Dig deep into your wallets

Former oil executive: Expect $5 gas in 2012

Tweets are aflutter with something a former oil executive said over the weekend -- gas could reach $5 a gallon by 2012.


In an interview with Platts Energy Weekly, John Hofmeister, ex-head honcho of Shell Oil, said that the moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and global demand will lead to a surge in gas prices over the next two years.

I don't think it is the moratorium driving it solely - it is the peak oil situation as well as - of course - PROFITS!
Watch the video - he would love to drill offshore. He blames a moratorium on drilling "politics" - I call it sense.

A solar White House?

A Symbolic Solar Road Trip To Reignite a U.S. Climate Movement

An activist caravan to bring one of Jimmy Carter’s solar panels back to the White House symbolizes not only the time the U.S. has lost in developing new energy technologies – but also the urgent need for taking action on climate.
The story is painful even to consider. This panel went up on the White House roof in 1979, with then-president Jimmy Carter (in a wide tie, and with a bushy haircut) promising that it would still be there in the year 2000, producing hot water from the sun for whoever was then president. In fact, it didn’t make it through the next decade—it came down in the Reagan years, a symbol of our decision to turn away from the idea of limits and veer sharply down the path we’ve trod ever since.

Taken down by Ronnie and not put up since. A disgrace!

Conservation Pyramid

A Terrific Tool For Figuring Out Where To Start

The choice to be more energy efficient may be clear, but the starting point can be more difficult to determine. The Pyramid of Conservation is designed to help you prioritize steps and develop an action plan that's right for you. By establishing a foundation in energy efficiency and gaining a better understanding about how you use energy, you can more effectively work your way up the pyramid...

Like the food pyramid, it's read from the bottom up. Homeowners who are uncertain of the best way to lower their energy bills should start at the lowest level of the pyramid and work their way up. In general, one shouldn't proceed to a higher level until the actions below that level have been completed.

Actions near the bottom of the pyramid are much more cost-effective than actions near the top of the pyramid. At current energy prices, in fact, the actions listed on the top two layers are never cost-effective.

This is an easy to understand tool. Now no one has an excuse to get started in "greening their homes."

Kunstler's latest wisdom

 Read this today and just had to post the whole thing.  When will the media report on "our pathological dependency on cars?"  They may have to very soon!

Which Horizon?:

Did the nation heave a sigh of relief when BP announced that their latest gambit to "cap" the Deepwater Horizon gusher will result in hosing up fifty percent of the leaking oil? If so, the nation may be sighing too soon since the other half of the oil will still collect in underwater plumes and hover all around the Gulf Coast like those baleful mother ships in the most recent generation of alien invasion movies. I shudder to imagine the tonnage of dead wildlife flotsam that will wash up with the tide for years to come. It will seem like a "necklace of death" for several states, though even that may not be enough to distract them from the more gratifying raptures of Nascar and NFL football.

For the moment we can only speculate on what the still-unresolved incident will mean for America's oil supply. The zeal to prosecute BP for something like criminal negligence has bestirred a Department of Justice comatose during the rape-and-pillage of the US financial system. BP may be driven out of business, but then what? The net effect of the oil spill, one way or another, will be the gradual shut-down of oil drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico. New government supervision will make operations very costly, if not non-viable, and the surviving companies will probably pack up for the west coast of Africa where supervision is almost non-existent. Anyway you cut it, the US will produce less oil and import more -- and have to rely on the political stability of places like Angola and Nigeria, not to mention the simmering Middle East.

So far, also, the US has done nothing in the way of holding a serious national political discussion about the the most important part of the story: our pathological dependency on cars. I don't know if this will ever happen, even right up to the moment when the lines form at the filling stations. For years, anyway, the few public figures such as Boone Pickens who give the appearance of concern about our oil problem, end up down the rabbit hole of denial when they get behind schemes to run the whole US car-and-truck fleet on something besides gasoline.

This unfortunate techno-narcissism shows that almost nobody wants to think about living with fewer cars driving fewer miles. We're going to be dragged there kicking and screaming, but that's our destination, like it or not. All the effort now going into developing alt-fuels and "green" cars is just a form of "bargaining" on the Kubler-Ross transect of grief.

Traveling around the US, it's easy to understand our failure to come to grips with reality. The nation is fully outfitted for extreme car dependency. You go to places like Atlanta and Minneapolis and you understand how deep we're into this. We spent all our collective national treasure -- and quite a bit beyond that in the form of debt -- building the roadway systems and the suburban furnishings for that mode of existence. We incorporated it into our national identity as the American Way of Life. Now, we don't know what else to do except defend it at all costs, especially by waving the talismanic magic wand of techno-innovation.

The obvious remedy for the oil-and-car problem would be to live in walkable towns and neighborhoods served by the kind of public transit that people are not ashamed to ride in. But it may be too late for that. We're going to be a much poorer society from now on. We squandered the financial resources for that transition on too many other things. We're stuck with our investments in houses and their commercial accessories, built where they were built, and no Jolly Green Giant is going to pick them up and move them closer together in an artful way that adds up to real towns. A reorganization of American life will occur, but now it will be on much less deliberate terms, a much messier and more destructive operation, a default to the smaller scale by extreme necessity, with a lot of losses along the way. The Deepwater Horizon incident only hastens the process.

