Home Page 2001

by Webmaster December 31, 2001 12:00
The coming decline of oil. "Amongst the billions of words brought forth by the climate debate over the past years, remarkably few have touched on an issue that ticks behind it like an unexploded time-bomb. This is the probability that world oil production will reach a peak sometime during this decade and then start to fall, never to rise again." [December]

 

Addicted to oil, The Economist has an opinion: America's energy policy was wrong before September 11th. Now it is even more so. [December 13]

On NPR audio: Oil Experts See Middle East Exporters Regaining Advantage. As oil prices rest at a two-year low, analysts disagree on the future of oil production. But most agree Middle East exporters stand to benefit. NPR's Christopher Joyce reports for Morning Edition. [November 30]

Now you can read that OPEC's clout isn't what it used to be: Globalization reduced our reliance on Middle East oil, and allows us to pursue our goals in the war against terror without fear of triggering an energy crisis." Bill Richardson and Thomas F. McLarty III, San Jose Mercury News [November 4]

This optimistic view of US hegemony is offered in spite of the circumstances illuminated in the New Yorker's Annals of National Security, which tells about a King's Ransom: "[T]he National Security Agency['s] ... intercepts of conversations between members of the Saudi Arabian royal family... depict a regime increasingly corrupt, alienated from the country's religious rank and file, and so weakened and frightened that it has brokered its future by channelling hundreds of millions of dollars in what amounts to protection money to fundamentalist groups that wish to overthrow it.... As for the terrorists ... 'If they do a similar operation in Saudi Arabia, the price of oil will go up to one hundred dollars a barrel.'...." by Semour Hersh [October 22]

Forecasting Future Production from Past Discovery, by Jean Laherrere at OPEC seminar, "OPEC and the Global Energy Balance: Towards a Sustainable Energy Future." [September 28]

And now Afghanistan enters the picture again .... So what am I going to do about it? [September]

new book: Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage, by Kenneth S. Deffeyes [September]

"... [A]lthough there was knee-jerk rise in world crude oil prices on Tuesday, the broadly negative economic impact of the attacks, detailed above, is actually bearish for crude prices. A slowdown in economic activity and global travel could reduce crude oil demand at a time when it was already weakening because of faltering global growth...." UBS/Paine Webber Market Commentary [September 12]

"Britain's oil production is at its lowest output levels since 1995, new figures out today have revealed. In June, production dropped to below the two million barrels a day mark..." CNNfn [August 23]

The Oil Peak: A Turning Point. "There have been several short-lived price shocks in the past ... This time the world faces something new, different, permanent and much more serious." Solar Today [July/August]

Estimates of Oil Reserves by Jean Laherrère at IIASA International Energy Workshop in Luxemberg [June 19]

Fuelling the Climate Crisis, The Continental Energy Plan. "There is a dangerous contradiction in the way Canada is developing its energy future. Canada is rushing to expand oil and gas production to feed the voracious American appetite for fossil fuels. By doing so, we are dramatically boosting our greenhouse gas emissions, especially from the proposed expansion of Alberta’s tar sands. The environmental implications are enormous." David Suzuki Foundation [June 1]

World Energy Production, Population Growth, and the Road to the Olduvai Gorge [600k pdf] [or html], as published in Population and Environment [May-June]

President Bush's Energy Policy

Reliable, Affordable, and Environmentally Sound Energy for America's Future. Report of the National Energy Policy Development Group.

A sample: Chapter 6 Recommends "re-evaluate access limitations to federal lands in order to increase renewable energy production... use an estimated $1.2 billion of bid bonuses from the environmentally responsible leasing of ANWR for funding research into alternative and renewable energy resources."

Summary of Recommendations [May 17]

Weighing in:

 

EIA's Outlook for Natural Gas [May 15]

Methane Madness: A Natural Gas Primer. "In 2000 the wellhead price of natural gas skyrocketed 400%. This was the sharpest energy price increase the nation had ever seen, outdoing even the oil spikes of the 1970s. ... So what comes next?" [April 13]

Suncor announced today that it was abandoning the Stuart Oil Shale Project adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The Shale Oil Project is the first major fossil fuel development in the world to be dropped because of its massive greenhouse problem, Greenpeace said. [April 6]

North American gas production flat, despite drilling boom -- El Paso Corp's CEO. [March 26]

Why the Bush Oil (Energy) Policy Will Fail by Cutler J. Cleveland and Robert K. Kaufmann [March 24]

Alternative Energy Sources by Walter Youngquist [January]

Here's where our new president stands on the issues [January 14]

The New Old Economy: Oil, Computers, and the Reinvention of the Earth, from The Atlantic Monthly [January]

Updates on Natural Gas and the California Energy Crisis [2001]

 

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