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WILL INSANE OIL WEALTH BRING THE WORLD
TO THE BRINK OF NUCLEAR WAR?
“All of these things were predictable. ...We’ve had
a failure in our nation’s energy policy."
Dick Durban,
US Senate Minority Whip
Bodman:
Oil Companies "Have Lost Control"
Alex Johnson MSNBC
April 30, 2006 |
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"My attitude is that the oil
companies need to be mindful that the American people expect them to
reinvest their cash flows in such
a way that it enhances our energy security."
US President George W. Bush
Energy Secretary: High Gas Prices Could Last 3 Years
CNN April 30, 2006
New Oil Shock Ahead
As $100 Spike Looms
Oliver Morgan & Heather Stewart
The Observer (UK) April 30, 2006
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New rules, which come into force this year, have mandated higher ethanol
content in vehicle fuel; but since ethanol cannot be pumped through
pipelines, a shortage of infrastructure meant that in some states,
including Texas, fuel was not getting to the pumps. |
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Meet the Press Transcript for April 30, 2006
Samuel Bodman, Red Cavaney, Jim Cramer, Dick Durbin, Daniel
Yergin MSNBC
April 30, 2006 |
EDITORIAL:
Quit Griping, and Make Changes
 $3-a-gallon
gas isn't the problem;
dependence on fossil fuels is
News-Press (FL)
April 30, 2006
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The Ballooning Price Tag for Energy
THE WAR FOR OIL
"A
Headlong Rush Into Disaster"
Testimony of Milton Copulos, President, National Defense Council
Foundation, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
March 30, 2006
"If all costs are amortized over the total
volume of imports, that would be equivalent to adding $5.04 to the price
of a gallon of gasoline. For Persian Gulf imports, the premium would be
$8.35. This would bring the 'real' price of a gallon of gasoline refined
from Persian Gulf oil to $10.86. At these prices the 'real' cost of
filling up a family sedan is $217.20, and filling up a large SUV $325.80.
Cleaning the Air and Improving
Health
with Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Vehicles
M. Z. Jacobson, W. G. Colella, D. M. Golden Science
June 24, 2005
Adding the reduction in health and mortality costs from
wind Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles of $0.29 to $1.80/gallon, which is the
externality cost of gasoline, gives a direct cost plus externality cost of
U.S. gasoline/diesel of $2.35 to $3.99/gallon, which exceeds the mean cost
of hydrogen from wind ($2.16/gallon) even if retail hydrogen is marked
up.
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"Our society is in a state of
collective denial that has no precedent in history,
in terms of its scale and implications."
What
They Don't Want You to Know About the Coming Oil Crisis
The Independent (UK)
January 20, 2006 |
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Soaring fuel prices, rumours of winter power
cuts, panic over the gas supply from Russia, abrupt changes to forecasts
of crude output... Is something sinister going on? Yes, says former oil
man
Jeremy Leggett, and it's time to face the fact that the
supplies we so depend on are going to run out. |
Shell’s Commitment to Alternative Energy
Royal Dutch Shell
February 2, 2006
Things Just Got Worse
Byron W. King
Energy Bulletin January
25, 2005
The news out of Kuwait highlights the point that most, if not all, of the
estimates published by member nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) are similarly without merit. In all likelihood, all of the OPEC
member nations have chronically overstated their reserves. The ominous
implication is that we are confronting the reality that the world has a lot less
oil than we thought and that a peak in global oil output must occur sooner than
even some of the most pessimistic predictions.
Iraq's Hot Properties
Andrew J. Grotto Bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists
Jan/Feb 2006
BP Forms Alternative Energy Division
David Cullen & Tom Bergen
Globe and Mail (ON)
November 29, 2005
BP may invest up to $8-billion (U.S.) in wind,
solar, hydrogen and high-efficiency gas-fired power generation projects over
the next 10 years amid growing concern over global warming.
Middle East Forum on Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Economy
Anne-Birte Stensgaard AME
Info November 29,
2005
"Katrina was our energy 9/11"
Matt Simmons |
Today’s Energy Reality:
“We Are In A Deep Hole”
IPAA 76th Annual Meeting, Houston, Texas October 25, 2005
Matthew R. Simmons, Chairman, Simmons & Company
International
REPRESENTATIVE ROSCOE G. BARTLETT,
MARYLAND 6TH DISTRICT, 2005 ENERGY CONFERENCE MONDAY, SEPTEMBER
26, 2005, 9:00 A.M. - 12:00 NOON FREDERICK COMMUNITY COLLEGE, FREDERICK, MARYLAND
PARTICIPANTS: DR. KENNETH DEFFEYES, MATTHEW SIMMONS, RICHARD HEINBERG, DONALD WULFINGHOFF,
JOHN SPEARS, JOHN HOWE
Transcript by: Federal News Service, Washington, D.C.
"Everyone keeps thinking there is
a (price) ceiling...
There is no ceiling."
Matt Simmons, Simmons
& Company International
Oil Guru Says Crude Could Hit $190 This Winter
MSNBC
October 19, 2005
The Inevitable Peaking of World
Oil Production
Robert L. Hirsch Atlantic Council of the United
States October
2005
The era of plentiful, low-cost petroleum is approaching an end. The good news is that
commercially viable mitigation options are ready for implementation. The bad news is that
unless mitigation is orchestrated on a timely basis, the economic damage to the world
economy will be dire and long-lasting. |
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Pictures of the Death of Chevron's Typhoon Platform
“Early reports indicate numerous rigs are missing,
destroyed or have suffered serious damage and several companies have yet
to report. Rita may set an all-time record.”
Ken Sill, Credit Suisse First Boston
100 RIGS AND 8 PLATFORMS DESTROYED - CNBC 10/5/2005
Rita Causes Record Damage
to Oil Rigs
C. Hoyos, S. McNutty, T. Catan Financial Times
Sept 27, 2005
Hurricane Rita has caused more damage to
oil rigs than any other storm in history and will force companies to delay
drilling for oil in the US and as far away as the Middle East, initial
damage assessments show.
more |
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BIG MAP: Coastal Vulnerability with All Oil Platforms
The head of the Interior Department's Minerals Management
Service, Johnnie Burton, said two weeks ago that Katrina did not do as
much damage to offshore pipelines as Hurricane Ivan did a year earlier.
However, Burton's estimate turned out to be too optimistic, and the damage
is much worse.
Gulf Pipelines Hit Worse Than First Thought
Reuters Sept 29 2005
Crude oil and gasoline futures rebounded after reports that
refineries in Port Arthur and Beaumont, Texas, and Lake Charles, La., may
be shut longer than expected after being damaged by Hurricane Rita.
Futures Rise with Refinery Damage
Bloomberg Sept
27 2005
"We think the market's underestimating the natural gas impact
here," David Pursell, an energy analyst with Pickering Energy Partners in
Houston. Companies are usually building up the natural gas stockpiles at
this time of year to prepare for the winter, when daily use outstrips
daily production.
Storm's Punch at the Gulf Coast Has Aggravated the U.S. Energy
Crunch
David Ivanovich and Tom Fowler
Houston Chronicle Sept 27 2005
The Noble Therald Martin, Noble Paul Romano, Noble Amos Runner
and Noble Max Smith moved approximately 89 miles, 118 miles, 75 miles and
123 miles, respectively, off their original locations.
Noble Corporation Reports on Status of Offshore Units Following
Hurricane Rita
Noble Corporation
Sept 27 2005
As companies began to report the damage sustained from the
hurricane, offshore infrastructure appeared to be hit much harder than
onshore facilities, threatening to add to energy supply woes in the United
States, analysts said.
Rita Damages Chevron Platform, Several Rigs Missing
Reuters Sept 26
2005
Remington Oil and Gas Corporation announced today that two
offshore jackup drilling rigs under contract to the company are no longer
at their pre-storm locations.
Remington Oil & Gas Corp Reports on Missing Rigs Following
Hurricane Rita
Remington Oil & Gas
Sept 26 2005
An initial survey revealed that the Typhoon tension leg
platform, located about 165 miles south-southwest of New Orleans, was
severed from its mooring and suffered severe damage during the storm.
Chevron Regroups After
Rita TheStreet.com Sept 26
2005
GlobalSantaFe Corporation today reported that two of its
offshore oil and gas drilling rigs, the GSF Adriatic VII and GSF High
Island III, could not be found on their drilling locations during a search
by fixed-wing aircraft Sunday.
GlobalSantaFe Reports Two Jackup Rigs Missing After Hurricane Rita
GlobalSantaFe Corporation
Sept 26 2005
Rowan Companies, Inc. announced today that, in the aftermath of
Hurricane Rita, its jack-up rigs Rowan-Odessa and Rowan-Halifax were not
at their pre-storm locations. In addition, the hull of the jack-up
Rowan-Louisiana apparently detached from its legs and is aground offshore
Louisiana.
Rowan Reports on Offshore Fleet Following Hurricane
Rita
Rowan Companies Sept 26 2005
Offshore drilling company Rowan Cos. said Monday that an aerial
survey of its Gulf fleet shows that its Rowan-Fort Worth rig is missing in
the aftermath of Hurricane Rita, and two rigs have drifted from their
original locations.
Rowan Cos. Says One Rig Unaccounted For
Business Week
Sept 26 2005
Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. today reported that the drilling
rigs Ocean Saratoga and Ocean Star broke free from their moorings as
Hurricane Rita passed west of both semisubmersibles.
Diamond Offshore Reports on Status of Rigs Following
Hurricane Rita Diamond Offshore Drilling
Sept 26 2005
All that was known Saturday was that Transocean Inc.'s Deepwater
Nautilus, an ultra-deep drilling rig, was adrift in the Gulf. It was
heavily damaged by Katrina and was being towed for repairs when its
towline broke in rough seas late Thursday, stranding 45 crewmen. A
contracted company rescued the last 14 from the drifting platform shortly
before sundown Friday in a daring helicopter rescue.
Damage Will Make Gasoline Supplies Even Tighter
Kevin G. Hall The Mercury News
Sept 24 2005
In the past year, three hurricanes with sustained winds of
140 mph or greater -- Ivan, Dennis and Katrina -- have damaged platforms
in the Gulf. According to a Shell Web site, Ivan destroyed seven platforms
in September 2004 and damaged 26 others. Katrina destroyed at least 46
platforms last month and significantly damaged 16 others, according to the
American Petroleum Institute.
Report: Platform Designs Can't Handle Top Storms
Bill Finch and Ben Raines Star-Telegram
September 25, 2005
A key gas pipeline serving Henry Hub was shut down
yesterday as a precaution, cutting off supplies and also causing Nymex,
the commodities exchange, to declare force majeure on gas futures
contracts that specify Henry Hub as the delivery point. Two thirds of the
Gulf of Mexico’s gas output was shut yesterday, along with 92 per cent of
oil production, as platform operators evacuated staff from offshore
facilities. Fifteen refineries closed.
Gas Threat Fuels Energy Crisis
Carl Mortished Times (UK) Sept 24 2005 |
...the major producers will have to take action, perhaps pooling large
sums of money to fund research into alternative energy sources, anything
to fend off calls for a new Windfall Profits Tax.
Natural Gas Woes Bigger Story than Crude Oil
Mella McEwen My West Texas Sept 25 2005 |
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"Do you know what
the real cost of gas is? Is it really $3 a gallon? You need to add to that
$3 a gallon the cost of a war in Iraq, the cost of losing American
soldiers to keep a pipeline of oil going. Many people can see beyond just
that they're paying $3 a gallon at the gas pump ... They realize putting
that gas in the car is a very costly societal investment."
Jim Press, Toyota
"I think people
in general, especially in North America, have started to realize what's
going on here. We've got our troops in a place that they shouldn't be.
People are getting a little bit fed up. Every day six soldiers die, nine
soldiers die, X number of civilians. And for what purpose? The purpose is
very simple: oil."
Bob Stempel, Energy Conversion Devices
Politics Takes Front Seat at Autos Summit
Tom Brown Reuters/Washington Post
September 23, 2005 |
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NEW ORLEANS
A Casualty of Oil Dependence
Richard D. Masters
International Clearinghouse for Hydrogen Commerce
September 2, 2005 |
Few realize that the
flooding of New Orleans was avoidable. The
federal funds won by the efforts of the Army Corp of
Engineers and
designated for the strengthening of the levee system that protected New
Orleans were
used instead to help finance a war closely tied to securing
foreign oil supplies. Now we are faced with the loss of a major city, at a
cost greater than 9/11 and Hurricane Andrew combined.
|
"It appears
that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle
homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the
price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be
finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that
this is a security issue for us."
Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for
Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
Times-Picayune June 8, 2004 |
When our government places foreign nation
building above our own -- to the point of
losing an American city - then we must
reconsider what we are doing. We are now engaged in a policy of perpetual
warfare where the United States funds both sides of the conflict, one
through taxation to support our military efforts, the other through a
"prosperity tax" paid on every barrel of Muslim oil we import.
But Americans need energy, not oil. If we are fighting a war for oil,
we need to ask ourselves "Who are we fighting this war for?" and "Why are
we not moving aggressively toward energy independence?"
All international conflict appears to stem from oil greed or oil envy
- and it would be relatively easy and
profitable to remove our nation from this accelerating spiral toward
disaster by building an
all-electric economy based on renewable domestic energy. With wind,
solar, geothermal, hydro, advanced battery technologies and production of
electric fuel (hydrogen) via electrolysis, we could do this in as little
as ten years.
But look what we are doing instead.
Our
elected representatives behave as if they were owned by lobbyists
from big energy companies. Their decisions are based on what is good for
the profitability of the existing energy structure instead of providing
for a new energy base that will secure the future of the citizens they are
sworn to represent.
So they diverted funds that would have ensured New Orleans' survival
toward a highly-rationalized scheme to instill democratic ideals on
religious fanatics, part of a desperate, incredibly cynical attempt to
hang onto Middle East oil supplies controlled by brutal anti-democratic
despots. They then wastefully piled billions onto a
preposterous Midwest corn-ethanol corporate welfare scheme -- this
after
failing to provide simple production tax credits
in 2004 to enable the financing of the next generation of wind power!
Both the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and a Stanford research
group have shown that
wind alone could power America many times
over, but the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who plays a
key role in sending our sons and daughters to fight in the oil-rich Middle
East, waged a
disingenuous personal war against windpower after accepting huge
donations from the petroleum lobby.
Instead of moving America toward energy independence, the so-called
"Energy Bill" was used primarily as a
vehicle to transfer immense wealth to big oil, coal and nuclear
while tossing scraps to the
cheapest technology available to put
electrons on the grid: wind.