Anyway, the collapse of suburbia is running neck and neck (and hand-by-hand) with the collapse of capital. Angela Merkel, flicked US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner off like a flea over the weekend at the G-20 meeting in Sitges, Spain. Germany doesn't want to hear about bailouts and stimuli anymore. Germany is looking to reinstate something like a "normal" economy based on producing things of value and paying for things when you have the capital to do it. Germany is pulling the plug on the debt-o-rama banking rackets -- at least insofar as these rackets leave Germany holding the bag for a growing list of deadbeat nations. I don't see how the Euro survives. the remarkable appearance of prosperity in places like Greece and Spain turned out to be a combination of borrowed money and all-time-high tourist flows. Both of these "resources" are heading way down. There's a dwindling supply of middle-class candidates for tourism, especially in the US and the UK, and the Europeans have woken up painfully to the recognition that existing debt is unserviceable. National dominos are wobbling left and right, from Hungary to Latvia to Portugal....

Even the severe steps initiated by Germany may not be enough to keep the lights burning in Europe since the continent has little oil and nat-gas of its own. Europe's experiments with wind power have been valiant (and France's nuclear venture has been daring), but neither of these things will offset the problems associated with peak oil, especially if trouble starts in the Middle East. It was chastening for me to bike around Berlin a week ago and realize that even nations with sturdy cities and good railroads can fall into political chaos. Berlin was a charming place when Hitler arrived on the scene and twelve years later it was a smoldering heap of shattered brick and glass.

The American Way of Life is not so charming, but its very sprawling character may prevent a political maniac from controlling enough of a base to hold all the states and regions together in a thrall of fascism -- and there are all those firearms to think about. I maintain that the trend is down for centralized power here, in the direction of impotency and decreasing competence at anything. I don't subscribe to the paranoid themes of Big Brother government domination, the surveillance state and related fantasies. It'll be more Home Alone meets Risky Business -- a dangerous place with no adult supervision.

The New York Times ran a front-page story on Sunday suggesting that maybe there was something to this nutty idea of Americans preparing for trouble in the months and years ahead, paying down debts, putting some food aside, thinking about where to ride out a socio-economic storm. Their attitude was patronizing of course, and where the actual issues of our oil predicament were concerned, the editors went straight to their 'go-to-guy' Daniel Yergin and his public relations shop, Cambridge Energy Research Associates, the official PR whore of the oil industry. The Times obviously finds it amusing that some Americans see a collapse on the horizon. The Times is so deep into its own collapse that it doesn't even remember how to cover a story.

Food or Fuel?

Is that really a choice? Not to someone who is sane.
Cars and People Compete for Grain

At a time when excessive pressures on the earth's land and water resources are of growing concern, there is a massive new demand emerging for cropland to produce fuel for cars--one that threatens world food security. Although this situation had been developing for a few decades, it was not until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when oil prices jumped above $60 a barrel and U.S. gasoline prices climbed to $3 a gallon, that the situation came into focus. Suddenly investments in U.S. corn-based ethanol distilleries became hugely profitable, unleashing an investment frenzy that will convert one fourth of the 2009 U.S. grain harvest into fuel for cars.

The United States quickly came to dominate the crop-based production of fuel for cars. In 2005, it eclipsed Brazil, formerly the world's leading ethanol producer. In Europe, where the emphasis is on producing biodiesel, mostly from rapeseed, some 2.4 billion gallons were produced in 2009. To meet its biodiesel goal, the European Union, under cropland constraints, is increasingly turning to palm oil imported from Indonesia and Malaysia, a trend that depends on clearing rainforests for oil palm plantations.

The price of grain is now tied to the price of oil. Historically the food and energy economies were separate, but now with the massive U.S. capacity to convert grain into ethanol, that is changing. In this new situation, when the price of oil climbs, the world price of grain moves up toward its oil-equivalent value. If the fuel value of grain exceeds its food value, the market will simply move the commodity into the energy economy. If the price of oil jumps to $100 a barrel, the price of grain will follow it upward. If oil goes to $200, grain will follow.

As the leading grain exporter and ethanol producer, the United States is in the driver's seat. It needs to make sure that efforts to reduce its heavy dependence on imported oil do not create a far more serious problem: chaos in the world food economy. The choice is between a future of rising world food prices, spreading hunger, and growing political instability and one of more stable food prices, sharply reduced dependence on oil, and much lower carbon emissions.

Kudos Bernie

New Bill Would Ban Offshore Drilling and Increase Fuel Economy Standard

We learned yesterday that if the average American were to drive 5.4 miles less every day, we'd eliminate the need to drill in the Gulf -- that would be enough to relieve the demand for the 1.75 million barrels that gets pumped out. But could saving gas really be enough incentive to cut out the drilling? Vermont senator Bernie Sanders thinks it could -- he's just introduced legislation that would ban offshore drilling and boost the national fuel economy standard to curb oil demand accordingly. It's a great idea...

