Naomi Klein Debates Milton Friedman

Part I



Part II



These are must watch.

Peak Oil Linkfest - 09/29/07

New York Times: Rising Food Prices Lead to Less US Food Aid

A U.S. newspaper says rising food prices have helped cut U.S. food aid to its lowest level in a decade, and have possibly resulted in more hungry people around the world.

The New York Times cites data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showing the United States has bought less than half the food aid this year than it bought in 2000.


Lifestyle changes prepare locals for energy changes

Michael Brownlee wants to help you change your life.

The head of Boulder Valley Relocalization has a radically different view of the future, one in which the daily gridlock on U.S. 36 would be a thing of the oil-guzzling past, where farms would dot large swathes of Boulder County open space, Kentucky bluegrass would give way to food crops in suburban yards and businesses would plant rooftop gardens. Solar panels and other renewable energy would supply a large portion of the community's energy. Local businesses would meet many more of the citizenry's daily needs, and customers could even choose to use a local currency.


Peak Oil Passnotes: Neo-Peak Oil

If we think of peak oil as a subject in itself, rather than a subset of general discourse about oil and energy, then we can see it has been around for something approaching 100 years. After World War One there was sustained and popular debate about the prospect of the U.S.’s valuable resource running out. After all there was no more to be found and it was going to be too expensive anyway.

This debate has been repeated a few times since then, most notably in the 1970s, but it has never been stronger than it is now. Nor has it attracted such a wide range of people willing to discuss it.


Al Gore's climate change film 'is propaganda'

Al Gore's climate change documentary, , contains "serious scientific inaccuracies, political propaganda and sentimental mush", the High Court in London has heard.

The attack came as Stewart Dimmock, 45, a father of two, challenged the Government's decision to provide every secondary school in England with a copy of the former American vice-president's film as part of an environmental campaign.


Technological Advances to Quench Thirst for Oil

Oil markets are in turmoil, admits Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi in an interview in New York. With Saudi Arabia currently accounting for almost one-fifth of global crude exports and analysts expecting it to meet a quarter of the world's increasing crude thirst in the near future, the global dependence on Saudi Arabia is set to go up. As the only producer with significant excess capacity, the Kingdom has played a crucial role in alleviating temporary supply disruptions and crises. The Kingdom upped its daily production by 3.1 million barrels during the first Gulf War, for example, when oil production in Iraq and Kuwait dropped by 5.3 million barrels. It was crucial in balancing the global markets then. With geopolitics occupying center stage, the Saudi role would stay crucial to the global well-being.


Global Warming: The Great Equaliser

As the latest summit to discuss a post-Kyoto treaty continues in New York this week, the single most revealing statement has already been spoken: “We need to climate-proof economic growth”. These few words, told to reporters by the UN’s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, during the recent Vienna round of talks, define the blinded establishment approach to tackling climate change.[1] Only if continued trade liberalisation and corporate profits are kept sacrosanct, remains the assumption, is it possible to consider even a broad agreement on future cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions.

Split in group delays vote on sanctions against Iran

The United States, Britain and France chose unity over speed and agreed on Friday to delay until November a United Nations Security Council vote on a third sanctions resolution against Iran.

The delay, a concession to Russia, China and Germany — the other three countries in the fragile coalition of six world powers that are seeking to rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions — came after a week of haggling on the outskirts of the General Assembly. The six countries issued a statement advising Iran that a diplomatic offer of economic incentives remained on the table if Iran suspended its uranium enrichment program.


Ethanol, schmethanol

SOMETIMES you do things simply because you know how to. People have known how to make ethanol since the dawn of civilisation, if not before. Take some sugary liquid. Add yeast. Wait. They have also known for a thousand years how to get that ethanol out of the formerly sugary liquid and into a more or less pure form. You heat it up, catch the vapour that emanates, and cool that vapour down until it liquefies.


Modeling Oil Production to Estimate URR - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and World

This is a guest post by Apparent Peak. He started his career as an aeronautical engineer and is currently retired. Now he has more time to study peak oil and write posts for TOD. He has selected "Apparent Peak" for his handle which will become obvious once you have read the post.

