’s the same spiral pattern that can be found carved in rocks from millennia ago. With cans and cigarettes and spliffs in our hands, a small group of us start to walk the maze, laughing, staggering, then breaking into a run, singing, spluttering, stumbling together towards the centre. <br /> <br /> Scenes from a younger life # 3:</p> <p> I am 21 years old and I’ve just spent the most exciting two months of my life so far in an Indonesian rainforest. I’ve just been on one of those organised expeditions that people of my age buy into to give them the chance to do something useful and exciting in what used to be called the “third world”. I’ve prepared for months for this. I’ve sold double-glazing door-to-door to scrape the cash together. I have been reading Bruce Chatwin and Redmond O’Hanlon and Benedict Allen and my head is full of magic and idiocy and wonder. </p> <p> During my trip, there were plenty of all of these things. I still vividly remember klotok journeys up Borneo rivers by moonlight, watching the swarms of giant fruitbats overhead. I remember the hooting of gibbons and the search for hornbills high up in the rainforest canopy. I remember a four-day trek through a so-called “rain” forest that was so dry we ended up drinking filtered mud. I remember turtle-eggs on the beaches of Java and young orangutans at the rehabilitation centre where we worked in Kalimantan, sitting in the high branches of trees with people’s stolen underpants on their heads, laughing at us. I remember the gold-miners and the loggers, and the freshwater crocodiles in the same river we swam in every morning. I remember my first sight of flying fish in the Java Sea. </p> <p> And I remember the small islands north of Lombok where some of us spent a few days before we came home. At night we would go down to the moonlit beach, where the sea and the air would still be warm, and in the sea were millions of tiny lights: phosphorescence. I had never seen this before; never even heard of it. We would walk into the water and immerse ourselves and rise up again and the lights would cling to our bodies, fading away as we laughed.</p> <p> Now, back home, the world seems changed. A two-month break from my country, my upbringing, my cultural assumptions, a two-month immersion in something far more raw and unmediated, has left me open to seeing this place as it really is. I see the atomisation and the inward focus and the faces of the people in a hurry on the other side of windscreens. I see the streetlights and the asphalt as I had not quite seen them before. What I see most of all are the adverts. </p> <p> For the first time, I realise the extent and the scope and the impacts of the billboards, the posters, the TV and radio ads. Everywhere an image, a phrase, a demand or a recommendation is screaming for my attention, trying to sell me something, tell me who to be, what to desire and to need. And this is before the internet; before apples and blackberries became indispensable to people who wouldn’t know where to pick the real thing; before the deep, accelerating immersion of people in their technologies, even outdoors, even in the sunshine. Compared to where I have been, this world is so tamed, so mediated and commoditised, that something within it seems to have broken off and been lost beneath the slabs. No one has noticed this, or says so if they have. Something is missing: I can almost see the gap where it used to be. But it is not remarked upon. Nobody says a thing.</p> <p> What took hold</p> <p> It is 9.30 at night in mid-December at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. I step outside my front door into the farmyard and I walk over to the track, letting my eyes adjust to the dark. I am lucky enough to be living among the Cumbrian fells now, and as my pupils widen I can see, under a clear, starlit sky, the outline of the Old Man of Coniston, Dow Crag, Wetherlam, Helvellyn, the Fairfield horseshoe. I stand there for ten minutes, growing colder. I see two shooting-stars and a satellite. I suddenly wish my dad was still alive and I wonder where the magic has gone.</p> <p> These experiences, and others like them, were what formed me. They were what made me what I would later learn to call an “environmentalist”: something which seemed rebellious and excitingly outsiderish when I first took it up (and which successfully horrified my social-climbing father - especially as it was partly his fault) but which these days is almost de rigueur amongst the British bourgeoisie. Early in my adult life, just after I came back from Twyford Down, I vowed, self-importantly, that this would be my life’s work: saving nature from people. Preventing the destruction of beauty and brilliance, speaking up for the small and the overlooked and the things that could not speak for themselves. When I look back on this now, I’m quite touched by my younger self. I would like to be him again, perhaps just for a day; someone to whom all sensations are fiery and all answers are simple. </p> <p> All of this - the downs, the woods, the rainforest, the great oceans and, perhaps most of all, the silent isolation of the moors and mountains, which at the time seemed so hateful and unremitting - took hold of me somewhere unexamined. The relief I used to feel on those long trudges with my dad when I saw the lights of a village or a remote pub, even a minor road or a pylon; any sign of humanity - as I grow older this is replaced by the relief of escaping from the towns and the villages, away from the pylons and the pubs and the people, up onto the moors again, where only the ghosts and the saucer-eyed dogs and the old legends and the wind can possess me.</p> <p> But they are harder to find now, those spirits. I look out across the moonlit Lake District ranges and it’s as clear as the night air that what used to come in regular waves, pounding like the sea, comes now only in flashes, out of the corner of my eyes, like a lighthouse in a storm. Perhaps it’s the way the world has changed. There are more cars on the roads now, more satellites in the sky. The footpaths up the fells are like stone motorways, there are turbines on the moors and the farmers are being edged out by south-country refugees like me, trying to escape but bringing with us the things we flee from. The new world is online and loving it, the virtual happily edging out the actual. The darkness is shut out and the night grows lighter and nobody is there to see it. </p> <p> It could be all that, but it probably isn’t. It’s probably me. I am 37 now. The world is smaller, more tired, more fragile, more horribly complex and full of troubles. Or, rather: the world is the same as it ever was, but I am more aware of it and of the reality of my place within it. I have grown up, and there is nothing to be done about it. The worst part of it is that I can’t seem to look without thinking anymore. And now I know far more about what we are doing. We: the people. I know what we are doing, all over the world, to everything, all of the time. I know why the magic is dying. It’s me. It’s us.</p> <p> How it ended</p> <p> I became an “environmentalist” because of a strong emotional reaction to wild places and the other-than-human world: to beech trees and hedgerows and pounding waterfalls, to songbirds and sunsets, to the flying fish in the Java Sea and the canopy of the rainforest at dusk when the gibbons come to the waterside to feed. From that reaction came a feeling, which became a series of thoughts: that such things are precious for their own sake, that they are food for the human soul and that they need people to speak for them to, and defend them from, other people, because they cannot speak our language and we have forgotten how to speak theirs. And because we are killing them to feed ourselves and we know it and we care about it, sometimes, but we do it anyway because we are hungry, or we have persuaded ourselves that we are. </p> <p> But these are not, I think, very common views today. Today’s environmentalism is as much a victim of the contemporary cult of utility as every other aspect of our lives, from science to education. We are not environmentalists now because we have an emotional reaction to the wild world. In this country, most of us wouldn’t even know where to find it. We are environmentalists now in order to promote something called “sustainability”. What does this curious, plastic word mean? It does not mean defending the non-human world from the ever-expanding empire of Homo sapiens sapiens, though some of its adherents like to pretend it does, even to themselves. It means sustaining human civilisation at the comfort level which the world’s rich people - us - feel is their right, without destroying the “natural capital” or the “resource base” which is needed to do so.</p> <p> It is, in other words, an entirely human-centred piece of politicking, disguised as concern for “the planet”. In a very short time - just over a decade - this worldview has become all-pervasive. It is voiced by the president of the USA and the president of Anglo-Dutch Shell and many people in-between. The success of environmentalism has been total - at the price of its soul.</p> <p> Let me offer up just one example of how this pact has worked. If “sustainability” is about anything, it is about carbon. Carbon and climate change. To listen to most environmentalists today, you would think that these were the only things in the word worth talking about. The business of “sustainability” is the business of preventing carbon-emissions. Carbon-emissions threaten a potentially massive downgrading of our prospects for material advancement as a species. They threaten to unacceptably erode our resource-base and put at risk our vital hoards of natural capital. If we cannot sort this out quickly, we are going to end up darning our socks again and growing our own carrots and holidaying in Weston-super-Mare and other such unthinkable things. All of the horrors our grandparents left behind will return like deathless legends. Carbon-emissions must be “tackled” like a drunk with a broken bottle: quickly, and with maximum force.</p> <p> Don’t get me wrong: I don’t doubt the potency of climate change to undermine the human machine. It looks to me as if it is already beginning to do so, and that it is too late to do anything but attempt to mitigate the worst effects. But what I am also convinced of is that the fear of losing both the comfort and the meaning that our civilisation gifts us has gone to the heads of environmentalists to such a degree that they have forgotten everything else. The carbon must be stopped, like the Umayyad at Tours, or all will be lost. </p> <p> This reductive approach to the human-environmental challenge leads to an obvious conclusion: if carbon is the problem, then “zero-carbon” is the solution. Society needs to go about its business without spewing the stuff out. It needs to do this quickly, and by any means necessary. Build enough of the right kind of energy technologies, quickly enough, to generate the power we “need” without producing greenhouse-gases and there will be no need to ever turn the lights off; no need to ever slow down. </p> <p> To do this will require the large-scale harvesting of the planet’s ambient energy: sunlight, wind, water power. This means that vast new conglomerations of human industry are going to appear in places where this energy is most abundant. Unfortunately, these places coincide with some of the world’s wildest, most beautiful and most untouched landscapes. The sort of places which environmentalism came into being to protect.</p> <p> And so the deserts, perhaps the landscape always most resistant to permanent human conquest, are to be colonised by vast “solar arrays”, glass and steel and aluminium, the size of small countries. The mountains and moors, the wild uplands, are to be staked out like vampires in the sun, their chests pierced with rows of 500-foot wind-turbines and associated access-roads, masts, pylons and wires. The open oceans, already swimming in our plastic refuse and emptying of marine life, will be home to enormous offshore turbine-ranges and hundreds of wave-machines strung around the coastlines like Victorian necklaces. The rivers are to see their estuaries severed and silted by industrial barrages. The croplands and even the rainforests, the richest habitats on this terrestrial Earth, are already highly profitable sites for biofuel plantations designed to provide guilt-free car-fuel to the motion-hungry masses of Europe and America.</p> <p> What this adds up to should be clear enough, yet many people who should know better choose not to see it. This is business-as-usual: the expansive, colonising, progressive human narrative, shorn only of the carbon. It is the latest phase of our careless, self-absorbed, ambition-addled destruction of the wild, the unpolluted and the non-human. It is the mass destruction of the world’s remaining wild places in order to feed the human economy. And without any sense of irony, people are calling this “environmentalism”.</p> <p> A while back I wrote an article in a newspaper highlighting the impact of industrial wind-power stations (which are usually referred to, in a nice Orwellian touch, as wind “farms”) on the uplands of Britain. I was emailed the next day by an environmentalist friend who told me he hoped I was feeling ashamed of myself. I was wrong; worse, I was dangerous. What was I doing giving succour to the fossil-fuel industry? Didn’t I know that climate change would do far more damage to upland landscapes than turbines? Didn’t I know that this was the only way to meet our urgent carbon targets? Didn’t I see how beautiful turbines were? So much more beautiful than nuclear-power stations. I might think that a “view” was more important than the future of the entire world, but this was because I was a middle-class escapist who needed to get real.</p> <p> It became apparent at that point that what I saw as the next phase of the human attack on the non-human world, a lot of my environmentalist friends saw as “progressive”, “sustainable” and “green”. What I called destruction they called “large-scale solutions”. This stuff was realistic, necessarily urgent. It went with the grain of human nature and the market, which as we now know are the same thing. We didn’t have time to “romanticise” the woods and the hills. There were emissions to reduce, and the end justified the means.</p> <p> It took me a while to realise where this kind of talk took me back to: the maze and the moonlit hilltop. This desperate scrabble for “sustainable development” - in reality it was the same old same old. People I had thought were on my side were arguing aggressively for the industrialising of wild places in the name of human desire. This was the same rootless, distant destruction that had led me to the top of Twyford Down. Only now there seemed to be some kind of crude equation at work that allowed them to believe this was something entirely different. Motorway through downland: bad. Wind-power station on downland: good. Container-port wiping out estuary mudflats: bad. Renewable hydro-power barrage wiping out estuary mudflats: good. Destruction minus carbon equals sustainability.</p> <p> So here I was again: a Luddite, a Nimby, a reactionary, a romantic; standing in the way of progress. I realised that I was dealing with environmentalists with no attachment to any actual environment. Their talk was of parts-per-million of carbon, peer-reviewed papers, sustainable technologies, renewable supergrids, green growth and the fifteenth conference of the parties. There were campaigns about “the planet” and “the Earth”, but there was no specificity: no sign of any real, felt attachment to any small part of that Earth.</p> <p> The place of nature</p> <p> Back at university, in love with my newfound radicalism, as students tend to be, I started to read things. Not the stuff I was supposed to be reading about Lollards and John Wycliffe and pre-reformation Europe, but green political thought: wild ideas I had never come across before. I could literally feel my mind levering itself open. Most exciting to me were the implications of a new word I stumbled across: ecocentrism. This word crystallised everything I had been feeling for years. I had no idea there were words for it or that other people felt it too, or had written intimidating books about it. The nearest I had come to such a realisation thus far was reading Wordsworth in the sixth form and feeling an excited tingling sensation as I began to understand what he was getting at amongst all those poems about shepherds and girls called Lucy. Here was a kindred spirit! Here was a man moved to love and fear by mountains, who believed rocks had souls, that “Nature never did betray the heart that loved her” (though even then that sounded a little optimistic to me). Pantheism was my new word that year.</p> <p> Now I declared, to myself if no one else, that I was “ecocentric” too. This was not the same as being egocentric, though some disagreed, and though it sounded a bit too much like “eccentric” this was also a distraction. I was ecocentric because I did not believe - had never believed, I didn’t think - that humans were the centre of the world, that the Earth was their playground, that they had the right to do what they liked or even that what they did was that important. I thought we were part of something bigger, which had as much to right to the world as we did and which we were stomping on for our own benefit. I had always been haunted by shameful thoughts like this. It had always seemed to me that the beauty to be found on the trunk of a birch tree was worth any number of Mona Lisas, and that a Saturday-night sunset was better than Saturday-night telly. It had always seemed that most of what mattered to me could not be counted or corralled by the kind of people who thought, and still think, that I just needed to grow up.</p> <p> It had been made clear to me for a long time that these feelings were at best charmingly naГЇve and at worst backwards and dangerous. Later, the dismissals became encrusted with familiar words, designed to keep the ship of human destiny afloat: Romantic, Luddite, Nimby and the like. For now, though, I had found my place. I was a young, fiery, radical, ecocentric environmentalist and I was going to save the world.</p> <p> When I look back on the road protests of the mid-1990s, which I often do, it is with nostalgia and fondness and a sense of gratitude that I was able to be there, to see what I saw and do what I did. But I realise now that it is more than this that makes me think and talk and write about Twyford Down and Newbury and Solsbury Hill to an extent which bores even my patient friends. This, I think, was the last time I was part of an environmental movement that was genuinely environmental. The people involved were, like me, ecocentric: they didn’t see “the environment” as something “out there”; separate from people, to be utilised or destroyed or protected according to human whim. They saw themselves as part of it, within it, of it. </p> <p> There was a Wordsworthian feel to the whole thing: the defence of the trees simply because they were trees. Living under the stars and in the rain, in the oaks and in the chaotic, miraculous tunnels beneath them, in the soil itself like the rabbits and the badgers. We were connected to a place; a real place that we loved and had made a choice to belong to, if only for a short time. There was little theory, much action but even more simple being. Being in a place, knowing it, standing up for it. It was environmentalism at its rawest, and the people who came to be part of it were those who loved the land, in their hearts as well as their heads.</p> <p> In years to come, this was worn away. It took a while before I started to notice what was happening, but when I did it was all around me. The ecocentrism - in simple language, the love of place, the humility, the sense of belonging, the feelings - was absent from most of the “environmentalist” talk I heard around me. Replacing it were two other kinds of talk. One was the save-the-world-with-windfarms narrative; the same old face in new makeup. The other was a distant, sombre sound: the marching boots and rattling swords of an approaching fifth-column.</p> <p> Environmentalism, which in its raw, early form had no time for the encrusted, seized-up politics of left and right, offering instead a worldview which saw the growth economy and the industrialist mentality beloved by both as the problem in itself, was being sucked into the yawning, bottomless chasm of the “progressive” left. Suddenly people like me, talking about birch trees and hilltops and sunsets, were politely, or less politely, elbowed to one side by people who were bringing a “class analysis” to green politics.</p> <p> All this talk of nature, it turned out, was bourgeois, western and unproductive. It was a middle-class conceit, and there was nothing worse than a middle-class conceit. The workers had no time for thoughts like this (though no one bothered to notify the workers themselves that they were simply clodhopping, nature-loathing cannon-fodder in a political flame-war). It was terribly, objectively rightwing. Hitler liked nature after all. He was a vegetarian too. It was all deeply “problematic”.</p> <p> More problematic for me was what this kind of talk represented. With the near global failure of the leftwing project over the past few decades, green politics was fast becoming a refuge for disillusioned socialists, Trots, Marxists and a ragbag of fellow-travellers who could no longer believe in communism or the Labour Party or even George Galloway, and who saw in green politics a promising bolthole. In they all trooped, with their Stop-the-War banners and their Palestinian-solidarity scarves, and with them they brought a new sensibility.</p> <p> Now it seemed that environmentalism was not about wildness or ecocentrism or the other-than-human world and our relationship to it. Instead it was about (human) social justice and (human) equality and (human) progress and ensuring that all these things could be realised without degrading the (human) resource-base which we used to call nature back when we were being naГЇve and problematic. Suddenly, never-ending economic growth was a good thing after all: the poor needed it to get rich, which was their right. To square the circle, for those who still realised there was a circle, we were told that “(human) social justice and environmental justice go hand in hand” - a suggestion of such bizarre inaccuracy that it could surely only be wishful thinking.