Peak Oil News

'Carbon tax' is sensible, and perhaps inevitable, advocate says

Dieter Helm of Oxford says climate change policy should focus not on carbon production, but carbon consumption. A tax on carbon-heavy activities places the emphasis where it belongs, he says.

Reporting from Oxford, England - With the global climate change summit in Copenhagen just a few weeks away, gloom has settled in many quarters over the increasing likelihood that a robust international treaty to lower carbon emissions is out of reach, at least for now.

Oil's expanding frontiers

...For many years, most oil was used for lighting and lubrication, and the amounts extracted were modest. Then in 1901, a new well named for an East Texas hillock, Spindletop, began gushing more per day than all other U.S. wells combined.

Since then, America has exhausted its hydrocarbon supplies. Repeatedly.

Chickens come home to roost in backyards around the USA

PORTLAND, Maine � For months, Daniel Strauss has looked out the window of his home on busy Stevens Avenue and noticed as many as six chickens pecking at the soil of his backyard.

The hens' owner, Jennifer Rudin, wasn't sure at first whether her city neighbor would appreciate the chickens' free-ranging, which has become routine for them since Portland approved backyard chicken farming earlier this year. But having seen how adaptable chickens are, Strauss is planning to get a few of his own.

Mexico eyes risk contracts to offset Cantarell downturn

LOS ANGELES -- Mexico�s state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos and the Secretaria de Energia (Sener) are preparing risk contracts that will be offered to oil companies�international and domestic�in order accelerate the search for oil and gas, according to local media.

Mexico�s daily El Universal reports that the contracts are the result of concern over output generally, but especially at Cantarell, which represents a loss of 272.425 billion pesos/year ($20.859 billion) in tax revenue for the country, or 2% of estimated gross domestic product for 2009, at current oil prices.

Study sees transit saving Californians' energy, cutting greenhouse gas

A new study says Californians could save billions each year and cut greenhouse gas emissions by developing neighborhoods within easy access of public transportation.

The study � "Windfall for All: How Connected, Convenient Neighborhoods Can Protect Our Climate and Safeguard California's Economy" � was conducted by Oakland-based TransForm, formerly the Transportation and Land Use Coalition. TransForm is a coalition that includes nonprofits, environmental advocates and labor unions.

Natural gas prices fall 12 percent in November

U.S. natural gas inventories higher than at any point in the nation's history

NEW YORK - Natural gas prices have dropped by more than 12 percent in the past month as the country continues to sip at its energy reserves and a balmy November allowed homeowners to leave the heat off.

...The recession has kept natural gas demand low most of the year. With manufacturers shuttering factories and closing offices, the country is using less electricity and power plants are burning less natural gas.

Lester R. Brown: A hotter planet means less on our plates

As the U.N. climate-change conference in Copenhagen approaches, we are in a race between political tipping points and natural ones. Can we cut carbon emissions fast enough to keep the melting of the Greenland ice sheet from becoming irreversible? Can we close coal-fired power plants in time to save at least the larger glaciers in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan plateau? Can we head off ever more intense crop-withering heat waves before they create chaos in world grain markets?

These are all climate-change issues, but they have something else in common: food. Copenhagen will be about climate, of course, but in a fundamental sense, it must also be about whether we will have enough to eat in the decades to come.

The Critical Unraveling of U.S. Society

The economic elite have launched an attack on the U.S. public and society is unraveling at an increased rate.

...Considering our current economy, what will happen when another extreme weather event like Hurricane Katrina hits a major US city? What will happen when storms, droughts and fires continue to spread with increasing intensity? How many have to die before even modest actions are taken to prevent environmental catastrophe?

Recovery over a barrel

After a fall in demand during the depths of the crisis, the IEA now expects global demand for oil to be 84.2 million barrels a day this year and more than 86.2 million barrels a day next year.

Then there is the looming problem of Peak Oil - the stage when demand outstrips the world's capacity to produce it.

Sustainability and Social Justice: Do the Math

According to data compiled by the UN, the Global Footprint Network, and Dr. William Rees at the University of British Columbia, total human consumption already exceeds the Earth's capacity by 30 per cent. This is known as biological 'overshoot'. The UN estimates that most natural services to human societies - forests, fish, fresh water and clean air - decline annually. As human population and consumption grow, our collective overshoot increases.