Blog :: All

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theoildrum/~3/Uh03CzJ380I/6089

In this series of tech talks, I have been writing about the progress of crude oil as it passes from the reservoir up through the production casing, and out to the GOSP, where water, oil, natural gas, sand and sulfur products can be separated. The example video that I referred to last week dealt with treating Canadian Oil Sands, and the oil that is coming from them.

What I want to talk about today is the differences that exist in what to some folk is just "crude oil," with the assumption that it is all the same. In writing about coal, it is fairly simple to show that the different stages of coal as it changes from peat to anthracite. This means that you get different amounts of energy from it, and it can be extracted with differing amounts of energy. The fact that there is a fair bit of difference in crude oils is not always as easily understood. This then will be a relatively simplistic look at the different potential hydrocarbons that might make up a crude oil, and how we can get them apart.

Crude oil is made up of a mixture of hydro-carbons, which are the different ways in which carbon and hydrogen can combine, starting with such simple compounds as methane (CH4) and progressing to more complex ones with greater numbers of carbon atoms.

Typical crude oil fractions

Oils from different places have different combinations of the major constituents, for example, this is from Kuwait.

Constituents of a typical Kuwaiti crude oil

Because they are fluids mixed together, it is not very easy to separate out the different valuable parts (known as fractions) by a mechanical means. However, if you heat up the crude oil blend, then all the constituents will vaporize.

But the different fractions of the oil will boil at different temperatures (or boiling points ( b.p.)), at which point they turn into gas. And so the first part of the treatment that the oil gets, when it reaches a refinery is that it is heated, so that it will all turn into such a gas, and then it is cooled in stages, so that the different fractions will condense back out. The total process is known as crude oil distillation and the UK Schools site has a simple sectional picture of what such a distillation column might look like.

Simplified representation of a distillation column.

As the combined vapors from the heated crude enter at the bottom of the tall tower (called a column), they pass up through different trays that are placed at set heights up the column. When the gas reaches a tray it passes up through it into a bubble cap, this is a cover over the hole that pushes the gas down so that it has to bubble up through the liquid that has already condensed onto that tray.

Schematic showing construction of the individual bubble caps

The liquids in each tray, as the vapor rises higher in the column, are kept at lower temperatures, so that the heavier oils, that condense at a higher temperature, will condense lower down the column. As the lighter vapor rises through successive trays, the temperature of the liquids drops, and lighter fractions of the oil also begin to condense out, until the very lightest are collected at the top, still as gas, and are fed on to a cooler. The liquids then drain, either back down to a lower tray, or through a side-draw pipe that taps the fluid from the trays and takes it away for either further division or for storage and sale. A typical initial distillation might yield:




Typical range of distillation products.

Each year the EIA publishes its world distillation capacity which is the necessary part of getting from crude to useful product.

I will continue this further in a later post, talking about the further stages in refining, and cracking of compounds to break them into lighter fractions, so that the next product from a refinery might at the end, look something like this (courtesy of the EIA).

Typical products of a refinery

I hope that each of you has a Prosperous and Successful life in the year ahead.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EcoGeek/~3/-FyrVWAxFqs/3023-all-lond

London mayor Boris Johnson launched a new plan called the Electric Vehicle Delivery Plan for London that will allow all Londoners to be within one mile of an electric vehicle charging station in five years.

The plan calls for the installation of 25,000 charging points at public, residential and commercial spaces by 2015 in order to encourage the addition of 100,000 EVs within the city ASAP.  The city government is doing their part by committing to add 1,000 EVs to the Greater London Authority fleet over five years.

This is another aggressive move by the city to clean up their transportation.  The city successfully instituted congestion pricing in 2003, added hybrid double-decker buses, converted the Scotland Yard fleet to hybrids and air-powered vehicles and is testing state of the art fuel-efficiency technology.

With its track history, I have little doubt the city will meet its EV goals and can only hope that their ambition will rub off on the rest of the world's major cities (and small cities, and suburbs...).

via Treehugger

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EcoGeek/~3/YXtoisQb-hA/3002-radar-ab

The U.S. Military has recently expressed concern about Maryland offshore wind projects because radar could identify spinning turbine blades as low-flying aircraft, potentially disrupting its training missions in the area.  Turns out the UK Military is blocking wind projects for similar reasons.  If only there were a cool, high-tech solution to this?

Turbine company Vestas and technology consultants QinetiQ have developed what they're calling Stealth Turbine technology - a way to hide turbines from radar by using radar absorbing materials in their construction.  During a test project using the materials on a Vestas V90 turbine, radar measurements were taken and the turbine's radar signature was drastically reduced.  The small remaining signature would easily be eliminated by air traffic and air defense computers as insignificant.