1) Background

I have followed the subject of peak oil since the seminal article by Campbell and Laherrère appeared in the March 1998 edition of Scientific American. Approximately one year ago, I began to casually follow some of the discussion threads at TOD. The posts, the ensuing discussions and in particular, discussions on HL, logistic functions and Khebab's The Loglet Analysis caught my interest. I decided to investigate these topics since I did not know what HL was, let alone logistic functions. A quick trip to Wikipedia explained the Logistic function. As it turns out, it is a fancy exponential function that has characteristics similar to the Gaussian distribution.


Alan Greenspan vs. Naomi Klein: who has rights to Iraq's oil?

US Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan famously spills the beans in his new memoir, The Age of Turbulence: "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil." (London Times, Sept. 16) On her blog Sept. 25, Arianna Huffington lauds leftist icon Naomi Klein for calling out Greenspan on this point in a Sept. 24 interview with him on Democracy Now: "Are you aware that, according to the Hague Regulations and the Geneva Conventions, it is illegal for one country to invade another over its natural resources?" (Contrast Ann Coulter's "Why not go to war just for oil? We need oil! What do Hollywood celebrities imagine fuels their private jets? How do they think their cocaine is delivered to them?")

Peak Oil Linkfest - 07/30/07

Malthusian misery's comeback

The great demographer and economist Thomas Malthus was 23 years old the last time a British summer was this rain-soaked, which was in 1789. The consequences of excessive rainfall in the late 18th century were predictable. Crops would fail, the harvest would be dismal, food prices would rise and some people would starve. It was no coincidence that the French Revolution broke out the same year.


When life hands you vegetable oil, make biodiesel fuel

A teacher at Bloom High School has been awarded a $10,000 grant to fund a student project that will create a waste vegetable oil recycling program.

Barry Latham’s student project is titled "Free Energy for Me." A chemistry and physics teacher, he received an A+ for Energy grant from BP America.


Depleting water level a big problem

An international study group has warned that the water shortages in India and other parts of the world will be a serious problem in days to come. “Scores of countries are overpumping aquifers as they struggle to satisfy their growing water needs, including each of the big three grain producers —China, India, and the US. “More than half the world’s people live in countries where water tables are falling,” Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute has said.


Chomsky: There Will Be a Cold War Between Iran and the U.S.

In the energy-rich Middle East, only two countries have failed to subordinate themselves to Washington's basic demands: Iran and Syria. Accordingly both are enemies, Iran by far the more important.

As was the norm during the Cold War, resort to violence is regularly justified as a reaction to the malign influence of the main enemy, often on the flimsiest of pretexts. Unsurprisingly, as Bush send s more troops to Iraq, tales surface of Iranian interference in the internal affairs of Iraq -- a country otherwise free from any foreign interference, on the tacit assumption that Washington rules the world.


Peak oil - expensive food

At one time the need for more food resulted in the worldwide increase in arable land via the clearing of forests and irrigation of arid land. The land available has peaked and is decreasing because of salination of irrigated soils, diversion to bio-fuels and the growth of cities. Cheap fossil fuels allowed pumping of water for irrigation, and cheap food transport encouraged the growth of cities away from the centres of food production.


Forget Big Oil - politicians bowing to Big Ethanol

When the Senate passed an ethanol-friendly energy bill last month, there was no particular scientific or economic reason for setting 36 billion gallons - six times what is used today - as America's renewable fuels requirement within 15 years.

But there was a political reason for that number: Senators wanted to one-up President George W. Bush, who had called for 35 billion gallons in his State of the Union message.


The choice is ours: Big Oil or Chavez?

In the coming century, the world will transition from cars that run on liquid fuels to cars that run on something else, perhaps electricity or hydrogen. Until then, we have a choice. Either support the "Big Oil" companies that are SEC and IRS regulated, traded on the major stock exchanges, contribute to our economy and national security, and whose employees are our neighbors, or butt into energy myths and stand by idly (gleefully?) while Hugo Chavez ejects "Big Oil" from Venezuela.

Peak Oil Linkfest - 06/15/07

World oil supplies are set to run out faster than expected, warn scientists

Scientists have criticised a major 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.

BP's Statistical Review of World Energy, published yesterday, appears to show 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 will run dry.

