Naomi Klein Debates Milton Friedman

Part I



Part II



These are must watch.

Bird & Fortune on Iraq & Oil

Hilarious - Enjoy.

Peak Oil Linkfest - 07/16/07

IEA calls for Opec to increase production

World oil demand growth will accelerate in 2008 to 2.5 per cent from this year’s 1.8 per cent despite high oil prices, the industrialised countries’ energy watchdog said on Friday.

The International Energy Agency’s forecast comes as Brent oil rose to a fresh 11-month high of $77.60 a barrel , about $1 below the all-time high set last August.


World not running out of oil, says report

Proponents of “peak oil”, the theory that global crude oil production is nearing its zenith, are unimpressed with a US oil industry group’s findings that the world has plenty of oil.

This week the US National Petroleum Council, a board of high-level US oil industry executives, releases its study titled, Facing the Hard Truths about Energy, conducted at the behest of US Energy Secretary Sam Bodman.


On the precipice: Energy security and economic stability on the edge

I am a Major in the United States Army. When looking at this report for the first time, one may legitimately ask why an Army officer is writing about energy issues.

The genesis for this project began many months ago when I was conducting research for a project related to the development of the future force in the US Army. I believed it was important to include an effective assessment of what the world might look like in the year the force was projected to complete its initial fielding (2030).


New Oil Reports Add Confusion To 'Peak Oil' Theory

Proponents of "peak oil" -- the theory that global crude oil production has hit its zenith and is headed for a steep decline -- are upset with a U.S. oil industry group's findings that the world has plenty of oil. Next week the U.S. National Petroleum Council -- a board of high-level U.S. oil industry executives -- releases its study titled "Facing the Hard Truths about Energy," conducted at the behest of Energy Secretary Sam Bodman. According to the report's executive summary obtained by Reuters, the world is not running out of oil but there are "accumulating risks" to securing supply through 2030. In a draft letter to Bodman outlining its findings, the National Petroleum Council says, "The world is not running out of energy resources, but there are accumulating risks to continuing expansion of oil and natural gas production from the conventional sources relied upon historically."


In West China, saving the go-go juice

I heard about a village two hours from Chongqing City with old city walls surrounding smoke stained wooden beamed homes, cobble stone streets and stone carvings chiseled into cliff faces 400 years ago. Along the way to Lai Tan, I wanted to gaze out of bus windows and simply compare the differences between Chinese and western methods of fossil fuel use and human power, but first I had to get to the bus station.


Energy's Manpower Peak? - Why the biggest problem might not be oil.

For headhunters like Tom Zay, business couldn’t be better. “I have never seen demand like this,” says Zay, a managing director in the Houston office of Boyden, an executive worldwide search firm. “We’ve had cycles in the past. But this is different.”

Indeed it is. While Zay looks for executives and top-level managers, the entire energy industry – from welders, tank builders, and roughnecks to petroleum engineers, nuclear engineers, and technicians – is strapped for talent. And the problems are likely to get substantially worse before they get better. Nor is the labor shortage limited to the U.S. and the hydrocarbon sector. Rather, it is worldwide, and being felt in industries ranging from coal mining to nuclear power. The reasons for the labor crunch are many: an aging workforce, lagging student interest in engineering, a lack of interest in blue-collar jobs like welding, and perhaps most important, the strong commodity prices that have led to a boom in energy projects of all types.


Potential Energy Crunch May Bring Other Fuels to Fore

World oil and gas supplies from conventional sources are unlikely to keep up with rising global demand over the next 25 years, the U.S. petroleum industry says in a draft report of a study commissioned by the government.

In the draft report, oil-industry leaders acknowledge the world will need to develop all the supplemental sources of energy it can -- ranging from biofuels to nuclear power to oil extracted by unconventional means from the oil sands of Canada -- to meet soaring demand. The surge in demand is expected to arise from rapid economic growth in such fast-developing countries as China and India, as well as mounting consumption in the U.S., the world's biggest energy market.


Energy: the new cold war

Since the close of the cold war, we have been growing used to threats such as terrorism where the enemy has no state or territory. But soon we will have to get used to new strategic challenges, such as energy security, where fossil fuels will be used as weapons to achieve political ends. Energy security will be synonymous with national security and economic security.


Oil 'could hit $95 a barrel this year'

The key Middle Eastern members of oil cartel OPEC were tonight coming under pressure for an immediate increase in production after a warning from Goldman Sachs that prices could hit a peak of $95 a barrel by the end of the year.

With a new bout of speculative activity today driving Brent crude to within a few cents of the record $78.65 reached last summer, Goldman said shortages of supply were behind the steady rise in oil prices.


Disaster at the end of the cheap energy era

While warning signs are appearing of associated crises in the rapidly rising Third World populations and the rising prices for diminishing world resources of food and raw materials, the International Energy Authority has belatedly accepted the reality of peak oil and the fearful impact this will have on the future of the world.

The devastating nature of this issue is that humanity has used up half of the world's oil reserves, with the remaining half overwhelmingly lower in quality and in less accessible fields.


Are these the last days of the Oil Age?

Oil ruled the 20th century; the shortage of oil will rule the 21st. There is now no doubt about the rising trend in oil prices. In 2003 a barrel of Brent crude sold for $29; in 2004 it rose to $38; in 2005 it rose to $54.50; in 2006 it rose to $65. Last Friday the price closed at $77.50. Some dealers expect it to test the $80 level quite shortly.


Crude Oil Rises to 11-Month High as North Sea Production Drops

Crude oil rose to an 11-month high in New York and London after a pipeline shutdown and maintenance work reduced North Sea Brent oil production.

Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips said they lost output from North Sea fields that produce oil and gas after BP Plc closed the pipeline. BG Group Plc said its Armada oil field in the North Sea has been shut for maintenance since June. The International Energy Agency said in a report today that global oil demand will rise 2.5 percent next year.


A new dawn for nuclear power

Despite its environmentally unfriendly image, nuclear power is firmly back on the world's energy agenda thanks to the need to cut carbon-dioxide emissions. Paul Norman, Andrew Worrall and Kevin Hesketh describe how the next generation of nuclear power stations will be cleaner and more efficient than ever


Peak Oil Passnotes: Peak Oil Zombie Attack

As we have made clear many times in this column we hold little truck with many of the whackos who inhabit the wondrous world of ‘Peak Oil’. Yes, despite the title of the column. No sooner do people start talking about energy supply crunches, plateauing production or acreage inflection then a host of bedraggled crazies rise forth from their graves to tell us a number of scary items.

