Mexico’s president on dangerous ground as he pushes Pemex reform
Yet even as the country’s new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, credits Pemex with building the nation, his administration acknowledges that the notoriously inefficient conglomerate is in trouble: If it is not opened to private and foreign investment, Mexico, the world’s ninth-largest oil producer, will become a net energy importer by 2020, officials say. (LA Times)
Amid Pipeline Debate, Two Costly Cleanups Forever Change Towns
It has been three years since an Enbridge Energy pipeline ruptured beneath this small western Michigan town, spewing more than 840,000 gallons of thick oil sands crude into the Kalamazoo River and Talmadge Creek, the largest oil pipeline failure in the country’s history. Last March, an Exxon Mobil pipeline burst in Mayflower, Ark., releasing thousands of gallons of oil and forcing the evacuation of 22 homes. (NY Times)
Is peak oil demand just around the corner?
Thanks to a combination of price increases, improvements in vehicle efficiency, as well as the advent of alternative fuels and electric cars, we may reach a point in the coming decades where the world’s demand for oil actually starts declining. And if that happens before peak oil production hits, well, that would come as a relief. (WaPo)
Peak oil? David Rosenberg gives seven reasons
1. Oil demand has declined in the industrialized world since 2005. The International Energy Agency now projects global demand at 97 million barrels a day, down 13 per cent from the 112 million projected about 15 years ago. (Globe and Mail)
The Peak Oil Crisis: The 3rd Window
There are currently three companies that have announced they are working on commercial “cold fusion” devices and that seem to be making progress on producing large amounts of heat from the hydrogen and nickel reaction. (Tom Whipple)
Peak oil researcher says shale profits proving ephemeral
Many of the oil industry’s big players wrote down the value of their shale assets for second quarter — a move that indicates the continuing challenge of making many of the shale plays financially viable, according to Art Berman, a petroleum geologist and director of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil. Berman, a Houston-area geologist, has been questioning the economics of shale gas for years, particularly in terms of the potential reserves. (Fuel Fix)
Just as the “peak oil” debate falsely predicted that worldwide oil production had reached — or very nearly reached — its peak overall production, the shale oil debate is steering public opinion to the opposite extreme. (Foreign Policy)
The thinking is informed primarily by falling demand in areas like the US and Europe, but especially the perception that a plethora of new transportation technologies, such as plug-in hybrids, electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are now viable. (Forbes)
To Save Water, Parched Southwest Cities Ask Homeowners to Lose Their Lawns
Worried about dwindling water supplies, communities across the drought-stricken Southwest have begun waging war on a symbol of suburban living: the lush, green grass of front lawns. (NY Times)
Ma downplays renewable energy in wind-farm visit
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said Taiwan must continue to use natural gas and other energy resources to meet the nation’s power requirements, saying renewable energy had limitations in a visit to a Penghu County wind farm. (Taipei Times)
Renewable energy, not fracking, is the best choice for California
The oil and gas industry is lobbying hard to expand hydraulic fracturing – a dangerous process commonly known as fracking – into the Central Valley’s world-class agricultural lands, and there’s no shortage of controversy over the projected impacts. (Sacramento Bee)
Iran’s Renewable Energy Sector Poised for Growth
Iranian developments are heavily influenced by external sanctions and internal subsidy reforms. Within the framework of the subsidy reforms, which started in December 2010, it has been envisaged that all blanket subsidies would be removed by the end of 2015 with the objective of elevating the cost of energy to about 90% of regional fuel costs, increasing energy efficiency and making Iranian industry more competitive on the international stage. (Iranian)
Masdar City: The Sustainable City of the Future
Engineers took the first step in 2009 with the completion of a $50 million, 10 megawatt solar photovoltaic power plant – the largest solar farm in the Middle East – to power Masdar City in its infancy. That power plant couples with a smaller 1 Megawatt solar facility spanning the city’s rooftops to supply all of Masdar City’s current energy needs. (Wunderground)
Raging floodwaters rip through Colorado town, leaving 1 dead, 2 missing
The dangers there are exacerbated by last year’s mammoth Waldo Canyon wildfire, which — as Lt. Steve Schopper of the Manitou Springs Fire Department explained — made the soil saturated, unstable, “kind of waxy” and little help in curbing rushing waters. (CNN)
— USA Today
Over a Dozen Flash Floods in Two Weeks
Since late July, we’ve seen roughly two dozen flash flood events from the East to the Plains and Desert Southwest.