Import Bingo

Live by the imports or die by the imports. With US refineries continuing to struggle, our fortunes with gasoline supply and price are becoming increasingly dependant on imports. And if we aren’t breaking records we have to rely on our broken refinery system.

Where have all the imports gone? Long time passing: A drop in refinery runs and a drop in gasoline imports set the stage for a big up day in the petroleum complex. Traders convinced that gasoline supplies would increase by as much as 2 million barrels were stunned to see that supplies of gasoline basically flat from the dismally low levels from the week before. It's clear that US refiners are in disarray but you still have to give them an "A" for effort, or at least a smiley face and a gold star. Because even with refineries running at a dismal 89.2% of capacity they were able to up gasoline production from the week before to about 9.3 million barrels a day. It is amazing what you can do when margins are sky high. That of course is still short of the average daily demand of 9.5 million barrels a day but it shows that the refiners are focused on doing everything they can to produce as much gasoline as they possibly can.


Qantas' cold comfort

IT was one of those mornings yesterday for hundreds of bleary-eyed passengers out at Melbourne Airport.

Having struggled through Melbourne's coldest morning of the year before dawn, most early passengers went nowhere due to ice on the aircraft.

20 years later, we still have 40 years of oil left

BP Statistical Review of World Energy released a report that estimated there are enough world petroleum reserves to last for 40 years, assuming we consume at our current rates. The article notes that in the 1980’s the amount of proven reserves was also 40 years. 20 years go by, consumption rates change, new customers change, new oil fields are found, old ones produce more, and voila, is we’re good to go for another 40 years of oil.

Peak Oil Update - June 2007: Production Forecasts and EIA Oil Production Numbers

Monthly production records are unchanged except for NGPL:
All Liquids: the peak is still July 2006 at 85.43 mbpd, the year to date average production in 2007 (2 months) is 84.26 mbpd, up 0.2 mbpd from 2006.
Crude Oil + NGL: the peak date remains May 2005 at 82.08 mbpd, the year to date average production for 2007 (2 months) is 81.24 mbpd, down 0.06 mbpd from 2006.
Crude Oil + Condensate: the peak date remains May 2005 at 74.15 mbpd, the year to date average production for 2007 (2 months) is 73.09 mbpd, down 0.25 mbpd from 2006.
NGPL: the peak date is now February 2007 at 8.24 mbpd, the year to date average production for 2007 (2 months) is 8.15 mbpd, up 0.19 mbpd from 2006.

Global warming future: Drought, wildfire, floods, pestilence

Top climate scientists offered Western governors an assessment on the impacts of global warming that sounded like something out of the Old Testament: drought, wildfire, floods and pestilence.

More importantly, the governors themselves put to rest any remaining doubt on a human role in the problem.

"Are there any respected scientific organizations left that dispute what you are saying?" asked Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., adding, "and you can't say the White House and Congress."

Scientists warn that oil will start to run out in four years' time

Scientists have criticised a major 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.

BP's Statistical Review of World Energy, published yesterday, appears to show 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 will run dry.

Opec says oil demand at 1.5%

Opec has left unchanged its estimate of 2007 world oil demand growth at 1.5%, or 1.3m bpd, in its June monthly report, according to MarketWatch. Opec has repeatedly resisted calls by oil consuming nations to put more crude on world markets. The group said the US downstream sector was tight, and the market is likely to remain exposed to refinery glitches.

Securing the future - An oil company perspective

Ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon. It’s a great pleasure to be here today – in some senses returning to my roots. What I would like to do is to step back and reflect on the challenges the world faces in the matter of energy and what we as an industry might do to meet the challenge.

The 21st century dawned with a great sense of optimism. The Cold War, which had dominated the previous half-century, was over and with its end the spirits of the world were lifted. The battle of political ideas had apparently been won - free markets and democracy triumphed over the centrally planned state. A dynamic new information age offered enhanced freedom and prosperity. The revolution in the biological sciences promised health, beauty and longevity. World trade took off and, in the less developed nations, hundreds of millions of people were joining the world economy for the first time, seizing the chance to lift themselves out of poverty.