</p> <p> Suddenly, sustaining a global human population of 10 billion people was not a problem at all, and anyone who suggested otherwise was not highlighting any obvious ecological crunch points but was giving succour to fascism or racism or gender discrimination or orientalism or essentialism or some other such hip and largely unexamined concept. The “real issue”, it seemed, was not the human relationship with the non-human world; it was fat cats and bankers and cap’lism. These things must be destroyed, by way of marches, protests and votes for fringe political parties, to make way for something known as “eco-socialism”: a conflation of concepts that pretty much guarantees the instant hostility of 95% of the population.</p> <p> I didn’t object to this because I thought that environmentalism should occupy the right rather than the left wing, or because I was rightwing myself, which I wasn’t (these days I tend to consider the entire bird with a kind of frustrated detachment). And I understood that there was at least a partial reason for the success of this colonisation of the greens by the reds. Modern environmentalism sprung partly from the early 20th-century conservation movement, and that movement had often been about preserving supposedly pristine landscapes at the expense of people. Forcing tribal people from their ancestral lands which had been newly designated as national parks, for example, in order to create a fictional “untouched nature” had once been fairly common, from Africa to the USA. And actually, Hitler had been something of an environmentalist, and the wellsprings which nourished some green thought nourished the thought of some other unsavoury characters too (a fact which some ideologues love to point to when witch-hunting the greens, as if it wouldn’t be just as easy to point out that ideas of equality and justice fuelled Stalin and Pol Pot). </p> <p> In this context it was fair enough to make it clear that environmentalism allied itself with ideas of justice and decency, and that it was about people as well as everything else on the planet. Of course it was, for “nature” as something separate from people has never existed. We are nature, and the environmentalist project was always supposed to be about how we are to be part of it, to live well as part of it, to understand and respect it, to understand our place within it and to feel it as part of ourselves.</p> <p> So there was a reason for environmentalism’s shift to the left, just as there was a reason for its blinding obsession with carbon. Meanwhile, the fact of what humans are doing to the world had become so obvious, even to those who were doing very well out of it, that it became hard not to listen to the greens. Success duly arrived. You can’t open a newspaper now or visit a corporate website or listen to a politician or read the label on a packet of biscuits without being bombarded with propaganda about the importance of “saving the planet”. But there is a terrible hollowness to it all; a sense that society is going through the motions without understanding why. The shift, the pact, has come at a probably fatal price.</p> <p> Now that price is being paid. The weird and unintentional pincer-movement of the failed left, with its class analysis of waterfalls and fresh air, and the managerial, carbon-Гјber-alles brigade has infiltrated, ironed out and reworked environmentalism for its own ends. Now it is not about the ridiculous beauty of coral, the mist over the fields at dawn. It is not about ecocentrism. It is not about reforging a connection between over-civilised people and the world outside their windows. It is not about living close to the land or valuing the world for the sake of the world. It is not about attacking the self-absorbed conceits of the bubble that our civilisation has become.</p> <p> Today’s environmentalism is about people. It is a consolation prize for a gaggle of washed-up Trots and at the same time, with an amusing irony, it is an adjunct to hyper-capitalism; the catalytic converter on the silver SUV of the global economy. It is an engineering challenge; a problem-solving device for people to whom the sight of a wild Pennine hilltop on a clear winter day brings not feelings of transcendence but thoughts about the wasted potential for renewable energy. It is about saving civilisation from the results of its own actions; a desperate attempt to prevent Gaia from hiccupping and wiping out our coffee shops and broadband connections. It is our last hope.</p> <p> The open land</p> <p> I generalise, of course. Environmentalism’s chancel is as accommodating as that of socialism, anarchism or conservatism, and just as capable of generating poisonous internal bickering that will last until the death of the sun. Many who call themselves green have little time for the mainstream line I am attacking here. But it is the mainstream line. It is how most people see environmentalism today, even if it is not how all environmentalists intend it to be seen. These are the arguments and the positions that popular environmentalism - now a global force - offers up in its quest for redemption. There are reasons; there are always reasons. But whatever they are, they have led the greens down a dark, litter-strewn dead end street, where the bins overflow, the lightbulbs have blown and the stray dogs are very hungry indeed.</p> <p> What is to be done about this? Probably nothing. It was perhaps inevitable that a utilitarian society would generate a utilitarian environmentalism, and inevitable too that the greens would not be able to last for long outside the established political bunkers. But for me, now - well, this is no longer mine, that’s all. I can’t make my peace with people who cannibalise the land in the name of saving it. I can’t speak the language of science without a corresponding poetry. I can’t speak with a straight face about saving the planet when what I really mean is saving myself from what is coming.</p> <p> Like all of us, I am a footsoldier of empire. It is the empire of Homo sapiens sapiens and it stretches from Tasmania to Baffin Island. Like all empires it is built on expropriation and exploitation, and like all empires it dresses these things up in the language of morality and duty. When we turn wilderness over to agriculture we speak of our duty to feed the poor. When we industrialise the wild places we speak of our duty to stop the climate from changing. When we spear whales we speak of our duty to science. When we raze forests we speak of our duty to develop. We alter the atmospheric makeup of the entire world: half of us pretends it’s not happening, the other half immediately starts looking for new machines that will reverse it. This is how empires work, particularly when they have started to decay. Denial, displacement, anger, fear.</p> <p> The environment is the victim of this empire. But “the environment” - that distancing word, that empty concept - does not exist. It is the air, the waters, the creatures we make homeless or lifeless in flocks and legions, and it is us too. We are it; we are in it and of it, we make it and live it, we are fruit and soil and tree, and the things done to the roots and the leaves come back to us. We make ourselves slaves to make ourselves free, and when the shackles start to rub we confidently predict the emergence of new, more comfortable designs.</p> <p> I don’t have any answers, if by answers we mean political systems, better machines, means of engineering some grand shift in consciousness. All I have is a personal conviction built on those feelings, those responses, that goes back to the moors of northern England and the rivers of southern Borneo - that something big is being missed. That we are both hollow men and stuffed men, and that we will keep stuffing ourselves until the food runs out and if outside the dining-room door we have made a wasteland and called it necessity, then at least we will know we were not to blame, because we are never to blame, because we are the humans. </p> <p> What am I to do with feelings like these? Useless feelings in a world in which everything must be made useful. Sensibilities in a world of utility. Feelings like this provide no “solutions”. They build no new eco-homes, remove no carbon from the atmosphere. This is head-in-the-clouds stuff, as relevant to our busy, modern lives as the new moon or the date of Lughnasadh. Easy to ignore, easy to dismiss, like the places that inspire the feelings, like the world outside the bubble, like the people who have seen it, if only in brief flashes beyond the ridge of some dark line of hills.</p> <p> But this is fine; the dismissal, the platitudes, the brusque moving-on of the grown-ups. It’s all fine. I withdraw, you see. I withdraw from the campaigning and the marching, I withdraw from the arguing and the talked-up necessity and all of the false assumptions. I withdraw from the words. I am leaving. I am going to go out walking. </p> <p> I am leaving on a pilgrimage to find what I left behind in the jungles and by the cold campfires and in the parts of my head and my heart that I have been skirting around because I have been busy fragmenting the world in order to save it; busy believing it is mine to save. I am going to listen to the wind and see what it tells me, or whether it tells me anything at all. You see, it turns out that I have more time than I thought. I will follow the songlines and see what they sing to me and maybe, one day, I might even come back. And if I am very lucky I might bring with me a harvest of fresh tales which I can scatter like apple seeds across this tired and angry continent.</p> <p> <i> About the author: Paul Kingsnorth is a writer. Among his books are One No, Many Yeses (Simon & Schuster, 2003) and Real England: The Battle Against the Bland (Portobello, 2008). He is co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project. His website is here</i> </p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/07/beyond-limits-to-growth.html" rel="bookmark" title="Beyond the limits to growth">Beyond the limits to growth</a><a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/07/book-urges-job-seekers-to-employ-power.html" rel="bookmark" title="Book urges job seekers to employ the power of seduction">Book urges job seekers to employ the power of seduction</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-17965506871055687942010-08-18T16:23:00.001-07:002010-08-18T16:55:46.034-07:00The dilemma of poverty in the South: equity or transformation<p> <p><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/rg_eb_foodprices_mdglogo.jpg" alt="equity or transformation" /></p> Serious traders see the trends before anyone else. They do so because their business depends on seeing the minute deviation that signals the beginning of a trend. </p> <p> Early in June 2010 commodities traders charted the new signals they were getting from the world's agricultural exporters and major consumers. What they saw then became the picture that in late July began to alarm governments and international development agencies. World foodgrain supplies were entering a new phase of tightening, as the impacts of drought and extreme weather in grain producing countries around the world became clear. </p> <p> For the trading community - whose strong and deep links with the world's financial markets and banks have become more visible since 2008 - the opportunity is large, perhaps even bigger than the one that slowly unfolded in 2007, when the last global food price crisis swept through cities and villages alike. For inter-governmental agencies such as the United Nations system, the news is a body blow to the idea and effort that has sustained work on social justice and equality.</p> <p> The Millennium Development Goals as a rallying point</p> <p> The effects of the 2007-08 food price crisis were still being unravelled when the 2009 financial crisis took hold. That prompted many UN agencies, major aid organisations and hundreds of large NGOs to quickly study the impact of both on their work, and on those whom they work for, which is the poor and marginalised on all continents. </p> <p> Much less visible and quite unrecognised is the impact of the same two crises on the small but philosophically very sound Transition Movement. Guided by tenets that became clear in the 1960s and 1970s, this constellation of movements (low carbon, sustainable communities, local resilience being some variations readily recognisable in the 'West') has adapted practices central to all ur-rural settlements, and continues to internalise the collected wisdom and practice of the world's indigenous peoples. </p> <p> In so doing, the Transition Movement in the 'West' (and therefore North) has for the most part been unable to conceptualise a response to the human development and social justice needs of the South. Much of this lack, as I see it, has to do with the very formidable inertness which western societies inherited from the transformations wrought by the Industrial Revolution, and the apparently incontrovertible ideas of 'progress' and 'growth', which by the time the Bretton Woods institutions came into being were well suited to form the core of a 'development economics' that has wrought havoc on both North and South, although in different periods of the 20th century. </p> <p> Transition ideas and praxis have had to therefore first wage an intellectual battle against 'development economics' and then launch a physical struggle against the socio-ecological degradation that followed such economics on the ground.</p> <p> ... the Transition Movement in the 'West' (and therefore North) has for the most part been unable to conceptualise a response to the human development and social justice needs of the South. </p> <p> There was and is no alternative. For governance and real representation, participatory democracy and transparent public finance are in tatters in most countries today, whether in North or South, whether these be parliamentary democracies or feudal oligarchies. </p> <p> If there is a dominant planetary economics which has emerged from the confusion around the apparent failure of 'development economics' it is the control of natural resources and the control of the conditions of their use. This ought therefore to be ideal circumstances for a renewed ecological economics, except for a vexed problem: equity or transformation? </p> <p> Achieving the social equity so solemnly inscribed on several dozen international and inter-governmental charters (remember Rio 1992?) requires greater access to both energy and resources. Ensuring that social equity is equipped to face the challenges of at least the next generation requires the principles of Transition and degrowth to be built into all new efforts. How can one exist with the other?</p> <p> A new report on the progress of the Millennium Development Goals (their deadline is 2015) gives us no answers, nor can it advise us, for it is meant to serve as a report card. Given its impressive roster of advising agencies, one expects the troublesome question at least to be posed, perhaps with a request for contributions towards an answer from Transition groups and peak oil discussants. But that is not the case. </p> <p> What we do know [about poverty] is that rural realities and living conditions are usually very different from the sketches contained in funding documents. Poverty is the main source of hunger now, not a lack of food. </p> <p> The report draws on the expertise of the following agencies: International Labour Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, World Health Organization, The World Bank, International Monetary Fund, International Telecommunication Union, Economic Commission for Africa, Economic Commission for Europe, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids, United Nations Children's Fund, United Nations Conference on Trade And Development, United Nations Development Fund for Women, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, United Nations Population Fund, International Trade Centre, Inter-Parliamentary Union, Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, and World Trade Organization. </p> <p> All these were enlisted - some ten years ago, some more recently - in the massive combined effort to progress towards the MDGs, as the Millennium Development Goals are telegraphically known.</p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/rg_eb_foodprices4.jpg" alt="equity or transformation" /></p> For a poor rural household, survival depends more on the degree to which social and natural capital has been husbanded. <i> (Millennium Development Goals Report 2010)</i> </p> <p> Their summary conclusions alas leave much to be desired especially for those who practice participatory economics and expect mature argumentation about the course towards social equity. Said the summary:<br /> "Robust growth in the first half of the decade reduced the number of people in developing regions living on less than US$ 1.25 a day from 1.8 billion in 1990 to 1.4 billion in 2005, while the poverty rate dropped from 46% to 27%.</p> <p> "The global economic and financial crisis, which began in the advanced economies of North America and Europe in 2008, sparked abrupt declines in exports and commodity prices and reduced trade and investment, slowing growth in developing countries. Nevertheless, the momentum of economic growth in developing countries is strong enough to sustain progress on the poverty reduction target. The overall poverty rate is still expected to fall to 15% by 2015, indicating that the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target can be met. This translates into around 920 million people living under the international poverty line - half the number in 1990."</p> <p> What 'poor' is and how to recognise it</p> <p> There are a host of problems with such a conclusion (even though it is somewhat qualified by detailed assessments of the eight MDGs). First, a dollar line-in-the-sand may be of use to conventional economists who are called upon to inform welfare spending, but it does not represent a 'poverty line' in the rural community. </p> <p> For a poor urban household, which is likely to have been a poor rural household until recently, US$ 1.25 a day is a rankly unfeasible sum to reckon with for daily survival. For a poor rural household, survival depends more on the degree to which social and natural capital has been husbanded, less on a sum of ringgit or escudo or naira (they are likely to be in debt anyway). Similarly, what is a "poverty rate" supposed to mean? If we take as an example, the income line in Indian rupees which defines an urban Indian poor person from a non-poor person, then that line has been set by the government of India at 539 rupees per person per month (which only to point out the difference between relative ideas of poverty is in fact US$ 0.37 per day, and so very much under the World Bank figure of US$ 1.25 per day). Does that mean the person with 600 rupees per month (US$ 12.50) is not poor, and can be exempted from the benefits that are allocated to one with 520 rupees a month?</p> <p> To argue for such a quota would be to deny social equity, and that is an argument that the government of India has - to its credit - kept current with a huge host of social scientists and voluntary aid organisations. The lines that define poverty are being re-cast, and even so will not become better equipped to describe poverty or dispel it. But it is important preoccupation because in the South, the question of poverty predates the idea of Transition. That is why Transition is at a sizeable disadvantage in 'developing' Asia, Africa and South America. Worse, events such as the food price rise of 2007-08 and the financial crisis of 2009 deepen the disadvantage, which is what will happen again with the developing food crisis of 2010-11. </p> <p> Already, earlier in 2010, an updated estimate in a World Bank working paper (the Bank still produces very useful development knowledge) placed an additional 50 million people in extreme poverty in 2009 and some 64 million by the end of 2010 relative to a no-crisis scenario, principally in sub-Saharan Africa and South and South-Eastern Asia. That means effects of such crises are seen early in poor populations, which are affected longer and which are rendered vulnerable to the ills of 'development economics' sooner. That is also why the Millennium Development Goals Report 2010, which is meant to be a landmark assessment, is forced to say that "poverty rates will be slightly higher in 2015 and even beyond, to 2020, than they would have been had the world economy grown steadily at its pre-crisis pace". Even so it cannot jettison its automatic and fundamental working assumption that 'poverty' and 'economic growth' are inextricably linked. </p> <p> It is this schizophrenia by an intergovernmental body, on a matter so grave, that signals to the Transition Movement why progress towards sustainable local societies will have to be a matter of local awakening and change, whether in the North or South.</p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/rg_eb_foodprices5.jpg" alt="equity or transformation" /></p> Admitting that "poverty rates will be slightly higher in 2015 and even beyond"... <i> (Millennium Development Goals Report 2010)</i> </p> <p> Despite all the evidence to the contrary since 2008, the 'development economics' bloc in the UN system have still had their way. This is why the MDGs 2010 assessment says, without acknowledging its contrariness in the least, that<br /> "Poverty rates in China are expected to fall to around 5 per cent by 2015. India, too, has contributed to the large reduction in global poverty. Measured at the $1.25 a day poverty line, poverty rates there are expected to fall from 51 per cent in 1990 to 24 per cent in 2015, and the number of people living in extreme poverty will likely decrease by 188 million. All developing regions except sub-Saharan Africa, Western Asia and parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia are expected to achieve the MDG target." </p> <p> What we do know is that rural realities and living conditions are usually very different from the sketches contained in funding documents. Poverty is the main source of hunger now, not a lack of food. Efficiency has become a central theme, which means getting higher yields on small plots with fewer inputs of water and chemical/synthetic fertiliser. It hasn't helped that government investment in basic research and development on agriculture, in the countries of the South, is very little. Here are a few points that help explain why the MDGs assessment is crippled by its reluctance to face facts: In 2009, more than 1 billion people went undernourished - their food intake regularly providing less than minimum energy requirements - not because there isn't enough food, but because people are too poor to buy it. The US$1.25 a day line (which can be replaced by any currency unit at any ruling amount) does not describe a poverty threshold. At best it provides a measure of one marker out of many for poverty, and even that marker needs to be localised for it to have community meaning. Although the highest rates of hunger are in sub-Saharan Africa - correlated with poverty - most of the world's undernourished people are in Asia and particularly South Asia.