While severe thunderstorms can and do still rumble particularly across the nation’s northern tier, mid-late summer is prime time for the threat of flash flooding for several reasons …
Torrential rainfall near the burn scar of last year’s Waldo Canyon fire led to massive flooding and a mudslide in and near Manitou Springs, Colo. on August 9. (Wunderground)
Category 4 Super Typhoon Utor Bearing Down on the Philippines
Earth’s strongest and most dangerous tropical cyclone so far in 2013 is Category 4 Super Typhoon Utor, which is closing in on the northern Philippine Island of Luzon with 150 mph sustained winds. Landfall is expected at approximately 20 UTC (4 pm EDT) Sunday near Casigran. (Jeff Masters/Wunderground)
Shanghai sets new all-time record (again) as heat wave bakes eastern China
Shanghai saw its hottest July in 140 years as temperatures soared to 100ºF or higher for 10 straight days between July 23 and August 1. The coastal city reached 95ºF (35ºC) or higher on 25 days last month, 14 of which exceeded 100ºF (37.8ºC). (WaPo)
For some climate scientists, speaking out is a moral obligation
“While it is certainly true that most members the general public are not scientific experts, they are experts in figuring out who the experts are and in discerning what the practical importance of expert opinion is.” (Guardian)
A Texan tragedy: ample oil, no water
Three years of drought, decades of overuse and now the oil industry’s outsize demands on water for fracking are running down reservoirs and underground aquifers. And climate change is making things worse.(Guardian)
Cameroon’s chimps find themselves in palm oil’s firing line
… if the US company Herakles Farms gets its way, these chimpanzees may soon lose their homes. The company plans to convert large swathes of the area into a palm oil plantation, meaning crucial habitats used by chimpanzees, forest elephants and other critically endangered animals will be removed. (Greenpeace)
— Russia Today
The court orders the wife of the man and their eldest son to pay full 7,200,000 yen to JR Tokai for damages demanded by JR Tokai for train delay stemming from the fatal accident in which the man, 91 years old at the time of the accident, entered the railroad track and was hit by a train in December 2007.
The same Japanese justice system is NOT going to prosecute anyone from TEPCO’s former top management and DPJ’s politicians under the Kan administration over the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. But it has no problem indicting the now 91-year-old woman and ordering her to pay damages arising from her negligence, of not taking care of her husband. (Ex-SKF)
Obama says phone spying not abused, will continue
“Understandably, people would be concerned,” the president said. “I would be, too, if I weren’t inside the government.” (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
With Tor Mail gone, how will the Dark Web communicate?
Dissidents, whistleblowers and journalists have long used Tor Mail. Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are major Tor cheerleaders. But alongside them are some of the most prominent pedophiles and most profitable drug dealers on Web. Nothing about Tor Mail’s demise is certain at this point. We don’t know if its servers have fallen into the hands of criminals or the U.S. government. (Daily Dot)
Londoners Tracked By Advertising Firm’s Trash Cans‘
‘It provides an unparalleled insight into the past behavior of unique devices — entry/exit points, dwell times, places of work, places of interest, and affinity to other devices — and should provide a compelling reach data base for predictive analytics (likely places to eat, drink, personal habits etc.),’ reads a blog post on the company’s site. In tests running between 21-24 May and 2-9 June, over 4 million events were captured, with over 530,000 unique devices captured. (Slashdot)
Medical Intelligence International Biological/Chemical Weapons Assessments
(Recently declassified list of capabilities by region — PDF, Government Attic)
New Bank Investigations: Real Action, or More of the Same?
… you can find cases like this pretty much every day in every state in the country. Guaranteed, someone somewhere in America right now is drawing jail time for some form of welfare fraud.
Meanwhile, S.E.C. target Fab Tourre – the Goldman exec who joked about selling bad bonds to “widows and orphans” – will not do a day in jail for his part in a fraud that caused two banks in Europe to lose over a billion dollars. (Matt Taibbi)
The DOJ’s Pathetic Suit Against BofA Might Be the Most Pathetic in History
The two most obvious fails (except to most of the media, which failed to mention either) are that the DOJ has once again refused to prosecute either the elite bankers or bank that committed what the DOJ describes as massive frauds and that the DOJ has refused to bring even a civil suit against the senior officers of the banks despite filing a complaint that alleges facts showing that those officers committed multiple felonies that made them wealthy by causing massive harm to others. Those two fails should have been the lead in every article about the civil suit. (William Black/Alternet)
Lac-Mégantic rail disaster company MM&A files for bankruptcy
“The parent company, Rail World Group, has assets all over the country. They’ve got assets in Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Ukraine.
“They’re all over the place, it’s a huge, huge conglomerate.” (CBC)
Iraq unrest: Eid al-Fitr bomb attacks kill dozens
More than 60 people have been killed and nearly 300 others wounded in a series of bomb attacks in Iraq.