The future of North Sea oil

Will June 14, 2007, be added to the list of defining dates in the history of North Sea oil? The doomsayers might think so. The chronology goes back to 1964, when the first UK offshore licence was granted. Other important dates include 1967 (when the first gas field started production) and 1975 (when it was oil's turn). Production is past its peak and those of a pessimistic disposition will interpret yesterday's announcement that Shell, along with Esso, are to sell most of their northern North Sea assets as confirmation that the North Sea basin is on a slippery slope of moribundity.

OPEC should raise output: Energy secretary

OPEC should weigh recent projections for higher crude demand this year and raise its output if appropriate, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said Wednesday.

This week the International Energy Agency, adviser to 26 industrialized countries, and its U.S. counterpart, the federal Energy Information Administration, both accelerated the rate of oil use growth from the previous month's forecasts.

'Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran'

US Senator Joseph Lieberman's call for cross-border bombing raids into Iran appears to be the culmination of a two-week campaign by proponents of war to put the military option center-stage in the US debate over Iran once more.

The immediate effect of reigniting the let's-bomb-Iran discussions is the undercutting of the recently initiated US-Iran talks over Iraq, which in turn will cause the military confrontation with Iran to be viewed in a new light.

Greenspan says oil output a threat to Mexico

Declining oil output in Mexico could spark a major fiscal crisis there, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Wednesday while also railing against U.S. immigration policy.

"There is no doubt that Mexican overall [oil] production is down and if it continues down, and prices don't continue up to offset that, then there is a huge fiscal crisis pending," the former U.S. central banker said via a video link to a business conference in Mexico City.

North Sea running dry says BP

Britain only has enough gas and oil left under the North Sea to last six years at current production rates, leaving us increasingly exposed to volatile supplies from Russia and the Middle East.

The UK saw one of the most precipitous output declines of any nation last year, exceeded only by Saudi Arabia and Norway, BP's Statistical Review of World Energy revealed. The biggest jumps were achieved by the United Arab Emirates and Russia.

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.”

What motivated the 9/11 hijackers? See testimony most didn't

Interesting Clip

Energy Links Jamboree - 05/17/07

Fenton Gets Rogers' Latest View on China, the Mid East, the US Economic Meltdown

Investor Jim Rogers reveals bold opinions to strategist Bruce Fenton in an interview posted today on The Fenton Report (http://www.fentonreport.com/) and YouTube.

"There is a staggering misconception about China about Japan, about Europe, about everywhere. Most Americans can't even find Japan on a map...They can't even find Oklahoma on a map," says Rogers. "If the middle of Africa blew up we wouldn't know about it for two or three weeks...the rest of the world might, but we wouldn't," says Rogers

The Peak Oil crisis will not just impact on transport but also on agriculture in a massive way!

The Peak Oil crisis will not only mean a shortage of fuel for transport and heating - it will also mean a major loss in the production of high energy fertilisers - impacting massively on crop yields!

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.

Who Is Stealing Iraq's Oil?

It took quite a while, but it appears that the Bush Administration has finally gotten around to acknowledging that Iraq has an oil problem. The Government Accountability Office is about to release a report that estimates 100,000 to 300,000 barrels of oil goes missing every month. According to the New York Times, the GAO will not offer a conclusion about what specifically is happening to the missing oil, other than it is probably lost to corruption, smuggling or just bad accounting.

The Peak Oil Crisis: Alarms Are Sounding

Across the world alarm bells are starting to clang. Above every gas station, a large sign is proclaiming that prices are on an unstoppable climb towards un-affordability. In Paris, the International Energy Agency has announced that the demand for oil is likely to exceed the supply later this year, unless, of course, OPEC steps up production. In the Middle East OPEC spokesmen reiterate time after time that all is well, there is plenty of oil, and there is no need to increase production.

Natural gas prices expected to keep summer energy bills high

CPS Energy is expecting electric bills to be slightly higher than last year due to higher natural gas prices in electric generation.

According to Sylvia Arnold, director of customer services for CPS Energy, the projected average residential bill for the months of June through September is $155.28 per month based on 1,660 kilowatt hours. That's about $4.74 above last year's summer bill of $150.54 per month based on 1,653 kilowatt hours.