The money spent on the Iraq war so far is equivalent to
the cost of establishing hydrogen fueling stations across America. But
all this pales in comparison to the enormous "prosperity tax" placed on
the American people by imported oil with the blessing of America's
leaders.
As we watch New Orleans sink and burn, and brace ourselves for
further repercussions of dependence on centralized oil in the form of fuel
shortages and damage to the economy, this should impress upon us the fact
that we need better leaders. Leaders with vision who put love of country
first. Leaders who refuse to sell themselves to the highest bidder.
Leaders who are intelligent enough to recognize
the path to energy independence is that which is most cost-effective.
Leaders who will leave a legacy of prosperity, not ashes.
But the future for America is grim unless and until we demand these
leaders.
Permission is granted to reproduce
this article in any format.
The Bush Administration and Congressional leaders are shamelessly
exploiting Hurricane Katrina as the latest excuse to hand over the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the oil industry. Given the massive
oil spills still devastating the Gulf Coast, it defies belief that our
leaders are rushing headlong to hand over America's greatest wildlife
sanctuary to the oil lobby. Instead of making America more energy
efficient -- the fastest way to meet our energy needs and avoid oil
supply shocks -- they would sponsor yet another corporate raid on our
natural heritage. This cynical exploitation of a national tragedy has
revealed, as nothing else could, the complete bankruptcy of President
Bush's pro-polluter energy policies -- policies inspired by
nineteenth-century oil barons. Five years of coddling the oil industry
has given us higher gas prices and left us more vulnerable than ever to
oil shortages -- not to mention oil spills, air pollution, despoiled
public lands, and catastrophic global warming. You and I must not let
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge become the next preventable casualty
of this president's failed policies. Within the next few weeks, Congress
will cast its make-or-break vote on a Budget Reconciliation Bill that
would allow oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge. I urge you to pour your
heart and soul into defeating that bill. If you've alerted five friends
to the urgency of this effort,
mobilize five more. Make a
donation so that the NRDC Action Fund can run ads
mobilizing the public in key Congressional districts. Write a personal,
hand-written
letter to your Representative. Please do what it
takes to win. Because all the beauty and wildness we've worked so hard
to protect over the past 30 years could be lost in a single day. We can
win this fight, but only if we build overwhelming public pressure on
Congress one person at a time. Thank you for joining with me to make it
happen.
Sincerely,
Robert Redford,
NRDC Action Fund |
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"We ask that you
declare energy independence a national priority, with a deadline on its
achievement, and commit strong political leadership and necessary
financial resources. This would be a great challenge worthy of a great
nation.”
Rod Blagojevich of Illinois Bill Richardson of New Mexico
Jim Doyle of Wisconsin Christine Gregoire of Washington
Ted Kulongoski of Oregon Janet Napolitano of Arizona
Brian Schweitzer of Montana
Seven U.S. Governors Urge President to Back Renewables
ReFocus (UK)
July 20, 2005 |
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AFTER
OIL: Powering the Future
Where will the world get its next energy fix?
National Geographic August 2005
The trouble with energy
freedom is that it's addictive; when you get a little, you want a lot. In microcosm I'm
like people in government, industry, and private life all over the world, who have tasted
a bit of this curious and compelling kind of liberty and are determined to find more. |
Some experts think this pursuit is even more important
than the war on terrorism. "Terrorism doesn't threaten the viability of the heart of
our high-technology lifestyle," says Martin Hoffert, a professor of physics at New
York University. "But energy really does."
Energy conservation can stave off the day of reckoning, but in the end
you can't conserve what you don't have. So Hoffert and others have no doubt: It's time to
step up the search for the next great fuel for the hungry engine of humankind. |
WHO NEEDS DOMESTIC RENEWABLE ENERGY
WHEN WE CAN BET OUR FUTURE ON THIS:
All eight of the Kingdom's refineries are part of the
destructive grid. Each has at least one RDD [Radioactive Dispersal Device] in place.
Thirty pumping stations, upon which the Kingdom's pipelines depend, have all been
conventionally wired. Conventional explosive packets are at critical junction points along
the 750-mile Petroline pipeline that carries all oil from the two largest fields, Abqaiq
and Ghawar, to Yanbu on the Red Sea (the Abqaiq-Yanbu liquid natural gas pipeline runs
parallel to the Petroline and is also wired as part of the conventional explosive grid).
Also, each of the eleven pumping stations along the Petroline have plastic explosives set
to incapacitate their gas turbine electric generators, their primary power source. The
inclusion of the Petroline pipeline, which Saudi Arabia took over from Mobil in 1984, is
an example of Petro SE's [Scorched Earth] redundancy. Although the oil fields at Abqaiq
and Ghawar are to be destroyed and unusable, The House of Saud still wants to ensure that
should something go wrong on the successful destruction of the fields, the oil from them
could not be transported anywhere because the Petroline pipeline would be useless. But by
also taking out the Red Sea terminal at Yanbu, the Saudis would eliminate the normal
fallback export capability in the Kingdom once the Gulf facilities were down. ...Just as
the Saudis have built a remarkably efficient energy system, complete with redundancies in
case of natural disaster, man-made mistakes or a terror attack, they have also built in
the same careful redundancies to their own self-destruction network. --
page 131
Gerald Posner Secrets of
the Kingdom Random House 2005 |
OIL & GAS LIQUIDS - 2004 SCENARIO
Association
for the Study of Peak Oil |
EXXONMOBIL: PEAK OIL IS REAL
Oil: Caveat
Empty
Alfred J. Cavallo Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientitsts May/June
2005 |
Without any press conferences, grand announcements, or
hyperbolic advertising campaigns, the Exxon Mobil Corporation, one of the world's largest
publicly owned petroleum companies, has quietly joined the ranks of those who are
predicting an impending plateau in non-OPEC oil production. Their report, The Outlook for
Energy: A 2030 View, forecasts a peak in just five years.
In the past, many who expressed such concerns were dismissed as eager
catastrophists, peddling the latest Malthusian prophecy of the impending collapse of
fossil-fueled civilization. Their reliance on private oil-reserve data that is
unverifiable by other analysts, and their use of models that ignore political and economic
factors, have led to frequent erroneous pronouncements. They were countered by the extreme
optimists, who believed that we would never need to think about such problems and that the
markets would take care of everything. Up to now, those who worried about limited
petroleum supplies have been at best ignored, and at worst openly ridiculed.
...ExxonMobil's world oil production forecast shows no contribution
from "oil shale" even by 2030. more |
The Outlook for
Energy: A 2030 View
Presentation by John Constable, senior adviser, UK Public
Affairs,
at the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, Scotland September 15, 2004Oil:
The Illusion of Plenty
Alfred J. Cavallo Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientitsts Jan/Feb 2005
NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
The Association for the Study of
Peak Oil and Gas
"We estimate that world oil and gas
production from existing fields is declining at an average rate of about 4 to 6 percent a
year. To meet projected demand in 2015, the industry will have to add about 100 million
oil-equivalent barrels a day of
 new
production. That’s equal to about 80 percent of today’s production level. In
other words, by 2015, we will need to find, develop and produce a volume of new oil and
gas that is equal to eight out of every 10 barrels being produced today. "
Jon Thompson, President, ExxonMobil
Exploration
A Revolutionary Transformation The Lamp ExxonMobile 2003 |
Hardliner
In Iran Has Oil Market Spooked
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Telegraph (UK) June 27, 2005
In Germany, the respected Kiel Institute for
World Economics warned that oil could reach the trauma levels of $100 a barrel if there is
further supply disruption in Russia or a political upset in Saudi Arabia. IFW said a
number of "unwelcome developments" could trigger an oil crisis, given limited
stocks and lack of capacity to offset a sudden supply shock. It cited the risk of unrest
spilling over from Iraq into Saudi Arabia and called on governments to take evasive action
by reducing dependence on cars and developing alternative energy sources.
 AS
IMPORTED OIL SHAKES THE U.S. ECONOMY, GEORGE BUSH DEMANDS CONGRESS UNITE IN
SUPPORT OF HIS ENERGY POLICY |
"The energy bill must diversify our energy supply by developing
alternative sources of energy like ethanol or biodiesel. We need to promote safe, clean
nuclear power. |
"And to create
more energy choices, Congress should provide tax credits for renewable power sources such
as wind, solar, and landfill gas. We must also continue our clean coal technology projects
so that we can use the plentiful source of coal in an environmentally friendly way. The
bill must also support pollution-free cars and trucks, powered by hydrogen fuel cells
instead of gasoline."
-- U.S. President George W. Bush April 16, 2005 |
So Much
for
5 Year Predictions
 |
June 30, 2000
Sheikh Yamiani,
Saudi Arabia's
Oil Minister
During the 1973
Arab Oil Embargo, Prophisies the End of the Age of Oil
Gyles Brandreth |
"I have no
illusion - I am positive there will be some time in the future a crash in the price of
oil. I can tell you with a degree of confidence that after five years there will be a
sharp drop in the price of oil." -- Sheikh Yamiani
Fuel-cell motor technology - which can produce
electricity by combining hydrogen from a variety of fuels with oxygen from the air - will
have a dramatic impact on the oil market, he predicts.
"This is coming before the end of the decade and will cut gasoline
consumption by almost 100 per cent. Imagine a country like the United States, the largest
consuming nation, where more than 50 per cent of their consumption is gasoline. If you
eliminate that, what will happen?" Saudi Arabia, he says, "will have serious
economic difficulties."
Farewell to Riches of the Earth Sunday Telegraph (UK) June 30, 2000 |
Super Spike – The Potential
Impact For Australia
Australian Investment Review April 7, 2005
OPEC Is Maxxed
Out Platts
April 7, 2005
RECORD
APRIL 4
US$58.17BBL
LIGHT SWEET CRUDE |
RECORD
APRIL 4
US$1.97 GAL
UNLEADED GASOLINE |
NEAR RECORD
US$7.90 MCF NATURAL GAS |
IT'S ONLY "2000 ACRES"
YOUR CONGRESS' ANSWER TO THE OIL CRISIS
THE OIL RAIDS BEGIN ON AMERICA'S NATURAL HERITAGE
THIS IS AMERICA'S LAST NEW OIL FIELD - ARE YOU
WORRIED YET?
COMING TO AN EX-WILDLIFE REFUGE NEAR YOU SOON
LET'S TAKE OUR CHILDREN'S OIL AND BURN IT UP
STAY TUNED - CONGRESS' NEXT TRICK: BEGGING OPEC
March 17, 2005
CRUDE HITS US$57.50
Trouble in the World's
Largest Oil Field
G.R. Morton
March 16, 2005
U.S. SENATE VOTES TO EXHAUST ANWAR: THE LAST
SIGNIFICANT RESERVIOR OF CRUDE IN NORTH AMERICA
GM STOCK TANKS AS GIANT SUVS PARK IN SHOWROOMS
"America needs an 'Apollo Project' for
hydrogen fuel-cell technology, and this bill
will get it started. We need to prepare
now and make hydrogen power
a real part of our energy picture."
U.S. Sentor Byron Dorgan (ND)
Hydrogen, PTC Focus of
Bills from Sen. Dorgan
Renewable Energy Access February
25, 2005
DOE
Announces $62.4M in "Clean Coal" R&D Awards Supports President Bush's Initiative to
Make America Energy Independent
March 16, 2005
Among the objectives of the research are improved and new
methods of producing pure hydrogen in coal gasification; Hydrogen handling -- safe storage
of hydrogen, and on-board storage which will aid the commercialization of hydrogen fuel
cell vehicles.
"We are pursuing a path
toward a 'hydrogen economy' with affordable zero-emissions fuel cell vehicles, abundant
sources of production, and the safe storage and transportation of hydrogen fuel."
U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel W.
Bodman
Testimony to the
House Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies FY 2006
Appropriations Hearing March 9,
2005
Amory Lovins: Energy Guru Sees
Oil-free World
MSNBC/AP November 22, 2004
 "While the oil crisis
will force an increase in government spending in one way, through its impact on defense
budgets, it will increase it in another way by forcing the government to assume a major
role in developing alternative energies. ...It's anyones guess what the final figure
will be, but expenditures approaching $1 trillion on alternative energies are not
inconceivable. It's true that private enterprise will also play a big role, but
history shows that when it comes to massive projects -- and the development of alternative
energies could be as big a project as a major war -- the federal government inevitably
gets involved.
"True, at this moment the latest version of the Bush
administration's energy bill doesn't exactly bow at the alter of alternative energy.
The amount proposed for renewable fuels is woefully small. But we are still
in the early stages of what will be a long-term and intractable crisis. If, as it
has been said, hanging wonderfully concentrates the mind, $100 oil should go far toward
clarifying our real options."
-- -- Stephen & Donna Leeb, The Oil Factor
(2004) |
|
"Demand for oil in China is
growing at a blistering rate, about 30% to 40% a year. Demand is coming not just from
China, but also from India and the rest of the developing world. To meet that demand,
there's going to have to be four to five Saudi Arabias out there."
Anne Korin, Institute for Analysis of
Global Security
China's
Ever-Growing Oil Needs May Result
In A Global Shortage
Doug Tsuruoka
Investor's Business Daily January 25, 2005
ConocoPhillips Drops Out of Arctic Power, Joins BP
As Second Oil Company to Leave Arctic
Drilling Lobby Group
- Shareholders Withdraw Resolution on Issue
US Public Interest Research Groups
January 5, 2005
Hydrogen Viewed as
Possible Replacement for Oil
David R. Baker San
Francisco Chronicle/Seacoast December 5, 2004
OIL POISED TO SURGE ON
OPEC ADJUSTMENT
"If Asian nations usually have to pay a higher price for crude oil than
Europe and American countries, this is not in line with the market principle of
fairness."
Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice chairman of China's National
Development and Reform Commission Bloomberg January 6,
2005
"Asia has become our
number one customer. Today, we ship more than 4.5 million barrels per day to Asia, or
about 60 percent of our exports."
Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister
India Daily January 6,
2005
Tension
Rises as China Scours the Globe for Energy
Richard Spencer Telegraph
(UK) |
OIL ECONOMY SETS
STAGE FOR WORLD CONFLICT |
China
Forges Major Energy Ties with Iran
Green Car Congress/AFP October 29, 2004 |
| This may be an energy agreement, but it is a political one as
well. China could provide an important block to any UN action on Iran’s nuclear
program. And how eager would China be to see US intervention in one of its key energy
allies? |
"Oil is far too cheap at the
moment. The figure I'd use is around $182 a barrel. We need to price oil realistically to
control its demand. That is because global production is peaking. ...If we price oil
correctly, it could give us time to find bridge fuels, fuels to fill the gap between an
oil economy and a renewable economy. But I don't see that happening."