If these invisible turbines were deployed, the UK's Department of Energy & Climate Change beileves 5 GW worth of blocked wind projects could be given the go ahead.  Just in case the technology doesn't make it out of the test phase, researchers in the UK are also working on updating the main air navigation system to differentiate between turbines and low-flying planes.

via Gizmag

http://sustainablesavannah.com/transportation/savannahs-abercorn-stree

News reports from the Nov. 17 death of a man, who was attempting to cross Abercorn Street Extension, have included a familiar reminder issued by the Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police Department and automatically echoed by local media:

“Pedestrians should use crosswalks.”

The police and media surely have the best intentions when they use the phrase. Yet on Abercorn Street Extension, the scene of the latest fatality and scores of others, using a crosswalk is often easier said than done. (Besides, as explained here, the causal link between failure to use crosswalks and pedestrian deaths is tenuous). Since most of us view Abercorn Street Extension through our windshields at speeds of 45 m.p.h. (and, frequently, faster) we may be unaware that at some points along the street the distance between pavement marked crosswalks is almost a mile.

For instance, imagine you live in the Edgewater Trace Apartment complex and want to buy some stamps at the U.S. Post Office located directly across the street. Crossing the street using the nearest crosswalk means a round trip of almost a mile. Would you walk a mile to reach a destination you can see just dozens of yards away? How tempted would you be to wait for a break in traffic and dash across?

At other points along Abercorn, crossing mid-block may actually be safer than crossing at intersections. Put yourself in the place of a pedestrian at the corner of Abercorn and White Bluff Road, pictured above (click on the image and try in Google Street View). Is this intersection even possible to traverse on foot? If you want to walk from the Eyeglass World store on the west side of the street to the Michael’s craft store on the east side, using the nearest pavement marked crosswalk, you’ll need to hoof it all the way down to Montgomery Crossroad. Even here, you’ll contend with — by my count — six lanes of traffic. Would you walk half a mile to reach a destination that you can easily see from across the street (provided you picked up your new glasses)?

But who would actually walk on these segments of Abercorn Street? Plenty of people. Again, our windshield view of the world may blind us to the fact that it’s not the purely commercial corridor we imagine it to be. It’s dotted with apartment complexes and motels. Residential neighborhoods are just several blocks over. Tens of thousands of people live on or within a stone’s throw of Abercorn Street Extension. And some of them were among “more than 43,000 Americans – including 3,906 children under 16 – who have been killed this decade alone, walking along streets in their communities.”

“Children, the elderly, and ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented in this figure, but people of all ages and all walks of life have been struck down in the simple act of walking. These deaths typically are labeled “accidents,” and attributed to error on the part of motorist or pedestrian. In fact, however, an overwhelming proportion share a similar factor: They occurred along roadways that were engineered for speeding cars and made little or no provision for people on foot, in wheelchairs or on a bicycle.”

Frequent reminders to use crosswalks will never provide adequate protection for people who live, work and shop on Abercorn Street Extension and other Savannah streets that are “Dangerous by Design.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theoildrum/~3/szP14whqYyo/5968

Deffeyes: Halloween Delivery

On Halloween, I delivered the manuscript for my third oil book. At the moment the title is When Oil Peaked. The title is deliberately in the past tense. In my first oil book, Hubbert's Peak, I predicted on page 158 that world oil production would peak in the year 2005. Earlier in these Current Events postings, I refined the prediction to focus on November or December of 2005. Hurricane Katrina put the kibosh on November-December, but 2005 seems to have emerged the winner. The US Energy Information Agency now reports the 2005 production to have been a tiny bit larger than the price-boosted year of 2008. It was a close game, sports fans, but 2005 won. When they give out the Super Bowl rings, they don't look at the point spread.

Production in the first seven months of 2009 is down by about two million barrels per day, with OPEC responsible for most of the reduction. I think it unlikely that oil production will ever climb back to the 2005 levels. A large number of projects have been canceled or postponed. If they ever get reinstated, the older oilfields will have declined more than the postponed projects could produce.

New China refinery contrasts with U.S. slowdown

For refineries, efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions threaten to boost operating costs, while stricter fuel economy rules and rising renewable fuel mandates are cutting into gasoline demand. U.S chemical plants also will struggle as lower-cost plants come online overseas.

By contrast, energy demand is projected to soar in China and other developing nations as more of their vast populations gain wealth in coming years — buying cars, refrigerators and other energy-intensive staples of the middle class.

Nigeria militants start peace talks with president

ABUJA, Nigeria – Nigeria's main militant group in the oil-rich Delta region said Sunday that it had started formal peace talks with the country's president for the first time since it declared an indefinite cease-fire last month.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta called Saturday's dialogue with President Umaru Yar'Adua useful.