<br /> <br> </p> The percentage of chronically hungry people in the developing world had been dropping for years even though the number of hungry worldwide has barely dipped. But the food price crisis in 2008 reversed these years of slow gains, and now the gathering 2010-11 food crisis (a shortage of availability coupled with price rise) will further reverse the gains. There is another linkage, that of population. Scientists long feared a great population boom that would stress food production, but population growth is slowing and could plateau by 2050 as family size in almost all poorer countries falls to roughly 2.2 children per family. Even as population has risen, the overall production of food has meant that the fairly weighted global average of available calories per person has increased, not decreased. Producing enough food in the future is possible, but doing so without drastically sapping other resources, particularly water and energy, is not (which is exactly where Transition concepts and praxis come in).<br /> <br> </p> An outlook published in 2009 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says that current cropland could be more than doubled by adding 1.6 billion hectares - mostly from South America and Africa - without impinging on land needed for forests, protected areas or urbanisation. But Britain's Royal Society has advised against substantially increasing cultivated land, arguing that this would damage ecosystems and biodiversity. Instead, it backs "sustainable intensification," which has become the priority of many agricultural research agencies. <p> <p><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/rg_eb_foodprices3.jpg" alt="equity or transformation" /></p> Poverty is the main source of hunger now, not a lack of food. <i> (Millennium Development Goals Report 2010)</i> </p> <p> The answer to the question, "sustainable intensification" for who, will usually be, "the poor and especially the rural poor who produce much of what the world actually eats". In his online diary, Duncan Green, head of research for Oxfam Britain and author of the book 'From Poverty to Power' describes poverty simply and directly.<br /> "Ask poor people what poverty is like, and they typically talk about fear, humiliation and ill health, at least as much as money. But can the non-income dimensions of poverty be measured in a way that allows policy makers to weigh priorities and allocate resources? If not, the danger (as often happens) is that decision makers and documents initially nod towards the many dimensions of poverty, but by paragraph two, you're back in $ per day territory. And all too often, in policy terms, if it can't be measured, it gets ignored." </p> <p> Understanding the many dimensions of 'poverty'</p> <p> It is for this persistent reason that the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) has been working for years to try and develop such metrics, and they recently launched the 'Multidimensional Poverty Index' (MPI), which will feature in the 2010 UNDP Human Development Report, which is also celebrating its 20th anniversary and a long and successful run of the Human Development Index, which has contributed more towards a global understanding of what it means to be poor, and the causes of poverty, than all the lofty inter-governmental pronouncements of the last century put together. </p> <p> The Multidimensional Poverty Index is a set of measures that ought to be studied carefully by all groups practicing and advocating the Transition to a low-carbon future, the imperative of degrowth and the primacy of sustainable means of production and consumption. Understanding what make people poor is, at this point, critical to the uptake of 'Transition' as a secular living philosophy and critical to its adoption in the South. To do so it will be adapted endlessly, and it order to design it to be as flexible as possible, knowing what 'poor' is becomes fundamental.</p> <p> To summarise what the new equation to measure poverty, in more dimensions than previously attempted, is made up of: there are 10 indicators of health (child mortality and nutrition), education (years of schooling and child enrolment) and standard of living (access to electricity, drinking water, sanitation, flooring, cooking fuel and basic assets like a radio or bicycle). </p> <p> This makes the MPI a quite logical extension of its predecessor, the United Nations Development Programme's pioneering Human Development Index which combined life expectancy, education (literacy and enrolment rates) and GDP per capita (one can see the diminishing of GDP in the evolution of the HDI over the years; perhaps five years from now the successor to the current MPI will have found a way to do away with 'gross' and 'national' as being a contributing factor in any way). </p> <p> Understanding what make people poor is, at this point, critical to the uptake of 'Transition' as a secular living philosophy and critical to its adoption in the South. </p> <p> There will no doubt be a successor, for while it is a step forward from the existing Human Development Index, there are still many facets of poverty that it doesn't touch on, such as conflict, personal security, domestic and social violence, issues of ethnic and community power, and personal and family/tribe/clan empowerment. This is partly because it still relies on existing data sets, focusing on how to use differently the data we are already collecting, rather than proposing fresh conceptual frameworks on critical dimensions of poverty. There's no doubt that constructing such frameworks is at least as laborious as using existing data differently, and therefore the MPI has chosen to be more practical for now in place of radical.</p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/rg_eb_foodprices1.preview.jpg" alt="equity or transformation" /></p> From World Bank working paper, 'The Impact of Economic Shocks on Global Undernourishment', 2010 February"</p> <p> How different do the world's poor look when viewed through the MPI instead of the HDI? Not very, at first sight. Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative researchers explained their work and the difference it makes as follows:<br /> "OPHI researchers analysed data from 104 countries with a combined population of 5.2 billion (78% of the world total). About 1.7 billion people in the countries covered - a third of their entire population - live in multidimensional poverty, according to the MPI. This exceeds the 1.3 billion people, in those same countries, estimated to live on US$ 1.25 a day or less, the more commonly accepted measure of 'extreme' poverty."</p> <p> " That's startling, but the MPI also captures distinct and broader aspects of poverty. For example, in Ethiopia 90% of people are 'MPI poor' compared to the 39% who are classified as living in 'extreme poverty' under income terms alone. Conversely, 89% of Tanzanians are extreme income-poor, compared to 65% who are MPI poor. The MPI captures deprivations directly - in health and educational outcomes and key services, such as water, sanitation and electricity. In some countries these resources are provided free or at low cost; in others they are out of reach even for many working people with an income.</p> <p> For me, an Indian South Asian, the MPI's most striking contribution to the understanding of poverty was in its revealing of how acute poverty is persistent in India. We have seen this at such close quarters and in such excruciating detail that it forms a permanent background to the phoney story of India's economic growth. Any closer look points to the plain truth about such 'growth' - it exacts a terrible social and natural cost, and one of the ways that cost becomes visible is when the incidence of poverty surrounds us, in cities and towns more dramatically, in rural districts more invisibly. </p> <p> Half of the world's poor as measured by the MPI live in South Asia (51% or 844 million people) and one quarter in Africa (28% or 458 million). Niger has the greatest intensity and incidence of poverty in any country, with 93% of the population classified as poor in MPI terms. The MPI data for India should have shocked its smug urban consumers: there are more MPI poor people in eight Indian states alone (421 million in the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal) than in the 26 poorest African countries combined (410 million)!</p> <p> For me, an Indian South Asian, the MPI's most striking contribution to the understanding of poverty was in its revealing of how acute poverty is persistent in India. </p> <p> From a South Asian point of view, the MPI poor in those eight states have already begun to be assaulted in the food price and food availability dimensions by the food crisis of 2010-11. The data I have on consumer price index for agricultural labour in India (used as a reliable series for rural farming and sharecropping households) shows a steady increase since the second quarter of 2009, when the effects of the 2007-08 food price rise began to wane. The data also show that the rise in the consumer price index for food staples for this section of the population is already as steep as it was in 2007, the difference between then and now being that in late 2009, it began from a higher price point! </p> <p> When compared with data for other regions that host chronically poor populations in the South (such as Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sudan, Tanzania, Chad, Mali, Kenya, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Haiti, Somalia) the pattern is striking. In a year, the price of sorghum rose 39% in Khartoum (Sudan), wheat rose 24% in Lahore (Pakistan), maize rose 22% in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), sorghum rose 21% in Abeche (Chad), millet rose 17% in Bamako (Mali), maize rose 14% in Nairobi (Kenya), beans rose 58% in Bujumbura (Burundi), maize rose 36% in Harare (Zimbabwe), rice rose 27% in Dhaka (Bangladesh), rice rose 23% in Port-au-Prince (Haiti) and sorghum rose 21% in Lasanod (Somalia).</p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/rg_eb_foodprices7.preview.jpg" alt="equity or transformation" /></p> Illustration from a Practical Action campaign on making the link between climate change and poverty</p> <p> The gathering challenge for Transition</p> <p> The swelling food crisis of 2010-11 is already showing why the conditions that fed it are different from those in 2007-08. In 2010, the links between the financial markets and agricultural trade flows have both become stronger and more visible. This has happened through (a) the growth and size of agricultural commodity markets and (b) the expansion in size and reach of powerful transnational and national food conglomerates, which are investing heavily in deep forward and backward integration of the crop, food trade, storage, processing and retail businesses. </p> <p> These are the conditions that face the South and the MPI/HDI poor in 2010. Before 2007, commodity index funds had become the primary vehicle for speculative capital involvement in food commodity markets. The number of derivative contracts in commodities were estimated to have increased more than five-fold between 2002 and mid-2008, and in the aftermath of the 2008 price spikes it came to be known that speculators had dominated long positions (in which the holder owns the contract, and therefore profits from its price rising) in food commodities.</p> <p> At the time the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) concluded in a study:<br /> ""Part of the commodity price boom between 2002 and mid-2008, as well as the subsequent decline in commodity prices, were due to the financialisation of commodity markets."</p> <p> " Unctad's view was that financial investors accelerated and amplified price movements driven by fundamental supply and demand factors, a view that was shared within the financial sector too. Those accelerated and amplified price movements have not been banished by new regulations demanded after 2008 as controls for commodity markets. Rather, they have in Asia, Africa and South America been turned into a set of opportunities by a fast-growing industry (food production, processing and distribution) which is quickly gaining policy support. </p> <p> For 2010-11 therefore, the commodities-plus-financial speculation activity which is blamed for the 2007-08 food price spike is now part of a worryingly larger armoury being deployed by the global food merchants and their powerful regional satraps. </p> <p> The sprawling urban slumlands that provide the human and household services for the huge cities of the South have been turned into real test beds for financial and commodities speculators in which to play out scenarios of consolidation and dominance. The picture that emerges from this pattern is one that is vast in industrial scale and scope, and in which the smallholder farmer is further reduced to a negligible factor or to a disenfranchised migrant.</p> <p> Into the conveniently created moral breach stepped the global agro-biotech industry in its avatar of global solidarity. This is how one such breach was exploited in Kenya, with sub-Saharan Africa the target. In 2008, Monsanto partnered with the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, a non-profit research organisation in Nairobi. It announced its aim: to apply the techniques and discoveries it has made with its commercial drought-tolerant maize to developing drought-tolerant varieties for subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, to be available as quickly as possible after commercialisation in the USA. An article in the journal Nature (29 July 2010) reported:<br /> "The partnership, which is also funded with US$ 47 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Howard G Buffett Foundation is one of a handful of exceptionally large projects established in recent years in which public and private sectors have joined forces to tackle food scarcity in developing countries. The companies say that these investments are just good business sense because they will create future customers as developing-world farmers gradually move from subsistence to profits, making money to spend on seed."</p> <p> This is an example that powerfully brings together the new combinations that the idea and praxis of Transition must learn to confront. The objective is naked - using food scarcity as the excuse (a scarcity designed in and by the financial markets and commodity oligopolists) small farmers are to be turned into perpetual consumers of high-cost inputs, swapping poverty ("subsistence") for a vassalage accompanied by the renunciation of their rights as stewards of rural communities. </p> <p> This ugly and dangerous caricature is everything Transition is not, a ghastly doppelganger now being deployed in country after southern country. </p> <p> At this point, the Transition Movement of the 'West' and North can look back at a run of more successes than defeats, as the slow internal dismantling of western democracies slowly plays itself out. The gains of such Transition however can be swiftly and clinically neutralised by global crises such as the two we have recently lived through and the third which has begun. </p> <p> The responses of global solidarity fixes - orchestrated by the inter-governmental agencies and exploited by the finance overlords - will test the intellectual strength and integrity of the Transition idea to its utmost, as control of the means with which poverty can be ended will be a defining struggle.</p> <p> Related reading:</p> <p> The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010<br /> 'Feeding the city series on Grist and urban agriculture - Aug 10'<br /> The 2010-11 foodgrain crisis<br /> 'Is the Next Global Food Crisis Now in the Making?'<br /> The intersecting issues of climate, population, water, and biodiversity</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/06/global-scenarios-for-century-ahead.html" rel="bookmark" title="Global scenarios for the century ahead: searching for sustainability">Global scenarios for the century ahead: searching for sustainability</a><a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/homeowners-favor-short-term-loans.html" rel="bookmark" title="Homeowners favor short-term loans">Homeowners favor short-term loans</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-23721272952079576712010-08-18T16:22:00.001-07:002010-08-18T16:55:43.401-07:00Peak Everything: Preface to the paperback edition<p> <i> <p><img src="http://www.postcarbon.org/new-site-files/Articles/peak-everything-pb.jpg" alt="Preface to the paperback edition" /></p> Note: Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines will be released in paperback this month (September) by New Society Publishers.</i> <i> </i> In titling this book “Peak Everything,” I was suggesting that humanity has achieved an unsustainable pinnacle of population size and consumption rates, and that the road ahead will be mostly downhill—at least for the next few decades, until our species has learned to live within Earth’s resource limits. I argued that the industrial expansion of the past century or two was mainly due to our accelerating use of the concentrated energies of cheap fossil fuels; and that as oil, coal, and natural gas cease to be cheap and abundant, economic growth will phase into contraction. I further pointed out that world oil production was at, or very nearly at its peak, and that the imminent decline in extraction rates will be decisive, because global transport is nearly all oil-dependent, and there is currently no adequate substitute for petroleum. Finally, I noted that the shift from growth to contraction will impact every aspect of human existence—financial systems, food systems, global trade—at both the macro and micro levels, threatening even our personal psychological coping mechanisms. Nothing has happened in the past three years to change that outlook—but much has transpired to confirm it. A good case can now be made that the year 2007, when this book originally appeared, was indeed the year, if not of “peak everything,” then at least of “peak many things.” Since then we have begun a scary descent from the giddy heights of consumption achieved in the early years of this century. Worldwide economic activity began to decline in 2008 and does not appear set to return to 2007 levels any time soon.Global energy consumption likewise achieved its zenith in the years 2005 through 2007; since then, consumption growth has been confined to the Asian economies and a few oil and gas exporting nations.Personal income in the U.S. (excluding government benefits) is still far below total and per capita levels registered in 2007.Worldwide shipping, a good index of global trade and manufacturing, peaked in 2007. Of course it is simplistic to argue that <i> everything</i> has peaked (though <i> Peak Everything</i> makes for a better book title than “Some Things Peaking Now, Most Others Soon”). Perhaps the most glaring exception is human population, which continues to grow and is virtually certain to pass the seven billion mark within the next couple of years. Here’s another non-peak: China’s economy is still growing rapidly, at the astonishing rate of 8 to 10 percent per year. That means it is more than doubling in size every ten years. Indeed, China consumes more than twice as much coal as it did a decade ago—the same with iron ore and oil. That nation now has four times as many highways as it did, and almost five times as many cars. How long this can go on is anyone’s guess. But surely not many more doublings in consumption rates can occur before China has used up its key resources. For what it’s worth, my forecast is for China’s continuing boom to be very short-lived. As I argued in my recent book <i> Blackout, </i> there are hard limits to China’s coal supplies (the world as a whole will experience peak coal consumption within the next two decades, but China will get there sooner than most other countries because of its extraordinary consumption rate—currently three times that of the U.S.). Since China has no viable short-term alternatives to coal to fuel its industrial machine, by 2020 or so (and possibly much sooner) that country will have joined the rest of the world in a process of economic contraction that will continue until levels of consumption can be maintained by renewable resources harvested at sustainable rates. World population growth may likewise continue for a shorter period than is commonly believed, if global food production and economic activity peak soon in response to declining energy availability. In short, the world has changed in a fundamental way in the past three years, and the reverberations will continue for decades to come. Indeed, we have just seen the beginning of an overwhelming transformation of life as we’ve known it. Let’s look at a few specific factors driving this transformation, starting with limits to world supplies of petroleum. Oil Spike Triggers Economic Crisis It is still unclear whether world oil extraction rates have reached their absolute maximum level. As of this writing, the record year for world crude oil production was 2005, and the record month was July 2008. The 2005 to 2008 leveling-off of extraction rates occurred in the context of steadily rising oil prices; indeed, in July 2008 oil prices spiked 50 percent higher than the previous inflation-adjusted record, set in the 1970s. As a result of that price spike, the global airline industry went into a tailspin and the auto industry crashed and burned. The only serious argument that world oil production <i> could theoretically</i> continue to grow for more than a very few years is put forward by parties who explain away the evidence of declining discoveries, depleting oilfields, and stagnating total production by claiming that it is <i> demand </i> for oil that has peaked, not supply—a distinction that hinges on the fact that oil prices these days are so high as to discourage demand. But since high prices for a commodity are usually a sign of scarcity, the “peak demand” argument really amounts to a distinction without a difference. The oil situation is dire enough that one might assume it would be dominating headlines daily. Yet in fact it garners little attention. That’s because the world’s ongoing and worsening oil crisis has been obscured by a more dramatic and obvious financial catastrophe. As we all know only too well, Wall Street banks—which had spent the past couple of decades giddily building themselves a quadrillion-dollar house of cards—went into a free-fall swoon in the latter half of 2008 (right after the oil price spike), only to be temporarily rescued with trillions of dollars of government bailouts and guarantees. It was a spine-tingling show—and would have amounted to months of fine entertainment, had it not been for the fact that millions of jobs, thousands of small businesses, and the economies of several sovereign nations also came tumbling down, and there just weren’t enough trillions available to rescue all of them (it obviously pays to be “too big to fail” and to have friends in high places). The financial aspects of the crisis were so Byzantine, and the cast of players so opulently and impudently villainous, that it was easy to forget the simple truism that all money is, in the end, merely a claim on resources, energy, and labor. A financial system built on staggering amounts of debt and the anticipation of both unending economic growth and absurdly high returns on investments can only work if labor is always getting cheaper, and supplies of energy and resources are always growing—and even then occasional hiccups are to be expected. But that set of conditions is <i> so</i> last century. While the oil price run-up was hardly the sole cause of the ongoing world economic crisis, it has effectively imposed a limit to any possibility of “recovery”: as soon as economic activity advances, oil prices will again spike, causing yet another financial crunch. Thus Peak Oil likely represents the first of the limits to growth that will turn a century of economic expansion into decades of contraction. But more constraints are lining up in the stage wings, ready to make their entrance. Evidence of Peak Non-Renewable Resources In the original edition of this book, increasing scarcity of non-energy minerals was barely mentioned. In the three years since, the subject has received increasing attention from researchers and journalists. One report, “Increasing Global Nonrenewable Natural Resource Scarcity,” by Chris Clugston (a former corporate executive), deserves a couple of quotes here. Clugston analyzed 57 non-renewable natural resources (NNRs) in terms of production levels and price. He begins his report by pointing out that During the 20th century, global production levels associated with 56 of the 57 analyzed NNRs (98%) increased annually, while global price levels associated with 45 of the 57 analyzed NNRs (79%) decreased annually. Generally increasing global NNR production levels in conjunction with generally decreasing global NNR price levels indicate relative global NNR abundance during the 20th century. On the whole, global NNR supplies kept pace with ever-increasing global demand during the 20th century.