Firstly, we are often told humanity is going to “die off.” What a great idea. It could almost be a book, or a series of books and a website. Oh wait. It is. Like an energy-related version of the film 28 Days Later. Every lazy person around the planet can argue how many people will be alive in 2050 or 2100 and no one can prove them wrong. Ker-ching!


"Peak oil" advocates blast U.S. industry study

Proponents of "peak oil" -- the theory that global crude oil production has hit its zenith and is headed for a steep decline -- are steamed with a U.S. oil industry group's findings that the world has plenty of oil.

Next week the U.S. National Petroleum Council -- a board of high-level U.S. oil industry executives -- releases its study titled "Facing the Hard Truths about Energy," conducted at the behest of Energy Secretary Sam Bodman.


Net Oil Exports and the "Iron Triangle"

As Matt Simmons pointed out several years ago, the critical problem with post-peak exporting regions is that we would have two exponential functions (declining production and generally increasing consumption) working against net exports. From the point of view of importers, it is quite likely that we are facing a crash in oil supplies. In my opinion, what I have described as the “Iron Triangle” is doing everything possible to keep this message from reaching consumers.


Iran Asks Japan to Pay Yen for Oil, Start Immediately

Iran asked Japanese refiners to switch to the yen to pay for all crude oil purchases, after Iran's central bank said it is reducing holdings of the U.S. dollar.

Iran wants yen-based transactions ``for any/all of your forthcoming Iranian crude oil liftings,'' according to a letter sent to Japanese refiners that was signed by Ali A. Arshi, general manager of crude oil marketing and exports in Tehran at the National Iranian Oil Co. The request is for all shipments ``effective immediately,'' according to the letter, dated July 10 and obtained by Bloomberg News.

Peak Oil Linkfest - 07/08/07

Around the Markets: Biofuel demand gives lift to commodities

Sugar, corn, wheat and cotton may be among the best commodity investments in the next one to three years, driven by biofuel demand and rising incomes in China and India, according to UBS, the world's largest money manager.

"Investors can expect to see a 6 to 10 percent plus return per year on those investments," Stuart Fox, UBS's head of commodities in Asia Pacific, said by phone from Hong Kong. His energy and commodities traders and sales team in Asia has more than tripled to 16 people in the past 12 months.


Green facade: Why the state's eco-friendly cars aren't doing the job

During the past two years, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration sunk more than $17 million into a state fleet of cars and trucks designed to be environmentally friendly.

So far, the 1,138 "flex-fuel" vehicles have traveled a collective 10 million miles and burned more than 413,202 gallons of gas.


Real Alternative Energy Sources

If Congress is going to subsidize energy to free us from dependence on foreign oil, it should — at the very least — spend our hard-earned taxpayer dollars on something that will work.

The unfortunate truth is that neither ethanol nor any other so-called renewable alternative energy now being discussed on Capitol Hill is likely to make any significant contribution to our energy needs.


Marchetti's Curves

This is a brief account of the Energy Susbstitution Model developed by Cesare Marchetti in the 1970s at IIASA. Using data from the latest BP Statistical Review the evolution of the energy market is compared with the model to understand why the Hubbert Peak of fossils fuels represents a problem today.


World 'building up risks over energy supplies'

The world is not running out of crude oil and natural gas but there are 'accumulating risks' to securing global supplies through 2030, a high-level board of US oil company executives found in a report.Those risks include "political hurdles, infrastructure requirements and availability of trained workforce," according to the study by the US National Petroleum Council, conducted at the behest of US Energy Secretary Sam Bodman.

The NPC, whose members include executives of big oil companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron, will present the study at its July 18 meeting.


Oil hits 10-month high near $75 on Nigeria, demand

Oil surged over 2 percent to nearly $75 a barrel on Thursday on strong demand and as fresh violence in Nigeria spurred supply concerns.

London crude rebounded after slipping from earlier highs on U.S. government data that showed crude supplies rising and refiners ramping up gasoline output to meet summer holiday driving demand.


Is Fear About Climate Change Causing a Nuclear Renaissance?

Some prominent environmentalists are urging that we reconsider nuclear power. But they have been met with resistance from many who believe nuclear power never will be a solution to global warming.

Sitting in the belly of the beast -- Dominion's 2,000-megawatt Millstone nuclear power plant in Waterford, Connecticut -- the company's chief nuclear officer, Dave Christian, seems an unlikely environmentalist. But he says concern about climate change is what got him involved in the peaceful pursuit of the atom in the first place.


IAEA: Iran Slowing Expansion of Nuclear Enrichment Capabilities

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran has slowed the expansion of its nuclear enrichment capabilities.

In Vienna Monday, Mohamed ElBaradei said IAEA inspectors have seen a slowing in the installation of centrifuges that enrich uranium at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility.


Opec has little power to ease oil price – Algeria

Algeria’s Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said yesterday there was “not much” Opec could do to bring down high oil prices as global crude stocks were already sufficient.

“There is plenty of stocks. It’s a problem with capacity and refining,” Khelil said ahead of a gas pipeline conference in Brussels. “Even if it (Opec) increases production, it’s just going to increase stocks and not have any effect because prices are drawn by petroleum product prices.”


World facing oil ‘supply crunch’ as demand soars, agency warns

The world faces an energy squeeze as soaring demand for fuel exceeds the rate of growth in the supply of crude oil, the West’s leading energy forecaster has predicted.

In a gloomy appraisal of the global oil balance, the International Energy Agency yesterday predicted a world of increasing market tightness beyond 2010. The world faces a “supply crunch” by 2012, according to the agency’s Medium-Term Oil Market Report, with weak increases in oil output from nonOpec countries colliding with strong demand and diminished spare capacity within the cartel of oil producers.


Exploding a fair few wordy myths

AFTER recent comments from Defence Minister Brendan Nelson, debate is raging over whether America and Australia went to war in Iraq because of oil.

This is absurd. Nobody was more surprised to discover that Iraq had oil than the Allies. Goodness, with all that fuel around, it was just as well that those weapons of mass destruction were only prevented from exploding by the fact that they didn't exist. Otherwise, the whole country could have gone up in flames. Oh, wait a minute … Anyway, here are some ideas that should probably be blown up.


Iran's oil output to fall without investment - report

Iran's oil production capacity will fall by five percent a year without new investment, a senior oil official was quoted on Sunday as saying by the Iran's student news agency ISNA.