Saudi Consumer Prices Rise for 11th Month as Oil Increases

(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabian consumer prices rose for an 11th month in October as oil increased in global markets and the dollar’s weakness added to the cost of imported food.

Oil & Natural Gas Says India Considering Increase in Gas Prices

(Bloomberg) -- Oil & Natural Gas Corp., India’s largest state-owned oil explorer, said the government is considering a proposal to increase the administered price of natural gas, without saying where it got the information.

Finding Assets that Out Run Inflation as Bond Yields Move Up

We remember writing about the IEA figure a few years ago. And we remember pointing out that producing 120 million barrels of oil per day would be a 44% increase on producing 83 million barrels per day. And you'd have to find that oil first. You'd have to explore, drill, and produce it. And you'd have to maintain existing production levels at the world's big elephant fields like Cantarell and Ghawar.

In point of fact, production at Cantarell has fallen by 25% since 2004. Energy expert Matthew Simmons says Mexico's days as an oil exporter will end in 18 to 36 months. This makes Mexico's government-which derives 40% of its revenues from oil sales-the most likely candidate for "next failed state."

Could This Lump Power the Planet?

Scientists have been trying to produce energy with fusion for decades. So far, they keep failing. It's not that fusion itself can't be achieved. Fusion takes place in every hydrogen-bomb explosion. The trick is controlling fusion so that instead of a one-time blast you get a series of tiny, controllable explosions. The joke is that fusion energy is only 40 years away, and will always be only 40 years away.

Moses believes, however, that his lab, which is called the National Ignition Facility, or NIF, has cracked the problem.

Scientists find key to creating clean fuel from coal and waste

Millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide could be prevented from entering the atmosphere following the discovery of a way to turn coal, grass or municipal waste more efficiently into clean fuels.

Scientists have adapted a process called "gasification" which is already used to clean up dirty materials before they are used to generate electricity or to make renewable fuels. The technique involves heating organic matter to produce a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, called syngas.

Crude Awakening

"Deep in the heart of the Amazon rain forest, there are people who have lived off the water for a long time who are now forced to eat canned tuna fish because the fish in the river are dead or diseased," he says. "I got back to my nice house in Westchester County and put my kids to bed in their separate bedrooms and took a drink of my tap water and decided, how could I turn my back on these people?"

Homemade Bone Meal: A Partial Solution to Peak Phosphate?

The reason that commercial farmers use bone meal as fertilizer is that it is very high in phosphorous. So purchasing commercially produced bone meal could be argued to be a great way to keep the nutrient cycle going. However, those of us meat eaters who have a problem with factory farming may not be willing to purchase a by-product of the intensive farming industry. So can we make bone meal at home?

Oil industry sinkhole threatens to swallow city

Parts of the New Mexico town near Carlsbad Caverns National Park could collapse because of irresponsible extraction practices by the oil industry.

Copenhagen climate summit hopes fade as Obama backs postponement

Barack Obama acknowledged today that time has run out to secure a binding climate deal at Copenhagen and began moving towards a two-stage process that would delay a legal pact until next year at the earliest.

Why Are Climate Change and Deficit Reduction Considered Mutually Exclusive?

A carbon tax, for example, could raise revenue and reduce carbon emissions at the same time.

Alternatively, the government could auction off allowances under a cap-and-trade system and then designate some or all of the resulting revenues for deficit reduction.

The Real Global Warming Disaster by Christopher Booker

Christopher Booker, Sunday Telegraph columnist and bete noir of climate campaigners, has here produced the definitive climate sceptics' manual. That's to say, he has rounded up just about every criticism ever made of the majority scientific view that global warming, most probably caused by human activity, is under way, and presented them unchallenged. If you share his convictions, you'll love it, and will dismiss the rest of this review as part of the cover-up.

Ray Mears: We'll struggle to survive climate change

The planet will be fine, whether we are is another matter. What's interesting is that the last time we faced climatic fluctuations as a species, we were hunter-gatherers and could up sticks and move. We can't do that now, and we're only just realising that the result of a static lifestyle is that you have to take greater care of the planet.

...I don't think most people will survive climate change. It will be a disaster. We have to adapt to survive and take lessons from nature. Adaptable things do better - the more specialised you become, the more marginal you are.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EcoGeek/~3/oE2jQzsuMQc/2995-wind-tur

Small-scale wind turbines can't produce the large amounts of power that their giant brothers can, but there's still room for them in the renewable energy landscape.  As an example, cell phone company Core Communications will begin using small vertical-axis wind turbines to power their cell phone towers.

