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Energy Conservation News and CommentaryHome | Energy Conservation | Alternative Energy | Alternative Construction When it comes to energy these days, the news isn't good. This page chronicles the on-going situation. If you find something you think should be on this page, send us email. The news and commentary here comes from both mainstream
and alternative sources. Check this page often, it will be
updated regularly.
Commentary These commentaries posted 03-25-2001. The Great Oil and Gas Decline, speculative fiction by Robert Waldrop Earth in Balance: Has energy capacity maxed out?, by Matthew Simmons, president of Simmons and Company International, a major player in the petroleum financial services industry, with ties to the incoming Bush Administration, pdf doc of presentation to Global Energy Symposium in London, November 2000. His conclusion: a major energy crisis is looming during the "00s", because demand is now exceeding supply. See their Research index for additional papers, speeches, and conference proceedings. This site requires a free registration to read the reports. When will the joyride end? By Randy Udall, published in the current issue of Home Power Magazine. Policy Pete -- Petroleum Policy and Geopolitics, informed commentary with a track record... The Peak of World Oil Production and the Road to the Olduvai Gorge, by Dr. Richard Duncan, a presentation to the Geological Society of America, November 2000. Presents the hypothesis that industrial civilization as we know it will have a time-span of about 100 years based on depletion of petroleum and natural gas sources. The Olduvai Theory of Industrial Civilization, original presentation of his theory. Oil Forecasting, more info about Duncan's methodology. The End of Cheap Oil, by Jean Laherrere and Colin Campbell, Scientific American, March 1998 The Imminent Peak of World Oil Production, by Colin Campbell, a presentation to a British House of Commons All-Party Committee, July 1999. |
| Hubbert Peak Home Page, if you want to know about the theory
behind the prediction of an imminent peak in world oil
production, this is the place.
Energy Production and Efficiency, from the Context Institute. Energy in the 21st Century: the return of Geopolitics?,
"Experience in mature oil regions suggests that conventional oil
production could peak between 2010 and 2020. Production
outside OPEC Middle East would start to decline before OPEC
Middle East production, implying a greater reliance on Middle
East supply." Detailed report on the world petroleum supply,
from the Organizationfor Economic Cooperation and
Development, which is sponsored by 30 nations, mostly the
developed West.
News Northern lights face blackouts: a power drought from Seattle to Portland, March 25, 2001, Sacramento Bee, The Energy Trap, March 25, 2001, Los Angeles Times, "you can't have an arctic refuge, cheap gasoline and guzzlers too. Something has got to give." Californian's warned power bills could sore, March 24, 2001, Reuters via Yahoo Online News, 50 to 100%!!! Businesses see energy cost cut profits, March 24, 2001, Seattle Post Intelligencer, the most important news here is in the final two paragraphs: "The past year has seen a frenetic pace of gas drilling. The number of drilling rigs jumped by 46 percent to about 900, the biggest such surge over a single year in a quarter century. But the amount of gas flowing into the market has not increased by much. "We're drilling at higher rates just to get the same amount of gas out of the ground," says Skip Horvath, president of the Natural Gas Supply Association, a producer trade group." Crisis deepens, politicos panic, March 23, 2001, Sacramento Bee, "The choking sound you hear is California's political class shifting into near-panic mode as it realizes that the energy crisis is on the verge of becoming a full-scale meltdown, with utilities forced into bankruptcy and consumers hammered by severe and prolonged power blackouts and soaring electricity bills." Yahoo coverage of the California Energy Crisis, updated as news breaks. Don't forget the "C" word, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's editors comment on Bush administration moves that downplay energy conservation. Contracts won't meet summer demands, March 22, 2001, San Francisco Chronicle, California's woes will continue "at least through 2004". |
| US needs 1300 new power plants over the next 20 years, thus says
the Vice President, in this AP story reported in Yahoo Daily News.
No word about where the fuel will come from to power them.
Metals industry jolted by energy crisis, Purchasing.com, March 8, 2001 US Crude oil stocks reach 25 year lows, Dow Jones News, via the Energy Digest, Bakersfield Californian., March 8, 2001. + top + |
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