Iranian officials have previously put production capacity at a little more than 4 million barrels per day (bpd), with actual output -- limited to a quota set by the oil cartel OPEC -- running at a little below 4 million bpd.


Corn ethanol could be a dead end

As the nation fights to lower its dependence on foreign oil and Colorado works toward a new energy economy, the buzz word in energy circles is “ethanol,” and using it to power cars, trucks and electricity has become a hot topic.

But as the conversation continues, ethanol experts and politicians are beginning to agree that corn-based ethanol may not be the magic energy solution many have come to see it as.


Can I diet my way to a lighter eco footprint?

Lose weight and save the planet. It has all the hallmarks of a zeitgeist diet book and perhaps a TV series in which I will travel around putting punters on scales, measuring out their porridge for the day, and perhaps changing their light bulbs. But there is some validity to the idea that you can simultaneously shrink your waistline and your carbon footprint.

An extra 100lb of weight carried in your car, for example, reduces fuel economy by around 2 per cent. Even Richard Branson recently signed up to losing a stone before he takes an inaugural flight on one of the superlight carbon-fibre Boeing jets he has bought in order to save an extra 36lb of CO2. Given that his fleet allegedly produces 7.4m tonnes of CO2 a year, that's not a hugely rewarding diet


Will the coming oil crisis be the end of suburbia?

Three years ago, when I started to teach Introduction to Sociology for Lamar Community College, my brother sent me the DVD, “The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream,” concerning the “coming oil crisis."

I showed it to my class to help the students better understand “social change” and what would happen to society during such a crisis. They hadn’t even heard that we were going to face such a crisis. It’s no surprise, most Americans hadn’t heard of it either; that was three years ago.


Peak Oil Passnotes: $80 Oil Beckons

The price of a barrel Brent crude is working its way back up to its records of $78.64 set last August 7. A steady and sure combination of factors has pushed it over $75 per barrel.

But when it pushes up against levels of $78 per barrel, which way is it going to go then?


Academic challenges global warming theory

An Australian academic has spoken out against the popular view that global warming is caused by greenhouse gas emissions. He believes that global warming and climate change are caused by cycles in the sun's electro-magnetic radiation. He says scientists are taking a narrow view and politicians are making policy with the wrong information.

Emeritus Professor Lance Endersbee AO is a former Dean of Engineering and Pro-Vice Chancellor of Monash University. He told Tom Harwood, ABC Western Queensland's Morning Program producer that the world has been warming naturally due to increased magnetic radiation from the sun.


Ethanol, Corn, Milk, Prices Increase

It appears that oil and gasoline aren't the only things that are going up in price these days. Milk, everyones favorite beverage, has gone up in price once again.From $3.80 to almost $5.00 a gallon. But milk however, isn't the only thing that will be on the rise. Other dairy products such as butter, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream will too.


Sugar, Grains, Cotton May Be Best Commodity Buys, UBS Forecasts

Sugar, corn, wheat and cotton may be among the best commodity investments in the next one to three years driven by biofuel demand and rising incomes in China and India, according to UBS AG, the world's largest money manager.

``Investors can expect to see a 6 to 10 percent plus return per year on those investments,'' Stuart Fox, UBS's head of commodities in Asia Pacific, said by phone from Hong Kong. His energy and commodities traders and sales team in Asia has more than tripled to 16 people in the past 12 months.


North Sea is running too dry to meet target

The energy industry warned yesterday that government targets of keeping Britain's oil and gas production at 3m barrels a day by 2010 look like being missed. North Sea competitiveness is falling and financial backers are losing confidence in the wake of tax increases introduced 18 months ago.

Civil servants have been working with oil companies to find ways to boost output offshore, but the 2007 Economic Report issued by the industry organisation Oil & Gas UK says the goal looks like being missed after five years of rising hopes.

Peak Oil Linkfest - 06/30/07

Oil settles above $70 a barrel


Oil prices settled above the psychologically important $70 a barrel mark on Friday for the first time since August 2006 on worries about gasoline supplies in the heart of the summer driving season.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose $1.11 to settle at $70.68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising as high as $71.06 earlier in the session. Oil last closed above $70 a barrel on Aug. 31.


BP economist: World’s oil is plentiful

The world has plenty of oil left, although China has a growing appetite for all sorts of energy.

That was the message a senior BP economist had at a Thursday presentation sponsored by the Denver Chamber of Commerce.

Mark Finley, head of energy analysis at BP's London headquarters, walked the group of about 20 through BP's annual Statistical Review of World Energy , which was released this month.


Peak Oil Theorists Gush Obfuscation!

I know its too much to expect that determined peak oil theorists like ASPO co-founder Steve Andrews will suddenly admit they're wrong-no matter how many times their predictions of doomsday come and go without the world coming to an end. Sometimes all you can do is to shake your head at the stubborn denial. But Mr. Andrew's rejoinder here on the Huffington Post, to my "Peak Oil is Snake Oil!" piece of 6/25/07 requires some untangling to get at the pertinent facts.


Peak Oil Passnotes: Peak Market Economics

If you earned $1 million a year, life wouldn’t be bad, especially if you had only earned $300,000 a year some 36 months previously. Suppose that in order to carry on earning $1 million a year, you had to invest $20,000 each annum. You would agree and do it, in order to preserve the healthy profits you were pulling in.

Suppose that someone came up to you and asked you to invest $60,000 a year instead of $20,000. They say it would help them out. Then they told you as a result you would only earn $500,000 a year. What would you say? You would politely ask them to insert their head in a painful and probably physically impossible place.


Enrich Oil, Not Uranium!

After nights of rioting, Tehran looks like a war-torn city dotted with charred carcasses of cars and buses and the still smoldering remains of gas stations. Security checkpoints are everywhere while heavily armed soldiers guard public edifices and government buildings.


OPEC: Biofuels Not a 'Magic Bullet'

Despite near-record oil prices, investment in future oil production may be limited, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries says, due in part to increasing biofuel production.

The U.S. and European Union have already pushed forward policy that encourages replacing oil with biofuels, and the U.S. Senate passed a plan last week that would allow the U.S. government to sue OPEC for manipulating prices. OPEC's response?


Gore's seven point pledge to cut global warming

Al Gore called on people around the world to sign a "7 Point Pledge" promising personal action in curbing global warming.