The company will use turbines from Helix Wind that can generate electricity in winds as slow as 10 mph.  The turbines will power the towers and any extra electricity will be sold to the grid, giving Core Communications a new source of revenue as well.

The turbines will be installed on a trial basis on cell phone towers in Southern California for three months starting in early 2010.  If they perform well enough, additional turbines could be rolled out permanently.

via CNET

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theoildrum/~3/yxPpmHSy3g8/5943

Shrinking to grow: Is Conoco plan a model for industry?

Although one company doesn’t represent a whole industry, a shrink-to-grow strategy adopted by ConocoPhillips illustrates pressures on the biggest operators in a world of shrinking opportunity.

ConocoPhillips has disclosed plans to cut capital spending next year to $11 billion from $12.5 billion this year and $14-15 billion in earlier years and to sell properties in 2010-11 worth $10 billion.

“We will be somewhat smaller,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Mulva in an Oct. 28 conference call.

Mulva noted recessionary effects on credit markets and said diminishing access to large opportunities “is and will continue to be quite an issue.”

>Report Argues for a Decentralized System of Renewable Power Generation

Most states could meet their demand for electricity with renewable energy sources inside their own borders, according to a new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit group in Washington that advocates for local sustainability solutions.

The report, called Energy Self-Reliant States, examined the commercial potential for wind, rooftop solar, geothermal and small-scale hydro projects.

Marooned on Sea of Iraqi Oil, but Unable to Tap Its Wealth

BASRA, Iraq — The orange glow of the giant natural gas flares in the oil fields around Basra represents this bustling city’s wealth of natural resources. But for the impoverished people who live near them, the flames only serve as a reminder of their inability to share in the riches that lie beneath their feet.

Storm Ida Strengthens as Mexico Posts Hurricane Watch

The agency’s five-day forecast shows the system moving over the western Caribbean Sea today as a tropical storm and in the central Gulf of Mexico by 7 a.m. New York time on Nov. 9. The gulf is home to about a quarter of U.S. oil production.

Canada's Talisman strikes oil in Peru

LIMA (Reuters) - Canada's Talisman Energy Inc has found light crude in an exploration bloc in northern Peru, President Alan Garcia said on Saturday, days after he announced a large natural gas find in an Amazon region.

Total Venture Ships First LNG From $4.5 Billion Yemen Terminal

(Bloomberg) -- Yemen exported the first shipment from a $4.5 billion liquefied natural gas plant, gaining a new source of revenue as oil production declines.

After the terminal in Balhalf on the country’s Arabian Sea coast was officially opened by President Ali Abdallah Saleh, the Hyundai Ecopia set sail with a 147,000 cubic-meter cargo for Korea Gas Corp. of South Korea. Total SA of France, Europe’s third-largest oil company, owns 40 percent of the venture.

ECUADOR - Energy Crisis

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa warned that the energy supply problem can be "very serious" and may last several months, reiterating his call for "unity" for citizens facing power cuts occurring throughout the country since yesterday.

Farms going green to save and survive

As Essex County farms strive to survive, many have turned their land into “green’’ acres. And they don’t mean zucchini, lettuce, and cabbage. They mean wind turbines and solar panels that reduce energy costs. Compost, formed from scraps of nature, creates healthy growing conditions. Steel fences and drain pipes help to conserve and protect water supplies.

“We are naturally a ‘green’ industry,’ ’’ said state Agriculture Commissioner Scott Soares. “The changes farmers are making now are going to guide them into the future.’’

A Drought-Stricken Land Offers Help With Water

PARIS — After more than a decade of failed rains, the Murray-Darling river system in the southeast of Australia — the catchment basin for roughly one-seventh of the country — dries up before it reaches the sea.

Intense drought has forced Australians to adapt and think about how to manage water. Despite usage restrictions and the building of new desalination plants, water remains scarce. At the end of August, reservoir storage levels in some metropolitan cities were as low as 28.4 percent of maximum capacity. The Pykes Creek reservoir in the state of Victoria, with a capacity of 22 billion liters, or 5.8 billion gallons, was barely 2.5 percent full.

In Texas, oil sands firms fight for their share

There is an air of disquiet along the Gulf Coast of the United States, an industrial strip that could have a profound influence on the future of Canada's oil-fuelled economy.

The refineries that dot the coast represent a major new market that could fuel the expansion of Canada's oil sands producers, as well as a major pipeline player. And indeed, on the surface, growth appears to be the order of the day. But after a brief golden age, there is a growing fear along refiners' alley that the bubble has burst.

Suncor To Expand In Oil Sands

CALGARY - Suncor Energy Inc., with its massive slate of oil-sands assets, will be a buyer rather than a seller of bitumen-laced properties as it reshapes itself following its merger with Petro-Canada, the company's chief executive said yesterday.