Most of the casualties were in the capital, Baghdad, which was hit by apparently co-ordinated car bombings near markets, cafes and restaurants. (BBC)
China Set to Become World’s Biggest Net Oil Importer – EIA
China will surpass the U.S. by October to become the world’s biggest net oil importer on a monthly basis, the Energy Information Administration said.
Imports by the second-biggest oil-consuming country will reach 6.45 million barrels a day, surpassing the U.S.’s 6.23 million, the EIA, the Energy Department’s statistical arm, said in this week’s Short-Term Energy Outlook. On a yearly basis, China’s overseas purchases will surpass the U.S.’s next year. (Bloomberg/gCaptain)
IHC Merwede Wins €1 Billion in Newbuild Orders for Subsea Pipelay Vessels
IHC Merwede announced today over €1 billion in new orders have just been received for the design, engineering and construction of six, 550-ton pipelay vessels. (gCaptain)
Gunmen Kill 5 Yemeni Troops Guarding LNG Export Plant
The official said the gunmen infiltrated a checkpoint guarding the Balhaf LNG terminal in the southern Shabwa province, killed one soldier and then entered a cargo container where four more troops were sleeping and shot them dead. (Reuters/gCaptain)
‘Clean’ geothermal energy plant sparks protest in Italy
He opposes the new plant because, he says, geothermal fields have already dropped Amiata’s water table, increasing the concentration of naturally occurring arsenic. What’s more, Borgia says that Enel is releasing carbon dioxide and other pollutants such as hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and mercury into the air … (Smart Planet)
Second-quarter earnings were dismal for the so-called oil supermajors. Shell, BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Total SA, Statoil, and Eni SpA all reported sharply lower profits.
Production was also down nearly across the board, with only Total SA reporting an increase. (Chris Nelder)
U.S. shale mania costs latecomers dear
The results were predictable. Late investors substantially overpaid for leases. Costs rose. Markets became oversupplied. Selling prices slumped. Fabulous returns turned to a trickle, leading to writeoffs in the value of the assets. (Reuters)
In North Asia, a growing crisis of confidence in nuclear power
A nuclear power plant in Taiwan may have been leaking radioactive water for three years, the government has said, adding to a growing crisis of confidence in North Asia about nuclear safety.
Japan is struggling to contain radioactive water pouring out of the Fukushima nuclear plant that was wrecked by a 2011 tsunami. In South Korea, prosecutors are conducting a massive investigation into forged safety certificates and substandard parts at many of its reactors. (Reuters)
There is no way to stop Fukushima radioactive water leaking into the Pacific
” … this water is the most radioactive water I’ve ever experienced. I work directly over a nuclear reactor cores during refueling outages. And the water directly over a nuclear reactor core when the plant is operating is a thousand times less radioactive than this water.” (Arnie Gundersen/Fairewinds)
“Leaving low grade ore behind ‘sterilized’ is considered good as it raises NPV”
— Simon Michaux
Thousands of Marylanders are losing homes in second wave of foreclosures
At the current rate, it will take 18 months for the backlog of foreclosures to clear … (WaPo)
Beijing Plates Harder to Win Than Roulette Spur Loopholes: Cars
To ease congestion in the biggest cities, officials are trying to cap the number of vehicles. In Beijing, residents have a better chance of winning at roulette than in the capital’s monthly lottery for new auto licenses. In Shanghai, buying a set of plates in the city’s auction system can mean spending more than on the car itself. (Bloomberg)
RE: Shale production in North Dakota and Texas
Let’s assume that Texas + North Dakota averages about 3.3 mbpd for 2013 (C+C). And let’s also assume that, because of the very high percentage of Texas + North Dakota production coming from tight/shale plays that the overall decline rate from existing oil wells in these two states is about 20%/year (I’m guessing about 10%/year overall for total US).
Based on the above assumptions, in order to maintain a constant production rate of 3.3 mbpd for six years, through 2019, Texas & North Dakota would have to put on line new production of about 4 mbpd over the next six years. Or, over a period of six years, in round numbers the industry would have to replace the current productive equivalent of every oil field in Texas and put on line the current productive equivalent of about two North Dakotas.
Incidentally, I estimate that the 2008 to 2013 rate of increase in Texas + North Dakota’s C+C production is about 20%/year. This is actually below the rate of increase that Alaska showed from 1976 to 1985 (26%/year). But because Peaks Happen, the inevitable happened and the rate of increase in Alaskan production slowed, and then they started declining in 1989, resulting in the “Undulating Decline” pattern that we have (so far at least) seen in US crude oil production since 1970.
— Jeffrey Brown (The Oil Drum)
No bars exist here, but the four off-sale package stores in White Clay, comprising most of its businesses, move 13,000 cans of beer and malt liquor a day. The Nebraska Liquor Control Commission says that means more than four million cans of alcohol sold in a year, almost all to Oglalas. (Alternet)