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The Ethanol Rhetoric Ramps Up

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Oil Drum - By Robert Rapier - Nov. 23 (Opinion) - It has been interesting to watch the flurry of ethanol rhetoric since the recent elections. With the $0.45 per gallon subsidy (called the VEETC) and the ethanol tariffs both set to expire at the end of next month, both sides feel that there is a lot at stake, and they have really ramped up the rhetoric. One side will claim that ethanol is the greatest thing since sliced bread, then the other side claims it is an environmental disaster. Around and around the claims go. Misinformation abounds.

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What happens when energy resources deplete?

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Oil Drum - By Gail Tverberg - Jun. 17 (Opinion) - The popular myth among people concerned about peak oil is that difficulties do not really start until oil production begins its down-slope. In my view, the difficulties start much sooner--as soon as oil supply cannot be provided at close to a constant price.

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Energy Transitions Past and Future

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Oil Drum - By Cutler Cleveland - Jun. 07 (Opinion) - In the coming decades, world oil production will peak and then begin to decline, followed by natural gas and eventually coal production. There is considerable debate about when these peaks will occur because such information would greatly aid energy companies, policy makers, and the general public. But at another level, the timing of peak fossil fuel production doesn't really matter. A more fundamental issue is the magnitude and nature of the energy transition that will eventually occur.

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Where we are headed: Peak oil and the financial crisis

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Oil Drum - By Gail Tverberg - Mar. 25 (Opinion) - The current financial crisis is a direct result of peak oil. There may be oscillations in the economic situation, but generally, we can't expect things to get much better. In fact, there is a very distinct possibility that things may get very much worse in the next few years.

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Creating a Post-Peak Future Worth Living Into

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Oil Drum - Oct. 29 (Opinion) - The future most people are living into is beginning to disappear. The financial crisis threw the first punch, but oil depletion will deliver the knockout blow.

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The Connection Between Peak Oil and the Collapse of the Monetary System

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Oil Drum - Oct. 13 (Opinion) - It is not a coincidence that just as we are hitting peak oil, world monetary systems seem to be edging toward collapse. Monetary systems are debt based, and depend on growth to continue. Resources are finite, and we are reaching limitations on them.

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Energy Margin Calls- Chesapeake CEO Forced To Sell All His Stock

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Oil Drum - Oct. 11 (Opinion) - The CEO of the nation's largest natural gas producer had to involuntarily sell all of his stock this past week. The financial crisis has now obviously spread to the energy markets.

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Gasoline Shortages: Our Inventory Problem

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Oil Drum - By Gail Tverberg - Sep. 28 (Opinion) - One of the major reasons for gas shortages is that fact that inventories were not very high going into the hurricanes. Then when not one, but two, hurricanes hit, inventories dropped to the level where there wasn't enough to go around. (In fact, the shortages started even before the second hurricane hit.) How could this happen? Isn't there anyone who cares about gasoline inventories?

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A Pretty Stunning Graph of World Cement Usage (and China Is Certainly Using It)

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Oil Drum - Jun. 17 (Opinion) - Also interesting is the percentage of the world's consumption of cement that China took up in 2007 (50%) compared to 2004 (42.5%); some of this can no doubt be due to preparation for the Olympics, but that surely cannot not be all of that growth can it?

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Saudi Arabia's Crude Oil Reserves: Particulars or Propaganda?

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Oil Drum - Jun. 15 (Opinion) - After Saudi Aramco tells the truth, the other OPEC members can do the same as it is highly likely that they have also artificially inflated their remaining recoverable crude oil reserves from 1980 to 1990 and continue to hold these reserves artificially high without making sufficient new discoveries.

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An Open Letter to Our Next President about Energy Policy

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Oil Drum - By Robert Rapier - Apr. 30 (Opinion) - Vice President Dick Cheney once famously quipped "The American way of life is non-negotiable." I submit that while our next president might not be so brash in stating this, the root of our energy problems can be traced to this attitude. But, nature doesn't negotiate. It doesn't appear that any of the remaining presidential candidates understand the basis of the problems we face: Oil is a depleting, finite resource - albeit one crucial for the "American way of life."