Tenaris Says Pemex to Cut Chicontepec Wells by 60%

(Bloomberg) -- Tenaris SA, the world’s largest maker of steel pipes for the oil and gas industry, said Petroleos Mexicanos may drill about 600 wells at Chicontepec next year, about a third of the wells that the state-owned company planned.

Raising output not on OPEC agenda now

DUBAI - United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Mohammed Al Hamli said on Saturday raising oil production was not currently on the agenda for OPEC.

‘Right now increasing production is not on the agenda,’ Hamli told reporters in Dubai.

Hugo Chávez’s support is slipping away as water shortages and soaring crime bite

President Chávez came to power promising to harness Venezuela’s vast oil resources to create a 21st-century nation in which no one was deprived. Now, with water and electricity shortages and soaring crime and inflation, even his ardent supporters are beginning to turn away.

In Caracas, which has the world’s highest murder rates and runaway food prices, residents now face two days a week without water until May next year as the Government imposes rationing to cope with a 25 per cent shortfall in supply.

Mexico puts cost of new refinery at $9.65 billion

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's planned new oil refinery at Tula will cost 129 billion pesos ($9.65 billion) state oil company Pemex [PEMX.UL] said on Friday.

The new cost estimate represents a increase over Pemex's previous forecast made in April that the new refinery would cost $8.95 billion. Pemex did not provide an explanation for the increase.

Oil spill sends fishermen bankrupt

An environmental lawyer in Indonesia says local fishermen are going bankrupt because the Timor Sea oil spill has ruined fish stocks.

The West Atlas oil rig spewed hundreds of thousands of litres of oil and gas into the sea for 10 weeks and last week caught fire. It was plugged earlier this week with mud.

Deutsche Bank Hails Saudi Prospects

JEDDAH — Saudi Arabia has a very promising economy because of its strong oil price, continued public sector investment in infrastructure and diversification, according to a Deutsche ?Bank report.

“In 2010, we expect the Saudi economy to grow by 3.8 per cent, well ahead of all the other countries in EMEA except Turkey and Qatar,” said the report on the kingdom issued on Tuesday, which also forecast oil price to peak $175 a barrel in 2016.

Edison Third-Quarter Net Falls Less Than Estimated

(Bloomberg) -- Edison International, the owner of California’s largest electric utility, said third-quarter profit declined less than analysts estimated on increased rates in the state and lower costs.

Britain in push for new nuclear plants

LONDON - Britain could face a serious energy crisis unless plans to build new nuclear power stations are implemented, the energy minister revealed in an interview on Saturday.

Norwegian Firm In The Clean Energy Race

Norwegian state-owned utility Statkraft is widening its global presence and pioneering cutting-edge technology to get ahead in the clean energy race, company chief executive Bard Mikkelsen says. Statkraft supplies power and heating to more than 600,000 customers in Norway and Sweden, mainly from hydropower, wind power and gas power. It claims to be the largest renewable energy supplier in the world. Low demand for electricity from industrial companies with falling output has been challenging this year but an ambitious renewable energy growth plan continues.

China to Slow Vegetable Oil Imports Amid High Stocks

(Bloomberg) -- China, the world’s largest consumer of vegetable oil, may slow imports in 2009/2010 amid high domestic stockpiles, an executive from Cofco Oil & Grains Co. said.

Soybean oil imports will fall 20 percent to 2 million metric tons and palm oil shipments will be “mainly flat” at 6 million tons, Wang Yinji, deputy general manager, said at a conference in Guangzhou today. Rapeseed imports will more than halve to 1.3 million tons to 1.4 million tons, Wang said. Cofco Ltd. is China’s largest grains trader.

The great global land grab

News of another big land deal between a rich nation and a poor developing country is becoming a common occurrence. In August a group of Saudi investors said that they would be investing $1 billion in land in Africa for rice cultivation. They are calling it their ‘7x7x7 project’, since they are aiming to plant 700,000 hectares of land to produce seven million tonnes of rice in seven years. The land will be distributed over several countries: Mali, Senegal and maybe Sudan and Uganda.

A few weeks earlier South Korea acquired 700,000 hectares of land in Sudan, also for rice cultivation. India is funding a large group of private companies to buy 350,000 hectares in as-yet unspecified countries in Africa. A group of South African businessmen is negotiating an 8 million hectare deal in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And so it goes on. The United Nations believes that at least 30 million hectares (about 74 million acres, well over the size of the UK) were acquired by outside investors in the developing world during the first half of this year alone.