</p> So far, so good. But that’s changing. Generally slowing or declining global NNR production growth in conjunction with generally increasing global NNR prices indicate increasing NNR scarcity during the early years of the 21st century. . . . Annual global production levels increased during the 20th century, then decreased during the 21st century; while annual price levels decreased during the 20th century, then increased during the 21st century. . . . <p> Clugston’s conclusion: “We are not about to ‘run out’ of any NNR; we are about to run ‘critically short’ of many.”</p> <p> The same message appeared in a prominent article in <i> New Scientist </i> magazine on May 23, 2007, “Earth’s Natural Wealth: An Audit.” Here’s a useful tidbit from that article: </p> <p> Take the metal gallium, which along with indium is used to make indium gallium arsenide. This is the semiconducting material at the heart of a new generation of solar cells that promise to be up to twice as efficient as conventional designs. Reserves of both metals are disputed, but in a recent report Renй Kleijn, a chemist at Leiden University in the Netherlands, concludes that current reserves “would not allow a substantial contribution of these cells” to the future supply of solar electricity. He estimates gallium and indium will probably contribute to less than 1 per cent of all future solar cells—a limitation imposed purely by a lack of raw material.</p> The specifics with regard to supplies of a host of nonrenewable resources can be examined easily with a few mouse clicks using the U.S. Minerals Databrowser, which features data from the U.S. Geological Survey. The Resource Pyramid When presented with evidence of depleting stores of fossil fuels and minerals, some still object: New technology will enable us to continue increasing the amount of energy available to us. And if we have enough energy, we can solve our other supply problems: We can desalinate ocean water, grow crops in multi-storey greenhouses, and breed limitless supplies of fish in captivity. We can capture mineral resources from very low-grade ores. We can even mine gold and uranium from ocean water. We can harvest minerals on other planets and ferry them back to Earth. With enough energy, anything is possible! As an example of what can be done with technology, just consider what has happened in the natural gas industry in the past couple of years: horizontal drilling and “fracking” (fracturing dense gas-bearing rocks with water and chemicals) have expanded U.S. gas reserves and production rates, at a time when energy pessimists had been forecasting a supply collapse. This “unconventional” gas is more than making up for declines in conventional natural gas. In fact, however, the natural gas situation offers an instructive example of what depletion looks like. Depletion of oil, gas, coal, and other nonrenewable resources is often wrongly portrayed as “running out,” as though it indicated the complete exhaustion of the substance. What we are really talking about are the inevitable consequences of the tendency of resource extractors to take the low-hanging fruit first, and to leave difficult, expensive, low-quality, and environmentally ruinous resources to be extracted later. Unconventional gas is more expensive to produce than conventional gas, and extracting it has worse environmental impacts (due to the need to inject a toxic brew of chemicals underground to break up the rock). The result: “fracking” technology may have enabled the industry to gain access to new sources of gas, but natural gas prices will have to rise significantly to make the business of producing this new gas profitable over the long run—and no one knows how long that “long run” is likely to be, given the rapid depletion rates of most unconventional gas wells. Geologists and others who routinely deal with mineral ores and fossil fuels commonly speak of a “resource pyramid”: the capstone represents the easily and cheaply extracted portion of the resource; the next layer is the portion of the resource base that can be extracted with more difficulty and expense, and with worse environmental impacts; while the remaining bulk of the pyramid represents resources unlikely to be extracted under any realistic pricing scenario. The optimist may assume that the entire pyramid will eventually be usable, but this is simply not realistic. We have built a society on the basis of <i> cheap </i> energy and materials. At some point, as we move down the layers of the resource pyramid, rising commodity prices and increasing environmental cleanup costs (think Deepwater Horizon) will undercut both demand for resources and economic activity in general. As that happens, we see not just higher prices, but more volatile prices. This is exactly what happened with the oil price spike of 2008. Many commentators who understand the essence of the Peak Oil dilemma have tended to assume that, as petroleum and other resources become scarcer, commodity prices will simply escalate in a linear fashion. What we saw instead was a rapid rise in prices (driven by rising demand and falling supply, and then exacerbated by speculation) precipitating an economic crash, followed by collapsing oil prices and curtailed investment in oil exploration—which, in due course, will provoke another rapid price rise. The cycle begins again. Each time the cycle churns, it will likely have an even more devastating economic impact. The same will happen with natural gas as conventional gas grows scarce and the industry is forced to rely on quickly depleting and expensive-to-produce shale gas; and the same will happen with copper, uranium, indium, and rare-earth elements. Meanwhile, we will puzzle over the fact that the economy just doesn’t seem to work the way it once did. Instead of having plenty of energy with which to mine gold from seawater, we will find we don’t have enough cheap fuel to keep the airline industry aloft. Alternative non-fossil energy sources will come on line, but not quickly enough to keep up with the depletion of oil, coal, and gas. Prices of energy and raw materials will gyrate giddily, but the actual amounts consumed will be dropping. In general, labor costs will be falling and raw materials prices rising—the exact reverse of what occurred during the 20th century; but the adjustments will be anything but gradual. It will take most folks a while to realize the simple fact that conventional economic growth is over. Done. Dead. Extinct. The End of Growth—and What Comes After The economic crash of 2008 is commonly perceived as another in a long series of recessions, from which a recovery will inevitably ensue. Recessions always end with recovery; of course this one will as well—or so we are told. Yet now the situation is different. With oil production peaking, climate changing, and fresh water, soil, fish, and minerals depleting at alarming rates, the computer-based scenarios of the 1972 <i> Limits to Growth </i> study seem thoroughly and frighteningly confirmed. Decades of expansion fueled by consumption and debt are ending; the time has come to pay bills, tighten belts, and prepare for a future of economic downsizing. Now and again we may see a year that boasts higher economic activity than the previous one. But we will probably never see aggregate activity higher than that in 2007. The Asian economies of China and India will be brief hold-outs from this general trend; but, as coal supplies in that part of the world tighten, even the “Asian tigers” will soon be forced to confront limits to growth. Contemplating the end of growth—not as a theoretical possibility, but as a <i> fait accompli</i> , forced upon us by circumstances largely of our own making—is of course a bit depressing. The 20th century was one long expansionary surge interrupted by a couple of nasty World Wars and a Depression. At the beginning of that century world population stood at a little over 1.5 billion; by century’s end, it was 6 billion. In the industrialized West, per capita GDP grew from an average of $5000 to nearly $30,000 (in inflation-adjusted terms). We all came to believe that “progress” would go on like this more or less forever. We would build colonies on the Moon, other planets, maybe even in other solar systems; we would conquer disease and hunger—it was only a matter of time. But while we were planning for utopia, we were in fact setting the stage for collapse. We were depleting our planet’s usable resources and altering the composition of Earth’s atmosphere. And we were building a global financial regime built on the expectation of perpetually expanding consumption and debt, a regime that could not function in a condition of stasis or contraction without generating billowing crises of default, insolvency, and foreclosure. So, instead of being characterized by a continuation of the upward trajectory we have all grown accustomed to, the 21st century is destined to be one long downward glide punctuated by moments of financial, political, and geopolitical panic. And in retrospect, we’ll all probably eventually agree that our descent began in 2008. We really have reached Peak Everything . . . but we’ve barely had a chance to enjoy the view; how brief was our moment at the apex! From here on, it’s going to be a bumpy downward roller-coaster ride. What’s the Point? Why bother to mention any of this? Is it just to wallow in cynicism? Clearly, the only useful purpose would be to somehow improve our collective prospects. Further economic growth may not be an option for global society, but that doesn’t necessarily signify the end of the world. Indeed, the range of possible futures arrayed ahead of us is still wide, encompassing everything from (at one end of the scale) graceful industrial decline leading to a mature, sustainable world community of re-localized cultures, to (at the other end) human extinction, or something very close to it. It’s not hard to see what could lead to the latter outcome. If we are all still planning for expansion and it doesn’t ensue, many people will likely become furious and look for someone to blame. Politicians, seeking to avoid that blame and channel citizens’ anger for purposes of their own aggrandizement, will offer scapegoats. Some of those will be domestic, some foreign. Scapegoating of nations, religions, and ethnicities will lead to global violence. Meanwhile very little attention will go toward addressing the underlying problems of resource depletion and environmental degradation (the death of the oceans, collapsing agricultural production due to climate change and desertification, etc.)—problems that warfare will only exacerbate. Add nuclear weapons, stir vigorously, and voila: a recipe for utter and complete destruction. It doesn’t have to end that way. If we understand the nature of the limits we are confronting, it is still possible to back our way out of the population-resources <i> cul de sac</i> humanity has entered. In other words, if we plan for contraction, we are likely to do a much better job of transitioning to a sustainable level of population and consumption than if we are still planning for growth and are continually finding our plans frustrated. The first thing we must do to plan successfully for contraction is to set achievable goals, using sensible indicators. We must cease aiming for increases in scale, amplitude, and speed with regard to nearly every material parameter of the economy. We must aim instead to increase society’s resilience—its ability to absorb shocks while continuing to function. That means re-localizing much economic activity. We must aim also to shore up basic support services, education, and cultural benefits, while de-emphasizing economic activity that entails non-essential consumption of resources. Attainment of these goals will be greatly facilitated by the adoption of appropriate indicators. Currently, nearly all nations use Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as their primary economic indicator. GDP represents the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year, and a rising GDP is generally taken as a sign of progress. If GDP is set to decline relentlessly in a post-growth world, then we need a way to focus our collective attention on non-consumptive aspects of economic and civic life so as to motivate useful action in directions where progress is still possible. Fortunately, alternative economic indicators are beginning to garner attention in cities and nations around the world. I discuss the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) on page 17 of the Introduction of this book, but it’s also important to mention Gross National Happiness (GNH). That term was coined in 1972 by Bhutan’s former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck to signal his commitment to building an economy that would preserve Bhutan’s Buddhist culture as the nation opened trade with the West. Canadian health epidemiologist Michael Pennock helped design GNH, and has advocated the adoption of a “de-Bhutanized” version of it in his home city of Victoria, British Columbia. Recently, Seattle has also expressed interest in adopting GNH. Med Jones, President of International Institute of Management, has elaborated on GNH, measuring socioeconomic development across seven areas, including the nation’s mental and emotional health:Economic Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of consumer debt, average income to consumer price index ratio, and income distribution;Environmental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of environmental metrics such as pollution, noise, and traffic;Physical Wellness: Indicated via statistical measurement of physical health metrics such as severe illnesses;Mental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of mental health metrics such as usage of antidepressants and rise or decline in number of psychotherapy patients;Workplace Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of labor metrics such as jobless claims, job change, workplace complaints, and lawsuits;Social Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of social metrics such as discrimination, safety, divorce rates, complaints of domestic conflicts and family lawsuits, public lawsuits, and crime rates; andPolitical Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of political metrics such as the quality of local democracy, individual freedom, and foreign conflicts. Contraction in population levels and consumption rates doesn’t sound like much fun, but a few decades of improvement in Gross National Happiness—potentially achievable at least in five or six of the above metrics—should be an attractive notion to most people. The related idea that life can be better without fossil fuels is a core tenet of the Transition Town movement, which started in England in 2005 (I quote its founder, Rob Hopkins, on pages 135-136). Transition Initiatives are grassroots efforts to wean communities off dependence on oil and other carbon fuels by promoting local resilience (through development of things like local food systems and ride-share programs). Transitioners realize that it is probably futile to wait for elected officials to take the lead in planning for the great energy shift, given that very few politicians understand our predicament—and given also that, even if they did, the measures they would likely propose would be deeply unpopular unless the populace were educated about constraints on fossil-fueled growth. The genius of the movement lies in its engagement of the citizenry first. The Transition Initiatives appear to be taking off virally, with nearly 300 official sites around the world and over 70 in North America (as of mid-2010). During the past two years, car sales in North America have declined while bicycle sales have soared; the number of young people taking up farming has increased for the first time in decades; and organic seed companies have had a tough time keeping up with mushrooming demand from home gardeners. These trends show that higher fuel prices and public awareness will indeed motivate behavior change. But we have a very long way to go before we, the people of the world, have broken our dependency on fossil fuels, scaled back our use of other resources, and sufficiently reduced our impact on natural systems. Meanwhile, public education and citizen-led efforts (like the Transition Initiatives) are essential now to build community resilience so as to absorb the economic and environmental shocks that at on their way, and to help us all adjust to life after growth. <p> The peak has happened. Get over it—and get to work. </p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/06/home-construction-fails-to-lift.html" rel="bookmark" title="Home construction fails to lift recovery">Home construction fails to lift recovery</a><a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/06/if-there-was-ever-moment-to-seize.html" rel="bookmark" title="If There Was Ever a Moment to Seize">If There Was Ever a Moment to Seize</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-78538095645881431732010-08-16T14:21:00.003-07:002010-08-18T16:55:40.903-07:00The fate of New Orleans hangs in an uncomfortable balance with Mother Nature<p> <p><img src="http://www.hurricanekatrinanews.org/HurricaneKatrina.jpg" alt="The fate of New Orleans hangs in an uncomfortable balance with Mother Nature" /></p> <br /> Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the havoc Mother Nature can play on a modern city. </p> <p> It also brought to light the way our concerns about economics can compromise people’s safety when we attempt to control Nature.</p> <p> Over one million people in the Gulf area were affected by “the storm,” as residents call it, including just about everyone in New Orleans. Ninety percent of this 485,000-person city evacuated as 125,000 homes were severely damaged and 250,000 homes were summarily destroyed. </p> <p> “The 150 mph winds from the east funneled water into the man-made navigation canals and the Category 5 surge strength made the levees breach starting with the 17th Street Canal of the Industrial Canal,” said Richard Campanella, associate director of Tulane University's Center for Bioenvironmental Research and a research professor with Tulane's Department of Earth and Environmental Science. “Sixteen feet of water poured into an area that was four feet below sea level. That caused a flood of 20 feet in St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward. This area had been developed after Hurricane Betsy [of 1965].” </p> <p> “There was no electricity and the city was empty, with no sound, no birds and in complete darkness,” said Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) relating her feelings a few days after the storm as she looked over the city from a high bridge. The born and bred Orleanian and former mayor found Katrina's damage to be an unbelievable “out of body experience.” </p> <p> They both spoke at the annual conference of the American Planning Association (APA) recently, which focused on the effects of Katrina and the recovery effort.</p> <p> “Topography does matter,” said Campanella, who pointed out that sea level increased by four inches during the 20th century and predicted that in another 100 years they will rise another 41 inches, mostly due to climate change. (The U.S. Global Change Research Program reports that by 2100 global sea level is projected to rise 19 inches along most of the U.S. coastline.)</p> <p> While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is usually fingered as the culprit of Katrina flooding, responsibility really rests squarely on the shoulders of all those who believe they can control the Mississippi River and make the land something it is not. Actually, that includes just about everyone: the U.S. Congress that funds water projects, business and industry that demand these projects, and Americans who benefit or depend on the commerce conducted on the river.