Bolton: Attack Iran before it gets bomb

Iran should be attacked - as a last resort - before it develops nuclear weapons, former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Feeling Shaky? Worried? Depressed? You Might Just Need An Eco-Therapist

Let's face it. Before Global Warming, Peak Oil, and the demise of bees came along, we all had plenty of other things to worry about. Now that we're in the thick of leading "greener" lives, some of the information out there can sometimes make the task a little overwhelming. Thankfully, there are those out there willing to lend a hand.

Searing Summer of Gasoline Shortages

Here is a quick run down on the possible disaster we face this summer as we head into Memorial Day with the lowest beginning-of-driving-season stocks in US history. It would have been convenient had someone found out exactly what Minimum Operating Levels* really have become. I suspect we will answer this riddle this summer.

What Glows in the Dark

No matter how bad things seem, balance can be kept by holding fast to a bedrock faith in the viability of the human condition. The fact that people can and often do ADAPT is what has so often proven the doomsayers wrong.

In regard to America's energy crisis, such an outcome is certainly possible, if not probable. Opportunity abounds when rational people start focusing on solutions.

Rigged to Blow - Kunstler

It's hard to venture around this land and not feel like you are living in something like an obsolete Las Vegas hotel exquisitely rigged for implosion. The massive system that we've poured all our national wealth into, and elaborated to the last limits of refinement over half a century, is poised for failure. The prospect is so dreadful that no legitimate authority in politics, business, the news media, or even those cultural outlands of the arts and religion, can bring themselves to express a plausibly coherent view of what happens next to a living arrangement with no future and an economy of no purpose.

US Sponsored Bombing of Somalia: The Hidden War for Oil

Carl Bloice elucidates the failure or unwillingness of the Western media to accurately report the invasion and occupation of Somalia by a US backed Ethiopian government. He asserts that behind the US-Ethiopian political alliance lies a strategic move to secure positioning in this oil region.

The US bombing of Somalia took place while the World Social Forum was underway in Kenya, three days before a large anti-war action in Washington on 27 January 2007.

Iran's nuclear progress likely to result in nuclear race, U.S. media warns

Now that Iran has a nuclear program, other Middle East countries want nuclear power, something that will probably result in a nuclear race in the region, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

"Two years ago, the leaders of Saudi Arabia told international atomic regulators that they could foresee no need for the kingdom to develop nuclear power. Today, they are scrambling to hire atomic contractors, buy nuclear hardware and build support for a regional system of reactors," the newspaper said.

Iran Says Nuclear Enrichment Reaches Industrial Scale

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran has begun enriching uranium on an industrial scale, stepping up the country's defiance of the United Nations and risking an escalation of tensions over its nuclear program.

``I am proud to say that right from today our country has entered the group of countries that produce nuclear fuel industrially,'' Ahmadinejad said today at the Natanz uranium- enrichment site. While the president didn't specify the scale of enrichment, Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani confirmed to reporters that uranium gas was being fed into 3,000 centrifuges.

Iran president to announce nuclear 'good news'

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to unveil what he has described as 'good news' on Iran's nuclear programme on Monday amid international calls for a suspension of uranium enrichment.

April 9 is Iran's national nuclear technology day and marks the first anniversary of its enrichment of uranium to the level needed to produce fuel for civil reactors.

Peak Oil Passnotes: Iran for All Seasons

The release of the 15 British soldiers being held in Iran does not appear to be an isolated incident. Strangely both governments, while criticising each other, are both prepared to take that line in public. They would both like us to think it was an incident over a disputed line of control, at sea.

But this does not appear to be the case. It seems as if a number of factors moved Iran to keep the British soldiers for as long as they did. After all, Iran had hostages taken in Iraq. Firstly, the Iranian diplomat taken hostage, probably by the Iraqi army after a request by the U.S., has been released. Secondly, it appears the U.S. have conceded that the five Iranian diplomats arrested by them some weeks back in Irbil will be visited by Iranian authorities.