The former US vice-president unveiled the pledge at a press conference to promote Live Earth, the July 7 concerts to be held in Johannesburg, London, New Jersey, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo. Organisers said the concert, which is being broadcast in more than 100 countries, could be watched and heard by 2 billion people worldwide. "This is a global challenge," Gore said. "We will need a tougher global treaty, we will need every nation to be a part of the solution and we will need individuals all around the world to be part of the solution."


A cleaner North Sea? Ship fuel suppliers hedge bets

European ship fuel suppliers are hedging their bets ahead of tighter fuel quality rules from November amid uncertainty about demand for the cleaner grade and expectations that some ship operators will ignore the new rules.

European Commission regulations banning ships from burning dirtier fuel in the North Sea and the English Channel are aimed at reducing sulphur dioxide emissions that are 700 times higher than sulphur levels in diesel fuel for vehicles.


Peak oilman sticks to his guns

It never hurts to check up on what T. Boone Pickens is saying and doing. The Texas oilman, corporate raider, and philanthropist has serious cred, and it's unlikely that he's giving interviews in order to pump up his investments. His portfolio is well known, and, as he says, "There isn't anybody who can talk a commodity market up more than three or four minutes. The fundamentals will take over at some point."

In a recent interview with the Houston Business Journal, he reiterated his view that global oil production has already peaked:


The Problem's Not Peak Oil, It's Politics

Some "peak oil" cassandras warn that global energy production will soon fall into permanent decline. But a more immediate danger to world oil supplies may be the tempestuous politics of many producing countries. Witness Venezuela's move to wrest control of key oil projects from global companies on June 26. The move echoes steps taken in other nations that will likely either decrease production or slow its growth in coming years. "The oil is in the ground, but serious doubts are being raised about whether countries have the desire and means to produce it," says Leo Drollas, deputy director of the Center for Global Energy Studies, a London think tank.


Iran an example of 'peak oil' fear

Iranian citizens are furious the government has introduced petrol rationing. There have been demonstrations, and at least one petrol station was set on fire.

Iran has the world's second-biggest proven reserves of oil but is limited in refinery capacity.

Iranians were only given two hours notice before petrol rationing began.


Rejecting the Real Snake Oil

Last Friday I spent three or four minutes on CNBC's Morning Call explaining what the concept of "peak oil" is to their viewers and arguing a bit with Raymond Learsy about the cause of our growing troubles with oil. Mr. Learsy, not content with that sound bite, wrote "Peak Oil is Snake Oil!" for this site on Monday to expand his attack on the logical notion of oil resource constraints.


Practical responses to peak oil

For those who came in late, it is increasingly clear that global oil reserves are reaching the point where half has been used up, called “peak oil”. After this point supply will no longer meet demand, and prices will rise increasingly steeply until oil becomes inaccessible.

We don’t really know how this will play out in the complex modern world because we have never faced anything like this before. The markets may give a real indication of the change by steadily rising prices, there may be a ratchet effect with an overall rise but regular short decreases in price (as already seems to be happening), or there may be sudden rises and falls until the price becomes meaninglessly high.


Cost of raising Iraq crude output approaches $75b

The estimated cost of boosting Iraq's oil output to six million barrels per day has soared to as high as $75 billion, a government adviser said yesterday.

Iraq's shattered oil industry is currently producing around two million bpd. Officials had said around $25 billion would be needed to triple that figure.


How More Ethanol Means Pricier Pizza

Milk may do a body good, but these days it's probably your wallet that gets the big workout.

Dairy products have become more expensive, causing prices to rise for some of America's favorite foods, from ice cream to chocolate to pizza.


Energy debate must include all options

RTE’S recent ‘Futureshock: End Of The Oil Age’ programme and its dire predictions of an impending energy crisis will hardly have come as a surprise to those who have followed the debate in recent years about ‘peak oil’.

As anyone who has turned on a TV or listened to a radio in the past couple of years will tell you, oil is a finite resource that we have been using like snuff at a wake, and now there’s not a lot left. Soon, all the oil that is being discovered will no longer replace all that has been produced, global production will peak and then begin to terminally decline.


China's farmers need a second liberation

China is in a rapid transition toward industrialization and integration into the world economy. However, this development has had a high price, particularly on the environment, and has put heavy pressure on local energy resources and ecosystems.

In addition, the gap in income and living standards between urban and rural areas, and between the eastern and western regions of China, has widened and the unemployment rate is increasing. Many are concerned that long-term prosperity of the country may be harmed by these social disparities.


Peak Suburbia - Kunstler

I get lots of letters from people in various corners of the nation who are hysterically disturbed by the continuing spectacle of suburban development. But instead of joining in their hand-wringing, I reply by stating my serene conviction that we are at the end of the cycle — and by that I mean the grand meta-cycle of the suburban project as a whole. It's over. Whatever you see out there now is pretty much what we're going to be stuck with. The remaining things under construction are the last twitchings of a dying organism.

Peak Oil Linkfest - 06/19/07

Some Analysts Say Ethanol Boom May Stumble

As ethanol production expands rapidly and efficient systems for distributing biofuels are lacking, some Wall Street and university analysts say in an Associated Press report that a supply glut and shrinking profit margins will cause a stumble in the ethanol industry.

"It's going to be a little bit of a bumpy ride, I think, but in the long run we are bullish on renewable fuels and believe that they are going to be a part of our domestic fuel stream for a long time to come," says Ommen, chairman, president and CEO of US BioEnergy, in the report.

Oil crisis 'to hit in four years'

A CRUSHING global recession could be just years away according to a new reports which claim world oil production is set to peak much faster than previously thought.

The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre in London and other scientists from around the world argue that oil production will peak in four years and then rapidly decline due to overwhelming demand.

Wall Street, Iraq and the Declining Dollar

The disastrous impact on the economy of George W. Bush's response to the attacks of September 2001 is still being measured. On Friday of last week the Bush Administration announced that it would not re-nominate Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Administration's decision to throw a loyal supporter overboard avoids a messy confirmation hearing that would have further focused a war-weary nation's attention on the past. But sometimes looking backward can help us anticipate the future.

Peak Oil Passnotes: The Name Is Bonds, T-Bonds

Is it really time to be getting out of commodities? The general wisdom coming from the mass media says it is. We have seen a definite twitch in the long-term trend of the bond markets and this has prompted all kinds of fluctuations across equity markets, leading to fears of a recession. This in turn will damage the price of oil and gas, energy in general, and send it lower goes the thought process.