Low-carbon farms can raise food output - FAO

Low-carbon farming can both curb climate change and boost food output in developing nations and so must be rewarded under a global climate deal due in December, the UN's food agency said.

Steps to cut carbon emissions on farms in developing countries could also boost yields where food is shortest, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a report .

More than one billion people are undernourished now and the world will have to feed an additional three billion by 2050, many in areas expected to be worst afflicted by climate change, experts say.

Collapse Director Chris Smith on His New Doc and the Impending Fall of Civilization

My opinion on these issues changes on a daily basis. This film made me think about these issues and to try to educate myself. And I discovered that there’s a huge number of scientists and scholars that fall on both sides of every issue that Michael talks about. The conclusion I’ve since come to is that no one really knows anything. Some think we’re headed for another crash, some people think that the market will continue to recover. There was a huge meeting on peak oil in Denver recently and so many articles came out of that. Different Ph.D.'s and industry experts say that we’re at this point in history where oil may have passed its peak. But then there was an article in the New York Times a month ago or so that was very convincing, and it said that we might actually have endless resources. I know a lot more about it than I did going into it, but I haven’t formed any conclusions.

All Fall Down: Chris Smith’s “Collapse”

At the turns of decades and centuries, it’s fairly common for sky-is-falling prognostication to spike wildly. This angst often finds expression in popular entertainments, such as the appearance, as if on cue, of the clunky misfire “Knowing” and the upcoming sure-to-be tedious “2012.” What these kinds of spectacles provide is something like diversionary exorcism—the world outside may seem bad, but there’s some comfort in recognizing that visual effects artists can always imagine even worse. These films are about as easy to dismiss as History Channel specials on Nostradamus, and probably less fun, so Chris Smith’s often unnerving documentary “Collapse” arrives as something of a minor key paranoiac balm. Based on real events and plausible conjectures, its world crisis feels terribly immediate.

Crude Oil Tumbles as U.S. Jobless Rate Climbs to 26-Year High

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil tumbled after the Labor Department reported that the U.S. unemployment rate surged to a 26-year high, undermining speculation that fuel consumption will rebound next year.

Oil dropped 2.8 percent after the report showed that payrolls fell by 190,000 workers in October, sending the unemployment rate to 10.2 percent. Total U.S. fuel demand over the four weeks ended Oct. 30 was 4.5 percent lower than a year earlier, the Energy Department said on Nov. 4.

Jim Rogers Vs Nouriel Roubini, Can The Commodities Boom Survive?

Global climate mitigation effort and green energy expansion with feed-in tariffs, carbon taxes and other carbon finance trimmings, twinned with peak oil supply shrinkage impacts on world export offer will also rather surely raise energy prices. Higher energy prices is not good news for a limping, slow growing, slowly reviving OECD economy, still generating over 50% of world GDP.

On the other hand, the rapid growth in natural gas supplies, lowering gas prices, perhaps making electricity cheaper, will add more energy market confusion. Uranium prices, however look set to grow to extreme highs, unless supply can be cranked up. In several countries already, when the wind blows there is too much electricity, from windmills, leading to huge spot price swings and shedding of unsold, untransportable power. The ruined biofuels sector could or might revive, during the decade, perhaps capping oil price rises.

Canada steps up oil sands push in United States

CALGARY -- Canada has mounted its biggest campaign yet to sell the United States on the energy security benefits of the oil sands as Washington debates new environmental policy, the country's energy minister said on Friday.

Canadian Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt said she and her staff are lobbying interests in the United States at all levels, trying to send the message that the huge heavy-oil resource in Alberta is being developed responsibly and that U.S. input on environmental fixes is welcome.

Big Oil Recruits No. 2 U.S. Senator’s Nephew to Lobby Congress

(Bloomberg) -- The lobbying group for oil companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. hired a nephew of U.S. Senator Richard Durbin to argue the industry’s case against climate-change legislation that threatens to slash profits.

Insights from the ASPO Peak Oil Conference

One of the more interesting themes that emerged from this year's ASPO peak oil conference was the problems of maintaining complex systems, and the role that energy plays in them.

Sen. Mark Udall and T. Boone Pickens: Natural gas should be the vehicle fuel of the immediate future

With recent improvements in the techniques and technology to recover natural gas from the enormous shale deposits under the continental United States, studies indicate we could have natural gas deposits that would last for more than 100 years. This is a sea-change from what we thought our natural gas reserves were prior to being able to utilize these so-called “shale plays.”

Going to domestic natural gas as a principal transportation fuel will also have significant, if not almost immediate, impacts on the U.S. economy. Along with jobs being created in other alternative energy areas, we can produce and/or save thousands of jobs in the supply chain of natural gas vehicles, from the well-head to the manufacturing floor and from sales and distribution to fueling and maintenance.

