Tag: Energy

Solar Storm Disaster in 2012?

Our modern way of life, with its reliance on technology, has unwittingly exposed us to an extraordinary danger: plasma balls spewed from the surface of the sun could wipe out our power grids, with catastrophic consequences.

The “perfect storm” is most likely on a spring or autumn night in a year of heightened solar activity – something like 2012. Around the equinoxes, the orientation of the Earth’s field to the sun makes us particularly vulnerable to a plasma strike.

blackout-warningThe projections of just how catastrophic make chilling reading. “We’re moving closer and closer to the edge of a possible disaster,” says Daniel Baker, a space weather expert based at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and chair of the NAS committee responsible for the report.

According to the NAS report, the impact of what it terms a “severe geomagnetic storm scenario” could be as high as $2 trillion. And that’s just the first year after the storm. The NAS puts the recovery time at four to 10 years.

via Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe – space – 23 March 2009 – New Scientist.

Petro-Dictators Reeling

The depression — let’s call it what it is — leaves us, well, depressed. But there is very good news from around the world. Our enemies are collapsing under the strain of dropping oil and gas prices.

What we had all hoped conservation and offshore drilling would achieve, the global economic collapse is accomplishing: the defeat of OPEC, Iran, Chavez, Putin and the weakening of the financial underpinnings of Islamist terrorism. In each of these nations, the hold of the dictator is weakening as, one after the other, they face the consequences of dropping oil prices.

The pressure to stay in power will be so intense that these leaders will force production as high as they can to offset the shortfall. The result is that there will be constant deflationary pressure on oil prices, a vicious cycle that will impoverish all the right people.

via Newsmax.com – Suppliers Feeling the Sting of Oil Prices.

In China, OPEC’s nightmare comes true

Neither the incoming Obama administration, nor top planners in Beijing, will quickly forget the harsh lessons about reducing energy dependence taught in the last two years, even if prices now settle much lower.

China’s decision to raise fuel taxes will increase Saudi Arabia’s determination to stabilize prices at a much lower level than most other members of the organization are comfortable with, to try to limit the long-term damage to oil demand.

The kingdom’s worst fears about the long-term damage wrought by high and volatile prices are now being realized.

via In China, OPEC’s nightmare comes true: John Kemp | Reuters.

Inflatergate Exposed – Tire Gauge Co. Funds Obama

Tire Gauge Industry Pumps Up Obama Campaign Coffers | Autopia from Wired.com

On June 16th, 2008, John Zimmerman, chief financial officer of Tomkins, gave nearly $7,000 in campaign contributions to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Lo and behold, nary two months later Obama’s in Springfield, Mo, suggesting drivers inflate their tires to save gas (and, by the way, curb CO2 emissions). Coincidence? We think not. Does it come as any surprise that Tomkins owns the Syracuse Gauge Company, which bills itself as manufacturing the “largest selection and variety of tools in the United States for filling tires [and] checking tire pressure”?

Perhaps the most shocking part of Inflategate is the politicization of a suggestion so simple as following the instructions found in your car’s owners manual. It’s also something of a tempest in a teapot, seeing how all new cars must have tire-pressure monitors.

Shipping costs start to crimp globalization

Shipping costs start to crimp globalization – International Herald Tribune
The cost of shipping a 40-foot container from Shanghai to the United States has risen to $8,000, compared with $3,000 early in the decade, according to a recent study of transportation costs. Big container ships, the pack mules of the 21st-century economy, have shaved their top speed by nearly 20 percent to save on fuel costs, substantially slowing shipping times.

The study, published in May by the Canadian investment bank CIBC World Markets, calculates that the recent surge in shipping costs is on average the equivalent of a 9 percent tariff on trade. “The cost of moving goods, not the cost of tariffs, is the largest barrier to global trade today,” the report concluded, and as a result “has effectively offset all the trade liberalization efforts of the last three decades.” Continue reading “Shipping costs start to crimp globalization”

Overseas Fuel Subsidies Hurt US

Fuel Subsidies Overseas Take a Toll on U.S. – NYTimes.com
From Mexico to India to China, governments fearful of inflation and street protests are heavily subsidizing energy prices, particularly for diesel fuel. But the subsidies — estimated at $40 billion this year in China alone — are also removing much of the incentive to conserve fuel.

The oil company BP, known for thorough statistical analysis of energy markets, estimates that countries with subsidies accounted for 96 percent of the world’s increase in oil use last year — growth that has helped drive prices to record levels.

In most countries that do not subsidize fuel, high prices have caused oil demand to stagnate or fall, as economic theory says they should. But in countries with subsidies, demand is still rising steeply, threatening to outstrip the growth in global supplies.

Gasoline From Algae

Biomass Magazine
San Diego, Calif.-based Sapphire Energy was founded in 2006 on the basis of this principle philosophy when it debuted its “green crude”, a gasoline equivalent refined from algae that comes in light and heavy fractions; the light being gasoline and a heavy being kero-disel or jet aircraft fuel. Although it won’t divulge its production process specifically, according to Sapphire Chief Executive Officer Jason Pyle, the company is producing 91 octane gasoline built on the platform that uses nothing more than sunlight, carbon dioxide and complex photosynthetic microorganisms. Progress on Gas From Grass

Fears Of Anarchy From Fuel & Food Shortages

FT.com / World – Instability fear forces strategic threat rethink
During the past few weeks senior officials have quietly begun to shift their emphasis of the fuel and food crisis from viewing it as purely a humanitarian and social problem to a concern that governments could fall as hungry and fuel-deprived people take their anger to the streets.

Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme, has warned that riots in more than 30 countries were “stark reminders that food insecurity threatens not only the hungry but peace and stability itself”. She added that only seven meals separated civilisation from potential anarchy and that some of the world’s “gold-standard, new, fledgling democracies” were under the most pressure.

Oil shortage a myth, says industry insider

Oil shortage a myth, says industry insider – Climate Change, Environment – The Independent
Proven oil reserves are likely to be far larger than reported because of the way the capacity of oilfields is estimated and how those estimates are added to form the proven reserves of a company or a country. Companies add the estimated capacity of oil fields in a simple arithmetic manner to get proven oil reserves. This gives a deliberately conservative total deemed suitable for shareholders who do not want proven reserves hyped, Dr Pike said.

However, mathematically it is more accurate to add the proven oil capacity of individual fields in a probabilistic manner based on the bell-shaped statistical curve used to estimate the proven, probable and possible reserves of each field. This way, the final capacity is typically more than twice that of simple, arithmetic addition, Dr Pike said. “The same also goes for natural gas because these fields are being estimated in much the same way. The world is understating the environmental challenge and appears unprepared for the difficult compromises that will have to be made.” Click on image to enlarge

Jeremy Leggett, author of Half Gone, a book on peak oil, is not convinced that Dr Pike is right. “The flow rates from the existing projects are the key. Capacity coming on stream falls fast beyond 2011,” Dr Leggett said. “On top of that, if the big old fields begin collapsing, the descent in supply will hit the world very hard.”