Pentagon vs. Peak Oil

Sixteen gallons of oil. That's how much the average American soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan consumes on a daily basis -- either directly, through the use of Humvees, tanks, trucks, and helicopters, or indirectly, by calling in air strikes. Multiply this figure by 162,000 soldiers in Iraq, 24,000 in Afghanistan, and 30,000 in the surrounding region (including sailors aboard U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf) and you arrive at approximately 3.5 million gallons of oil: the daily petroleum tab for U.S. combat operations in the Middle East war zone.

Where is the North American Natural Gas Market Headed?

The graph below prepared by EOG Resources (using data provided by IHS Energy) illustrates the most important thing you need to know about the North American natural gas market. Decline rates of gas wells have almost doubled over the last 10 years!

Natural gas wells normally produce a their highest rates as soon as they are put into production. Over time the gas flow rates decrease until the revenue stream from the gas production is less than the cost required to maintain production. This is when the wells are shut in or abandoned.

From Peak Oil To Dark Age?

With global oil production virtually stalled in recent years, controversial predictions that the world is fast approaching maximum petroleum output are looking a bit less controversial. At first blush, those concerned about global warming should be delighted. After all, what better way to prod the move toward carbon-free, climate-friendly alternative energy?

Oil Market Under Pressure, Supply Not Able to Counter Demand

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Western consumers seem to be heading towards a conflict.

In recent weeks, statements made by both parties, OPEC and the International Energy Agency (IEA), the statistical arm of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have shown increased tension based on growing concerns of consumers about the oil supply situation.

World Energy Patterns Showed Evidence of Shifting in 2006

The year 2006 was another year of high and volatile energy prices. But despite high prices, world energy consumption growth remained above average, continuing the trend of recent years. Energy use is also increasingly shifting away from OECD countries and becoming more carbon-intensive.

It was a year when energy markets were once again the centre of attention, attracting the interest of politicians, consumers and policy-makers alike.

The Cost of Gasoline around the World

These last weeks the MSM has been reporting news that, wouldn’t it be for the seriousness of the Hubbert Peak, would belong in the section of bizarre news of your local newspaper. First it was the report by PFC Energy that imposed a responsibility on oil exporting countries to supply oil importing countries. Jérôme showed his indignation on this kind of pressure on oil exporters to bring crude on the market, no matter what.

Oil dependence spells economic disaster for Ireland, Lee warns

Ireland is on course for an economic recession in the coming years if we do not reduce our dependence on oil, according to warnings from a new RTE television programme.

The programme, Future Shock: End Of The Oil Age, explores the challenges that Ireland faces when global oil reserves have been depleted. The central message of the programme, which is presented by RTE’s chief economics correspondent George Lee, is that it is only a matter of when, not if, oil reserves run out.

Kingdom's Oil Consumption Rises Amid Economic Boom - KSA

The Kingdom's domestic oil consumption went up by 6.2 percent to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) last year from 1.89 million bpd in 2005 in the wake of economic boom, while its oil production for the international market declined by 2.3 percent during the same period, the "BP Statistical Review of World Energy June 2007" released yesterday said.

Economic analysts attributed the growth to the surge in economic development, especially the decision to set up economic cities, industrial estates and IT parks in different parts of the Kingdom.

I Was Wrong!

Even the worthy Homer sometimes nods. My thinking has been all kattywhompus. Go to my archives and delete everything! Well… maybe you should keep that story about being a bum since unlike everything else it’s not a victim of perception management.

I’m so ashamed. I have ridiculed our Beloved Decider. All along I believed him to be a retarded cowboy bent on toppling governments, bankrupting America, shredding the Constitution and starting a world conflagration.

Ok… well… maybe all that is true. But it’s also pure genius!

Iran says nuclear talks with Europe could continue soon

Iran said Sunday that it would likely resume talks with European officials over its disputed nuclear program in the next few days.

The talks would be a follow-up to discussions in Madrid at the end of May between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator.

Scientists reportedly dispute BP's oil-reserve forecast

Scientists have criticized BP PLC's review of the world's remaining oil reserves, warning that the end of oil is coming sooner than governments and oil companies are prepared to admit, The Independent reports Thursday.

BP's Statistical Review of World Energy, published Wednesday, suggests that the world still has enough "proven" reserves to provide 40 years of consumption at current rates. The assessment, based on officially reported figures, has once again pushed back the estimate of when the world's oil will run dry.

OPEC Won't Increase Current Output Level

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said Thursday that there was no need for the group to inject further oil supplies into the market in the face of rising demand, an implicit rebuke to the International Energy Agency's call this week for urgent new supplies from the group.

In an unusual statement well ahead of its formal policy meeting Sept. 11 in Vienna, OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem el-Badri said 12-member OPEC, which currently meets 35 percent of the world's oil consumption, would maintain its daily output of 30 million barrels a day.

How Peak Oil went mainstream

Matt Drudge has just taken Peak Oil mainstream.

Up until today, you could randomly ask 10 people on the street what “Peak Oil” is and you’d get a blank stare from at least nine of them. I’d wager that as of yesterday, Drudge himself would have been among that vast majority.

Both Ways - Kunstler

It seems to me you can call the situation in Iraq a lot of things, but it's not a war. Not at this point, anyway. Call it an unsuccessful nation-building project, a failed occupation, a botched policing job, a monkey-in-the-middle clusterfuck. All the US political factions, from left to right, do the public a disservice by calling it a war, because it misrepresents what we're doing there.

Energy Links Jamboree - 06/03/07

Road to nowhere?

Last week I attended a hearing on the transportation plan for my county for the year 2030. Similar plans are mandated by federal law for most localities in the United States. Though not explicit, the assumption behind our plan is that liquid fuels will remain cheap and abundant through 2030 and beyond. I suspect that most of the nation's transportation planners share this assumption and that therefore most of the country's transportation plans embrace it.

Driven to distraction

WE are not a serious people. We live in a very serious world and are beset by serious problems that call us to action. Yet our habitual form of action is complaining, and when this is too strenuous for us, we drive ourselves to distraction and find something to take our minds off of actually doing anything.

More drivers, including Utah's governor, are switching to natural gas

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has his hydrogen-powered Hummer.

Within the next couple of weeks, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. will be driving his own own alternative-fuel vehicle - a 2005 Chevrolet Suburban he will be able to fill up for as little as 73 cents a gallon.