</p> <p> The "Big Muddy"<br /> The Mississippi River remains a key influence on life in the Crescent City. It stretches 2,320 miles from Lake Itasca, Minnesota, to the Gulf of Mexico, just 95 river miles south of New Orleans. The “Big Muddy” is the largest river system in North America and it includes all or parts of 31 states from the Rocky Mountains in the west to the Appalachian Mountains in the east to the U.S.-Canadian border in the north. </p> <p> Every spring for thousand of years, the river’s banks have overflowed as million of tons of sand, silt and clay sediments settled and nourished wetlands and formed the delta coastline of southern Louisiana. Traditionally, the river and its distributaries were able to compensate for subsidence with fresh sediment spread in floods and decayed vegetation that turned into soil. That all changed when Congress decided it could tame the river. </p> <p> Before cities were built, native peoples merely moved their stuff to higher and dryer ground when the floods came, and they continued with their lives, according to John McPhee (1990) in his book, The Control of Nature. In the nineteenth century, Congress funded the building of levees to hold back the floodwaters and several drainage projects in the wetlands as means of preventing disease and encouraging economic development. While this strategy has reaped hefty rewards for the farmers and industrialists who took advantage of the river’s navigational assets, it reveals the folly of the unremitting determination to control Nature with the Army Corps of Engineers at the helm. </p> <p> The Mississippi River has served as a major navigation route for Native Americans, explorers, and modern commerce. In 1718 the French built a fort on the high ground of a portage route through Lake Pontchartrain and up the St. John Bayou. This fort would become the town of New Orleans. Even back then its soil was soft, the water table high, and the area prone to storms and floods. Nevertheless, the fort provided a strategic position for viewing ships about to enter the mouth of the Mississippi River. It also saved 100 extra miles of travel from the port cities of Biloxi and Mobile, which were both founded in 1682. A few months after the fort was built, tragedy struck and like a harbinger of bad things to come, the settlement flooded. </p> <p> A series of geopolitical events in the late 18th century also greatly impacted New Orleans, said Campanella. The slave insurrection in Haiti in 1791, the cotton boom of 1793 and the granulation of sugar in 1795 made the city a major port. President Thomas Jefferson recognized the strategic and economic importance of the city at the mouth of the Mississippi River and bought it from Napoleon in 1803. He got half a billion more acres of land (863,072 square miles) stretching across the Great Plains on a good deal known as the Louisiana Purchase.</p> <p> Steamboats running up and down the Mississippi River through the 1820s transformed New Orleans into a major agricultural center and an immigration port, second only to New York. However, the Erie Canal and the expansion of the railroad system in 1825 reversed the river's dominance as a transportation center. As Americans moved West into the Ohio Valley in the late 1840s and racial strife led to the Civil War in the 1860s, the city experienced further drops in population.</p> <p> Campanella said that land in 19th century New Orleans was far more resilient than it is today because the whole area was at or above sea level and buffered by healthier wetlands. The first levees were built in 1828, that’s when the trouble started: the river refused to be confined and every once in a while it lashed out with a terrible flood. </p> <p> In 1850 Congress wanted higher and stronger levees so it passed the Swamp and Overflow Land Act to give states bordering the Mississippi acres of land that they could then sell to help finance levee construction. Much of this land was a swamp, so farmers and plantation owners drained them and then demanded more flood protection. </p> <p> The Army Corps of Engineers had been stationed in the area since the War of 1812 so it was asked to continue its presence. When Congress created the Mississippi River Commission in 1879, it assign the Corps the job of “prevent[ing] destructive floods.” The Corps took its orders seriously and for the next 125 years it built levees, gates, dams and reservoirs, spillways, floodways, and cutoffs. These efforts minimized the flooding, except in some exceptional years like 1973 and 1980, but the sea waters of the Gulf remained an ever-encroaching threat because of all the disruptions to the natural processes of the river. </p> <p> Some people predict that in one hundred years, the Plaquemines and Terrebonne Parishes, now the ruined sites of the BP oil spill in the Gulf, will disappear into the sea. In fact, over the past 50 years half of Placquemines Parish has disappeared due to oil and gas pipelines, according to Oliver Houck, professor of environmental law at Tulane University. </p> <p> Turning Up “the Heat”<br /> The 20th century brought more federalized river control and levee construction as New Orleans became a modern city with a downtown, streetcar networks, electricity, skyscrapers, a municipal water treatment plant and sewage system as well as a world-class drainage system. </p> <p> In 1950 the U.S. Congress ordered the Corps to maintain the “latitude flow” of the river at 30 percent in perpetuity. While this order makes sense to promote stability of cities and industries that lie between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, known as the “German coast” or the “American Ruhr,” the Mississippi River had other ideas, namely, to change course. </p> <p> Actually, the Mississippi River changes course at its Gulf outlet once every thousand years. Currently, it has sought to divert more of its flow to the Atchafalaya River, a distributary of the Mississippi and Red Rivers, into the Atchafalaya Basin, the largest swamp in the United States. The Atchafalaya River is approximately 170 miles long and 60 miles west of New Orleans. A change of course would bypass river cities like New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Vicksburg, Natchez.</p> <p> To solve this problem, the Corps built the Old River Control Structure in the 1940s where its floodgates could be opened and closed as needed. A film that showcased this project reveals the Corps’ confident “macho” approach toward its mission to save the economy from Nature, its declared enemy:</p> <p> “This nation has a large and powerful adversary. Our opponent could cause the United States to lose nearly all her seaborne commerce, to lose her standing as first among trading nations….We are fighting Mother Nature….It’s a battle we have to fight day by day, year by year; the health of our economy depends on victory.”</p> <p> Between 1950 and 1973 the “intensification of land use in the lower Mississippi” occurred through suburbanization, agriculture and the gas and oil industry, which helped make New Orleans a lot harder to protect against storms and the floods. In New Orleans, which is as much as 15 feet below sea level, two per cent is terra firm, 18 percent wetland and 80 percent water (McPhee, 1989). </p> <p> As the city grew larger, it began to sink and by 2000 it was six to eight feet below sea level thus creating “the bowl” that Hurricane Katrina so catastrophically filled. The natural flooding and drainage of the Mississippi River had been ignored in favor of creating a canal and pumping system. And although Hurricane Betsy sounded the alarm in 1965 that this system literally rested on shaky ground, the water control projects continued.</p> <p> For example, in 1960, the metropolitan area occupied 100 square miles with 630,000 residents. In 2005, it occupied 180 square miles with a population of 480,000. It didn't help that one-story suburban ranch houses built on concrete slabs in the most vulnerable areas had replaced the traditional shotgun houses that were raised off the ground. Today, less than 350,000 people live in the city after 90 percent of them evacuated because of Katrina.</p> <p> Meanwhile, over the past 60 years, the oil and gas companies have built 8,000 miles of canals in the wetlands. These canals were dredged up to six or seven feet deep and 15- to 25-foot wide to accommodate the transportation of drilling rigs. However, a typical canal would double its width in five years through wetlands erosion. </p> <p> The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) is an example of a shipping canal that eroded three times its original width and killed off 39,000 acres of cypress forest and wetlands between New Orleans and the Gulf. Over the years it allowed saltwater intrusion and tidal action to seep into freshwater ecosystems and turn the marsh into open muddy water. MRGO (pronounced Mr. Go) probably acted as a funnel for Katrina’s storm surge and helped overwhelm the levees. It was built in the 1950s as a response to its rival for trade, the St. Lawrence Seaway, which permits ocean-going vessels to travel between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes. After Katrina, MRGO, which was little-used by that time, was filled in.</p> <p> “The rise of the petroleum industry and the building of new canals had all sorts of ecological impacts, including increased saltwater intrusion and continuing erosion of the wetlands,” said Campanella.</p> <p> The delta region is comprised of wetlands that supports a vast diversity of wildlife and that protects people from storm surges. The wetlands have been eroding at the rate of about 25 square miles annually or about one football field every day. Katrina’s storm surge broke levees in 53 places and caused the flooding of New Orleans and many people are concerned about the dangers ahead for the region.</p> <p> “The coast is sinking out of sight,” Houck. “We’ve reversed Mother Nature.” </p> <p> “By 2050, the city will be closer to and more exposed to the Gulf of Mexico,” noted the authors of Coast 2050: Toward a Sustainable Coastal Louisiana, a 1998 coastal restoration plan put together by the State of Louisiana and the federal government.</p> <p> Hurricane Katrina helped step up coastal erosion like the Chandeleur Islands, a 40-mile-long series of uninhabited barrier islands southeast of New Orleans. The storm took five meters of sand and marsh and left only half a meter, according to Gregory W. Stone, a coastal geologist at Louisiana State University.</p> <p> “Wetlands and barrier islands are the first line of defense [against storms]. That means areas such as New Orleans would become more vulnerable to inundation,” said Stone.</p> <p> Reconstruction of the Wetlands<br /> For the past 20 years many efforts have aimed at restoring the wetlands but they require a lot of money and time and still depend on technological fixes that attempt to control Mother Nature (Tibbets, 2006).<br /> <br /> For example, in 1990 Congress passed the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act to rebuild the state’s natural infrastructure with 118 projects at $50 million per year. Appropriations were extended until September 2009.</p> <p> Coast 2050 suggested that the Corps imitate the Mississippi River’s natural processes by diverting freshwater into the delta through pipelines and canals and push back saltwater intrusion from the Gulf. Also proposed was the dredging of soils and ancient sandbars to create new marshlands and shore up barrier islands as a defense against storms at a cost of $14 billion. </p> <p> Kerry St. PГ©, director of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program has proposed that dredge material and sediments also be pumped through canals and pipelines to rebuild declining wetlands.</p> <p> The 2005 Water resources Development Act provided $1.9 billion in federal money over 10 years for restoration of the delta. </p> <p> Other ideas include allowing the Mississippi River to change course at its Gulf outlet in order to rebuild the western wetlands.</p> <p> In 2005, Senator Mary Landrieu has proposed the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Economic Recovery Act to provide $250 billion for hurricane reconstruction with $40 billion for ecosystem restoration and levee improvement. Although she has brought in some relief monies, she has been unable to get this act passed. </p> <p> Land loss in southern Louisiana “is not a local problem—it’s a national problem,” says Gregory W. Stone.</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/shipbuilders-repair-shops-feel-pain-of.html" rel="bookmark" title="Shipbuilders, repair shops feel pain of Gulf drilling ban">Shipbuilders, repair shops feel pain of Gulf drilling ban</a><a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/08/climate-change-begets-delta-urbanism.html" rel="bookmark" title="Climate change begets delta urbanism">Climate change begets delta urbanism</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-31716024205343435652010-08-16T14:21:00.001-07:002010-08-18T16:55:38.733-07:00Rethinking scale and growth for a more sustainable world<p> Despite the lack of policy progress on climate change and ecosystem degradation there is no shortage of solutions currently on offer. While the specifics may differ, those getting most attention share one characteristic—they focus on technological change. Whether it’s Pacala et al’s wedges, Jeffrey Sachs’ plan to reduce carbon emissions through plug in hybrids and carbon capture and storage, McKinsey’s cost abatement curve approach, or Jacobson and DeLucchi’s 100% renewables by 2030 plan, the emphasis is on technology. </p> <p> Most conspicuously lack a number of obvious changes that would reduce emissions and footprint. They barely address households’ lifestyles and “behavioral” changes (the first McKinsey report calls these too “difficult”), ignore changes in distribution of assets and structure of enterprises, and are light on the conditions of knowledge generation and dissemination. Furthermore, with the exception of the green jobs literature, they generally fail to integrate their analyses with current labor market conditions. As readers of this blog are well aware, the dominant discourse also pays scant attention to the equity implications and opportunities of environmental policy.</p> <p> <p><img src="http://energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/plenitude.jpg" alt="Rethinking scale and growth for a more sustainable world" /></p> In Plenitude: the new economics of true wealth, I argue against the techno-fix approach. We also need deeper, systemic change that incorporates economic structures, the rate and pattern of growth, as well as alterations in cultural and social norms. Technology is heroic, but the task of making a grossly unbalanced system sustainable on its back alone is asking too much. Grappling with not only emissions reductions, but the full material requirements of a shift to a new energy paradigm, plus an additional 2 billion people requires technology plus.</p> <p> But even more importantly, a wider array of changes is also a desiderata for a transition to a truly sustainable economy. That’s because what was efficient (or even just profitable, to put a finer point on it, and differentiate between true efficiency and profitability) in an industrial economy is not what is efficient, optimal or profitable in an ecologically-oriented economy.</p> <p> Both for households and firms, shifting to sustainability opens up new possibilities, and intersects with ongoing changes in the economy. In Plenitude, I lay out a number of principles that should inform our thinking about how to solve the climate and eco-crises. These include re-thinking the question of scale, knowledge transmission, the role of informal economies and social capital, new consumer patterns, and the relation among productivity growth, output and hours of work. Here I will address two of these: scale and worktime.</p> <p> Mainstream thinking on the shift to clean energy has a bias toward large-scale installations, such as nuclear power stations, big wind farms, concentrated solar, CCS and other capital intensive approaches which will be dominated by large energy providers. Both the technologies and the firms are outsized. But is big and even bigger the right future as we transition out of the industrial era? There are good reasons to think not, and that small is finally becoming not only beautiful, but also efficient. Information technology is key to why. We need a lot more research on this issue. But at a minimum, scale is one of the variables that needs to be seriously raised as we contemplate economic futures. The argument that the optimal scale of enterprise is falling relies in part on the role of information technology in undermining the need for the (classically inefficient) command and control functions of the modern corporation and making possible efficient, low-cost communication among distributed networks. Networks can share certain functions, while competing on others. Indeed, the experience of the US economy over the last few decades suggests that it’s the small and medium firms who have provided the bulk of innovation and employment growth.</p> <p> There are other reasons why leaving the sustainable future to large corporate entities is problematic: their excessive political power makes them capable of blocking needed policy reforms, a problem that will only get worse in the US after Citizens United. Furthermore, resilience models suggest that highly centralized systems are vulnerable, a point hammered home by the financial meltdown of 2008. With climatic uncertainties predicted to increase, and financial crises occurring regularly, a shift to smaller enterprises, operating in a more de-centralized way is both prudent and likely to be more efficient. These arguments are in addition to the more conventional one that local or regionalized economies are less transport and energy intensive. Finally, de-centralization promotes equity, by making small-scale ownership, either in cooperatives or small businesses, more economically feasible. </p> <p> A second area is the nexus of output growth, productivity and hours of work. There is now growing evidence that de-carbonization and de-materialization (the de-linking of production from materials flow) are only occurring on a limited basis. The material flows associated with a dollar of GDP have been declining by about 1% a year for decades, a phenomenon known in the literature as relative de-coupling. However, increases in total production have lead to rising materials use, including fossil fuels and their emissions. Since 1980, total materials use (including fossil fuels) climbed 45%. GHG emissions have also continued to rise, with a sharp acceleration since 2000. We haven’t yet cracked the nut of translating efficiency gains into lower emissions, nor are we likely to without addressing the rate of growth of output.</p> <p> One approach, which is getting more attention in the last few years, is that the wealthy countries of the global North should reduce their growth rates in order to provide ecological space for the global South. (Indeed, even mainstream figures such as Lord Stern and Anthony Giddens have begun to question Northern growth. See also the recent statement of a global group of economists, of which I and other E3 economists are a part.</p> <p> But how to achieve such a feat? As I first argued in 1991 in World Development, and have elaborated in Plenitude, the key is to reduce average hours of work. The economy will continue to produce productivity increases. If they are not absorbed by rising output, then equilibrium needs to be restored through declines in hours. People can work shorter weeks or years, or less of their lifetimes. That’s flexible. What matters is that productivity growth isn’t channeled into more production, but into more time off the job. Shorter hours are associated with lower emissions and less ecological impact.</p> <p> This path also has two other virtues. It yields a significant benefit to employees in the form of more time off the job. It won’t be possible to get global North populations to accept slow or no growth without a corresponding benefit. This at least creates the possibility of political feasibility. And once hours reductions begin, they tend to be popular.</p> <p> Second, if average hours fall, it becomes far easier to create new jobs, because firms need to generate less revenue for every new position. In the long-hours US it is now necessary to generate between 15 and 25% more revenue per job than in shorter-hours Western European countries. To date the recover has failed to produce job growth anywhere near the pace which is required to restore pre-crash levels, and opposition to additional federal stimulus is hardening. Hours reductions represent a fresh, possibly politically feasible approach. States are turning to the unemployment insurance system to subsidize hours reductions, and these policies are currently seen as politically neutral and even business-friendly. Reducing hours of work is a policy reform that satisfies the three E criteria: it reduces eco-impact, improves economic efficiency, and enhances equity.</p> <p> Taken together a decline in enterprise size and a reduction in average hours of work can facilitate the growth of a low-impact sector of self-providing households, self-employment and small-scale businesses and coops. That’s because people will have more time away from their formal jobs and the competition from large enterprises will abate. Fostering such a sector will help individuals build skills and assets, reduce their personal footprints, and lay the groundwork for functioning local and regional economies. The web and digital technologies are central to this vision: because so much knowledge and skill can be readily transmitted digitally, it is far more feasible to have high productivity household and small-scale production. Indeed, household production should no longer be seen as an antiquated pre-industrial paradigm. Rather, it’s one of the new possibilities that are available to us in the 21st century. In addition to its economic and ecological aspects, it can also be a highly desirable lifestyle, allowing people more creativity, freedom and flexibility.</p> <p> The silver lining of the recession is that we could use it to accelerate a movement toward this kind of systemic change. We could re-balance the labor market with policies that facilitate shorter hours, the development of cooperatives and small businesses, and skills-training in small-scale green technologies and knowledges. In the process, we’d be on the road to reducing CO2 emissions, lowering footprints, and creating a more equitable and well-functioning economy.