Investment Banker Matthew Simmons
Is the
World's Oil Running Out Fast?
BBC (UK) June 7, 2004
As North American refineries gear up
to produce cleaner-burning fuels the demand for hydrogen is skyrocketing.
Cleaner
Fuels, Sourer Crude Creates Surge
in Refineries’ Hydrogen Demand
Eye for Energy December 1, 2004
 |
OIL
DOWNLOAD REPORT |
"Our
national policymakers appear to be pursuing a path of continued reliance on oil and coal
exploration and combustion.
But considering the true costs of such a course – as well as the potential
economic benefits of energy conservation and investment in new energy technologies –
can help guide us towards clean development in the coming decades"
Dr. Paul Epstein of Harvard Medical School's
Center for Health and the Global Environment
OIL: A Life
Cycle Analysis of its
Health and Environmental Impacts
Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global
Environment |
| "Up to now, policy makers have largely ignored the
full spectrum of harm to human health and environmental damage posed by our continued
over-dependence on fossil fuels like oil," said co-editor Dr. Paul Epstein of Harvard
Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment. "We present these
findings with the strong hope that public health and safety will be studied further in
order to understand the true costs of our use of oil." Threats
posed at each stage of the oil lifecycle include:
- Extraction: Occupationally-related fatalities among workers in the oil and gas
extraction processes are higher than deaths for workers from all other US industries
combined. Oil well workers risk injury and chronic disease from exposure to chemicals such
as cadmium, arsenic, cyanide, lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
- Oil Transport: Many leaks and spills occur in developing nations where pipeline
and oil rig safety regulations are inadequately enforced, posing particularly high threats
to local environments and human communities.
- Refining: Refinery workers' health is threatened through accidents and from
cancer (leukemia), associated with exposure to petroleum by-products such as benzene.
Again, these threats are even greater in developing nations and poor communities where
labor, safety, emissions standards and environmental laws are lacking or weakly enforced.
- Combustion: Chemical and particulate air pollution are related to heart and lung
disease (chronic obstructive lung disease and asthma) and premature death. Acid rain
leaches lead, copper and aluminum into drinking water and climate change caused by excess
carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are associated with more extreme weather events
and the spread of infectious diseases.
The report also describes various harmful impacts of the oil lifecycle on
animals and ecosystems. The report’s authors hope their initial findings will also
encourage Congress and the White House to take a new direction in energy policy. |
EDITORIAL:
Trying to Kick the Oil Habit
Coshocton Tribune October 16, 2004 |
| Can the United States kick the oil habit? A new study says that
it can. It may ultimately have little choice, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez saying
oil could fairly soon cost as much as $100 a barrel. ...The new study, conducted by the
Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Institute (funded partly by the Defense Department),
suggests that we respond to high oil prices by retooling for alternative energy sources
and by more efficiently using oil. Entitled "Winning the Oil Endgame: American
Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security," the study's report says that in two
decades we can halve our fossil-fuel use, through such alternatives as biofuels and
hydrogen. The report even asserts that by 2050 the United States can be oil-free, save for
some oil used as fuel to produce hydrogen. |
ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE |
US DEPT OF
DEFENSE / THE PENTAGON |
WINNING THE OIL ENDGAME
Go
to download page |
The Experts Are Calling for Energy Reforms -Why Aren't
the Politicians?
Michael Elliot Time Magazine Sept 22, 2004
On Sept. 11, 2001, the world was reminded that oil is a dangerous drug. The cheapest, most
easily accessible oil reserves are in the Middle East, the most volatile region on earth.
It makes sense to dream of a world that is far, far less dependent on oil than it is now.
Winning the Oil Endgame:
American Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security, written by a team led by Amory
Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colorado, is one of the best analyses
of energy policy yet produced. Lovins, who has been |
preaching
the need for fuel efficiency for some 30 years, thinks big. His aim is to promote a set of
policies that over the next two decades would save half the oil the U.S. uses, before
moving to a hydrogen-based economy that dispenses with oil altogether.
"This
shock is very different from that of the mid 1970s. It is driven by resource constraints,
not politics, although, of course, politics do enter into it.
"The market is beginning to perceive that OPEC has lost control.
It is a devastating realization because it means that there is no supply-based ceiling on
price. Accordingly, prices are set to soar. In today’s money, oil prices went to
almost $100 a barrel during the 1970s shocks. Higher prices will cause the demand for oil
to stabilize, then fall.
"And there is, I think, the danger of an ill-considered
military intervention to try and secure oil. A stock market crash seems inevitable with
high continued oil prices and the impact that it will have on inflation and interest
rates. Energy costs may be a smaller percent of the GNP today than it was at the time of
the first oil embargo in ’73. But as recent events in Europe have demonstrated, it is
a critical percentage. The global market may collapse because of higher transportation
costs and global recession.
"I suppose Europe, Asia and the United States will be on a
collision course for access to oil in a world of perceived growing shortage. In short, it
will be a time of great international tension and new alignments.
"Self sufficiency will become a priority. Of course, production of
gas and gas liquids and non-conventional deep water, heavy and polar oils will continue to
expand. But in my analysis, they will lessen decline and will shift the peak by only five
years. I imagine coal projects will increase and nuclear power will be rejuvenated in many
countries. Fuel cells will take off. And of course, solar, wind and ocean generated power
will continue to find niche markets and expand...."
"Consumer energy savings will be in vogue, again. Buying local
produce and manufactured goods will make more sense than importing stuff from halfway
around the world.
"And I suppose there will be another oil exploration boom but that it will be
abortive, finding only small fields having negligible impact on the world, with the
Caspian Sea being an exception. Once the moment of truth is realized in that there
truly are no more giant fields to be found, major integrated oil companies and
independents will accelerate mergers and shrink as their throughput declines."
-- Jack Zagar, associate of Colin
Campbell HYDROGEN HAWAII |
also see HYDROGEN OR OIL? |
INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY:
Oil Prices Put Growth in
Danger
International Herald Tribune
October 5, 2004
Development
of alternative fuels is being blocked by national policies and corporate commitments that
tip the playing field in favor of foreign oil.
Old Policies Make Shift From Foreign Oil Tough
Lee Dye ABC
July 28, 2004
Deutsche
Bank Warns Oil Price May Hit $100
James Dow
The Scotsman (UK) August 3, 2004
Is
the World's Oil Running Out Fast?
Adam Porter BBC (UK)
June 7, 2004
Scientist
Warns of Looming Crisis Lee
Dye ABC Feb 11 2004
IVAN STRIKES GLANCING BLOW TO HEART OF U.S. OIL
HURRICANE
CRIPPLES U.S. OIL PRODUCTION
7 OIL RIGS DESTROYED 13 PIPELINES DAMAGED
GOV'T ESTIMATES OF WEEKLY CRUDE
REFILL OFF BY 350%
POLICYMAKERS
DEPEND ON THESE NUMBERS
DRAMATIC JUMP IN FOREIGN OIL
DEPENDENCE EXPECTED DURING MONTHS OF REPAIR TO INFRASTRUCTURE
DEMOCRACY IN PERIL
WILL U.S. ELECTIONS NOW HINGE ON A
PRESIDENT'S ABILITY TO DRAIN THE STRATEGIC RESERVE FOR VOTES?
OIL DESPOTS WATCH WITH GLEE |
- Crude Oil Rises to Record Close of $48.88 as Ivan Cuts Supplies
Bloomberg September 24,
2004
Crude oil rose to a record closing price of $48.88 a barrel on concern that the
damage caused by Hurricane Ivan will cause stockpiles to be insufficient as refineries
boost production of heating oil. U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil output remained 28 percent below
normal levels today, according to the Minerals Management Service, part of the U.S.
Interior Department. Ivan hit the area responsible for a quarter of U.S. oil production a
week ago.
Oil Prices Rise
Over Yukos, Impact of Hurricane AFP
9/20
The US Energy Department reported last week that crude oil inventories, or
stocks, tumbled by 7.1 million barrels to 278.6 million in the week to September 10,
reaching the lowest levels in nearly seven months. Traders fear further falls in the wake
of Hurricane Ivan. Crude oil futures shot higher Friday as traders assessed the impact of
Hurricane Ivan on supplies in the US Gulf coast.
Crude Supplies, Already Low, to be Further Depleted AFX 9/17
Ivan had halted Shell's production of 444,800 barrels of oil and 1.44 billion cubic
feet of gas daily. On Friday, the Minerals Management Service said 73 percent of daily oil
production and 42 percent of the natural gas output in the Gulf remained shut-in. That was
down from 83 percent and 53 percent at the height of Hurricane Ivan. Gulf producers, who
are working to restore output in the wake of Ivan, typically supply 1.7 million barrels
per day of oil and 12.3 billion cubic feet of gas. Only 217 platforms, down from 545 on
Thursday, and 19 rigs, down from 69 on Thursday, remained evacuated.
Oil Companies Start to Tally Hurricane Ivan Damage
AFX
On Wednesday, the Minerals Management Service reported that
workers on 575 platforms and 69 rigs had been evacuated from the Gulf of Mexico,
representing 75.3 percent of 764 manned platforms and 59 percent of currently operating
rigs. The reduction amounted to 77.6 percent of the 1.7 million barrels per day of oil
produced out of the Gulf. Similarly for natural gas, about 49 percent of the 12.3 billion
cubic feet of output is affected.
Hurricane Ivan
Uproots Oil Rigs Reuters September 16,
2004
The Coming Energy Crisis?
WTRG Economics
|
"The
Arab oil embargo and the resulting rise
in gasoline prices devastated the
American auto industry perhaps as much
as Detroit's shortsighted executives."
Ken Auletta
The Art of Corporate Success: The Story of Schlumberger 1984
"There is no additional supply."
OPEC President Purnomo Yusgiantoro
"OPEC can do nothing."
Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil
U.S. Oil Strikes New Record Above
$44
Reuters August 3, 2004
AMERICAN
STOCK EXCHANGE PUBLISHES NEW
WILDERHILL CLEAN ENERGY INDEX
The first U.S. index comprised of companies focusing on clean
energy
COMPONENTS American Stock Exchange
August 18, 2004 |
| The American
Stock Exchange (Amex) announced today that it has begun publishing the WilderHill Clean
Energy Index (Ticker Symbol: ECO); a new index comprised of publicly traded companies that
focus on greener and generally renewable sources of energy and technologies facilitating
cleaner energy. Dr. Robert Wilder, managing director of WilderShares, LLC, said, "As
smart energy alternatives including wind, solar, and hydrogen fuel cells have reached
billion dollar markets and gain increasing demand, we believe the WilderHill Clean Energy
Index is the right product at the right time. We're delighted to partner with the Amex for
launching this product, which proves to have a low correlation to other indexes." Dr
Wilder added, "Given that the price for this energy depends mainly on costs of
technology and these costs are only dropping, clean energy contrasts sharply with the
trends in fossil fuels. Compare clean energy against fossil fuel price fluctuations,
environmental impacts, and supply vulnerability, and I believe that the WilderHill Clean
Energy Index will only grow in significance." |
Interest in Alternative Fuels Up,
but not from Wall Street
Conrad De Aenlle New York Times/Houston Chronicle August 21, 2004
Many companies involved in alternative energy have missed out on
the rally that has lifted shares of oil and gas companies. Some investors, particularly
advocates of socially responsible investing, expect the cost gap to narrow. They say that
energy from renewable sources is becoming cheaper, while fossil fuels will become more
expensive as supplies dwindle, long after the current pricing pressures have receded.
Those advocates also say that concerns about pollution and climate change make alternative
energy more politically palatable than energy from conventional sources. In many
countries, they say, that should help producers benefit from government subsidies and
ambitious production targets. But skeptics closer to the investment mainstream argue that
renewable energy will not become commercially viable for many years.
Depleting Oil
Reserves Rekindle Interest in Renewable Energy
Frost & Sullivan
July 6, 2004
"Instead of viewing renewables as a threat to revenue, oil
companies are broadening their energy base to include renewable energy technologies such
as solar power, wind and hydrogen -- currently the three main renewable energy sectors in
Europe," says Technical Insights analyst Vijay Shankar Murthy. Research efforts are
in full swing to tap energy from relatively unexplored sectors such as geothermal, wave
and biomass energy sources. These collective efforts are likely to reduce Europe's
dependence on oil imports from the Middle East and North Africa. more
|
Global Oil Production
Now Flat Out
Chris Skrebowski, Editor
Petroleum Review (UK) August 2004
"It's very
scary.
People should be alarmed, and they should be demanding some government policy on
this. ...We're going to run out of oil and it's not as far off as people might
believe.
This doesn't have to be a disaster.
I can very easily see a scenario where we manage a transition to a new energy
paradigm. But we better start thinking about it now."
Jamal Qureshi, market analyst at PFC
Energy
Barreling Toward Disaster
David Lazarus San Francisco Chronicle
September 5, 2004
Trouble in the World's
Largest Oil Field -- Ghawar
G.R. Morton
U.S.
Addiction to Foreign Oil Deepens
Timothy Gardner MSNBC
July 18, 2004 |
| THE TRUE COST OF GASOLINE IS NOT AT THE PUMP |
U.S. Fifth
Fleet: Vital Element of Oil $upply
New York Times
July 6, 2004 |
Arabian Gulf (June 30, 2004) – The
Military Sealift Command oiler USNS Supply conducts and underway replenishment with the
guided missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf after completing operations with USS George
Washington. The Norfolk, Va. based Nimitz-class aircraft carrier and embarked Carrier Air
Wing Seven are on a regularly scheduled deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom,
and is one of seven Carrier Strike Groups, demonstrating the ability of the Navy to
provide credible combat across the globe, in five theaters with other U.S., allied, and
coalition military forces. Summer Pulse is the Navy’s first deployment under its new
Fleet Response Plan.
-- U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Summer M. Anderson. |
| OIL SUPPLY CONCERNS COOL WORLD ECONOMIC GROWTH
July
6, 2004 |
|
|
Global Oil Crisis Lurking
Marilyn Geewax Cox
News/Arizona Republic September
5, 2004
"We have a huge energy
issue in this century,
and it will not be solved by policy.
The only real solution is technology.
The alternative is to shut down our economy."
Jim Plummer, Dean, Stanford University's School of
Engineering
Alternative Energies are Looking Good Again
Michael Kanellos CNET
Impact Of
Oil Output Fall
At Ageing Fields Seen As Acute
Stella Farrington
Dow Jones August 27, 2004
Oil production is now in decline in at least 18 major producing countries including
the U.S., U.K. and OPEC members Indonesia and Venezuela, and total production from this
group is falling by around 1 million barrels a day every year, according to the latest
data.
| LEBANON |
Dar al Hayat
August 20, 2004 |
"Uh-oh..."
 |
The
Hydrogen
Challenge
to Arab Oil
Patrick Seale |
World oil prices continue to soar -
driven by the continuing power struggle in Iraq, by fears for the solvency of the Russian
oil giant Yukos, and by surging demand for oil in Asia, notably in China. Even President
Hugo Chavez's convincing victory in Venezuela on August 15 -- and his pledge to continue
supplying the United States with 1.5 million barrels daily in spite of his political
differences with Washington -- has not checked the upward trend.