Economic View: Self-interest will do more to cut carbon emissions than all the low-energy light bulbs in the world

The wind has shifted direction. The acknowledgement last week by President Bush that the world needed a new treaty to curb carbon emissions, and that the US would support this, is an important back-cloth to this week's G8 economic summit in Heiligendamm on Germany's Baltic coast.

Unsurprisingly there is some scepticism at the President's sudden conversion, and since he is at the tail-end of his presidency, you could say that it is not that significant. That is true in the sense that what matters is the shift of perception that has been taking place over the past three or four years within the US; the President is merely responding to that.

Opec still has us over a barrel

IT takes a plucky writer to admit he is wrong, particularly when there is a certain type of reader out there – usually anonymous, sometimes using joined-up writing – who is happy to tell me I am wrong every week.

But I have been wrong, so far at least, on oil. High oil prices, one of the factors that have complicated the task of the Bank of England and its fellow central banks, are still with us, having climbed back above $70 a barrel in recent weeks. Last week they remained close to that level. Futures markets suggest $60-$70-a-barrel oil for the foreseeable future.

Iran sees higher oil price, warns on supply

A senior Iranian oil official expects the price of crude to increase by five percent during the summer high gasoline demand season and by another five percent during the winter, the Isna news agency said yesterday.

“It is forecast that regarding the increase in gasoline demand in the driving season, the price of crude oil in this period will increase at least five percent and in the winter will have another five percent increase,” Mohammad Ali Khatibi, deputy director for international affairs of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), told Isna.

U.S. denies role in Iraq oil law

The United States did not write Iraq's draft oil law and is not telling Baghdad what to do, a State Department official said in response to allegations.

The senior department official, who spoke to United Press International on condition of anonymity, said "no one has secretly drafted" the law, calling such accusations a "gross exaggeration."

Peak Oil Passnotes: Normalising $70 Oil

In the past week or so, we have once again seen the price of Brent crude touch $70. But now it appears that even a plateau of $70 oil is not worrying politicians and bankers unduly. There is no great hurry on the parts of central banks to raise interest rates. How did we get to this point? And when Brent breaks out of its range, which way is it going to go? Up or down?

Energy Links Jamboree - 05/21/07

International oil companies could receive sole control of Iraq's oil

A representative for Hands Off Iraqi Oil (HOIO) said that an Iraqi oil law could mean that international companies may receive full control of Iraqi oil fields for more than two decades, Iraq Directory reported.

It was also mentioned that Shell Company has been working hand in hand with the United States and Britain to arrange an international policy to permit multinational companies to receive solitary control of Iraq's oil fields.

Green ETFs: Good Cause Doesn't Always Produce Better Performance

As the price of energy continues to rise there is going to be more demand for alternative options and that includes ETF investing. For the past few weeks, the hottest topic has been "green" investing (we've provide a list of some of the articles below).

There are a handful of “green” ETF options currently available for investors and more are likely to follow. There is still relatively little money in the ETFs, the two largest have about $22 million in assets each.

Oil above $70 on Nigeria attack

Oil climbed above $70 a barrel on Monday, extending an earlier gain, after a fresh attack on the oil industry in Nigeria, the world's eighth largest exporter.
Gunmen attacked an oil facility in Nigeria operated by France's Total on Monday, sources at private security companies said.

China and USA in New Cold War over Africa’s Oil Riches

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 were to look closely, genuine concern over genocide against the peoples in that poorest of poor part of a forsaken section of Africa.

Peak coal: sooner than you think

Coal provides over a quarter of the world’s primary energy needs and generates 40 per cent of the world’s electricity. Two thirds of global steel production depends on coal.

Global consumption of coal is growing faster than that of oil or natural gas - a reverse of the situation in earlier decades. From 2000 to 2005, coal extraction expanded at an average of 4.8 per cent per year compared to 1.6 per cent per year for oil: although world natural gas consumption had been racing ahead in past years, in 2005 it actually fell slightly.

OPEC Has No Plans to Pump More Oil, Libya, Qatar Say

OPEC, which supplies about two-fifths of the world's oil, won't heed calls from consumers to increase output for the summer driving season, officials from Libya and Qatar said.

``We are convinced that the market is not short of supply,'' Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah Al-Attiyah told reporters in the Persian Gulf nation's capital Doha today. Geopolitical risks in the Middle East and Africa, not lack of production, are pushing oil prices higher, he said.

Peak problems

Most of the world has not tuned into "peak oil" as a real and inevitable event. But peak oil the moment when we can no longer, on a global basis, increase oil production may be here already or only a year or two away.

Is peak oil a big deal? Ali Samsam Bakhtiari, a respected oil analyst and past director of the National Iranian Oil Company, refers to it as "the most important event of the 21st century." His greatest worry is the continuing contraction in oil production after the peak, with annual production reduced by approximately 30 percent or more within 12 to 15 years after the peak.

Expert: "Peak oil" will force changes

Optimist that he is, Greg Pahl actually sees an upside to the latest jump in fuel prices: the growing realization among Americans that the gas crisis isn't going away.

"And those who do think this is a temporary anomaly are dreaming," the author and renewable energy expert said in a phone interview from his home in Weybridge, Vt. "They don't understand what we're getting into here. This is just the beginning."

Peak Oil Week Day 2 – Eating up the oil reserves.

Yesterday’s publication of the first in our Peak Oil series reports has sparked some debate and generated feedback which sadly indicates just how ill-informed the majority of the population seems to be on this issue.

California Gov. Schwarzenegger Blocks Offshore Natural Gas Terminal

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday rejected the proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal 20-miles off the coast of Malibu, expressing concerns that the $800 million project could harm the environment.

"Any LNG import facility must meet the strict environmental standards California demands to continue to improve our air quality, protect our coast and preserve our marine environment," the Republican governor said in a statement.

Peak Oil Day 4 - Building an electricity based economy.

So far this week 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.

Peak Oil and the Inflation Lie

In the past few days, news headlines have trumpeted and repeated what is a non sequitur, and a physical and logical impossibility:

Overall Inflation Eases, Gas Prices Up (Associated Press)

Despite Gas Prices, Inflation Eases (Boston Globe)

These nonsensensical statements have already become the basis for economic, political and financial decision-making across the country, as well as internationally.

Peak Oil Series Day 3 – A looming economic depression?

Today in our series of articles concerning Peak Oil we examine the financial and economic implications resulting from the end of cheap oil.

It is an indisputable fact that the world’s oil fields are being depleted at a faster rate than new fields are being discovered. Globally 31.5 billion barrels of oil were consumed in 2006 whereas world discoveries amounted to just 4 billion.