</p> <p> <i> <p> В© 2010 Juliet Schor</p> <p> Juliet Schor is Professor of Sociology at Boston College. Before joining Boston College, she taught at Harvard University for 17 years, in the Department of Economics and the Committee on Degrees in Women’s Studies. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Schor received her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Massachusetts. Her most recent book is <i> Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth</i> (The Penguin Press 2010). She is also author of the national best-seller, <i> The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure</i> (Basic Books, 1992) and <i> The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need</i> (Basic Books, 1998). Her other writings are available on her website, Plenitude - the Blog. </p> <p> </i> </p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/08/transport-and-lock-in-problem.html" rel="bookmark" title="Transport and the lock-in problem">Transport and the lock-in problem</a><a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/06/jim-wright-is-nashville-chamber.html" rel="bookmark" title="Jim Wright is Nashville Chamber’s Partnership 2010 co-chairman">Jim Wright is Nashville Chamber’s Partnership 2010 co-chairman</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-37466331982826275862010-08-16T14:20:00.003-07:002010-08-18T16:55:35.342-07:00Opportunity cost of growth<p> Economics is about counting costs, and the cost to be counted is “opportunity cost,” arguably the most basic concept in economics. It is defined as the next best alternative to the one chosen, in other words, as the best of the sacrificed alternatives. You chose the best alternative, the opportunity cost is the second best, the alternative that you would choose if the best were unavailable. If there were no scarcity, choice would not be necessary, there would be no opportunity cost, and economics would not exist. More of everything means opportunity cost is zero, and is essentially the denial of economics. Yet “more of everything” is the goal of so-called “growth economics.” When the whole economy grows, the growth economists say that we get more of everything. Is there an opportunity cost to the growth of the whole macroeconomy? Not in the view of mainstream macroeconomists. In their view the economy is the Whole and nature (mines wells, grasslands, fisheries, forests…) are Parts of the economy. Used up parts can be substituted by new parts; natural parts can be substituted by manmade parts; natural resources can be substituted by capital. The whole macroeconomy is not itself seen as a subsystem or part of a larger but finite ecosystem, into which the macroeconomy grows and encroaches. These economists imagine that the macroeconomy grows into the void, not into the constraining biophysical envelope of the ecosystem. Since macroeconomic growth is held to incur no opportunity cost (the displaced void is worthless!), one must conclude that “growth economics” is really not economics – it is almost the negation of economics!</p> <p> Almost – there is one remaining bit of scarcity. Growth economists recognize that we can’t have more of everything instantaneously. To get more of everything we must invest and wait. The opportunity cost of investment is forgone present consumption. But it is a temporary cost. Later we will have more of everything, and after that still more of everything, etc. Is there no end to this? Not for the standard macroeconomists. In their view it might be possible to grow too fast, but never to get too big. That is, the opportunity cost of investment needed for rapid growth might be too high in terms of forgone present consumption. But that misallocation is temporary and will soon be washed away by growth itself that will give us more of everything in the future – more consumption and more investment. That is the growth economist’s theory.</p> <p> However, increasing takeover of the ecosystem is the necessary consequence of the physical growth of the macroeconomy. This displacement is really a transformation of ecosystem into economy in physical terms. Trees are physically transformed into tables and chairs; soil, rain, and sunlight are physically transformed into crops and food and then into people; petroleum is physically transformed into motive force, plastics, and carbon dioxide. Thanks to the law of conservation of matter-energy, the more matter-energy appropriated by the economy, the less remains to build the structures and power the services of the ecosystem that sustains the economy. Thanks to the entropy law, the more dissipative structures (human bodies and artifacts) in the economy, the greater the rates of depletion and pollution of the remaining ecosystem required to maintain the growing populations of these structures against the eroding force of entropy. These are basic facts about how the world works. They could plausibly be ignored by economists only as long as the macroeconomy was tiny relative to the ecosystem, and the encroachment of the former into the latter did not constitute a noticeable opportunity cost. But now we live in a full world, no longer in an empty world – that is, in a finite ecosystem filled up largely by the economy. Remaining ecosystem services and natural capital are now scarce and their further reduction constitutes a significant opportunity cost of growth.</p> <p> The new economic question is: Are the extra benefits of physically transforming more of the ecosystem into the economy worth the extra opportunity cost of the ecosystem services lost in the transformation? Has the macroeconomy reached, or surpassed, its optimal physical scale relative to its containing and sustaining ecosystem? Is the economy now too big for the ecosystem from the point of view of maximum human welfare? Or from the point of view of all living species and the functioning of the biosphere as we know it? If these questions about the opportunity costs of growth sound too abstract, think of the following concrete examples: wholesale extinction of species, climate change, peak oil, water scarcity, topsoil loss, deforestation, risks from more powerful technologies, a huge military to maintain access to world resources, and an increase in the risk of wars over resources, etc.</p> <p> As the marginal costs of growth have increased, what has happened to the marginal benefits? Studies in the U.S. and other countries show that, beyond a threshold of sufficiency, growth in real GDP does not increase happiness. In sum, growth has become uneconomic at the margin, making us poorer, not richer. Uneconomic growth leads to less available wealth to share with the poor, not more. And such growth in the U.S. in recent years has been accompanied by increasing inequality in the distribution of income and wealth – that is, the marginal benefits of growth have gone overwhelmingly to the rich (third cars and second homes) while the marginal costs (polluted neighborhoods, unemployment and foreclosures) have gone mainly to the poor.</p> <p> Surely economists have thought about such simple and basic questions as, Can the economy be too big in its physical dimensions relative to the ecosystem? And, Are the marginal costs of growth now larger than the marginal benefits? Surely economists have good answers to these obvious questions! Well, dear reader, I invite you to ask these questions to your favorite economics professor or pundit. If you get reasonable answers, please share them with me. If you get a lot of obfuscation, consider telling the economist to go to hell. Be open to learn – but also be prepared to show some disrespect when it is deserved!</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/08/law-of-civilization-and-decay.html" rel="bookmark" title="The law of civilization and decay">The law of civilization and decay</a><a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/shoppers-are-choosy-in-shaky-economy.html" rel="bookmark" title="Shoppers are choosy in shaky economy">Shoppers are choosy in shaky economy</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-22603976534442228752010-08-16T14:20:00.001-07:002010-08-18T16:55:33.350-07:00Contradictions in the Latin American Left<p> Latin America has been the success story of the world left in the first decade of the twenty-first century. This is true in two senses. The first and most widely-noticed way is that left or left-of-center parties have won a remarkable series of elections during the decade. And collectively, Latin American governments have taken for the first time a significant degree of distance from the United States. Latin America has become a relatively autonomous geopolitical force on the world scene.</p> <p> But there has been a second way in which Latin America has been a success story of the world left. Movements of the indigenous populations of Latin America have asserted themselves politically almost everywhere and have demanded the right to organize their political and social life autonomously. This first gained world attention with the dramatic uprising of the neo-Zapatista movement in the Mexican state of Chiapas in 1994. What has been less noticed is the emergence of similar kinds of movements throughout Latin America and the degree to which they have been creating an inter-American network of their local organizational structures.</p> <p> The problem has been that the two kinds of lefts - the parties that have achieved power in the various states and the indigenista movements in the various states - do not have identical objectives and use quite different ideological language.</p> <p> The parties have made as their principal objective economic development, seeking to achieve this objective at least in part by greater control over their own resources and better arrangements with outside enterprises, governments, and intergovernmental institutions. They seek economic growth, arguing that only in this way will the standard of living of their citizens be enhanced and greater world equality achieved.</p> <p> The indigenista movements have sought to get greater control over their own resources and better arrangements not only with non-national actors but also with their own national governments. In general, they say their objective is not economic growth but coming to terms with PachaMama, or mother earth. They say they do not seek a larger use of the earth's resources, but a saner one that respects ecological equilibrium. They seek <i> buen vivir</i> - to live well.</p> <p> It is no surprise that the <i> indigenista</i> movements have been in conflict with the few most conservative governments in Latin America - like Mexico, Colombia, and Peru. Increasingly, and quite openly, these movements have also come into conflict with the left-of-center governments like Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, and even Bolivia.</p> <p> I say even Bolivia because that is the one government that has elected an <i> indigenista</i> president with massive support from the <i> indigenista</i> population of the country. And nonetheless, there has been a conflict. The issue, there as elsewhere, is whether and how natural resources are developed, who makes the decisions, and who controls the revenue.</p> <p> The left parties tend to accuse the <i> indigenista</i> groups that come into conflict with them of being, wittingly or not, the pawns (if not the agents) of the national right parties, and of outside forces, in particular of the United States. The <i> indigenista</i> groups who oppose the left parties insist that they are acting only in their own interests and on their own initiative, and accuse the left governments of acting like the conservative governments of old without real regard for the ecological consequences of their developmentalist activities.</p> <p> Something interesting has recently happened in Ecuador. There, the left government of Rafael Correa, which had won power initially with the support of the <i> indigenista</i> movements, subsequently came into sharp conflict with them. The most acute division was over the government's wish to develop oil resources in an Amazonian protected reserve called Yasuni.</p> <p> Initially, the government ignored the protests of the indigenous inhabitants of the region. But then President Correa invented an ingenious alternative. He proposed to the wealthy governments of the global North that, if Ecuador renounced any development in Yasuni, these wealthy governments should compensate Ecuador for this renunciation, on the grounds that this was a contribution to the world struggle against climate change.</p> <p> When this was first proposed at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, it was treated as being a fantasy. But after six long months of negotiations, five European governments (Germany, Spain, Belgium, France, and Sweden) have agreed to create a fund to be administered by the U.N. Development Program to pay Ecuador not to develop Yasuni on the grounds that this contributes to the reduction of carbon emissions. There is talk of inventing a new verb, yasunize, to denote such deals.</p> <p> But how many such deals could one make? There is a more fundamental issue at stake. It is the nature of the "other world that is possible" - to use the slogan of the World Social Forum. Is it one based on constant economic growth, even if this is "socialist" and would raise the real income of people in the global South? Or is it what some are calling a change in civilizational values, a world of <i> buen vivir</i> ?</p> <p> This will not be an easy debate to resolve. It is currently a debate among the Latin American left forces. But analogous situations underlie much of the internal strains in Asia, Africa, and even Europe. It may turn out to be the great debate of the twenty-first century.</p> <p> <i> Copyright by Immanuel Wallerstein, distributed by Agence Global. For rights and permissions, including translations and posting to non-commercial sites, and contact: rights@agenceglobal.com,</i> </p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/06/joe-barton-coming-of-peak-oil.html" rel="bookmark" title="Joe Barton & the coming of peak oil">Joe Barton & the coming of peak oil</a><a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/cca-raises-profit-forecast.html" rel="bookmark" title="CCA raises profit forecast">CCA raises profit forecast</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-26098378748820049952010-08-15T12:52:00.007-07:002010-08-15T13:01:26.277-07:00Embodied energy: An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use<p> Everyone knows that it takes energy to produce anything. The energy used in mining, transport, processing, manufacturing, delivery, and disposal is “embodied” in every product we consume, from food to diapers to televisions and insurance policies. Our traditional way of looking at energy, however, highlights only current consumption, traditionally disaggregated into agricultural, industrial, transportation, commercial, and residential sectors. As a result, the energy embodied in the food we eat, for example, is reported as energy consumption across all these sectors, making it difficult to assess the full energy impact of our consumption choices. Looking at urban energy consumption from this traditional framework diminishes the role of people in driving urban energy consumption.</p> <p> Because cities are the source of the majority of energy consumption in many industrial and high population countries, much research is underway to promote development of “Low Carbon Cities,” a concept that to date has primarily focused on ways to reduce the impacts of current energy consumption in transportation and buildings. This is especially true in China, where urbanization has yet to reach 50% and the government is projecting the urbanization of an additional 350 million people—greater than the population of the United States—over the next 15 years. All of these new urban residents will need accommodation, schooling, health care, appliances, energy supply, transportation, food, clothing, water, sewerage, and other services, and the potential energy impact is enormous.</p> <p> A typical Chinese urban resident consumes 3 times as much commercial energy as a rural resident (in total energy terms, rural residents consume more, but the majority is inefficiently combusted biomass, which is often ignored in energy reporting). Consequently, the Chinese government is looking to require cities to develop low-carbon action plans to respond to growing urban energy needs. For the most part, these low-carbon action plans focus on ways to reduce the growth of current energy consumption and to supplant some portion of it with non-fossil energy sources.</p> <p> But is a focus on current energy consumption enough? Analyzing the current energy consumption of a city alone can lead to conclusions that urban areas, particularly dense urban areas, are relatively efficient, largely because per-capita current energy consumption is lower than in dispersed urban or suburban arrangements. This is indeed often the case. But what is not measured as part of the energy impact of urban areas is the built space itself—the streets, pavement, buildings, utilities, tunnels, etc.—that are required to maintain such a dense arrangement of humans, nor does it take into account the energy used to manufacture, transport, and sell the array of consumption goods and services that urban residents purchase. Since urban areas exist for people, looking at the urban energy footprint from the point of view of its inhabitants’ impact can provide additional insight into the nature of urban energy use.</p> <p> The model used to make these calculations was built in support of an ongoing series of training workshops for city officials in China. The goal was to minimize data input requirements in order to make it user-friendly for city planners. Basic data on the city’s location, population and households, income and expenditures, building floorspace and building types, infrastructure (road, rail, subway length), and vehicle fleet are the basic input parameters. Calculations of current energy consumption and embodied energy use were based on intensity data in the China End-Use Energy Model at LBNL for the appropriate climate zone. In order to compare results on an annual basis, embodied energy calculations were (where relevant) divided by lifetime (e.g. 30 years for buildings, China’s current average).</p> <p> The test city for the model was Suzhou (Figure 1), a large city of 6 million population located west of Shanghai in Jiangsu province. Suzhou is a prosperous city with an economy dominated by heavy industry, which accounts for 80% of the city’s energy consumption. It is home to Shagang, the 7th largest steel producer in the world with an output in 2009 of 26 million tonnes, equivalent to 45% of total US production in that year.</p> <p> Much of this steel, however, is not consumed by Suzhou residents, and thus this large industrial component falls out of the model; instead Suzhou steel consumption is captured in the infrastructure and building use of steel and in the steel used to make products consumed by the residents, such as automobiles and refrigerators. Similarly, Suzhou residents eat food that is in part not locally grown, but the energy used to produce and transport this food to Suzhou is included in the calculation. In this way, the model creates a picture of Suzhou energy consumption oriented towards the people who are responsible for its consumption, and excludes energy consumption of those goods and services produced in Suzhou and consumed elsewhere.</p> <p> </p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.theoildrum.com/files/1" alt="An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use" /></p> </p> <p> <br /> </p> <p> <i> Figure 1 Suzhou skyline</i> </p> <p> </p> Overall Findings<p> The results for Suzhou are shown in Table 1, indicating that the city’s energy footprint, in both current and embodied terms, totals about 111 billion MJ per year, equivalent in energy to about 18 million barrels of oil.</p> <p> </p> <p> <i> Table 1. Annual Energy and Emissions Footprint</i> </p> <p> <br /> </p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.theoildrum.com/files/T1" alt="An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use" /></p> </p> <p> </p> <p> Of that amount, however, nearly three-quarters is energy that is embodied in the infrastructure and in the consumption of goods and services in the city (Figure 2), while only 26% is operational energy (current consumption)—the energy used to light, cool, heat, run equipment such as water pumps and televisions, and to run vehicles.</p> <p> </p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.theoildrum.com/files/2." alt="An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use" /></p> </p> <p> <br /> </p> <p> <i> Figure 2. Structure of Energy Footprint</i> </p> <p> </p> <p> Not unsurprisingly, nearly 60% of the operational energy comes from transportation, with another 26% from the energy used in residential buildings, including heating, cooling, water heating, lighting, appliances, and miscellaneous plug loads (Figure 3). Suzhou is located in an area of China that did not formerly allow heating in buildings in winter, so heating today is supplied largely by mini-split heat pump air conditioners running on electricity. In Suzhou, nearly every household, urban and agricultural, owns a refrigerator, TV, clothes washer, and AC. Commercial building account for a lower share than residential buildings because of China’s overall lower building energy intensity and the higher share of the agricultural and industrial workforce.</p> <p> </p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.theoildrum.com/files/3" alt="An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use" /></p> </p> <p> <br /> </p> <p> <i> Figure 3. Structure of Operational Energy Use</i> </p> <p> </p> <p> Even though commercial buildings are generally more materially intensive (i.e., use more concrete, steel, aluminum and other building materials per square meter) than residential buildings, the dominance of residential floorspace in the total building stock (54 million square meters vs 23 million square meters for commercial) results in a larger embodied energy footprint for residential buildings (Figure 4). Even then, the embodied energy of all buildings along with the 63 million square meters of pavement in the city accounts for only about 20% of the total annual embodied energy calculation; the rest is contributed from the embodied energy in the products and services that the residents of the city consume each year.