For SmartPlanet this week, I detailed the woefully inaccurate past forecasts of the oil majors and contrasted their bullish outlooks with their actual production,which has been declining since 1999 despite massive investment. Be sure to check out the links to the posts by Matt Mushalik and Matthieu Auzanneau.
Read it here: Oil majors are whistling past the graveyard
For SmartPlanet this week, I explored the cost data (such as it is) on carbon capture and storage (CCS), and concluded that it will never pay off. Renewables have simply gotten too cheap, and the public subsidies that would be required to get CCS to the point where it’s economically viable are just too huge.
Read it here: Why carbon capture and storage will never pay off
(more…)
I appeared as a guest today on Warren Olney’s radio show “To The Point,” which is syndicated on Public Radio International (PRI). We discussed why gasoline prices are so high right now, in which I referred to my column this week, “America’s oil choice: Pay up, or get off.”
To listen to my short segment, go here: To The Point, February 21, 2013, and click the Listen button. Then in the new window, at the bottom of the main frame under the title “Can We Map The Brain?” click the box labeled “Is $4 Ga…”
For SmartPlanet this week, I surveyed the latest message from the American oil and gas industry: We either need to pay more for oil to sustain the boom in unconventional production (from tight oil and tar sands), or find ways to do without it.
Read it here: America’s oil choice: Pay up, or get off
(more…)
For SmartPlanet this week, I dug into the data on water supply and demand in Abu Dhabi and surrounding emirates and nations, and the energy consumed by desalination. They have a serious problem in the making with their water supply, and it should surprise no one that they’re looking to renewables to make fresh water out of saltwater instead of burning precious oil and gas to do it.
Read it here: Ground zero in the energy-water nexus
(more…)
For SmartPlanet this week, I filed my first report from my trip to Abu Dhabi last week, where I attended the World Future Energy Summit. What I found there was remarkable: Two of the world’s top oil and gas producers transitioning to renewables.
Read it here: Sunrise in the desert
(more…)
For SmartPlanet this week, I took a break from my usual data-oriented work and offered some musings about the memes of collapse, peak oil, the debt overhang, and climate change. As a cultural phenomenon, I think collapse may have jumped the shark, but it certainly hasn’t gone away.
Read it here: Waiting for the punchline
(more…)
For SmartPlanet this week, I reviewed some of my calls for 2012, and offered my oil and gas price forecast for 2013.
Read it here: Oil and gas price forecast for 2013
(more…)
For SmartPlanet this week, I discussed a recent research paper from the University of Delaware which explored how a major grid in the Northeast could be 99.9% powered exclusively by renewables (wind and solar), and how doing so would cost about the same as what we pay today for grid power. I also pointed out some new reports about the rapidly falling cost of solar PV power and the rapidly growing installation of solar in the U.S. A new white paper out of Australia about how that country can mostly power its grid from renewables by 2050 also merited a mention.
Read it here: Coming soon: 100% renewable power
(more…)