Rockland to Host Sustainable Island Living Conference November 13-15

The Island Institute's second Sustainable Island Living conference, during the weekend of November 13 to 15 in downtown Rockland, features presentations by international energy consultant Matthew Simmons of Rockport and Houston on Saturday; Tom Chappell of Kennebunk, founder of Tom's of Maine, on Friday; and Roger Doiron, head of Kitchen Gardeners International, on Saturday.

Jolly eschatology

Look, I'll put it very simply: what they sell us as realpolitik these days is a complete illusion, because it doesn't address any the problems of the future – climate change, dwindling resources, mounting water and food deficits, the escalating global conflict potential, the exploitation of our children's future. If you look at it this way, it's the realpoliticians who seem who have a fondness for crises. Crises also provide an excellent opportunity to score points for tireless crisis management. This is good for distracting from the fact that there is nothing on the political agenda.

Organoponico! Cuba's response to food security

Although born out of necessity, organoponicos have proven that an oil-scarce society can survive, if not thrive. Many environmentalists have seen the Cuban experience as something of a model for how to survive peak oil. Because of this, other countries have attempted to replicate it, although results have been variable.

Turkey Gets $1.2 Billion From Three Power Grid Sales

(Bloomberg) -- Turkey raised $1.2 billion by selling three power grids as it seeks to raise revenue and hand responsibility for developing the electricity network to non- government companies.

Wind sector cash inflow may blow small firms away

LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Small wind energy companies could be taken over cheap because fresh funding for the sector is set to flow selectively to bigger names, placing them in a stronger negotiating position.

Analysts say the big firms are unwilling to pay premiums for the "pipeline" projects at the smaller players -- wind farms approved or awaiting construction -- which are normally added to current operating assets to arrive at a valuation.

AES to Sell Stock, Wind-Power Stake to China’s CIC

(Bloomberg) -- AES Corp., the U.S. power producer with operations in 29 countries, agreed to sell stock and a 35 percent stake in its wind-power business to China Investment Corp. for $2.2 billion to raise cash for expansion.

Chrysler dismantles electric car plans under Fiat

DETROIT (Reuters) - Chrysler has disbanded a team of engineers dedicated to rushing a range of electric vehicles to showrooms and dropped ambitious sales targets for battery-powered cars set as it was sliding toward bankruptcy and seeking government aid.

The move by Fiat SpA marks a major reversal for Chrysler, which had used its electric car program as part of the case for a $12.5 billion federal aid package.

First Look at Carbon Capture and Storage in a West Virginia Coal-Fired Power Plant [Slide Show]

NEW HAVEN, W.Va.—A 100-story smokestack belches a roiling, white cloud of water vapor, carbon dioxide and other leftover gases after burning daily as much as 12,000 tons of coal at the Mountaineer Power Plant—a total of 3.5 million tons a year. The facility just outside the town of New Haven boasts a single 65-meter-high boiler capable of generating enough steam to pump out 1,300 megawatts of electricity—enough to power nearly one million average American homes a month—continuously. And now roughly 1.5 percent of the CO2 billowing from its stack is being captured in an industrial unit rising from the concrete in its shadow and then pumped underground for storage. In case you were wondering, this last phase is called "clean coal".

The scientific hoax of the century

They say that “greenhouse gases” absorb infrared (IR) energy emitted by the earth and cause warming. Yet, in comparison to water in all its forms (polar ice, snow cover, oceans, clouds, humidity), human CO2 emission is as significant for weather as a few farts in a hurricane. The earth's IR energy absorbed by greenhouse gases is reradiated to free space as soon as it is absorbed. The notion that the colder air above can radiate energy back to heat the warmer air below violates the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Heat flows spontaneously from a higher to a lower temperature, never the reverse. But the Senate can solve that problem and justify its proposed legislation by simply repealing the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics!

In truth, this entire notion of a “greenhouse effect” was shown as early as 1909 to be devoid of physical reality; that is, it simply doesn't exist. Thus the greenhouse belongs in the outhouse: It is a load of crap!

Freaking Out over Global Warming

In this article I will link to some of the major commentary on the book so far, and try to explain to Austrian readers why the interventionists were understandably upset. In particular, I want to caution libertarians not to reflexively side with Levitt and Dubner because "they're on our side." I will remind readers of the admitted errors Levitt made in his battles (stemming from the Freakonomics era) with anti-gun-controller John Lott.

Climate change is a contact sport, expert says

An "insider's discussion" of the decades-long battle to bring the dangers of global warming to public awareness will be held Friday afternoon (Nov. 13) featuring Stanford University-based climate expert Stephen Schneider.