</p> <p> </p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.theoildrum.com/files/4" alt="An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use" /></p> </p> <p> <br /> </p> <p> <i> Figure 4. Structure of Embodied Energy</i> </p> <p> </p> Transporting People<p> The transportation infrastructure in a city serves to supports the movement of vehicles carrying both passengers and freight (including non-commercial freight such as mail). Owing to a lack of data from which to estimate freight turnover and vehicle use in Suzhou, it has been omitted from this version; the results here focus on the impact of moving people. As shown in Figure 5, transportation energy use is completely dominated by private transportation choices, with the public transportation system contributing only about 1% of the total.</p> <p> </p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.theoildrum.com/files/5" alt="An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use" /></p> </p> <p> <br /> </p> <p> <i> Figure 5. Structure of Transportation Operational Energy Use</i> </p> <p> </p> <p> Suzhou has a car ownership rate of 29 per 100 households, so it is not surprising that among private transportation choices, car energy use accounts for over 70% of the total (Figure 6). Suzhou is also known as China’s “E-Bike Heaven” with over 2.5 million e-bikes in use, the highest density in China. Even so, the greater efficiency of this mode of passenger transport results in the entire fleet consuming just 2% of total passenger transport energy consumption.</p> <p> </p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.theoildrum.com/files/6" alt="An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use" /></p> </p> <p> <br /> </p> <p> <i> Figure 6. Structure of Private Transportation Operational Energy</i> </p> <p> </p> What People Buy<p> As shown in Table 1, the energy used to heat, cool, light, and operate appliances in Suzhou households totals about 11 billion MJ, accounting for about a quarter of total operational energy use. Of much greater consequence is the contribution from the embodied energy of the goods and services that these households consume on an annual basis. To determine this, we looked at the distribution of expenditures by income level, and used input-output calculations based on China’s 2005 input-output tables to calculate the energy use for each expenditure category.</p> <p> </p> <p> <i> Table 2. Income Distribution and Expenditures of Suzhou Households</i> </p> <p> <br /> </p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.theoildrum.com/files/T2" alt="An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use" /></p> </p> <p> </p> <p> Note: Ґ6.8 = US$1</p> <p> What is apparent in Table 2 is that even at the highest income categories, food still accounts for the largest portion of household expenditures, in contrast to the US where food expenditures (as a share of disposable income) has steadily declined since 1947, reaching 9.5% in 2009. Consequently, food dominates the share of embodied energy as well (Figure 7), accounting for nearly half of the energy footprint of household consumption.</p> <p> </p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.theoildrum.com/files/7" alt="An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use" /></p> </p> <p> <br /> </p> <p> <i> Figure 7. Structure of Residential Consumption Embodied Energy</i> </p> <p> </p> <p> Clothing purchases, accounting for about 10% of monetary expenditures, translated into nearly a quarter of total embodied energy consumption, in part owing to the high proportion of coal-based electricity in China’s textile industry fuel mix.</p> <p> On a per-capita basis, however, the embodied energy of food remains fairly low in comparison to countries with advanced industrial agriculture such as the US or the EU. The embodied energy in the food supply totalled nearly 41 billion MJ, or about 18 MJ/person/day (Table 3). Assuming each person consumes about 9 MJ of food energy per day, this suggests that 2 MJ of energy were required to supply 1 MJ of food energy to each urban resident. In the US, the equivalent figure for input energy would be about 10 MJ.</p> <p> </p> <p> <i> Table 3. Residential Consumption Embodied Energy Consumption</i> </p> <p> <br /> </p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.theoildrum.com/files/T3" alt="An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use" /></p> </p> <p> </p> Buildings for People to Work, Buy, Learn, Reside Temporarily, and Be Sick<p> The commercial sector of a city provides accommodation for the variety of activities that its inhabitants do on a daily basis. In this model, the commercial sector is divided into six types of buildings: retail, hotels, schools, hospitals, office buildings, and other. Different building types employ different construction methods and materials, and thus the embodied energy of each type differs. Similarly, the nature of the activity in each building type differs, and thus the operational energy use of each type varies. For example, hospitals tend to be low-rise buildings with high demands for hot water; as seen in Figure 8, the operational energy of hospitals is more than twice that of the embodied component. Similarly, in retail buildings, the extensive use of lighting, air conditioning and heating also keeps operational energy high. Office buildings constitute many of the high-rise structures of the city, with more intensive use of materials and have high embodied energy intensities but have fewer hours of operations each week than other building types.</p> <p> </p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.theoildrum.com/files/8" alt="An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use" /></p> </p> <p> <br /> </p> <p> <i> Figure 8. Operational and Embodied Energy in Commercial Buildings</i> </p> <p> </p> Implications<p> This approach to looking at the energy footprint of a city based on the impacts of the city’s inhabitants shows, in the case of Suzhou, that personal consumption of goods and services accounts for the largest (59%) contribution to energy footprint of the city, and this figure would likely remain above 50% even with inclusion of details omitted in this version of the model (mainly freight transport, water treatment, and embodied energy of vehicles). For a policy-maker, this suggests that supply-chain issues need to be considered, and of these supply chains, food appears to be dominant. Developing long-distance or international food supply chains as in the US would dramatically raise the energy demand of each resident and further decrease the food energy return on investment to less than the 0.5 it is today. It also makes apparent the impact of increasing wealth as rising household income is translated into higher consumption. In addition, this approach highlights the impact of building lifetime: design and code requirements that would raise the lifetime of buildings from the current 30 years to a US average of about 75 years (or a UK average of over 100 years) would further decrease the contribution of the embodied energy in buildings to even a lower proportion than found here. Similarly, it suggests that “green buildings” with low or net-zero operational energy may not be “green” at all if the embodied energy of the materials used in the building are considered in the calculation. This exercise also adds a different perspective to the impact of such popular programs such as encouraging CFL use or buying more fuel efficient cars: though important in their own right as a matter of waste reduction, the contribution to changing the overall energy picture is quite small.</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/06/home-construction-fails-to-lift.html" rel="bookmark" title="Home construction fails to lift recovery">Home construction fails to lift recovery</a><a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/06/true-value-of-energy-is-net-energy.html" rel="bookmark" title="The true value of energy is the net energy">The true value of energy is the net energy</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-19761885324582306312010-08-15T12:52:00.005-07:002010-08-15T13:01:24.136-07:00James McCommons' year-long train ride<p> Henry David Thoreau commented at length on the frequent interruptions of his day caused by the whistle, rumble, and hiss of steam-powered trains on the Fitchburg Railroad which passed not far from his house on Walden Pond. The railroad symbolized that commercial "getting and spending" world maligned by Wordsworth in his poem <i> The World Is Too Much With Us</i> .</p> <p> How different the railroad seems to most of us 150 years hence! As I read James McCommons' compelling account of his year riding Amtrak, <i> Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service,</i> the memories came streaming in. In the little burg where I grew up just two blocks from my house trains passed every evening around bedtime. The low roar of the diesel locomotives and the syncopated clatter of the railway cars on the track, far from disturbing me, lulled me to sleep.</p> <p> As a young boy there were overnight trips in sleeper cars on the Denver Zephyr, one leg in the family's annual journey to Colorado for a skiing vacation in places like Vail and Aspen, long before they became exclusive celebrity playgrounds. The observation car provided a geography lesson as the Great Plains gradually gave way to the Rocky Mountains in the dusky twilight. The dining car seemed as exotic as a circus act: A formal dinner in a moving vehicle, who thought of something as neat as that? At night the gentle rocking of the train made me sleep, well, like a baby. </p> <p> Passenger trains still seemed glamorous and contemporary then. Yet with only 5 percent of the passenger market, they were already lurching toward oblivion.</p> <p> But McCommons' book is not about the past, but about the future of passenger rail, right? In fact, it is about both. He seamlessly weaves the history of passenger rail in with his artful travelogues as he describes the scenery he sees, the people he meets, and the problems and joys he encounters during a year of train travel that covers nearly every major Amtrak route. These travelogues are an absolute pleasure to read. And, they provide an excellent window on the current state of passenger rail in America today. Frequently, McCommons takes train trips to meet people who are actively shaping passenger rail in the United States. That's the part of the book about the future.</p> <p> In reading this book it helps to have fond memories of train travel for this predisposes you to look carefully for clues about what might be done to improve and expand service. It helps even more if you have occasion to ride Amtrak today as I do to reach Chicago or visit friends in Minnesota via the Empire Builder. But herein lies part of the problem. McCommons tells us that an astoundingly low proportion of Americans have ever been on an intercity train, less than 2 percent! Only 3 percent use light rail or commuter lines. It's hard to build sympathy for a mode of travel that most Americans have never experienced and may know only from movies or television.</p> <p> Still, it is indicative of the hold trains have on the popular imagination that many routes have Wikipedia entries. How many airline routes have that! It is this appeal which provides some hope. After all, many of the Amtrak routes which remain today exist only because people in the localities served by those routes fought hard to keep them. Some of the stories are detailed in the book. And, when the Bush administration tried to destroy Amtrak by zeroing out its budget, Congress simply passed Amtrak funding by veto-proof majorities. People want passenger rail.</p> <p> Now, comes the sticky part. An economist acquaintance of mine has tried to drill into me that we as a society should tax the things we don't want, and let the market sort out what should take their place. If we do that, then the government doesn't need to pick winners by subsidizing anything. In fact, he insists, if the U. S. government would stop subsidizing highway travel, that is, if people were forced to pay the true cost of driving on highways, they would soon flock to rail and that rail would be privately financed because it would be profitable.</p> <p> He may be right, but I am a realist. I don't think we will ever get a chance to find out if his system would work. Societies have always considered transportation as simply too important to be left to the marketplace--from the roads of the Roman Empire all the way to today's newest airports. And, so perhaps the critical point that McCommons' book makes is that if we want passenger rail to thrive in America, we as a society will have to pay for it. Passenger rail will never be profitable in the narrow sense that businesses are. But it will be vastly profitable to society by other measures: energy efficiency; national cohesion; private development associated with transit; and the comfort, aesthetic pleasure, and sociability that trains offer over other types of transport.</p> <p> That means we need to focus on making passenger rail so attractive that people will abandon their cars because they think that taking the train is a better idea. And, to do that we will have to invest far more in passenger rail than we do today.</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/08/steady-state-transportation-closing.html" rel="bookmark" title="Steady state transportation: Closing the door on the dirty oil era">Steady state transportation: Closing the door on the dirty oil era</a><a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/07/book-urges-job-seekers-to-employ-power.html" rel="bookmark" title="Book urges job seekers to employ the power of seduction">Book urges job seekers to employ the power of seduction</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-87231856612075550962010-08-15T12:52:00.003-07:002010-08-15T13:01:22.290-07:00A gathering in Louisville<p> Every year the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) holds a conference where legislators from all over the U.S. gather for updates on major policy concerns. This year the organization found that issues surrounding the future of nation's energy supply were becoming of such paramount importance to state governments that it set up a task force to study the issues; produced a report on meeting the energy challenges; and devoted a whole day prior to the annual meeting to an "Energy Policy Summit."</p> <p> America's 50 state governments represent a wide spread of interests and concerns. Some such as Alaska and Louisiana are deeply involved in some aspects of oil production. Others such as West Virginia, Illinois, and Wyoming are large producers of coal. Still others are home to the increasingly controversial shale gas production. The mid-west is fertile ground for wind farms, the southwest - solar collectors.</p> <p> Some states have large numbers of citizens who are deeply concerned about the threat of global warming, believing it must be stopped at any cost. In others, the majority of the people seem to be more concerned about their economic well-being, convinced that global warming is a fantasy.</p> <p> Sorting a pathway through this thicket of special interests and concerns to reach a consensus for action is not an easy task. The common ground, however, that is shared by all is electricity. All states generate, distribute, use and regulate it. They are all connected to neighboring states through power pools. Emissions they produce may become a regional problem. Much of America's electrical production and distribution infrastructure is aging and is due for replacement. The most cost-effective way of producing electricity is becoming murky. Nuclear plants are becoming incredibly expensive as are the cleaner ways to burn coal and control emissions. The best wind and solar resources are not where most consumers live. The litany of complexities runs on and on.</p> <p> In a general sense, the Conference did a good job in reviewing the pros and cons, costs, emissions, and geography of the various forms of electricity generation that are currently possible. The obvious conclusion is that the solution will be different in each state. To its credit, the task force studying energy latched on to energy efficiency as a source of major savings that is common to all states. The studies show that nearly 25 percent of U.S. energy demand could be met with energy efficiency by 2020, resulting in savings of over $1 trillion. While difficult to achieve, increasing efficiency is the most cost effective way to gain increased capacity.</p> <p> State policy can play a pivotal role in increasing energy efficiency and reducing consumer and business costs. Such policies can include stronger energy codes, requiring utilities to meet annual energy efficiency targets, and decoupling utility profits from electricity sales. To many speakers, the latter policy is the most important because electric companies should be rewarded for how efficiently whatever source is used to generate electricity and not how much is sold. What the conference's task force, report and speakers presented and considered was well done and provided useful information and insights. However, a key unstated issue was completely ignored: resource depletion.</p> <p> The Energy Summit started with a briefing from EIA on their current reference case - the one that foresees no shortages and cheap energy prices for the next 25 years. While the EIA does see current sources of oil depleting, new supplies will be discovered and produced so that when coupled with more efficient cars, oil prices will not reach $130 a barrel until 2035. Anyone not familiar with the research, discussions, and controversies over imminent shortages of natural resources would come away with the impression that all is fine.</p> <p> For those of us following the peak oil story and are familiar with the possibility that readily producible supplies of coal, natural gas, and uranium may in reality be only a fraction of those cited by the NCSL study, something of overwhelming importance is missing. With world oil production on a plateau for the last five years and no obvious source of large quantities of new production in sight; with rapidly increasing oil consumption in Asia and domestic consumption growing within the oil exporting nations; and with increasing problems that may limit and inhibit deep water production, it is difficult to see how any serious study of future energy policy can avoid the probability, not just the possibility, of imminent energy shortages.</p> <p> Expecting that the NCSL would take on an upheaval of the magnitude that will be caused by resource depletion is asking too much. The NCSL is a political body made up of elected officials that represent every stripe of America's body politic today. They seek to compromise by recognizing that their members represent the entire spectrum of electable political thought in the US and must be accommodated.</p> <p> Did the NCSL task force, report, and policy summit say the right things? Of course! Maintaining adequate and affordable electricity supplies will be an important function of state government in coming years no matter what the pace of resource depletion or climate change. Is energy efficiency the quickest and most cost effective way to start protecting and enhancing our electricity supplies? Again the answer is a whole-hearted yes.</p> <p> For the NCSL to sound the alarm about the imminence of economy-destroying oil price spikes without unambiguous evidence that is clear to everyone would set off a storm of controversy in advance of its time. Such controversy would detract from efforts to get important policies into place. Apparently they believe it is better to let peak oil come of its own accord and in its own time - which will be soon enough.</p> <p> <i> Tom Whipple is a retired government analyst and has been following the peak oil issue for several years.</i> </p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/08/book-review-energy-transitions-history.html" rel="bookmark" title="Book review - Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects">Book review - Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects</a><a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/pulaski-carport-taps-into-solar-power.html" rel="bookmark" title="Pulaski carport taps into solar power for TVA, autos">Pulaski carport taps into solar power for TVA, autos</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-84430874176613817122010-08-15T12:52:00.001-07:002010-08-15T13:01:20.257-07:00The story of Here begins<p> <p><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/garden1.jpg" alt="The story of Here begins" /></p> The day’s work is done at New Leaf Gardens, the half-acre urban farm my family nurtures and tends in Colorado. We have worked since early morning, watering and weeding. The sun is nowhere near the horizon, but today is unusually hot; we’ll sit out the mid-afternoon heat indoors. It is early August and the harvest will crescendo soon—hitting a high, green note the plants will sustain through September; well into October, if we are lucky. At this altitude (5,400 feet) anything can happen after the equinox. </p> <p> But, for now, an expectant gathering of green tomatoes grows heavy, tipping toward a cascade of red. Pole bean vines strain skyward, clothed in brand new white and yellow blossoms; slender, crisp beans are only a few days away. Cucumbers, peppers, squashes, cabbages, onions, carrots, beets, cantaloupes, pumpkins, eggplant, Brussel sprouts, potatoes—all are queued up for their turn, a dramatic entrance foreshadowed since Spring.</p> <p> I close the gate behind me, tired and satisfied. Until this year, weeds and gravel had ruled this ordinary corner lot—though, on paper, the deed assigns ownership to the Valley Vista United Methodist Church. Through the years the space has been used as a part-time parking lot; makeshift baseball field for neighborhood kids; convenient turnaround and storage yard for county paving equipment when the streets needed maintenance; a shortcut for pedestrians headed for the library across the street, or to the post office two blocks away. It was a place to drive by or pass through, certainly nothing to look at.