HOW FAR DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE?

America added 106 million people from 1965 to 2007. Demographic experts showed 300 million more people living in America in October of last year. They expect an added 100 million by 2040. The consequences will be irreversible and unsolvable.

As population rises, carrying capacity drops. What is “carrying capacity?” For a quick rendition, it means, “the amount resources on a given piece of land to allow long term sustainable human, plant and animal life.”

Energy Briefs - Courtesy of Peak Oil Review

Kurdish and Sunni officials have expressed deep reservations about the draft version of a national oil law for Iraq. These misgivings could derail one of the benchmarks of progress in Iraq laid down by President Bush.

Total has declared force majeure on contracts related to oil supplies from the Republic of Congo following a fire that forced the French company to halt 60,000 b/day of production from the country's largest oil field.

Venezuela has levied the largest tax bill in the nation's history on an oil project led by ConocoPhillips, the lone holdout in President Hugo Chavez's oil nationalization crusade. The move comes only days after the nation's energy minister said Venezuela is in "conflict" with Conoco over its refusal to sign an accord recognizing the OPEC nation's takeover of four multibillion dollar Orinoco heavy crude projects on May 1.

A recent study by PFC Energy shows political factors are limiting capacity increases in Mexico, Venezuela, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Russia. PFC Chairman Robin West said: "Should demand outstrip supply, you will have a run-up in prices, massive demand destruction and substitutions. It will create tremendous pressures in the international petroleum system, the international economic system, the international political system."

The state-run Nepal Oil Corporation said it had run out of fuel stockpiles after the Indian Oil Corporation reduced supplies by nearly 40 percent due to the non-payment of bills. Hundreds of .cars and motorcycles are lined up at petrol stations in the Nepali capital.

U.S. drillers have less to lose this year in the Gulf of Mexico after market forces prompted them to move their most storm-vulnerable rigs elsewhere before hurricane season. There are about 20 percent fewer rigs in the Gulf now than a year ago and there is an above-average chance that a major hurricane will hit the U.S. GOM this year.

Both houses of the Alaska Legislature have approved a bill establishing a multibillion dollar natural gas project designed to tap natural gas and transport it to the rest of the country. The bill is designed to stimulate competition, but also has requirements that BP, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips oppose. The oil companies warned they would not submit bids unless the stringent requirements were removed.

A new study suggests that the choke point for Alberta's oil sands expansion may not be the huge carbon dioxide emissions arising from mining and processing the sands, but a lack of water.

The leaders of Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan reached a deal to build a pipeline along the Caspian Sea coast to ship Turkmen natural gas to Western markets via Kazakhstan and Russia, The agreement is a blow to the U.S. and European countries' efforts to secure reliable sources of oil and gas outside the Middle East that also would be independent from Russian influence.

According to a Platt’s survey, the OPEC 10 produced an average of 26.57 million barrels of crude per day in April. This is up 30,000 b/d from March's 26.54 million b/d and 770,000 b/d above their 25.8 million b/d production target established last month.

A new GAO study will report that billions of dollars' worth of Iraq's declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for. The report does not conclude what happened to the missing oil, and provides alternative explanations including corruption, smuggling, or possible Iraqi overstating of its production.

Iran is set to begin gasoline rationing on May 22; however, no decision has been made on how many liters each car will be allowed per day or month. The IEA says the plan should help curb imports and raise fuel efficiency but may provoke considerable domestic opposition.

The Earth Policy Institute says that a worldwide shift from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescents could close 270 coal-fired power plants.

Ontario is considering building eight new nuclear reactors if older ones cannot be properly refurbished. The new nuclear power generating plants are part of the Ontario government's plan to wean the province off coal-fired electricity and move towards what it sees as clean nuclear energy.

Kuwait’s Oil Minister said the country will never disclose the size of its oil reserves for reasons of national security. There are reliable reports that Kuwait’s reserves are only half the official number of 99 billion barrels.

The U.S. House of Representatives will not vote on energy legislation before July 4, and a bill now under development is unlikely to include revisions to Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, which a Senate committee approved earlier.

Bohai Bay in northern China may hold oil reserves equivalent to 146 billion barrels, the official China Daily reported Thursday, citing an upstream expert with the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Statoil, Norway's largest oil company, cut its 2007 production target by as much as 12 percent after the closure of a North Sea field and delays at projects from Azerbaijan to Algeria.

Japanese automakers say it is not possible to meet the EU’s 120 gco2/km target for automobile emissions by 2012

Zimbabwe is to cut electricity to some residential areas for up to 20 hours a day in the coming months to meet higher demand for irrigation power from farmers amid persistent food shortages.

Eni , Italy's biggest oil company, said first-quarter profit fell 13 percent after attacks in Nigeria and expropriations in Venezuela cut crude output. The company raised its production target through 2010 after acquisitions.

Shell no longer believes it is realistic to be targeting a possible Colorado commercial oil shale decision by the end of this decade. At best, they do not foresee a commercial decision prior to early in the next decade.

U.K. motorists appear undeterred by record-high U.K. gasoline prices. New government data shows a 1.2% increase in road traffic during the first quarter. The price of gasoline grew 7% to average GBP4.26 a gallon last year against GBP3.96 a gallon in 2005.

Energy News Briefs - ( From Peak Oil Review )