Civil Unrest Has a Role in Stopping Climate Change, Says Gore

Al Gore has sought to inject fresh momentum into the Copenhagen build-up, saying he is certain Barack Obama will attend and predicting a rise in civil disobedience against fossil-fuel polluters unless drastic action is taken over global warming.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theoildrum/~3/SRtPtuHKMns/5872

This is a guest post by Morgan Downey, author of Oil 101.

The US cash for clunkers program was designed to stimulate economic growth through the auto industry by encouraging individuals to trade in old vehicles for more fuel efficient models. The US$3 billion program ran from July 24 through August 24, 2009. The program resulted in an additional 690,114 cars being traded in. The average fuel efficiency of trade ins was 15.8 mpg and the average for the replacements was 24.9 mpg. Those receiving the clunker subsidy are supposed to be taxed on that benefit so the entire US$3 billion is not lost.

If you do the math, the saving in oil spending over the lifetime of the new vehicles could be great enough to justify the US$3 billion of taxpayer money spent. However, critics point out that the taxpayer is out of pocket for donating this one off efficiency saving to fortunate clunker owners without any benefit in return.

Now that the program is over, the data shows that there may be some additional unexpected long-lasting benefits.

The month after the clunker program ended, consumers continued to purchase more cars and small vehicles rather than larger light trucks and SUVs. Perhaps vehicle dealers realized that efficiency is the new best selling point - particularly as US consumers are in an increased saving mode following the severe recession? Maybe it took the surge in efficient vehicle sales during the clunkers program for this realization to become widespread? This efficiency trend, if it persists, will help the US economy better survive future oil price spikes.

Let's take it to the charts. Chart 1 shows the brief recovery in US auto sales during the short lived clunkers program.

(click to enlarge chart)

Chart 2 below shows the numbers of cars sold in the US as a percentage of total. The clunkers program achieved what US$147 per barrel could not: 57% of vehicles sold during August 2009 were cars rather than SUVs/Light trucks. This exceeded the 55% number of May08-July08 as oil prices hit record highs. What is most interesting is that the share of car sales has not collapsed to pre-clunker program levels: in September 2009 car sales accounted for 54% of total US sales.

(click to enlarge chart)

Another criticism of the clunkers program was that it encouraged the purchase of imported vehicles rather than domestic. Chart 3 clearly shows that the trend toward sales of imported vehicles has been in place for a long time and that the clunkers program barely made a difference to the trend.

(click to enlarge chart)

Conclusion: While the benefit to taxpayers may not be immediately significant, the cash for clunkers program appears to have had a halo effect on efficient vehicle sales in the US. This efficiency will strengthen the US economy against future oil price shocks and if the trend continues it is a welcome unintended benefit of the clunkers program.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EcoGeek/~3/wPPIAiLMmX0/

We wrote previously that Toyota was pulling out all the stops to keep Honda from stealing its hybrid thunder with the Insight, and, apparently, their tactics are working. The 2010 Prius is set to go on sale in mid-May in Japan, and the automaker has reportedly already pre-sold 20,000 and it's expected that pre-sales will reach 40,000 by the time they hit the lot.

While Toyota isn't confirming the pre-sale numbers, multiple local Japanese newspapers are reporting that dealers have received the large quantity orders.

The Honda Insight outsold the Prius in Japan when it came on the market in February, with 18,000 sold in the first month. If the pre-sale numbers are any indication, the Prius will easily reclaim its place on top.

Toyota is expected to reduce the price of the Prius in Japan to around $20,750 to make it more competitive with the less-expensive Insight. Toyota sold 73,100 units of the car in Japan in 2008 and the carmaker has set an ambitious global sales target of 400,000 in 2010. No word yet on what the pricing strategy in the U.S. will be, but it's likely that there will be a price reduction compared to the current model here as well.

via Reuters

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EcoGeek/~3/2wON0pnAshg/

San Diego has announced that they are starting a new city-wide incentive program in July for residents who want to install solar panels, but don't have the cash to pay for it up front. The city will finance the cost of the solar panels and allow homeowners to pay back the loan in property tax bills over 20 years.

This new incentive program takes advantage of a statewide law that allows loan programs for renewable energy to be paid back through property tax payments. Berkeley and Palm Desert have also enacted similar programs for their residents.

The loans will have a fixed interest rate and are transferrable if property is sold during the life of the loan.

Many more people would be willing to install solar power on their property if the initial cost wasn't so high. Programs like these could really increase the amount of residential solar in the country if more cities and states offered them. It seems to be an easy investment for cities to make, with potential for a great payoff, both through the interest money the city would collect and the advancement in renewable energy being generated.

via Cleantechnica