</p> <p> Not anymore. Last November my wife and I sat around the dining table with our adult children to discuss a brave new family venture: Neighborhood Supported Agriculture. Outside, an early snow was falling; inside, winter had already begun to melt as we warmed to the possibilities of spring. For years we had grown an astonishing amount of food in our own yard. Now we felt ready to kick things up a notch. We tossed around ideas for asking the neighbors (none of whom we knew well) to let us plant in the unused corners of their property, in exchange for a share of the vegetables. As successful as that approach can be, all evening long an alternative image kept forming in my mind of the empty, disregarded little square of church land, just a block away from the kitchen where we’d gathered. Wouldn’t it be fun to put all that food in one place—in the open, where neighbors might be drawn to it? Could this be the elusive nucleus around which local community might form? </p> <p> In December, I approached the leaders of the church with a proposal. In January we signed a three-year lease for a modest sum. In March we got to work—building a fence and creating raised beds on top of the less-than-suitable native soil. Sure enough, within a few days curious neighbors began stopping by to see what was up. In just weeks we went from knowing virtually no one nearby to forming friendships with a couple dozen people (and counting). The neighborhood that had once looked like an impenetrable wall of drawn shades and locked doors was filling up with smiling people, each with a story to tell, each enthusiastic about our project. They’ve offered us tools, labor, encouragement, grass clippings and kitchen scraps for the compost pile, even pitchers of lemonade on hot days. In a variety of small ways the project began to belong to all of us. Now, in steadily increasing numbers, these neighbors come and buy produce every Saturday morning at a stand we’ve set up just outside the fence. Many of them walk from home to shop for fresh organic vegetables—in America! For them, there is no mystery about where the food comes from, or how it is grown. The farm is an open book. Compared with petroleum-soaked industrial agriculture, the carbon footprint of this food would fit many times on the head of a pin.<br /> <br> * * *</p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/garden2.jpg" alt="The story of Here begins" /></p> Farming by hand can be a meditative occupation. If I allow it, my mind and body begin to synchronize with sun and earth time. Ordinarily, the wavelength of change in maturing plants is imperceptible to modern people raised on restlessness. In a garden, nothing discernable to human senses happens in an hour or a day, much less within our ever shrinking attention span. </p> <p> That’s a shame, because the amplitude of this slow moving, verdant wave—that is, its capacity to carry creative energy and information—is enormous, practically limitless. To someone whose internal clock is set to Play Station time, this sounds ridiculous. Stand still in a garden; what do you see? Nothing much. The only motion comes from an occasional breeze; the only sound from drunken honey bees. Yet, to beets and onions slowly swelling beneath the soil, the human habit of measuring things in gigahertz—a cycle that completes itself a billion times a second—is pure science fiction. “Miles per hour” is an absurdity. All is here. Everything is now. No need for a high speed chase through existence. The attentive and willing farmer begins to know this too.</p> <p> But, today I must reluctantly admit that my mind has been elsewhere. As I head for home on foot, I am aware of how preoccupied I’ve been with the usual scary events “out there”: Wall Street oligarchs and their ruthless power plays; environmental catastrophe; rumblings of war (and not just the “little” kind we’ve grown used to. Big, capital “W”, War). I have spent the day worrying about the fate of the Gulf of Mexico; the state of the Greek economy; the deployment of warships in the Persian Gulf; oil field depletion rates in Saudi Arabia and what they mean for the future of civilization. If thoughts were made of lead, these would be heavy enough to sink a battleship. </p> <p> I keep walking toward home, still thinking, still tired—and, with each step, growing more tired of thinking. Looking up, I notice for the first time the cumulonimbus cloud throwing its skirts up and out over the mountains in the west. The sky has grown dark enough to promise rain, but not so much as to threaten hail or tornadoes. The breeze quickens, cooler than it has been all day. I lift my hot and sweaty face and breathe deep. My step feels a little lighter.</p> <p> I pass by Claudia and Vern’s house (two of my newfound farm friends) and it occurs to me that I haven’t seen Vern for three weeks now. They are past retirement age; an extended absence might well be bad news. Why didn’t I notice sooner? I make a mental note to drop by tomorrow. Just then a young boy, nine or ten years old, whom I’ve seen often since starting to make this daily walk to and from the farm, zooms past me on his black and red bicycle. He turns off the street into a driveway and, without slowing, runs his front tire into the weathered fence beside the house. “Yeah!” he says with gusto, after barely avoiding becoming a crash dummy. Clearly, a soul bent on adventure.</p> <p> I am nearing the corner now, where I’ll cross another street to my house. Before I do, I see a young woman, mid-thirties perhaps, sitting on the concrete steps of her front porch, smoking a cigarette. She wears loose fitting gym shorts and a baggy T-shirt. Not that her clothes are far too big; she is too thin. Her shoulders sag forward as if she has run out of reasons to sit upright. She suddenly speaks, her voice a weary drone, and I realize she is cradling a cell phone under her limp blonde hair. I just got back from the hospital, she says. My husband’s leg is infected. They told us he has severe diabetes. It’s bad.</p> <p> By the time I reach my front door, the tectonic plates in my mind have begun to shift. I remember an anecdote I once heard describing this idea: Whatever we concentrate our attention upon is what we will see—is all we will see, no matter what else is present. In the illustration, a man is driving a car through paradise, surrounded by magnificent landscapes. He is nevertheless convinced the world is a dangerous and dirty place—all because his eyes are fixed, not on the breathtaking beauty beyond the glass, but on the car’s dusty and bug-stained windshield. He is focused on things that, though they may be equally “real” (bug guts, road grime, and other global issues), they are not equally important to local life. They are two-dimensional and inert, signifying nothing about life where he actually is. Here’s the lesson for me: If the world appears hopelessly flawed, maybe it is only an illusion, created when global problems too large to grasp are superimposed over life where real trouble (usually) comes in more manageable, less overwhelming sizes. Perception trumps reality.<br /> <br> * * *</p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/garden3.jpg" alt="The story of Here begins" /></p> Compared to the average American, I am well informed. I have spent a lot of time educating myself about current affairs. I know what mortgage backed securities and credit default swaps are, and why they spell big economic trouble for the foreseeable future (no matter what anyone says about “green shoots”). I understand what geologist M. King Hubbert predicted in the 1950s about the inevitable decline of world oil production, and can cite plenty of current evidence to suggest he was absolutely right. I can talk geopolitics with you long into the night. I am well versed in the science of climate change. I know that Arctic sea ice is shrinking; the oceans’ phytoplankton are disappearing; methane is outgassing by the ton from melting permafrost. I am generally aware of humanitarian conditions in the Gaza strip; Sudan; Congo. I know how much Bill Clinton is planning to spend on Chelsea’s wedding cake (though I wish I didn’t).</p> <p> What I don’t know is the name of the obviously frightened woman who lives a stone’s throw from my house, or what her family needs to survive her husband’s illness. I know a lot about “foreclosures” in America, but nothing about the “foreclosed” who live (or who used to live) nearby. I can tell you about the effects of globalization on Ethiopian coffee farmers, but I have no idea who or what was here before this place was “developed” in the 1950s and joined to that amorphous geographic entity called the “suburbs”. I know Mexico is melting under the withering heat of drug violence and economic stress, but I can’t tell you my next door neighbors’ story—except that his name is Juan and he speaks little or no English.</p> <p> In other words, for all my work as a community activist, helping to create New Leaf Gardens and bring affordable, locally grown, organic food to my neck of the woods, at heart I’ve been a “windshield” kind of guy. How disappointing. Something’s got to change</p> <p> But wait. All those seemingly distant global problems are real. They truly are likely to erupt like stirring volcanoes and to dramatically alter the landscape of our lives. Ignorance of the world is never a wise strategy. To be informed is a prerequisite to good citizenship. Some of the informed argue that the signs “out there” point to a fast crash of life as we have known it. Vulnerability to sudden catastrophe, they say, is hardwired into complex systems, an inevitable price of technological advancement. Others believe that entropy—the tendency of all things, civilizations included, to move toward disorder and lower states of energy—drags on complexity like friction, assuring us of a slow and grinding deceleration, what author James Howard Kunstler calls “The Long Emergency”. I’ve spent a lot of my adult life swinging between these two poles, trying to discern the truth of the matter.</p> <p> Today, I realize something new and startling: It doesn’t really matter. Why? Because when the dust of the fast crash settles, or the grind of steady decline has finally reached a standstill—either way—my world will have shrunk radically and irrevocably. “Collapse”, it turns out, is an apt word, because it implies that what was large and expansive (globalized) will soon be small and immediate (localized). In any scenario you care to spin up, the end result is the same: The frontier of daily life moves much, much closer to home. Food, water, politics, security, health care, even information and entertainment—all of the basics of life—will come from places nearby, or not at all. Not only will riots in Paris have no power to help or harm anyone in my neighborhood, we may well lose our ability to know they ever even happened.</p> <p> Here is the stark truth of it: In a “powered down” future—the one almost certain to follow the end of the era of “Hydrocarbon Man”—the practical size of my collapsed world (and yours) could well be defined like this: How far can we walk away from home and back again in a single day?</p> <p> My own answer? About ten miles. And that’s optimistic.<br /> <br> * * *</p> <p> <p><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/garden4.jpg" alt="The story of Here begins" /></p> With this thought in mind, I go into my office, take out a map of Denver and tack it to the wall. I stare a long time at the tangle of abstract lines and the shapes they form. Areas administered by the county I live in are white. Municipalities are blue, pink, yellow, and tan. Numbered streets run east and west; boulevards with other names, north and south. I search for patterns in the naming, but am usually stymied: Why should Kipling and Wadsworth be followed by a street named for a general: Sheridan? Symbols logically pinpoint schools, churches, fire stations—but why cemeteries? Where are the gardens? Where are the shops still owned by people who live here? Where do the geese nest in spring? Where is the best hill for sledding in winter? Where are the subversive poets gathering tonight? </p> <p> I look for meaning in the map, for an answer to the questions growing larger in my mind by the minute: <i> Where in the world am I? What and who shares this place with me, right here, right now?</i> Of course, for this purpose the map is useless. If you need to know how to get “there” a map is just the thing. If you want to know what’s there that is worth getting to, you are on your own. I am on my own.</p> <p> So be it. I put a pin in the precise location of New Leaf Gardens. From now on it will mark the center of the world. I draw a circle, centered on the pin, with a radius of ten miles—the new size of my world. Territories beyond still exist, of course. But I will now give their goings on the same attention I presently devote to the current cost of coffee in Constantinople. </p> <p> So much for the easy part.</p> <p> Now comes the real work, the true turning point in the drama. This is the pivotal moment when the story of my life officially becomes the story of this place. I’m astonished to realize what a large area my circle encloses (roughly 314 square miles). I’ve driven through some of it, flown over it once or twice. But after living here six years, it is shocking to discover how little of it I truly know. Now, like a nineteenth century anthropologist, I will set out to explore this terra incognita—and to do it, as much as possible, on foot. What I seek will never be found out the window of speeding car.</p> <p> The purpose of this chronicle is to report back what I find—people; places; Earth, Air, Fire, Water—and the fifth element, Spirit; plain sight ugliness and hidden beauty (and vice versa); the artist and the artless; angels and demons; what works, what doesn’t; yesterday’s waste and tomorrow’s raw material; backrooms where God has left His fingerprints on everything, and others where He hasn’t been seen for a while. </p> <p> What do you know? I don’t feel tired anymore. Outside, a gentle rain has started to fall, refreshing the air and watering the earth. Inside, I’m all charged up, ready to get going. Purpose will revive you like nothing else can. Here’s mine: to find and tell The Story of Here: Mapping the Geography of Home. Join me.</p> <p> Next week I’ll climb “water tower hill” near my house and survey the lay of the land before us.</p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/07/business-briefs-tractor-supply-stock.html" rel="bookmark" title="Business Briefs: Tractor Supply stock splits">Business Briefs: Tractor Supply stock splits</a><a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/08/funny-films-for-happiness-and-wellbeing.html" rel="bookmark" title="Funny films for happiness and wellbeing">Funny films for happiness and wellbeing</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9150587743335666939.post-16349696863214130722010-08-12T15:36:00.007-07:002010-08-15T13:01:18.047-07:00Book review - Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects<p> <p><img src="http://www.theoildrum.com/files/vaclav_smil_energy_transition.png" alt="History, Requirements, Prospects" /></p> The discussion about our energy supply is full of extremely optimistic expectations. There are many people who believe that full replacement of fossil with renewable energy sources in an extremely short time span is possible. Such ideas have been publicly voiced in Al Gore’s call for 100% renewable energy in the United States within 10 years, and Jacobson & Delucchi’s plan to power 100 percent of the planet with renewable by 2030 published in Scientific American. Their optimism stems from ignoring the inherent gradual nature of energy transitions and the quality differences between energy sources. </p> <p> Both issues are described in Vaclav Smil’s new book, Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects. Vaclav Smil, a Professor at Manitoba University, has been writing about energy for more than two decades. This book is written in his usual clear descriptive style. He has an eye for detail as he quantifies many historical amounts, providing a much needed reality check for any energy transition scenario under consideration. He concludes that energy transitions are a generations-long process. To increase the likelihood of success of the coming energy transition, it would be wise for affluent nations to introduce policy targets to reduce absolute energy usage per capita.</p> <p> “The scale of the coming energy transition is best illustrated by comparing the future demand for non-fossil fuels and primary electricity with the past demand for fossil energies that were needed to complete the epochal shift from biomass to coal and hydrocarbons. By the late 1890s, when the share of biomass energies slipped just below 50% of the world’s total primary energy supply, less than 20 ExaJoules (EJ) of additional fossil fuel supply were needed to substitute all of the remaining biomass energy consumption. By 2010 the global use of fossil energies runs at the annual rate of roughly 400 EJ, which means that the need for new non-fossil energy supply to displace coal and hydrocarbons is 20 times greater in overall energy terms than was the need for fossil energies during the 1890s.”</p> </p> <p> The book is divided in four parts. The first chapter describes the basic science behind energy systems, talking about the many energy sources and our means to convert these into usable energy. It is a dry concise overview of historic changes in global energy supply, the introduction and changing efficiency of various engines, and changes in energy infrastructure and prices. This part is required material for the uninformed reader, in order not to get lost in further chapters. For readers interested in a broader, more historic and more detailed coverage of these topics, I recommend reading Smil's earlier books Creating the twentieth Century, and Energy at the Crossroads. </p> <p> The second chapter gives a description of global changes in energy consumption patterns: from biomass to coal and hydrocarbons (oil, gas, and coal), the use of electricity, and the history of prime movers from muscle power to machine power. The chapter ends with an insightful analysis of the speed of energy transitions of both fuel sources and prime movers. A comparison of time spans shows that once a fuel reached 5% of total global energy production, it still took 35, 40, and 55 years for coal, oil, and natural gas respectively to reach a 25% share of the energy market. There is no indication that later transitions will progress faster. In fact, the opposite is likely true, as the absolute quantities that need to be replaced have only become bigger. </p> <p> "Globally, coal began to supply more than 5% of all fuel energies around 1840, more than 10% in the early 1850s, more than a quarter of the total by the late 1870s, and one half by the beginning of the twentieth century…”</p> </p> <p> The third chapter deals with energy transitions from a national perspective discussing changes in energy supply and conversion in Britain, France, the Netherlands, the United States, Japan, China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.</p> <p> The fourth and last chapter deals with coming transitions, providing an overview of the availability of non-fossil energy sources, and their constraints in conversion due to low power density and intermittency. A striking fact from Smil’s calculations is only 30.000 km2 of area was used to extract, process, and transport fossil fuels and generate and transmit electricity in the early 21st century, a sum equal to the area of Belgium. As a comparison, he takes bio-energy as a replacement energy source assuming a plant energy intake of 1 watt/m2 from the sun. To replace the total of 12.5 TW (400 Exajoules) of fossil fuel supply today would require 400 times the current space needed for fossil fuel energy, a spatial requirement of 12,500,000 km2, equivalent to the territory of the United States and India. </p> <p> Subsequently the speed at which infrastructure can be altered, the speed with which the cost of alternative energies can be reduced, and expectations for changes in electric engines in cars are discussed. The chapter ends by comparing a host of what Smil sees as too optimistic scenarios for renewable energy, including Al Gore’s 100% renewable electricity plan and Google’s clean energy 2030 vision. </p> <p> Vaclav Smil concludes his book with advice that a shift away from fossil fuels is a generations-long process. </p> <p> “The inertia of existing massive and expensive energy infrastructures and prime movers and the time and capital investment needed for putting in place new convertors and new networks make it inevitable that the primary energy supply of most modern nations will contain a significant component of fossil fuels for decades to come.”</p> </p> <p> Therefore, from Smil’s perspective, hoping for rapid technological development and increasingly better conversion efficiencies is insufficient. He believes that a precondition for a successful transition from fossil fuels is that all affluent nations take steps to reduce fossil fuel consumption, through conservation and increased energy efficiently. In this way, the amount of replacement fuel can be reduced. </p> <p> “Difficult as it would be, reducing the energy use would be much more rewarding than deploying dubious energy conversions operating with marginal energy returns (fermentation of liquids from energy crops being an excellent example), sequestering the emissions of CO2 (now seen as the best future choice by some industries), and making exaggerated claims for non-fossil electricity production (both in terms of their near-term contributions and eventual market shares). Or hoping for an early success of highly unconventional renewable conversions (jet stream winds, ocean thermal differences, deep geothermal). After all, a dedicated but entirely realistic pursuit of this goal could result in reductions on the order of 10% of the total primary energy consumption in a single generation, an achievement whose multiple benefits could not be matched by the opposite effort to increase the overall energy use. </p> <p> Affluent countries should thus replace their traditional pursuit of higher energy output and increased conversion efficiency with a new approach that would combine aggressively improved efficiency of energy conversion with decreasing rates of per capita energy use. This combination would be the best enabler of the unfolding energy transition. Until we get such history-changing conversions as reliable, inexpensive PV cells generating electricity with 50% efficiency or genetically engineered bacteria exuding billions of liters of kerosene, it is the best way to ensure that new renewables will come as close to displacing fossil fuels as is economically advantageous and environmentally acceptable”</p> </p> <br /><br /> <a href="http://energynewsss.blogspot.com/2010/06/if-there-was-ever-moment-to-seize.html" rel="bookmark" title="If There Was Ever a Moment to Seize">If There Was Ever a Moment to Seize</a><a href="http://wbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/pulaski-carport-taps-into-solar-power.html" rel="bookmark" title="Pulaski carport taps into solar power for TVA, autos">Pulaski carport taps into solar power for TVA, autos</a>Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730070955406739805noreply@blogger.com0