• In Iraq, Kurdish and Sunni Arab officials have serious reservations about the draft of a national oil law and related legislation. Their misgivings could derail one of the benchmark measures of progress in Iraq laid down by President Bush.
• Kuwait has made "a new and important" discovery of oil and gas in the country's northern area, but will never disclose the size of its oil reserves for reasons of national security. Oil Minister Sheikh Ali Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah said after announcing the new find, "Kuwait has not and will not disclose the size of its oil reserves."
• US oil and gas drilling reached a 21-year peak during the first-quarter; nearly twice the level of first-quarter drilling activity during the 1990s. An estimated 11,771 oil wells, natural gas wells, and dry holes were completed during the period, 1% more than the total for 2006's first quarter.
• OPEC won't meet before September because the crude market is currently ``well supplied,'' its president said.
• The chief economist for the International Energy Agency said high prices are having a diminishing impact on energy consumption. The increasing wealth of the U.S. and other developed nations helps these countries withstand higher energy costs. Energy subsidies in many developing countries cushion the effect of higher energy prices and the lack of a substitute for transportation fuel keeps demand high price hikes.
• A new study by the Pentagon warns that the rising cost and dwindling supply of oil -- the lifeblood of fighter jets, warships, and tanks -- will make the US military's ability to respond to hot spots around the world "unsustainable in the long term."
• Lithium-ion battery manufacturer A123 Systems intends to begin marketing battery packs in 2008 for third-party conversion of hybrids to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). The packs will initially cost about $10,000 and are designed to go into the spare tire well.
• According to Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia may not need to increase its oil-production capacity after 2009 because conservation and alternative energy sources could curb global oil consumption. Saudi Arabia had previously announced plans to increase capacity to 12.5 b/d by 2009 from the current estimated 10.3 million b/d and then to 15 million b/d by a unspecified date.
• Saudi Arabia may double oil exports to China within three years as demand is boosted by that country’s new refining capacity.
• The US Senate may vote this month on legislation to boost the fuel economy of cars and trucks and increase the use of alternative fuels. Under the proposal, the Energy
Department would have to come up with a plan to reduce gasoline consumption by 20 percent by 2017, 35 percent by 2025 and 45 percent by 2030.
• A new report says renewable energy could supply up to half the nation's current electricity demand and 40 percent of its transportation fuel demand by 2025. Wind energy could play the biggest role, supplying nearly 40 percent of the renewable power, followed by solar, geothermal, biomass, and water power.
• Russia increased production of oil and gas condensate 3.6% year-on-year in the first four months of 2007 to 161.372 million tons, the Fuel and Energy Sector Central Dispatch Service said.
• Electricity prices may reach record highs in Europe as forecasters predict a second straight summer of soaring temperatures. Italy has declared a state of emergency because of reduced water flows in the Po River.
• The IEA warned of a looming global natural gas shortage unless more money is poured into investment. The agency called on the governments of its 26 member countries to streamline regulation, improve market functioning and increase domestic production. It also advocated a more efficient use of gas and a diversification of supply sources and LNG tanker routes.
• Oil Minister al-Naimi said Saudi Arabia aims to increase its crude-oil reserves by 76 percent and gas reserves by 40 percent. ``Our petroleum reserves amount to about 264 billion barrels, or one quarter of the world's proven reserves, and all indications highlight the possibility of increasing these reserves by almost 200 billion barrels,'' he said.
• Mexican state oil monopoly PEMEX posted a first-quarter net loss of $915 million on Wednesday, hurt by decreased export volumes, a lower export price for Mexican crude, and higher costs.
• The June natural gas contract briefly touched $8/MMbtu in a surprise late-day rally by hedge funds that forced traders to cover short positions May 3 on the New York market.
• Iraqi economists are warning of the inflationary consequences of the continued rise in fuel prices being made by the al-Maliki government. Two years ago a liter of gasoline sold for 20 dinars. It is now 400 dinars per liter and the government is proposing to increase that to 750 dinars per liter by the end of the year.
• Energy companies, including ExxonMobil, BP and ConocoPhillips, told Alaskan lawmakers that they would not participate in building a natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope because the state’s proposed legislation makes too many demands without enough return.

Energy Links Jamboree - 05/06/07

The Global Empire of Niall Ferguson: Doing history on a sweeping scale

Here is an image calculated to ruffle the feathers of all red-blooded Americans:

Consuming on credit, reluctant to go to the front line, inclined to lose interest in protracted undertakings: if all this conjures up an image of America as a sedentary Colossus—to put it bluntly, a kind of strategic couch potato—then the image may be worth pondering.

Chávez Rattles Takeover Saber at Steel Company and Banks

President Hugo Chávez is deepening efforts to assert greater control over the economy by dictating changes to the operations of a large Argentine-controlled steel maker and threatening to nationalize banks controlled by financial institutions from the United States and Spain.

Peak Oil and U.S. Representative Vernon Ehlers

This morning, I brought up Peak Oil in a town hall meeting with U.S. Representative Vernon Ehlers of Michigan.

Representative Ehlers was formerly a nuclear physicist, is one of only three scientists in Congress, and is extremely well versed on both energy and Peak Oil.

The Spirituality of Collapse

The first edition of this article was written in February, 2006, but I have recently revised and updated it. Since the first writing, the theme of collapse seems to have reverberated around the world, now manifesting its symptoms in the scientific community’s latest dramatic reports on global warming, the issue of Peak Oil coming further out of the closet--being discussed openly in mainstream media, and the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble that now finds 1 out of every 264 homes in the nation facing foreclosure as each day the value of the dollar decreases and the value of precious metals soars.

Iraq's oil production falls short of goals

Despite years of rebuilding, petroleum production continues to fall short of targets, due to insurgency vandalism, poor field management, and corruption.

Houston's competition for the energy capital title

If you work in Houston, there’s a good chance it's for a company that has something to do with the oil industry.

And if your company doesn’t, your neighbor’s probably does.

But are those jobs in jeopardy because of a rising new player in the world-wide oil business?

War on Terror: Oil Conspiracy?

Two things that affect this story were already in place before Bush Jr took office. The first: an already high level of anti-American feelings in the Islamic world, for the years of oil-biased foreign policy. Oil bias is easily perceived as anti-Islam because most of the world's oil is under Muslim countries. The second: plans were already in place for a massively profitable oil pipeline proposed to run through Afghanistan. An uncooperative Taliban had put the brakes on the plan. These two things and how they tie into Bush's War on Terror have become a conspiracy theorists wet-dream.

Connecting the dots between energy depletion and the “War on Terror”

In the first months after 9-11, I said the terrorist attacks were being used as an excuse to stage an oil coup and establish an oil empire. I stated this in December of 2001, in the article The Background is Oil.

In a follow up article, What Next?, looking at oil resources around the world, I speculated on future targets of the War on Terror. Using the hypothesis of an oil coup out to seize the planet’s major energy deposits before the coming of peak oil, I called off all of our government’s future targets weeks before Bush’s famous “Axis of Evil” speech. Over the next couple of years, I discussed the energy importance of Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, and the growing energy demands of China, India and Indonesia (see The End of the Oil Age, Lulu Publishers, March 2004, ISBN: 978-1-4116-0629-6 ). Three years ago, I wrote about Iran’s energy resources and discussed the inevitability of a US-led invasion of that country (Target Iran).

The Conflict Over the Oil in Iraq

Perhaps the facts of the historical struggle over Iraq’s oil are general knowledge. However, at present, there are many attempts