Some observers predict that oil prices could soon break through the $50
a barrel ceiling. But, they add, there is no need to panic. In real terms, oil prices are
still only about half the level reached in 1979!
High oil prices, however, have some immediate consequences. They check
the rate of growth of industrial economies, and might even trigger a recession; they
stimulate the search for alternative sources of energy; and they pump money into Arab
pockets.
The British weekly The Economist has estimated that 'With oil prices at
their highest level in two decades, revenues of $600 million a day are gushing into the
Gulf, double the volume during the 1990s. The monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council
are alone likely to earn $35 billion more from oil exports this year than last…' -
and that excludes big producers such as Algeria, Libya and Iraq. Preparing
for a post-oil era
Arabs should beware. The bonanza will not last forever. Instead of frittering
away their oil wealth on conspicuous consumption, on real estate extravaganzas and
uncertain overseas investments, the Arabs should devote every surplus dollar to preparing
their societies for a post-oil economy. As most Arabs are today under 30 years of age, a
radical change could occur in their lifetime, and it could be painful. Urgent measures
need to be taken to prepare for the day when the world economy will no longer be dependent
on Arab oil.
Instead of deregulating their economies, eliminating corruption,
privatizing their inefficient state-owned industries and stimulating growth in non-oil
sectors, high Arab oil revenues have created a sense of complacency and retarded the
introduction of much-needed reforms. Most Arab economies have stagnated over the past two
decades with the result that 80 million Arabs out of a total of 290 million still live
below the poverty line.
It is almost certain that within three, four or, at the latest, five
decades from now, the petrol pump will have been left behind and replaced by some other
form of energy-provider. At present, the world's 500 million cars are driven by
internal-combustion petrol engines. By 2030, the number of cars is forecast to increase to
more than two billion, largely due to growth in Asia. What new technology will drive them?
Might many of them be all-electric vehicles? Or might they be powered by hydrogen fuel
cells - hydrogen being, after all, the most abundant element in the universe?
Whatever the answer, tomorrow's cars are most unlikely to be the
gas-guzzlers we see on the roads today, pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and
contributing fatally to global warming and climate change.
Writing earlier this month in the Financial Times, Wolfgang Reitzle,
chief executive of a leading international energy company, announced that 'the U.S.,
Japan, China and the European Union have focused on hydrogen technology as the most likely
mainstay of continued economic development.' Industry, he said, is putting its long-term
money on the hydrogen fuel cell. Fuel-cell-powered aircraft, trains, boats and trucks are
in development. The Chinese are ahead of the pack: fuel cell bus services are due to begin
in Beijing next year.
A recent 500-page report by America's National Academy of Science
concluded that 'hydrogen has the potential for replacing essentially all gasoline and
eliminating almost all CO2 from vehicular emissions over the next 50 years.'
Energy is one of the major planks in John Kerry's campaign to unseat
George W. Bush at next November's U.S. presidential election. The Democratic challenger
blames the Bush administration's Middle East policies -- notably the war in Iraq -- for
adding $8-$15 a barrel to the price of oil. He wants the U.S. to reduce its dependence on
Arab oil and to adopt a policy of 'energy independence'.
Kerry has pledged that, if he becomes President, he will spend $30
billion to encourage Americans to buy cleaner cars and to subsidize carmakers to convert
to cleaner technologies. Above all, he wants to promote a shift to fuel cell technology
and has urged U.S. industry to develop renewable sources of energy, such as wind and solar
power.
Kerry's energy policies appeal to the growing 'Green' lobby, which has
applauded his pledge to introduce a ceiling on America's emission of greenhouse gases.
The race for a new energy source
'Energy independence' sounds good but will not be easy to achieve: the United
States consumes a quarter of the world's oil but sits on only 3% of its proven reserves.
In spite of the difficulties, however, no one should underestimate the innovative powers
of American industry, nor its ability to divert enormous resources to developing a new
technology if it looks like being a winner.
Whatever the politicians may say, America's overthrow of Saddam Hussein
-- and its ambition to install a pro-American regime in Baghdad -- were driven in large
part by the looming world oil shortage. World oil supplies are expected to peak between
2010 and 2020, and would then be unable to meet the exploding world demand for oil. The
major powers, with the U.S. in the lead, are engaged in a scramble for remaining oil
stocks - to fill the supply gap before an alternative energy source becomes widely
available, probably in the second half of this century.
According to Wolfgang Reitzle quoted above, hydrogen is the most viable
replacement. 'Every dollar spent on hydrogen,' he says, will save us many more when the
final rush for oil begins.'
But hydrogen -- which as a constituent of water is all around us -- is
not easy to harness. In theory, switching from fossil fuels to hydrogen is extremely
tempting: it would end dependence on oil, reduce air pollution in cities and check the
build-up of greenhouse gases that are already being held responsible for severe climate
change. But, in spite of billions of dollars now being spent on research, no one has yet
found a simple, safe and cheap way to produce hydrogen.
...Change is coming and the higher the oil price the
faster it will come. more |
SHELL CHAIRMAN'S COMMENTS OUTRAGE OIL
INDUSTRY
"Sequestration is difficult,
but if we don't have sequestration then
I see very little hope for the world.
...The timescale might be impossible, in which case I'm really very worried for
the planet because I don't see any other approach."
Lord Ron Oxburgh
Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell
Shell Boss's 'Confession' Shocks Industry
Guardian (UK)
June 17, 2004
"This is not for you.
This is not for the press."
Fatih Birol
Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency
to a British Broadcasting Corporation reporter
at the Peak Oil Conference in Berlin |
Is
the World's Oil Running Out Fast?
Adam Porter BBC (UK) June
7, 2004 |
"Oil is far too cheap at the moment," says Mr Simmons.
"The figure I'd use is around $182 a barrel. We need to price oil realistically to
control its demand. That is because global production is peaking."
"If we price oil correctly," Mr Simmons says, "it
could give us time to find bridge fuels, fuels to fill the gap between an oil economy and
a renewable economy. But I don't see that happening."
More: HYDROGEN OR OIL? |
| NATURAL GAS VS. HYDROGEN |
 |
The disaster scene at
New London, March 18, 1937 |
The biggest story of the early years of
natural gas in Texas was also one of the most tragic accidents in American history. At
3:05 p.m. on March 18, 1937, a massive natural gas explosion ripped through the school
building in New London, Texas, a Rusk County town in the East Texas oil fields. The blast
lifted the school off its foundations and sent it crashing back to earth, the entire
structure collapsing in a huge pile of brick, steel, and concrete. Despite a frantic
rescue effort, more than one half of the students and teachers – some 298 people --
were killed.
The subsequent investigation exposed the unsafe practice of
“green” gas being tapped off as residue from the oilfields. Because natural gas
is heavier than air, leaking natural gas flows along the ground surface, pooling in low
spots. The New London School was located in just such a low spot. Since most East Texas
natural gas is odorless, the stage was set for tragedy.
Hazardous Business:
Industry, Regulation and the Texas Railroad Commission
- Disaster in New London
Texas State Library |
An Oil
Enigma: Production Falls Even as Reserves Rise
Alex Berenson New
York Times June 12,
2004
| ASIA |
The New York Times June 10, 2004 |
As Oil Prices Rise, a Sense of Alarm in Asia
Wayne Arnold
While the rapid rise in oil prices to their highest in two decades stands to
dent regional economic growth - particularly if they hurt global demand for Asian exports
- recent terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia have awakened the region to the possibility
that an attack on Middle Eastern oil shipments could deprive the region of oil at any
price. ...Ministers of Asean agreed separately to improve the climate for investment in
oil exploration and infrastructure and to raise the amount of power derived from renewable
energy sources to 10 percent in the next six years. |
| UNITED KINGDOM GM
BBC (UK)
June 7, 2004 |
 What
Will We Drive When the Oil Runs Out?
Conceived of in the 1840s, the fuel cell still looms on the horizon as the
automotive El Dorado. Not only do they mean quieter engines - there is no combustion -
but, if powered by hydrogen, they emit nothing more harmful than water vapour. Yet despite
the millions invested in research and development, serious obstacles remain. |
| SPONSORING TERROR: A LITTLE "DEATH TO AMERICA" IN EVERY FILL-UP |
WOULD YOU PUT A TERRORIST IN
YOUR TANK?
Nayef makes sure you do. |
STRANGE BEDFELLOW
Al Queda stooge
Nayef
Saudi Minster of Counter-terror |
"The heroic mujahedeen in the
Jerusalem Squad were able, by the grace of God, to raid the locations of American
companies... specialising in oil and exploration activities and which are plundering the
Muslims' resources, on Saturday morning. They have so far managed to kill or wound a
number of crusaders, God's enemies. "
-- "the al-Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula" |
 |
WHILE THE UNITED STATES FAILS TO BEGIN A "MANHATTAN
PROJECT" FOR ALTERNATIVE ENERGY; WHILE THE U.S.
CONGRESS FAILS IN ITS OBLIGATION TO PASS A MEANINGFUL ENERGY BILL AND STUPIDLY KILLS GROWTH OF THE MOST
AFFORDABLE WAY TO BRING JOBS AND DOMESTIC ENERGY
ONLINE: WIND POWER; WHILE CONGRESS RAIDS HARD FOUGHT ENERGY RESEARCH FUNDING FOR
INSIGNIFICANT PORK PROJECTS IN HOME DISTRICTS; WHILE THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION PURSUES
GRANDIOSE ENERGY RESEARCH WITH PAYOFFS DECADES AWAY; WHILE THE U.S. SPENDS, ON OIL-RELATED
WARFARE AND SECURITY, THE AMOUNT IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN TO CONVERT AMERICA TO A
SUSTAINABLE/RENEWABLE ECONOMY -- THE END OF AFFORDABLE OIL AND THE PROSPERITY IT
BROUGHT, MADE POSSIBLE ONLY BY A CORRUPT AND UNDEMOCRATIC, TYRANNICAL FAMILY OIL EMPIRE
UNETHICALLY SUPPORTED BY THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER WESTERN POWERS, NOW COMES TO AN END. WE ARE IN THE HANDS OF FOOLS. GOD HELP
US ALL. -- RDM
COUNTERPOINT: Hydrogen...
A Trillion Reasons
A. E. Reiser H2Cars.biz
May 31, 2004
Somehow the quest for the Hydrogen
economy has become entwined with the war on terrorism and the war on terrorism become
garbled by political and strategic interests. There are those who say that Hydrogen offers
America energy independence and that the U.S. is fighting in Iraq for Oil. They are wrong. |
Khobar Attack Further
Divides Saudi Royal House
Debkafile (ISRAEL) May 31, 2004
What was behind the Khobar attack aside from the “infidel” claptrap? In general,
top al Qaeda commanders have stated their determination to overthrow the Saudi throne and
shown that they trust in their ability to achieve their goal and pursue it methodically.
In Khobar, for example, DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report Al Qaeda’s
target as being to sabotage the secret Bush-Saudi deal on oil prices and frighten
foreigners out of the kingdom. The Saudis would then fail to make good on their promise to
boost production for the sake of curbing rocketing prices.
Isolated
Abroad, Hated at Home: House of Saud Faces Uncertain Future David Usborne Independent (UK) June 1, 2004
"If an election were held today ... Osama bin Laden would be elected in a
landslide," Robert Baer, a former CIA field director and author of The Fall of the
House of Saud, has suggested. "Saudi oil is controlled by an increasingly bankrupt,
criminal, dysfunctional, and out-of-touch royal family that is hated by the people it
rules and by the nations that surround its kingdom."
The
Fall of the House of Saud Robert Baer Atlantic Monthly |
| The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve can
support the domestic market for only about seventy days. And if Saudi Arabia's
contribution to the world's oil supply were cut off, crude petroleum could quite
realistically rise from around $40 a barrel today to as much as $150 a barrel. It wouldn't
take long for other economic and social calamities to follow. |
| ILLINOIS ASSOC.
OF PROFESSIONAL ENERGY CONSULTANTS |
June 4, 2004 |
Illinois Lawmakers Calls for Expansion of Alternative Energy
Craig Cooper Quad-City Times (MN)
...decreasing the reliance of the United States on foreign energy sources
could boost the economy and allow the country to deal with other countries from a position
of energy strength. |
Voices Mount in
Call for MANHATTAN II Project to Wean America & the West Away from Imported
Arab Oil
| UNITED KINGDOM OPEC
The Guardian |
May 17, 2004 |
Crude Calculations
While petrol use is relatively inelastic, it is still subject to the iron law of
economics that higher prices generally mean lower consumption. That will entail a switch
back to the fuel conservation policies of the 1970s, as well as having the more positive
effect of making alternative, environmentally friendlier energy such as hydrogen and solar
power more cost-effective in comparison. |
| SAUDI ARABIA UNITED STATES
OPEC |
National Review May 14, 2002 |
The Saudi’s Con Game:
What “Special Relationship”?
Jerry Taylor |
| In early
1973, Saudi oil minister Sheik Yamani on two occasions threatened "economic
war," warning that "industries and civilizations would collapse" if
consuming nations tried to fight further OPEC's price increases.Even though the West
complied, the Saudis took the lead in organizing the 1973 oil embargo and production
cutbacks, sending oil prices from $2 a barrel to $7. In 1974, despite promises to the
contrary, they initiated another round of production cutbacks and tax hikes, sending oil
prices to $11 a barrel. In 1975, King Faisal again threatened a crisis "far more
severe than the last one" unless the Israelis withdrew from Arab lands.In 1978, OPEC,
under Sheik Yamani's direction, quietly established a goal of raising the price of crude
oil to just below the cost of producing synthetic liquid fuels, which suggested a price of
$60 a barrel (a whopping $136 in today's terms). |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Black Gold is King
W. Joseph Stroupe GeoStrategyMap.com
April 29, 2004
Black gold is ruling, dominating geopolitics
and global economics on a fundamental basis (both psychologically and in reality) -
throughout the international system - for the first time in history. And its dominance is
growing very rapidly. Its iron-like grip on the international system will not be overcome
any time soon - that is the harsh reality. Those who have an abundance of it - primarily
Russia and OPEC - will also, by means of it, gain greater wealth and rapidly increasing
leverage, and even power, over those who must import it. Thus, the economies of the
industrialized world are completely beholden to black gold and to those who export it. more
"Unless the Western
democracies institute aggressive programs to develop renewable energy resources now, all
future democratic policy will by necessity be based upon access to diminishing supplies of
oil - the great majority held by Middle Eastern dictatorships. Hence, freedom will
be lost and foreign dictators will rule the West by proxy."