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CO2 Capture and Storage: The Energy Costs

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 11:11:29 -0700

The Oil Drum - Jul. 05 (Opinion) - Capturing carbon dioxide from coal (and gas) fired electricity plants. Subsequently transporting the carbon dioxide from the plant and storing it underground in (abandoned) oil/gas fields, in other geological formations or on the ocean floor. It seems like an excellent solution for continued fossil fuel use in the coming decades.

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Corn-Based Ethanol: Is This a Solution?

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:17:33 -0700

The Oil Drum - Jun. 07 (Opinion) - Many people have high hopes for ethanol made from corn--that it will prevent future gasoline shortages, prevent global warming, be a wonderful investment, and improve the income of farmers, among other things. Other observers raise a whole host of concerns including scalability, impact on the environment, and impact on food prices. Why is there such a huge disparity in views? What is the real promise for corn ethanol? Many questions and answers under the fold.

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Are Subsidies to Oil Companies Ever Justified?

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 11:57:47 -0700

The Oil Drum - By Robert Rapier - Apr. 23 (Opinion) - There are really two options. By far the most efficient would be to raise taxes on fossil fuels. I am an American, but have lived in Europe before, and I am back here now. In my opinion Europeans have been far wiser about their policies on fossil fuels than we have been in the U.S. They made them expensive. Does that mean everyone then lives in poverty because they can't afford gasoline? Far from it. People have adapted. They are attracted to fuel efficient vehicles. They live in smaller houses, closer to their jobs. They embrace mass transit. These are all behaviors that the U.S. has discouraged by keeping fossil fuel taxes low. So, we are energy gluttons, and we maintain this gluttonous habit by ensuring that both major political parties think twice before raising our gas taxes.

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Three Pieces of Peak Oil Media: Simmons/Kilduff and Pickens on CNBC on GAO/Peak Oil and Kunstler on Peak Oil and the Car Culture

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:11:00 -0700

The Oil Drum - Mar. 30 (Opinion) - Here's three four pieces of media that you can send to folks to explain the basic arguments regarding peak oil. First is Matt Simmons on CNBC yesterday talking about the GAO report (7 mins), then under the fold a link to Jim Kunstler's latest talk, a piece by ABC Radio of Australia on the GAO report and peak oil, and Boone Pickens on the issue as well.

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Saudi Arabian oil declines 8% in 2006

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 10:00:44 -0800

The Oil Drum - By Stuart Staniford - Mar. 02 (Special Report) - "[After this analysis,] on the whole, media coverage of OPEC production cuts appears to be almost completely unmoored from the data the agencies are reporting. The entire "production cut" may be a public relations exercise to disguise other processes."

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Trade, Transportation and the Chinese Finger Trap

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 08:41:44 -0800

The Oil Drum - By Nate Hagens - Jan. 22 (Opinion) - This post will examine the theory of international trade and the hierarchy of goods transport, production and consumption. It is quite possible that in the next decade, the increase in price (or the decreasing availability) of oil, will offset the benefits of many types of trade.

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New Iraqi oil law: some facts on PSAs

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 08:28:50 -0800

The Oil Drum - By Jerome a Paris - Jan. 08 (Opinion) - The lefty blogosphere is all a-flutter after the article in the Independent about the new Iraqi oil law (flagged in this morning's Salon), which will allow foreign companies to invest in the oil sector via PSAs (production sharing agreements). These are presented as unfair contracts, which will give the majority of the profits to the Western oil majors, and highly unusual. This is all untrue, and it obfuscates the wider truth that no major Western company will invest in Iraq (under these contracts or under any other scheme) as long as American troops are there and that a civil war is under way.

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Using NATO to fight peak gas

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 12:51:31 -0800

The Oil Drum - By Jerome a Paris - Jan. 06 (Opinion) - As many of you have probably noticed, there has been an increasingly confrontational relationship between the West and Russia on the issue of gas deliveries to Europe. Over the past year, I have traced this increase in tensions not to Russia's behaviour, but to a clear policy choice made by the UK and the USA to demonize others (continental Europe, for not liberalizing enough, and Russia, for supposedly being an unreliable partner) in the face of their abrupt switch from gas self-sufficiency (counting Canada in the case of the US) to gas importer.

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