Energy Links Jamboree - 05/29/07

Limits To Growth?

In 1972, the Club of Rome published the infamous Limits To Growth. The book (which I read in the early eighties) used a computer model to simulate the world and predicted that we would be running out of a lot of key resources by, well, now. It said, simply enough -- that there were limits to growth.

NZ may still have 10 billion barrels of oil - GNS

Up to 10 billion barrels of oil could be recovered from future significant discoveries around New Zealand, an expert in oil exploration says.

"New Zealand is surrounded by sedimentary basins. . . and the probability of significant oil. . . 10 billion barrels," said David Darby, a "new business" manager for GNS Science.

Darfur: Forget genocide, there's oil

To paraphrase the famous quip during the 1992 US presidential debates, when an unknown William Jefferson Clinton told then-president George Herbert Walker Bush, "It's the economy, stupid," the present concern of the current Washington administration over Darfur in southern Sudan is not, if we look closely, genuine concern over genocide against the peoples in that poorest of poor part of a forsaken section of Africa.

Efficiency, Not Just Alternatives, Is Promoted as an Energy Saver

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters makes a lot of money selling individual servings of ground coffee in white cups that are churned out by the millions from a hissing, clanking production line here. But it recently found a way to generate even greater profits from the operation that will require only a modest investment.

Peak oil requires new thinking for a new age.

The consequence of Peak oil means that we need new thinking as to what will drive the world's economies in the post oil era to come.

In our series of articles addressing the issue of Peak Oil we have looked at some of the implications of the end of cheap oil. Today we switch gear and publish a lengthy set of proposals for building an electric economy which provides greater energy security and sovereignty over the generation and distribution.

The Future of Crude Oil is Sour and Heavy

What the hell is going on in with crude oil? Normally, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is oil’s benchmark. At sixty-five bucks, the WTI price isn’t alarming. It’s doing what oil’s been doing for the last year, hovering stubbornly between USD$60 and USD$70.

When Oil And Water Mix

The concoction becomes lethal. America’s relentless drive to dominate the Middle East and its oil, blends well with Israel’s insatiable appetite for water and unstoppable expansion. It is said that oil and water do not mix – but when they do, it becomes a lethal concoction with no easy solution. The fatal blend engulfing the Middle East today seems to have no end in sight other than darker clouds showering more innocent blood.

Biodiesel demand drives up soybean prices

Soybeans rose to their highest price since 2004 on Friday, extending this month's rally, as production of crop-based fuels increased demand for vegetable oils while reducing supplies available for food production.

The European Union wants biodiesel to make up 5.75 percent of transportation fuels by 2010. Government subsidies helped lift U.S. biodiesel output to 250 million gallons, or 946 million liters, last year from 75 million in 2005.

Russian natural gas exports fall 20.2% in Jan-April - ministry

Russian natural gas exports dropped 20.2% year-on-year to 60.4 billion cubic meters in the first four months of 2007, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry said in a report on the Russian economy that was distributed on Monday.

Tilling our own soil: Preparing a surge capacity for food

“What percentage of the food we eat in the Rogue Valley is grown here?” I asked a local farmer for his best estimate while handing him a $500 check last spring for a season’s worth of produce in weekly boxes big enough to feed four. When you sign up for community-supported agriculture (CSA) or graze tables covered with produce at a growers market, it’s easy to overestimate how much food is grown locally. The farmer’s reply startled me. “The figure could be as high,” he replied, pausing, “as high as one percent.” Nobody knows for sure.