Richard D. Masters
Producer/Director of HYDROGEN HAWAII
How Does Oil Influence World Politics? RealAudio
BBC (UK)
get RealPlayer September
1, 2002 |
For a glimpse of
how nations may sacrifice their democratic ideals for access to oil reserves controlled by
anti-democratic - and even anti-human - despots, read The French War for Oil by
Kenneth R. Timmerman in the March 16, 2004 New York Post. Despite the fact
that France generates over 77% of its electricity by nuclear power, no process has been
pursued to turn that electricity into transport fuel. Therefore France must import
over two million barrels per day of crude oil from the Middle East.
Timmerman documents in his new book The French
Betrayal of America how the need for oil dominated recent French political processes
to such an extent that truth and democratic ideals were hastily abandoned. Free men and
women should be terrified of what this trend portends.
- RDM April 3, 2004
Talisman Sudan Suit to Proceed
BBC March
20, 2003
A Canadian oil company can be sued for genocide in the US over allegations it
cooperated with the Sudanese government in military actions against civilians near its oil
fields. |
| OPINION RICHARD D. MASTERS |
| A
lot of highly-qualified people are complaining that hydrogen costs "too much" to
transport over long distances - that it can only be used as a fuel near its point of
manufacture. They entirely miss the point that this is exactly what makes hydrogen the
most cost-effective fuel ever devised. No country will ever fight a war to bring hydrogen
to its shores. That hidden expense will never be part of the hydrogen equation. It
is unique to oil.
|
Westereners Killed
in Saudi Arabia BBC May 1 2004
The attack began at offices just outside a petrochemical plant partly owned by
the US firm Exxon-Mobil. ...At least four of the dead were oil engineers working for
Swedish-Swiss engineering giant ABB.
| Al Qaeda Strikes Main Saudi
Oil Outlet Debkafile (Israel)
May 1, 2004 The
world’s largest oil producer was shaken Saturday, May 1, by the first terrorist
strike against a joint US-Saudi oil venture, the co-owned Exxon-Mobil-SABIC oil refinery
at the kingdom’s main oil exporting outlet to the West at the Red Sea port of Yanbu
350 km northwest of Riyadh. At least five Western engineers – 2 Americans, 2 Britons
and an Australian as well as a Saudi National Guards captain were killed and many more
injured, including two Canadians.
The Saudi ambassador to Britain, Prince Turki bin-Faisal, said
the attack was carried out by Saudi members of the al Qaeda ”cult”, three of
whom were gunned down by Saudi security forces and a fourth captured.
The attack began just after dawn and raged until the afternoon,
as the suicide killers, in Saudi National Guards uniforms, yelling “Jihad,
Jihad!” careened around downtown Yanbu in a commandeered Saudi security vehicle and
cars seized from private citizens.
After attacking the refinery, they stormed the offices of ABB
Lummus, whose headquarters are in Houston, Texas. There, they shot the five Westerners
dead before shooting up a hotel, a McDonalds restaurant and shops and tossing a pipe bomb
at the International School in Yanbu. Saudi security forces repulsed an attack on the
offices of the Royal Commission of Jubail and Yanbu.
Witnesses report that one of their western victims was tied to a
car and dragged round the city before being dumped outside a Saudi-British bank.
DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources question the official
casualty numbers and also the statement that only four terrorists dealt this much damage
to so many targets and kept going for more than six hours. It is far more likely that
several al Qaeda bands fanned out over the strategic town, which until Saturday had
escaped al Qaeda violence.
The raid occurred exactly one week after al Qaeda suicide
bombers used speedboats to disable Iraq’s main export terminals off the southern port
of Basra.
Six million foreigners live in Saudi Arabia, 30,000 of whom hold
key positions in the kingdom’s oil industry and other vital sectors. ABB Lummus is
considering repatriating all its Western employees. This latest al Qaeda attack is one
more blow aimed by the fundamentalist organization at sabotaging US-Saudi oil interests,
destabilizing the Saudi throne and forcing oil prices to spiral as the US presidential
election date nears. |
Oil
Workers Slaughtered in Pirate Ambush ICC Apr 23
2004
In an exchange of gunfire, five workers died, two are missing and one was
injured.
Murder of Four Sailors Marks Violent Start to Shipping Year 2004 ICC Feb
13 2004
Four crew members of an oil tanker were shot dead by pirates in the Malacca Strait off
Indonesia's war-torn Aceh province last week after the ship's owner failed to pay a ransom
for their release.
Concern Grows as Pirates Attack Tankers ICC Oct 23,
2003
Pirates raked an LPG tanker, a gas tanker and an oil tanker with automatic fire, but in
each case the crews managed to thwart the attacks. More recently, a fully laden oil
tanker, the Penrider, was attacked by pirates wearing military-style fatigues and carrying
assault rifles.
Yemen Says Tanker Blast Was
Terrorism BBC Oct 16 2002
The style of the attack resembled the suicide bombing of the US warship Cole in
Yemen's Aden port in 2000, which killed 17 American sailors - an attack blamed on al-Qaeda
militants.
Somali Pirates 'Demand $1m for Ship'
BBC Aug 12 2002
Armed militia men are reportedly holding an oil tanker and its six crew hostage
in Somalia, demanding a $1m ransom.
Missing Taiwanese Tanker Found BBC May 12
2002
The tanker had been completely repainted and given a new name, and is believed to
have been seized by pirates in the Straits of Malacca. There is no sign of its 13, mainly
Indonesian, crew. |
|
 |
International Energy Agency
Oil Market Report
April 9, 2004
Following a plethora of contradictory pre-meeting statements
from OPEC representatives about the likelihood of April’s cut being deferred due to
persistent high prices, OPEC’s Vienna Conference reconfirmed the cut in production
ceiling to 23.5 mb/d from 1 April which had been proposed at their February meeting in
Algiers. |
| UNITED STATES ARLINGTON INSTITUTE
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE |
 |
"In sum, it looks like the world – led by the U.S. – is moving toward the
day when hydrogen will replace oil as the major source of energy for transportation. The
only question is how we get there. There are three major scenarios that describe possible
energy environments of the next few decades: Awash in Oil and Gas, Technology Triumphs,
and Turbulent World. Within the alternative vagaries of unlimited fossil fuels, new
hydrogen-based technologies, or broad-based chaos that begs for change, a path must be
planned that is based upon evolutionary change but will respond to revolutionary
influences." |
A Strategy: Moving America
Away From Oil
by the Arlington Institute for the U.S. Department of Defense
August 2003 |
"The best way to put ourselves
in a long-term position of stability and independence is to develop motor vehicles that
operate on hydrogen fuel cells with the hydrogen production coming from stocks that are
available here at home."
U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham
U.S. Won't 'Beg
OPEC' Nigel Hunt Reuters
February 27, 2004
Is Depletion Underpinning
High Oil Prices?
Editorial Petroleum Review
(UK) April 2004
WHY
ARE THE WORLD'S OIL AND GAS RESERVES VANISHING OVERNIGHT?
Opec's
most recent figures show that its 10 members who are meant to cap production are already
quota-busting to the tune of 2.1 million barrels a day above the 23.5 million target. With
that kind of over-production, experts say, only Saudi Arabia and the UAE have much
headroom to pump more.
Clamour for More Oil
Intensifies BBC May 19, 2004 |
NEW YORK TIMES KEEPS
CHIPPING AT BIGGEST STORY OF THE CENTURY
Oman's Oil
Yield Long in Decline
Jeff Gerth and Stephen Labaton
NYT April 8, 2004
The BOMBSHELL investment banker Matt Simmons dropped at
the Center for Strategic & International Studies.
MATTHEW SIMMONS EXPLAINS IT ALL
Click through his slide
presentation while you listen.
February 24, 2004
NATIONAL
RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL SLAMS S.2095 ENERGY BILL
The Bush-Cheney energy bill takes no steps to improve the fuel economy
of our cars and trucks or to reduce our nation’s out-of-control appetite for oil. It
will doom us to a future of blighted wilderness, poisonous air pollution, devastating
climate change and endless wars over fossil fuels. -- NRDC
Shell
Cuts Reserves for Second Time
Bloomberg
March 18, 2004
An assessment of 2003 reserves given Feb. 5 was overstated by 220
million barrels... more
Running Out of Oil --
and Time
Paul Roberts, author of
"The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World"
Petroleum World (Venezuela) March 14, 2004
The news last month that the vast Saudi oil fields
are in decline is a far bigger story than most in the media, or the United States, seem to
realize... more
BP Cuts
Proven Reserves by 2.4%
Christopher Hope Telegraph (UK)
March 13, 2004
BP has cut 2.4% off its proven reserves, becoming
the latest oil and gas company to announce a significant revision of its asset holdings.
"The big risk in Saudi
Arabia is that Ghawar's rate of decline increases to an alarming point. That will set
bells ringing all over the oil world because Ghawar underpins Saudi output and Saudi
undergirds worldwide production."
Ali Morteza Samsam Bakhtiari
senior official with the National Iranian Oil Company
Rising
Oil Demand Challenges Tired Saudi Fields
Jeff Gerth New York
Times February
24, 2004
Imperial
Oil Reserves Decline Again
Toronto Star/Canadian Press March 12, 2004
The biggest oil producer and refiner in Canada disclosed today
that its proved reserves of oil stood at 889 million barrels at the end of 2003, down from
947 million a year earlier after production of 64 million barrels during the year.
Imperial's natural gas reserves were 1.02 trillion cubic feet, down from 1.22 trillion
after 2003 production of 167 billion cubic feet. The reserve numbers have shown steady
decline from 1.05 billion barrels of oil and 1.57 trillion cubic feet of gas at the end of
2000. |
"This
puts into doubt the booking level of Royal Dutch Shell and every other company in the
industry."
James Wickland, Analyst
Banc America Securities
|
POSSIBLE U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION INVESTIGATION OF EL PASO
CORPORATION'S DOWNWARD REVISION OF "PROVEN" GAS RESERVES BY
AN ASTOUNDING 41%
1.8 TRILLION CUBIC FEET
REVELATIONS BY EL PASO, THE LARGEST NATURAL GAS PIPELINE COMPANY IN THE U.S., AND ROYAL
DUTCH SHELL COULD OPEN FLOODGATES TO IMMEDIATE REVISIONS BY OTHER ENERGY COMPANIES.
PROBLEM IS REGARDED BY MANY INDUSTRY ANALYSTS AS UNIVERSAL. HIGHER FUEL COSTS LIKELY TO
SPUR EXPANSION OF RENEWABLE (WIND,SOLAR,WAVE), SUSTAINABLE (NUCLEAR, CLEAN COAL) ENERGY
AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY INDUSTRIES. |
- Oman's Oil Yield
Long in Decline New York Times April 8, 2004
- FG, Shell Disagree Over Oil
Reserve This Day, Nigeria April
6, 2004
- Saudi Oil Execs Insist Kingdom Is Able to
Supply World AP/Yahoo April 4,
2004
- Shell’s Shell Game in
Nigeria Pakistan Daily Times April
4, 2004
- New Study Raised Doubts about
Saudi Oil Reserves Energy Security March
31, 2004
- Sinopec
Says 2003 Proven Oil, Gas Reserves fall 3.5% Reuters March
28, 2004
- Ramco Shares Dive
on Reserves Reassessment
Sharecast March 25, 2004
- Imperial Oil Reserves Decline Again Toronto
Star/Canadian Press March 12, 2004
- El Paso Corp to Delay Reporting of 4th Quarter 2003 Earnings March 10, 2004
- El
Paso Talks with SEC Officials
Laura Goldbloom Houston Chronicle Mar 5 2004
- El Paso
Reserve Issue Could Hamper Recovery Houston
Business Journal Feb 18 2004
- Shell-shocked
Economist (UK) March 9, 2004
- Shell Shares Dive as Reserves Are
Cut BBC January
9, 2003
- Shareholder Lawsuit Filed Against
Shell January 28, 2004
- Are We Running Out of Oil? Lee Dye ABC News February
11, 2004
- 2003's Constant
Surprises May Not be Finished Matt
Simmons World Oil Feb 2004
- THE IMMINENT PEAK OF WORLD OIL PRODUCTION
Presentation to U.K. House of Commons All-Party Committee by Colin Campbell
- The Coming Cliff - Matthew Simmons
Interview FTW Aug 21,
2003
- Gas
and Renewable Fuels May Edge Out Oil by 2025, Shell Chair Says
- Colin Campbell on Oil
and 'Too Little' Oil for Global Warming
|
The
Worry About
the Saudi Arabian Oil Miracle
Research by Investment Banker Matt Simmons indicates
"Uh-oh."
"MONSTEROUS
DECLINE"
AS SAUDI OIL FIELDS
PREMATURELY DEPLETE!
This is it, folks.
Even we had thought there was more time.
Our civilization is at the crossroads.
The U.S. Congress must stop playing games and
remove all stops to converting our energy infrastructure
to sustainable and renewable energy now,
while we can still afford to do it. --
RDM
"For a decade, industry
executives believed [technology advances such as 3-D seismic, horizontal drilling,
multilateral well completions and subsea oil production techniques] created easy supply
growth. Instead, the technology revolution created monstrous decline rates. Proven reserve
write-off is likely worldwide."
Matthew R. Simmons
The Saudi
Arabian Oil Miracle
Center for Strategic & International Studies, Washington, D.C.
February 24, 2003
"In practice, companies
and countries are often deliberately vague about the likelihood of the reserves they
report.... Exaggerated estimates can, for instance, raise the price of an oil
company’s stock. The members of OPEC have faced an even greater temptation to inflate
their reports because the higher their reserves, the more oil they are allowed to
export."
Colin Campbell and Jean Laharrere
The End of Cheap Oil Scientific
American
 Discussing the State of Saudi Oil wells
Matt Simmons at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington
D.C.