Nuclear Standoff With Iran: The Only Way Out

Iran's nuclear ambition continues to dominate U.S.-Iran relations, with little positive movement. The U.S. argues that Iran does not have the right to enrich uranium, that its enrichment program is only a cover for the development of nuclear weapons and that Iran is in violation of the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons). As a result the U.S. has engineered sanctions on Iran through the United Nations and implicitly threatens Iran with military action.

Iran crisis still ready to blow … US preparing to Attack

Larry Edelson writes:Yesterday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced he will free the 15 British sailors and marines captured on March 23. That's welcome news.

However, I don't think this political maneuver changes the underlying situation one iota. And gold's price is confirming that. Instead of falling on the news of the pending release of the hostages, the yellow metal soared nearly $10 to its highest level since last May!

Gold Jumps As Peace Breaks Out!

"...If you want to hedge yourself against oil, buy oil. Don't mistake it for gold..."

WHATEVER happened to gold as a "safe haven"?

"The British sailors are free. They can go back to their families," announced Iran's president Ahmadinejad at a press conference on Wednesday, just as New York was about to open for business.

Iran's Ahmadinejad Says 15 Britons Will Be Released

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said 15 British sailors and Marines in captivity in Iran will be released, ending 13 days of increased tension between the U.K. and the Islamic state.

``The Great Iranian people and the Islamic Republic, despite having the legal right to put these British sailors on trial, will pardon them,'' Ahmadinejad said today. ``Their release will be given to the British population as a gift'' to mark the March 31 birthday of the Prophet Muhammad and Easter, he said.

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.

Iranian MP: Uranium enrichment necessary

An Iranian parliamentarian says that UN Resolution 1747 was issued under pressure from Washington.

Rasoul Sediqqi called the UN resolution an unfair action against Iran, saying that western nations were already well aware Iran seeks only peaceful nuclear energy rather than nuclear weapons.

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 to establish a legal framework that would overturn the successes of that struggle and allow foreign companies to control Iraq’s wealth.

Trying to Figure Out Just What Iran Wants

The smaller question raised by Iran's latest provocation -- what does Tehran want with 15 British sailors? -- leads inevitably to the larger one: What does Iran want? There does not appear to be any good answer. The traditional rules of realpolitik do not seem to govern the behavior of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran's captives: how can we free them?

WHEN THE Royal Navy's Type 22 frigate HMS Cornwall sailed into the northern Gulf close to the entrance of the Shatt-al-Arab waterway just over a week ago, her captain was taking this ultra-modern anti-submarine vessel into deeper waters than the designers of the Broadsword-class warship might ever have imagined.

As the captain found to his cost, the innocent searching of a suspect Indian merchant ship - an operation carried out under the mandate of the UN - led to 15 sailors and marines being captured by the Iranian authorities and to the undignified spectacle of the British lion's tail being tweaked by a bunch of gun-toting Iranian Republican Guards.

Iranian president: British sailors trespassed, world powers are arrogant

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted Saturday that 15 captured British sailors had been seized in Iranian waters, calling Britain and its allies “arrogant” for refusing to apologize, the country’s official news agency reported.

“The British occupier forces did trespass our waters. Our border guards detained them with skill and bravery. But arrogant powers, because of their arrogant and selfish spirit, are claiming otherwise,” IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying during a speech in the southeastern city of Andinmeshk.

Oil spikes late on Iran rumour; U.S. officials deny

Oil briefly surged $5 late Tuesday on rumours that conflict had broken out between Iran and the United States, then eased as the White House said there was nothing to indicate an incident had taken place.

U.S. crude prices jumped to $68.09 a barrel in electronic trade, the highest level since September 6, before falling down to $64.48. U.S. oil had earlier settled open outcry trade up 2 cents at $62.93, extending a five-day bull run that added more than $6 to the price.

Oil hits 2007 high on Iran tensions

No. 4 oil exporter defiant on atomic work after U.N. voted to impose new sanctions, sending oil above $63 a barrel.

Oil prices climbed to a 2007 high above $63 a barrel Monday on growing tension between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear work and its capture last week of British military personnel.

THE COMING WAR WITH IRAN

The timing of the recent incident in in which 15 British sailors were arrested by Iran at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway for purportedly entering Iranian waters couldn't have been more provocative if it had been planned that way. And perhaps it was. The question is, however, who did the planning?