The idea is, simply by making our cars as efficient as those in most of the industrialized world, we could eliminate the need for dangerous offshore drilling.

Though some will inevitably view such legislative efforts as pie-in-the-sky ambition, the only reason that's the case that oil has such a stranglehold on our economy -- and creative efforts to start staving it off are met with the well worn narrative that it'd be too harsh for the industries; not just oil, but auto, and manufacturing as well, to start backing off petroleum.

Well, I say it's high time we get creative, and applaud Sanders' vision here. Let's hope that in the face of this devastating disaster in the Gulf, Congress takes this great bill as seriously as it should.

Three steps back

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

WTF: Obama Expands Offshore Drilling Far Beyond Bush

Well, we knew the announcement was coming, and sure enough, here it is: Obama has unveiled his offshore drilling plans, and to the eyes of the environmentally conscious, it ain't pretty. Matt already detailed most of the provisions, which were revealed last night in a leak to reporters. But in case you missed it, the new plan opens up vast swaths of American coastline: some on the east coast and some around Alaska for drilling--a more expansive offering to oil companies than even Bush ever authorized.


Obama's Offshore Drilling Plan
According to the LA Times, here are the biggest implications of the new drilling plan:


Eventually open two-thirds of the eastern Gulf's oil and gas resources for drilling.


Proceed with drilling off Virginia, provided the project clears environmental and military reviews.


Study the viability of drilling off the mid- and southern Atlantic coasts.


Study the viability of drilling in Alaska's Beaufort and Chukchi seas -- areas hotly defended by environmentalists -- but issue no new drilling leases in either sea before 2013.


Pundits and commentators are scrambling to rationalize Obama's move: some say it's a political olive branch to conservatives, some say it's intended to help persuade moderates to consider comprehensive energy reform. Bradford Plumer notes at the Vine that it may be a preemptive measure to quell public furor when gas prices rise above $3 this summer, as they're expected to do.


The move is certainly political--as noted just about everywhere, most of the oil won't be available for 10-12 years, and some of it likely never at all. And there's only 120 million barrels estimated to be found off the coast of Virginia--hardly enough to even put a dent in US dependence on foreign oil.

Playing politics with the environment and our future?

Kudos to Wal-Mart?

Wal-Mart to push suppliers to cut emissions

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. wants its suppliers to reduce 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2015.
The world's largest retailer's push goes beyond its efforts to date to reduce its own emissions by designing more energy-efficient stores and pursuing alternative fuels for its fleet of trucks.
The goal is equivalent to taking 3.8 million cars off the road for a year, the company said.
Wal-Mart is collaborating with the Environmental Defense Fund and other environmental experts to measure reduction. It said it won't force suppliers to make changes but will work with them on projects that will reduce both emissions and costs.
In the past few years, the company has been working with suppliers to reduce packaging, which has translated into such changes as more concentrated detergent products and toothpaste that's no longer in a box.

Sure, nice step in the right direction, but of course we all realize that...

Nuke Loans? WTF!

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Next in Line for a Bailout: The Nuclear Industry?

The Obama Administration has been pretty upfront about its support for an energy policy that promotes both clean energy technologies and renewed investment in old technologies such as nuclear, coal and offshore drilling. "I think that on energy there should be a bipartisan agreement that we have to take a both/and approach rather than an either/or approach," the President said just last week.


Friends of the Earth released a statement this weekend criticizing the Obama Administration's reported decision to provide loan guarantees for the construction of two nuclear reactors in Georgia. The reactors would be part of the first new nuclear power plant to be built in the US in almost 30 years.


President Obama has presented his support for nuclear power, so-called "clean coal" projects and offshore drilling as both a gesture to Republicans and a pragmatic approach to supplying America's future energy needs, arguing that "we can't overnight convert to an all-solar or an all-wind economy."

How abour bailout loans for those suffering from cancer clustered near nuke plants? How about bailouts for those whose lives are ruined by mining "clean coal?"

Too late?

The United States of America can lead in the development of clean energy technology and manufacturing while we lead in the fight against global warming.


Everyone knows we have a dependence on oil we buy from countries that don't share our values. This threatens our security and our integrity. And it needs to stop. We know it does. Still, we've seen our dependence on foreign oil grow and pollute the air we breathe and endanger our planet. But we can change that. Now.


There's a bill in the Senate that will break foreign oil’s stranglehold on our country, reduce carbon pollution, and create jobs right here in America—good jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced.


It’s one of the most important pieces of legislation of our time. It's a clean energy bill. And it’s been a long time coming.


Email your Senators to pass the Clean Energy Jobs & American Power Act. This is our moment.

This is our Moment.

Let's hope it is not too late!

A friend of the nuclear industry

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Loans to Boost Nuclear Industry Seen Coming Soon

The Obama administration is poised to announce loan guarantees to help kick-start the country's nuclear power industry, which hasn't built a new plant in more than three decades.

Looks like this may be the administration's answer to our energy crisis. What will happen with the waste? How will safety be guaranteed? Those questions may never be addressed.

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• Nuclear Power, Long Dormant, Gets Wake-Up Call (nytimes.com)