February 24, 2004 GlobalPublicMedia.com
|
Matt Simmons and Wind Power EV World April 9,
2004
Despite efforts to find additional gas deposits within
the continental United States, the industry has not been able to keep up with demand. He
even went so far as to say that production from America's gas fields began to decline in
1973, just three years after the nation's domestic oil production began its decline. He
told wind power executives that this means that renewable energy sources like wind will no
longer be viewed as either a luxury or a "nice" environmentally-acceptable
alternative to conventional energy, which he said has reached its capacity to provide
additional economic growth. It will become a necessity. |
| JAPAN TOYOTA
March 25, 2004 |
Forget Corporate Image, This Is About Corporate Survival
Leo Lewis
and Robert Thomson Times (UK)
...Fujio Cho, Toyota’s president, explained that his company’s
...hybrid cars and fuel-cell technology are not about corporate image but about corporate
survival in a world without oil. |
NATIONAL
RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL SLAMS S.2095 ENERGY BILL
The Bush-Cheney energy bill takes no steps to improve the fuel economy of our
cars and trucks or to reduce our nation’s out-of-control appetite for oil. It will
doom us to a future of blighted wilderness, poisonous air pollution, devastating climate
change and endless wars over fossil fuels. --
NRDC |
CANADA PETRO-CANADA |
CANADIAN LEADERSHIP RESOLVE TO CREATE A SUSTAINABLE
ENERGY FUTURE FOR NATION
CANADIAN GOVERNMENT
TO DUMP OIL PORTFOLIO
Are more cuts in "proven reserves"
to come?
HALF OF 19% STAKE IN PETRO-CANADA TO GO TO
RENEWABLE ENERGY, HYDROGEN AND FUEL CELLS
Of the estimated CN$2
billion that the sale could fetch, about half of that will go towards debt reduction and
the rest towards a fund to help develop environmental technology.
...The Calgary-based company's stock price surged to all-time highs of
CN$70 at the beginning of this year but fell back below CN$60 recently when Petro-Canada
cut its proven energy reserves by five per cent and predicted a drop in production.
Petro-Canada Sale to Rake in $2B
Steve Erwin Canadian Press March 24, 2004
|
UK BP EXXONMOBILE CHEVRONTEXACO CONOCO SHELL March 3, 2004
Report: Oil
Company Investment in Fuel Cells & Hydrogen
Mark Cropper Fuel Cell Today
| OPINION
|
 Choosing America's Path
to Future Prosperity or Ruin
by Richard D. Masters
November 6, 2003
Web Master, Cooperation for Energy
Independence of Democracies
Director, New Mexico Hydrogen Business
Council
Owner, Virtual Image Media Services
This morning, Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan warned that "the rapid increase in the unified budget
deficits that would occur under current law as the baby-boom generation retires could set
in motion an unsustainable dynamic in which large deficits result in growing interest
payments that augment deficits in future years. Such a development could have notable,
destabilizing effects on the economy."
The "unsustainable dynamic" that Mr. Greenspan is referring
to is what we in the business world term as "a death spiral," where borrowing to
stave off bankruptcy results in debt service payments of such magnitude that they
ultimately kill the company anyway. In other words, we are in big trouble, folks.
"Increased productivity growth," Greenspan continued,
"while helpful, does not alter that conclusion, because when productivity growth
increases, so do social security obligations and, indirectly, Medicare benefits as well.
Productivity would have to grow at a rate far in excess of the historical average to fully
resolve the long-term financing problems of social security and Medicare. Tax rate
increases of sufficient dimension to deal with our looming fiscal problems arguably pose
significant risks to economic growth and the revenue base. The exact magnitude of such
risks are very difficult to estimate, but they are of enough concern, in my judgment, to
warrant aiming to close the fiscal gap primarily, if not wholly, from outlay restraint. At
the same time, the dimension of the challenge, especially in later years, cannot be
underestimated. The one certainty is that the resolution of this situation will require
difficult choices, and the future performance of the economy will depend on those
choices."
Mr. Greenspan is telling America that we must find a way to realize
dramatic and unparalleled growth in productivity or face a dismal future of increasing
taxation, decreasing economic vitality, and a reduction in the value of retirement
savings. He offered a note of hope: "History has shown that, when faced with large
challenges, elected officials have risen to the occasion."
There is only one solution to this dilemma. We must do away with our
insane addiction to imported oil. This argument was eloquently presented to the inaugural
conference for Cooperation for Energy
Independence of Democracies in the 21st Century by the renowned venture capital expert
J. Morton Davis.
"If we could reduce the need for oil by 20-percent, it would
become a competitive product. The whole power of the unstable Arab/Islamic world would
disappear -- and oil would go back to ten dollars a barrel. I don't know why we don't
understand it, why our leaders don't understand it. It's been the biggest external tax in
the history of the human race since 1974. There is no other product in the world that is
not dealt with on a competitive basis. If they were doing it within the United States,
they'd all be in jail because you can't have a cartel or monopoly to literally rape people
from their funds that they would have available otherwise to grow the economy in other
ways, instead of exporting all the money to Saudi Arabia and these countries that support
events that we're not happy with."
Davis clearly sees America's lost opportunity. If the funds sacrificed
daily to import oil were recirculated within America and invested in domestic energy
development and production, they would revolve, accumulate, and result in a sustainable
economic boom, the proportions of which have never been experienced. The transition
to a worldwide renewable/sustainable energy infrastructure, incorporating widley
distributed generation and employing renewable hydrogen as an energy carrier, where
appropriate, could well herald a new age equivalent to the impact of the Industrial
Revolution.
Rodney Chase, the CEO of BP, has prophesied "the first
country to seriously address the issues of creating a market for renewables would become
the central location for a major new business sector, with all the positive consequences
that carries in terms of economic activity and employment." This boom would provide
Chairman Greenspan's demand for productivity which would "grow at a rate far in
excess of the historical average to fully resolve the long-term financing problems of
social security and Medicare."
Is it a gamble for America to become energy self-sufficient? No. The
gamble is our trust in non-democratic nations to continue to honor America's interests and
contracts. Getting America out of trouble by transforming her vast energy infrastructure
is the single greatest economic opportunity ever presented to mankind. We are ready to
begin, but we need a holistic commitment from our government now to stop gambling and
start delivering by providing the playing field where our eager and dynamic renewable and
sustainable energy companies can compete, profit and expand.
"We are at one of the more fundamental opportunities in our
history," California Power Authority Chairman David Freeman recently stated,
"because we have run out of time with this oil/fossil fuel oriented economy of ours.
And we either are going to get on a cleaner path, which is hydrogen, as though our lives
depended on it, or we're going to get in more and more trouble." |
J. Morton Davis
DH Blair Investment Bank
Speech to Cooperation for
Energy Independence
of Democracies
Jerusalem, Israel
August 28, 2003
|
 |
 |
David Freeman
Chair, California
Power Authority
The Hydrogen
Revolution
CHBC -- SCAQMD
Diamond Bar, CA
July 25, 2003Windows Media
Videos by VIMS |
Complete text of David
Freeman's speech to the CHBC
Hydrogen
Fuels Power Broker's New Venture
Nancy Rivera Brooks Los Angeles
Times October 24, 2003 |
"Unless the Western
democracies institute aggressive programs to develop renewable energy resources now, all
future democratic policy will by necessity be based upon access to diminishing supplies of
oil - the great majority held by Middle Eastern dictatorships. Hence, freedom will
be lost and foreign dictators will rule the West by proxy."
Richard D. Masters
Webmaster, International Clearinghouse for Hydrogen Based Commerce
Producer/Director, HYDROGEN
HAWAII
How Does Oil Influence World Politics?
Bridgette Kendall BBC Talking
Points (UK) September 1, 2002
RealAudio
get RealPlayer
Gasoline Prices
Hit Record High of $1.728 a Gallon
Boston Globe March 17, 2003
End of the
Fossil-fuel Era Washington Post September
26, 2002
Colin Campbell on Oil Michael C. Ruppert FTW October 23, 2002
Gas/Renewable Fuels May Edge Out
Oil, Shell Chair Says MIT
December 4, 2002
 |
"Caspian production won't make any material difference to
world supply."
Colin Campbell
|
Whither the Caspian
Riches?
Over the Last 24 Months the Hoped-For Caspian Oil Bonanza
Has Vanished With Each New Well Drilled
Global Implications Are Frightening
Dale Allen Pfeiffer FTW
December 5, 2002 |
Smoke billows from the crude tanker Limburg off south-east
Yemen.
TANKER WAR
"ANOTHER GREAT ENERGY CRISIS"
TERRORISTS USE ANTI-SHIPPING WEAPON OFF YEMEN
Boat
Debris Found on Gutted Tanker
BBC (UK)
October 10, 2002
Boat Debris
Raises Tanker Attack Theory
Swiss Info/Reuters October 10, 2002
"There is a feeling in the
market that this explosion highlights the danger to oil supplies from the region in case
of war."
Lawrence Eagles
GNI Oil Research Analyst
Oil Prices Flatten as
Tanker Fears Abate - BBC October
7, 2002
"Mark my words, with
everything that is going on in this world with regards to terrorism, sooner or later the
terrorist is going to try to sink a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, and when that occurs,
and that free flow of oil out of the Persian Gulf ends, you're going to have another great
energy crisis."
U.S. Senator Bill Nelson
Recent
Events Recast Debate on Fuel Economy
New York Times December
7, 2001
Dangerous Addiction
Ending America's Oil Dependence
NRDC and the Union of Concerned Scientists
call for
massive commercialization of fuel cell vehicles.
 Full Report
National Resources Defense Council
|
Robert Redford - Patriotism Means Getting the U.S. Off Oil
Planet Ark December 4, 2002
"What, me worry?" - Saudi oil ministers in
1973 |
"...the invasion
would probably only be contemplated if the situation in the region deteriorated to
such an extent that the oil embargo went on for a long time, threatening western
economies."
Joint Intelligence Committee |
US Ready to
Seize
Gulf Oil in 1973
by Paul Reynolds BBC (UK)
January 1, 2004
The United States
considered using force to seize oilfields in the Middle East during an oil embargo by Arab
states in 1973, according to British government documents just made public. The papers,
released under the 30-year-rule, show that the British government took the threat so
seriously that it drew up a detailed assessment of what the Americans might do.
It was thought that US airborne troops would seize the oil
installations in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and might even ask the British to do the same in
Abu Dhabi. The episode shows how the security of oil supplies is always at the
forefront of governments' planning. more
|
SAUDIS TRY COMIC RELIEF AT TENSE CLIMATE TALKS |
INCREDIBLE - An arrogant and clueless OPEC demands payment from countries
that abandon oil in favor of clean, endless renewable  
energy!
MILAN (Reuters) - A dispute over aid to
OPEC states clouded the last day of a U.N. conference on global warming on Friday with the
Kyoto protocol hanging by a thread amid uncertainties over Russian ratification.
...Delegates said that Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, wanted promises of
aid if Kyoto spurs a shift to renewable energies like tidal, solar or wind energy at the
expense of fossil fuels.
OPEC Row Clouds
Last Day of U.N. Climate Talks
Alister Doyle
Reuters December 12, 2003 |
Has Global Oil
Production Peaked?
David R. Francis Christian Science
Monitor January
29, 2004
Late to the Party...
ExxonMobile Finally Recognizes
Crisis in Oil Resources
"We estimate that world oil and gas production
from existing fields is declining at an average rate of about 4 to 6 percent a year. To
meet projected demand in 2015, the industry will have to add about 100 million
oil-equivalent barrels a day of
new
production. That’s equal to about 80 percent of today’s production level. In
other words, by 2015, we will need to find, develop and produce a volume of new oil and
gas that is equal to eight out of every 10 barrels being produced today. "
Jon Thompson, President of ExxonMobil
Exploration Company
A Revolutionary Transformation The Lamp ExxonMobile
"It
is highly significant that ExxonMobil, for example, recently reproduced and endorsed the
plot of discovery, showing that peak came in the 1960s, despite all the much-vaunted
technology and a worldwide search, aimed to find and test the biggest and best remaining
prospects. The subsequent decline cannot be easily reversed, and forms a very compelling
argument for a corresponding decline in production. ...Having now almost exhausted
their inventory of under-reported reserves from past discovery, they have no alternative
but to alert the investment community to the imminent decline in production. While they
may replace their reserves by acquisition or book-keeping, they certainly have not been
doing so by new discovery. The implications are very far-reaching."
Updating
the Depletion Model
Colin J. Campbell and Anders Sivertsson
Hydrocarbon Depletion Study
Group, Uppsala University, Sweden
 Revealing
Statements from a Bush Insider about Peak Oil and Natural Gas Depletion
From the Wilderness
June 12, 2003
"The uh, I think basically
that now, that peaking of oil will never be accurately predicted until after the fact. But
the event will occur, and my analysis is leaning me more by the month, the worry that
peaking is at hand; not years away.
If it turns out I'm wrong, then I'm
wrong. But if I'm right, the unforeseen consequences are devastating. But unfortunately
the world has no Plan B if I'm right.
The facts are too serious to
ignore. Sadly the pessimist-optimist debate started too late. The Club of Rome humanists
were right to raise the 'Limits to Growth' issues in the late 1960's. When they raised
these issues they were actually talking about a time frame of 2050 to 2070. Then time was
on the side of preparing Plan B."
-- Investment Banker Matthew Simmons
Why America is
Running Out of Gas
Donald L. Batlett and James B. Steele Time July 13, 2003
AVERAGE ELECTRICITY PRICES CLIMB TO
HIGHEST LEVELS SINCE 1983. NATURAL GAS SHORTAGE BLAMED:
"NATURAL GAS IS A REAL SERIOUS PROBLEM.
...WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO START LOOKING AT NUCLEAR POWER..."
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan
CHALLENGE & OPPORTUNITY
CHARTING A NEW ENERGY FUTURE
Energy Future Coalition Full Report
“On hydrogen power,
we’ve reached the point
of no return. It will happen.”
Alain Bugat, General Manager
Centre de l’Energie Atomique, France
PSA/Peugeot-Citroen
Expects Fuel-cell Car Boom by 2015
AutoWeek June 24, 2003
Fueling the
Future: The Prospects for Russian Oil and Gas
Fiona Hill and Florence Fee
Demokratizatsiya, Volume 10,
Number 4, Fall 2002, pp. 462-487
Why the Muslims
Misjudged Us
Victor Davis Hanson Manhattan Institute City Journal
Winter 2002
The catastrophe of the
Muslim world is also explicable in its failure to grasp the nature of Western success,
which springs neither from luck nor resources, genes nor geography. Like third-world
Marxists of the 1960s, who put blame for their own self-inflicted misery upon
corporations, colonialism, and racism—anything other than the absence of real markets
and a free society—the Islamic intelligentsia recognizes the Muslim world’s
inferiority vis-`a-vis the West, but it then seeks to fault others for its own
self-created fiasco. Government spokesmen in the Middle East should ignore the nonsense of
the cultural relativists and discredited Marxists and have the courage to say that they
are poor because their populations are nearly half illiterate, that their governments are
not free, that their economies are not open, and that their fundamentalists impede
scientific inquiry, unpopular expression, and cultural exchange.
... A novelist who writes whatever he pleases anywhere in the Muslim
world is more likely to receive a fatwa and a mob at his courtyard than a prize for
literary courage, as Naguib Mahfouz and Salman Rushdie have learned. No wonder a code of
silence pervades the Islamic world. No wonder, too, that Islam is far more ignorant of us
than we of it. And no wonder that the Muslims haven’t a clue that, while their
current furor is scripted, whipped up, and mercurial, ours is far deeper and more lasting.
"I think anyone who thinks they
know what the cost of electricity from a natural gas plant is going to be over the next 20
or 30 years is blowing smoke. The best way to protect consumers from this type of
roller-coaster is to begin investing, now, to add more diversity and stability to our mix
of energy sources with a renewable energy standard."
Tom Gray
American Wind Energy Association
With natural gas prices
three times the price at which the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) judged wind
power to be less expensive, wind power advocates in the state are calling for utilities to
boost their renewable power generation portfolio. The composite price of March natural gas
on the New York Mercantile Exchange recently jumped 65% from $6.60 to $10.90 per Mcf
(thousands of cubic feet). In 2001, the PUC had calculated that when natural gas cost more
than $3.50 per Mcf, wind is a less expensive power source.
Wind Energy Weekly
American Wind
Energy Association March
7, 2003
|
An Overview of
Senate Energy Bill Subsidies to the Fossil Fuel Industry
Aileen Roder
Taxpayers for Common Sense
May 12, 2003
[courtesy of the Environmental and Energy Studies
Institute ]
Instead of requiring energy companies to stand on their own feet, the government has set
up a perpetual subsidy system. Powerpoint
The War in Iraq and the
Future of OPEC
Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli Middle East Media
Research Institute April 10, 2003
Sheikh Yamani, who was the leading figure in oil
producers' cartel Opec for 25 years, gave his assessment of the push for regime change in
Iraq in a BBC interview. (1973 Photo) |
US
'Playing
with Fire',
Warns Yamani
by Andrew Walker
BBC (UK)
March 14, 2003 |
| Oil is the major objective for the United States in
seeking to occupy Iraq, according to the former Saudi Arabian Petroleum Minister Sheikh
Zaki Yamani. He said the US is aiming to secure its oil supplies. In his view, the US
wants to reduce its dependence on oil from the Gulf, and from Saudi Arabia in particular. |
| |
UNITED
NATIONS RIPPED APART
BY FRENCH OIL DEPENDENCE |
|
|
French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, left, and Saddam
Hussein of Iraq seen
prior to a state dinner in Baghdad, in this December 1974 file photo. (AP)
HOW MIDDLE EAST OIL IS USED
TO WEAKEN DEMOCRACIES
AND THREATEN FREEDOM
Saddam Paid Off French Leaders
Bill Gertz Washington Times
October 7, 2004
In the late 1990s, Iraq also used an
oil-purchasing voucher system through the U.N. oil-for-food program, which began in 1996
and ended in 2003, to influence the French to oppose U.S. initiatives at the United
Nations and to work to lift sanctions, the report stated. The Iraqi Intelligence Service
paid off French nationals by dispensing vouchers that allowed the holders to make hundreds
of thousands of dollars in commissions by selling them to oil buyers. The payoffs help
explain why the French government, along with Russia and China, opposed U.S. efforts in
the United Nations in the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion, U.S. officials
said.
"My position is that
whatever the circumstances, France will vote no."
French President Jauques Chirac
France to Veto
Resolution on Iraq War, Chirac Says
New York Times March 11, 2003
"France controls over 22.5 percent of
Iraq's imports," according to the "CIA World Factbook." Some 60 French
companies do $1.5 billion in trade with Iraq under the U.N. oil-for-food program. France's
largest oil company, Total Fina Elf, has negotiated deals to develop and explore the
Majnoon and Nahr Umar oil fields, which are estimated to hold 25 percent of Iraq's
reserves."
No French Blood for Oil
Helle Dale Washington Post March 5, 2003
|
Is the Real Price of Oil $65 a Barrel?*
"Paid predominantly by the US, the costs of protecting
our Middle East oil supplies are as high as 15-25 dollars a barrel – that is about a
dollar a gallon. We should factor these sizeable external costs into all our decision
making - for example in transport policy - rather than placing them in a separate box
marked 'security'."
Peter Hain, Foreign
Minister, United Kingdom
Enhancing Energy
Security RUSI
Energy Security Symposium
October 17, 2002 more
Feds
Trim Oil Research Funding
Ted Monoson Casper Star-Tribune (WY) February 28, 2003
Living Without Oil by Marianne Lavelle - US News February 17, 2003
|
U.S. TO END
DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL |
 |
"Uh-oh..."
|
 |
"Decisions
need to be made on what energy sources to focus and where. Profits (from current
operations) need to be at least partly employed in bringing on other forms of energy,
especially renewables and fuels such as hydrogen."
Douglas-Westwood analysts in the World Oil Supply Report
Analysts Claim
Early Peak in World Oil Production
Oil & Gas Journal August 12, 2002
Saudis
Gear Up for Oil Price War
Leo Lewis and Andrew Gumbel Independent
(UK) December
15, 2002
As war in the Middle East threatens to
throw the international oil market into uncertainty, the member nations of Opec, led by
Saudi Arabia, are quietly gearing up for a price war intended to boost their own market
share at the expense of their competitors.
Such a squeeze would set back US efforts to lessen its dependence on
Middle Eastern oil and seek alternative energy sources elsewhere in the world.
At a time when political turmoil in Venezuela is already disrupting a
fifth of the US oil supply, the Americans could find themselves even more closely tied to
Saudi Arabia, a country increasingly criticised in Washington for its ambiguous attitude
to terrorism and its reluctance to join in the campaign against Iraq. Fifteen of the 19
hijackers in the September 2001 attacks were Saudis.
...US politicians of all stripes are growing increasingly convinced
that the best way to cut the Saudis out of the energy equation is to turn away from oil.
The energy task force led by Vice President Dick Cheney, has looked in particular at
expanding the market share of natural gas and nuclear power. Others, including the
Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry, have suggested massive investment in new
energy technologies, such as solar-photovoltaic and hydrogen power.
|
Chávez Vows to
Regain Control of Oil Industry in Venezuela
Juan Forero New York Times
December 9, 2002
Tanker crews are in rebellion, workers at docks and
refineries have walked off the job, and oil wells are starting to shut down, severely
affecting petroleum exports to the United States.
"In a perverse sense, a
war on Iraq reinforces the assault against the earth’s climate."
Blood and Oil -- Alternatives to
War in Iraq
Michael Renner Worldwatch Institute
 Bad
Weather Fuelled by Oil
The Connection Between the Spanish Oil Spill
and Climate Change
World Wildlife Fund November 22, 2002
While WWF volunteers and others are
leading a dramatic battle against an oil slick once more and try to keep at least some
Spanish beaches clean, WWF points out that we are not likely to see the end of such
catastrophes. As long as oil remains the primary energy source of the world, such
disasters on marine and coastal biodiversity are very likely to happen even more often. At
the same time, burning oil and other fossil fuels such as coal contribute massively to
global warming and air pollution affecting human health and causing acid rain.
Crude oil provides about 40% of all present global energy
demand, the largest single energy source. Oil exploration is projected to grow by another
60% in the next 30 years, while keeping that high share of world energy use.
Oil is used in power plants and for heating in some countries,
but mainly for cars and trucks all over the globe. In the power and heat sector, oil can
and should be easily replaced by cleaner natural gas and renewable energies. The Prestige
was carrying heavy industrial crude for power plants, thus pointing directly to the need
to switch to cleaner fuels for power. However, the main consumer of oil products is the
transport sector where strong policies to curb and replace oil demand are desperately
needed.
Burning oil is responsible for almost 10 billion tons of carbon
dioxide pollution. That is about 45% of all CO2 emissions globally.
However, countries and companies alike are failing to curb the
use of fossil fuels, the main cause of climate change and for shipping accidents like the
one off the Spanish coast now:
• No country in the world has a serious transport
policy that substantively limits and reduces the dependence on oil. Energy and climate
policies - if at all - have been mainly focused on the power sector. Such a single sector
approach is by far not enough, for tackling climate change or for reducing pollution from
crude oil.
• Thus far no oil company has put forward a serious
climate plan that would address its full carbon footprint, accounting not only for the
emissions from its own operations but also for those caused by the use and burning of the
oil products. And despite well-known rhetoric by some more “progressive” oil
companies none plans to move away from oil or beyond petroleum.
WWF therefore advocates mandatory and
dynamic energy efficiency standards for all transport vehicles and a principal priority
for public rail over road transport investment decisions by governments. WWF also supports
'Road Pricing' as key for the implementation of the Polluter Pays Principle. In addition,
WWF advocates strong mandatory caps on CO2 emissions to curb carbon pollution from power
plants and industry.
There are also many opportunities for fuel shifts away from oil.
For instance, by replacing Diesel and gasoline with natural gas in the transport sector,
carbon emissions can be cut by 30%. As many urban conglomerates are suffering from bad air
pollution and health impacts, mainly in developing countries, natural gas could help to
reduce carcinogenic particulates, SO2, Nitrous Oxides and ozone-precursors by up to 95%
compared to Diesel and gasoline. Another mid-term solution is the replacement of oil by
sustainably produced hydrogen as a zero-emission energy carrier. Substantial investment in
this area is essential but thus far has been invisible.
"The complete absence of any serious policy to overcome
growing oil demand mainly in the transport sector in Europe is pathetic. To curb oil
demand, governments have to start from scratch - but they have to start eventually, if
they take climate change and oil pollution serious," said Dr Stephan Singer, head of
WWF's European climate and energy policy unit in Brussels. |
"America can expect a
wake-up call before 2020. It could come tomorrow."
Randy Udall, Executive Director, CORE
with Steve Andrews, a Denver energy analyst
Mobilizing Energy Solutions - The American
Prospect
"Fossil fuels are a onetime gift that
lifted us up from subsistence agriculture and eventually should lead us to a future based
on renewable resources."
Kenneth S. Deffeyes
author of Hubbert's Peak |
 |
Energy Forever - The American Prospect
 |
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO
THE UNITED STATES?
Shameful Trend: Are U.S. Values To Become Secondary to Oil?
Past Failure to Initiate Major Renewable
Energy Programs Now Threatens Economic Prosperity and American Ideals as
ACCESS TO ARAB OIL BECOMES THE BASIS OF ALL WESTERN
DECISION-MAKING
IN APRIL 2000, TEXANS DEMEANED WOMEN TO PLACATE
A MISOGYNIST ARAB OIL DICTATOR.
WILL THE DAY COME WHEN ALL AMERICANS GROVEL FOR OIL?
 Texans listen to Prince Charming:
"They make half the population.
They are needed to bring the population to its full capacity."
Prince Saud al-Faisal, Saudi foreign
minister teaches
Texans the Saudi view of women's role in society
Air Controllers: Saudi Wanted
Only Men
Females Barred From Handling Texas Flights
by Jim Morris Dallas
Morning News April 27, 2002
Saudi Crown Prince
Abdullah's representatives asked that women be barred from air traffic control duties when
he traveled Thursday to Central Texas for a summit with President Bush, several Texas
aviation officials say. The request, honored on portions of the prince's flights between
Houston and Waco, has angered some Texas air traffic personnel. |
"We don't have to go to
war for oil."
U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, HI
Fuel
Cell Test Site Boosts Hydrogen Research
"The combination of fundamental, macroeconomic,
political and military factors is rapidly creating an oil market version of the perfect
storm. Strap in tightly, this could get rough."
Paul Horsnell, JP Morgan April 5, 2002
Iraq Lobbies
Arab World to Cut Oil Exports to US - The Independent (UK) |
CAN
AMERICA SURVIVE
WITHOUT IMPORTED OIL?
YES! - We are turning to hydrogen. |
OVERVIEW
OF THE
HYDROGEN-POWERED ECONOMY
-- Today and Beyond --
Presentation to the American Society of Energy
Engineers (AEE)
Southern California Chapter March
14, 2002
by Jerald A. Cole, CHBC
PowerPoint
PDF (1 Mb)
The
Late, Great OPEC
by Fredrick Leuffer - National Review July 11, 2002
The
Green Arm of an Oil Giant
Jim Davis of ChevronTexaco explains the thinking
behind its Energy Solutions unit, which includes alternative energy
Business Week June 12,
2002
The Energy Squeeze:
When Wells Go Dry
by Fred Guterl
NEWSWEEK April 15,
2002
The rate of global oil
production will start to fall in just a few years, says a controversial geologist Kenneth
Deffeyes.
And alternative technologies aren’t ready yet.
What if Deffeyes is right? How will the world
satisfy its growing demand for energy? Carmakers (not to mention President Bush) have
pinned their hopes on hydrogen-fuel cells, which would emit no carbon and wouldn’t
entail drilling in unfavorable parts of the world. General Motors has stepped up its
research budget for fuel cells from $1 million a year in 1990 to $100 million this
year.
“We believe hydrogen is the long-term answer,” says Matt
Fronk, GM’s chief engineer for fuel cells.
"The point is, crude oil is much too
valuable to be used for fuel. Eventually we'll figure that out, and it will be used only
in manufacturing needed organic chemicals--plastics, fertilizers, that sort of thing.
"You burned it?" our grandchildren will ask someday.
"All those lovely organic molecules -- and you just burned it?"
Sorry, we burned it.
In contrast to the hundreds of millions of years it took for
the world's oil endowment to accumulate, most of the oil is being extracted and refined in
about 100 years. (The short bump of oil exploitation on the geologic time line has become
known as "Hubbert's peak.") In a sense, fossil fuels are a onetime gift that
lifted us up from subsistence agriculture and eventually should lead us to a future based
on renewable resources."
Kenneth S. Deffeyes, author of Hubbert's Peak
Another Wolf at the Door The American Prospect October
22, 2001 |
"Alternative
energy stocks are unresponsive to oil prices until oil reaches about $25. At that point it
triggers a response, as if investors are saying that current technologies like the
internal combustion engine work just fine, as long as oil stays inexpensive."
Andrew Bradford
Energy Technology analyst at Raymond James
Strategy:
Oil Alternatives by Steven Lamb
Canoe (Canada) April
3, 2002
Crisis
Looms as Demand Booms for Natural Gas
by George Hager USA Today May 31, 2002
What would U.S. international policy
be with a hydrogen economy?
Congressional
Testimony
A Eurasian Energy Transport Corridor
and the Unocal Afganistan Pipeline
Après Kaboul et l'Inde où il a
étudié le droit, il a parfait sa formation aux Etats-Unis où il fut un moment
consultant de l'entreprise pétrolière américaine Unocal, quand celle-ci étudiait la
construction d'un oléoduc en Afghanistan.
English: After Kabul and India, where he studied law, he
completed his education in the USA, where he acted, for a while, as a consultant for the
American oil company Unocal, at the time considering building a pipeline in Afghanistan.
Hamid Karzaï, un Pachtoune
nommé président
Le Monde (France) December 13, 2001
Afghanistan:
Factions Challenging Government's Authority
STRATFOR January 22, 2002 |
Renewables: Future Shock
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is developing technologies
well on their way to becoming competitive with oil and gas.
by Brian Toal Oil
& Gas Investor October
2001
"North America has no
excess natural gas capacity. What we do have is extremely aggressive decline rates, making
it harder each year to keep current production from falling. A massive number of gas-fired
power plants have been ordered. But the gas to run them is simply not there."
Matt Simmons, investment banker, to George Bush
Methane Madness
- A Natural Gas Primer - CORE
Domestic
Oil and Gas is Not the Ticket to U.S. Energy Security
Amory and L. Hunter Lovins Grist
Magazine November 20,
2001
THE
NEXT GAS CRISIS
If you thought the worst was over, get ready.
Demand is up, supply is dwindling, and new finds are scarce....
Andrew Nikiforuk Canadian Business August 20, 2001
Slaying
Dragons
Guest
Editorial
|
"Why are such an unlikely mix of bedfellows as alternative energy supporters,
automakers, utilities, government regulators and big oil coalescing around the hydrogen
economy?
"Let's begin the dissection with debunking the myth
that BIG OIL is the enemy by examining how the majors are poised to profit as the pace of
transition to a hydrogen economy and infrastructure..."
more |
|
by
Jay Reynolds
Co-author of A Fuel Cell
Primer |
HYDROGEN SHOWN DRAMATICALLY SAFER THAN GASOLINE!
HYDROGEN LEAK
GASOLINE LEAK
The paint didn't even blister.
Total immolation.
WHICH CAR WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE YOUR FAMILY IN?
Fuel
Leak Study Reveals Stark Contrast In Hydrogen vs.
Gasoline Safety
Fuel
Leak Simulation Dr.
Michael R. Swain University of Miami |
| Hydrogen leakage: the
hydrogen-fueled vehicle was designed consistent with existing manufacturer specifications.
They include sensors for hydrogen that activate shut-off solenoids in the hydrogen tank,
and computer programming to shut off fuel supply if fuel flow exceeds that used by the
fuel cell, or fuel flow delivered drops by a predetermined amount. In light of the
additional safety precautions designed into hydrogen-fueled vehicles the most severe
single failure mode accident scenario is that of hydrogen leakage at the tank pressure
release device (PRD) causing a standing flame, which in turn causes the PRD to allow all
the hydrogen in the tank to escape in 100 seconds. During the video, the hydrogen vehicle
leaks 3.4 pounds of hydrogen (approximately 175,000 BTU). |
Gasoline leakage: the fuel line of a
gasoline fueled vehicle was punctured with 1/16 inch diameter hole and gasoline leaks out
of the fuel line under the middle of the car. During the 3.5 minutes of videotaping, the
vehicle leaks five pints of gasoline (approximately 70,000 BTU). Several events of
interest occur including a deflagration of gases inside the vehicle interior and trunk,
ruptures of the vehicle's tires, and an unrestrained release of coolant from the air
conditioner.... |
-- Statistical analysis of vehicle fire-related injuries and deaths in
U.S. --
Motor Vehicle Fires in Traffic
Crashes and the Effects of the Fuel System Integrity Standard by Glenn G.
Parsons - National Highway Transportation Safety Administration Report Number DOT HS
807 675 November 1990 |
House
Approves Arctic Drilling
Associated Press August 1,
2001
Does Raiding Environmental Preserves Indicate Oil is Gone?
| A Message from Robert Redford Dear Friend,
I've never circulated this kind of email before. But I am so
appalled by President Bush's plan to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to
massive oil development that I feel I must do whatever I can to help stop it. 
To me, the Arctic Refuge represents everything spectacular and
everything endangered about America's natural heritage: a million years of ecological
serenity . . . vast expanses of untouched wilderness . . . an irreplaceable sanctuary for
polar bears, white wolves and 130,000 caribou that return here each year to give birth and
rear their young. For 20,000 years -- literally hundreds of generations -- the native
Gwich'in people have inhabited this sacred place, following the caribou herd and leaving
the awe-inspiring landscape just as they found it. Our own presidents going back to
Eisenhower have kept a bipartisan promise to safeguard this world-class natural treasure.
But not THIS president. It is a sad day indeed when our president and
congressional leaders would sacrifice America's largest wildlife refuge for the sake of a
possible six-month supply of national energy. A six-month supply! We could save
that little oil by improving the fuel efficiency of cars and light trucks by a mere one
mile per gallon.
Only one group of Americans will benefit from the destruction
of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge: the oil giants. Everyone else loses. Arctic wildlife
populations will decline, the Gwich'in people will see their land marred by pipelines and
poisoned by oil spills, you and I will become even more dependent on oil, and the planet
will suffer catastrophic global warming from the burning of even more fossil fuel.
Unless we get millions of Americans to lodge a
protest right now, this nightmarish scenario may well come to pass in the next two months.
The Republican energy bill, which would fulfill the president's promise to drill the
Arctic Refuge, is moving through Congress today. House and Senate leaders may also try to
sneak through the Arctic drilling provision by attaching it to a "must-pass"
appropriations bill. These votes will be decided by the moderates in both parties. We must
reach those moderates and hold them accountable.
Here's what you can do: go to http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has set up this
new website to make it extremely easy for you to send messages of protest to your senators
and represenative. It will take you only a minute.
I've been on NRDC's board for 25 years, so I know how
effective they are at waging and winning environmental campaigns. Last year, NRDC used web
activism to help generate a million messages of protest to Mitsubishi and stopped the
company from destroying the last unspoiled birthing ground of the Pacific gray whale.
We'll win this time too if each of us does our part for the
Arctic Refuge. Please visit http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic
right now. And forward my message to your family, friends and colleagues. Congress cannot
ignore millions of us.
If we let them plunder our greatest wildlife refuge for the
sake of oil company profits, then no piece of our natural heritage is safe from
destruction. Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic
and help keep the Arctic wild and free.
Sincerely yours, Robert Redford |
"We are
living through the last days
of the traditional oil company."
Peter Bijur, Texaco Chairman
Oil
and Motor Groups
All Look Beyond Petroleum
The Guardian (UK)
April 19, 2001
If experiments under way
in the US and Europe are successful, petrol will no longer be at the centre of debate
because it will have been replaced by a completely different fuel. ...Exxon Mobil (which
trades as Esso in Britain) and BP are blazing a trail in the development of hydrogen and
fuel cells technology. Exxon claims to be spending $100m a year on research with General
Motors and Toyota. BP, whose chief executive, Sir John Browne, controversially claimed
last year that the company's name should come to mean "beyond petroleum", is
working with General Motors on a fuel cell programme and last month announced plans to
introduce hydrogen fuel cell buses in five European cities in collaboration with
DaimlerChrysler. more
"We believe our
customers will want to change to hydrogen in the future because it will have environmental
and commercial advantages."
Mark Moody-Stuart, Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell
September 13, 2000
-- Unintended
Consequences --
The Middle East Perspective:
U.S Disregard of Climate Change Effects on the Third World
Will Signal a Dramatic and Permanent Increase in Petroleum Prices;
Oil Producing Countries Will Install Essential Renewable Infrastructures
As Developed Countries Wastefully Devour Remaining Reserves
American Growth Is on the Back
of Cheap Oil
by Najib Saab The Daily Star (Lebonan) April 2, 2001
Wise management of oil
resources now, coupled with investing the revenues in advanced technologies, will
ultimately result in securing a continued role for oil-producing countries in a future
economy inevitably based on renewable energy.
Americans claim
that they have an energy shortage which prevents them from adhering to measures previously
agreed upon in Kyoto. But the Kyoto agreement was mainly about reducing carbon dioxide
emissions, not about energy. While President Bush said that the US would be working with
allies to reduce greenhouse gases, he confirmed that he will “not accept a plan which
will harm our economy and hurt American workers.”
Japan and Pacific Island states threatened by rising seas condemned the
decision. The European Parliament said in a statement that Europe must stand up to
irresponsible US policies by rejecting them at the petrol pump, adding that “unless
the US rethinks its position, direct boycott is the only language they will
understand.”
It boils down to a war of economic interests. The US wants cheap oil to
fuel its economy, asking others to swallow the consequences.
...Until alternative energy sources become a fait accompli, the
producing countries must be able to get a realistic price for their oil which reflects
economic value and demand. This will allow oil-producing countries to invest excess
revenue in projects to develop new energy technologies, which will enable them to continue
to produce energy and export it. However, this time it will be energy derived from the
wind and the sun, both abundant resources which can be viably harnessed in the Arab
region. more
Tapping the Sun as a
Limitless Source of Energy
by Duraid Al Baik
Gulf News Dubai, UAE March 10, 2001
Fossil fuel is the main source of
electricity production with more than 75 per cent of the world's energy generators
operating on gas or diesel. Many scientists feel that the world should cooperate to
develop sustainable sources of energy that can supply the world with renewable energy and
decrease pressure on the current sources of power.
Such calls have always been viewed with suspicion, especially among
major oil-producing nations. The reason being oil-rich countries like the UAE have always
depended on these conventional sources as their main source of income.
In the UAE, however, the strong opposition to developing renewable
sources of energy has been fading in recent years. Policy-makers have realised the
advantages of developing 'clean' sources of energy as they benefit the economy by
preserving the main wealth of the nation.
A number of analysts believe that preserving oil so that it can be put
to better use would save billions of dollars being spent in producing electricity. The
Photovoltaic (PV) conference, which was held at the University of Sharjah last month,
represents an unusual turning point in the way the Gulf perceives solar energy.
|
"We need to look at oil as a source of energy that must not
be wasted like we are doing now. We should use the clean source of the sun to
produce electricity so that oil can be preserved and put to greater use when it is really
needed."
Dr Abdullah Al Najjar, head of the Research Centre at the University
of Sharjah and Secretary General of the Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF) |
...Lawrence L.
Kazmerski, Director of the Colorado-based National Centre for Photovoltaics, said the
recent change in the UAE's perception of solar power is astonishing, and at the same time
encouraging, because it is an oil rich nation.
Kazmerski stressed that a better understanding of solar power and the
UAE's interest to support research and development of Photovoltaics applications would
benefit the nation. "The World Bank projects that the world's consumption of
electricity will increase to 5 million megawatts by the year 2020, up from about 2.9
million in 1995," he said.
According to the petroleum industry, Kazmerski said, the world's supply
of fossil fuel will start running out between the years 2020 and 2060. Renewable energy,
including solar power, would also help in keeping the environment clean.
more
BMW to Complete Hydrogen Plant
Feasibility Study
Gulf News January
30, 2001
The BMW Group expects to submit
its feasibility report on a proposed hydrogen production plant in Dubai by April, a senior
official said. If it proves feasible, the output will be exported to Europe for use in
hydrogen-powered automobiles. Dubai's geographical position in the sunbelt and closeness
to Europe are considered favourable factors.
The study was conducted at the request of Dubai authorities last year.
It is being conducted by experts with the Technical University of Munich. |
"Hydrogen is not a threat to oil. As such, only
10 per cent of global oil production is used for vehicles. Though current production
methods are expensive, hydrogen is very much the fuel of the future. But the
infrastructure capability has to come from governments."
Robert Bailey-McEwan, regional managing director of
the BMW Group |
Emirates to Spend $46 Billion on
Ecology R&D Over 10 Years, Solar H2 May be Part
Peter Hoffmann's Hydrogen &
Fuel Cell Letter April, 2001 |
"The current economy is unsustainable in the sense that it's based on the use of
non-renewable resources and on patterns that can't continue indefinitely. For example, the
energy system is based on fossil fuels which are limited in nature and which are adding to
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. A sustainable economy would be based on reuse and
recycling of materials and the through-put of the renewable energy that arrives on the
Earth each day so that it could go on -- in principle -- indefinitely. ...The challenge
now is to move from the carbon-dominated energy system of the 20th century to a hydrogen
economy during the course of the 21st century. A hydrogen economy would be based on the
most abundant element in the universe, which is broadly available in seawater and which
can be turned into a useful fuel using solar energy and other renewable forms of
energy."
Chris Flavin, President, WorldWatch
Radio Free Europe February
5, 2001
BOMBSHELL!!!!!
Sheikh
Yamani Predicts
Price Crash as Age of Oil Ends
by Mary Fagan June 25, 2000 Sunday
Telegraph (UK) |
Fuel-cell
motor technology - which can produce electricity by combining hydrogen from a variety of
fuels with oxygen from the air - will have a dramatic impact on the oil market, he
predicts.
|
"This is coming before the end of the decade and will cut
gasoline consumption by almost 100 per cent.
---- Sheikh Yamani |
 Ballard
Extends Industry Lead
With Unveiling of Next Generation Fuel Cell
 |
In an unprecedented personal
interview, Sheikh Yamani also predicts that, within a few decades, vast reserves of oil
will lie unwanted and the "oil age" will come to an end.
In an interview with
Gyles Brandreth, he says: "Thirty years from now there will be a huge amount of oil -
and no buyers. Oil will be left in the ground. The Stone Age came to an end, not because
we had a lack of stones, and the oil age will come to an end not because we have a lack of
oil."
Sheikh Yamani, who was
Saudi Arabia's oil minister from 1962 to 1986 and is now in charge of an energy
consultancy, became the public face of the revolutionary oil policy that altered the
balance of world power in the early Seventies. He predicts that a combination of recent
oil discoveries, the advance of new technology, and heavy investment in exploration and
production will all lead to a collapse in the price of crude.
He says: "I have no
illusion - I am positive there will be some time in the future a crash in the price of
oil. I can tell you with a degree of confidence that after five years there will be a
sharp drop in the price of oil."
Fuel-cell motor
technology - which can produce electricity by combining hydrogen from a variety of fuels
with oxygen from the air - will have a dramatic impact on the oil market, he predicts.
"This is coming
before the end of the decade and will cut gasoline consumption by almost 100 per cent.
Imagine a country like the United States, the largest consuming nation, where more than 50
per cent of their consumption is gasoline. If you eliminate that, what will happen?"
Saudi Arabia, he says, "will have serious economic difficulties".
...Yamani believes
that automobile engine technologies including fuel cells - which can produce electricity
by combining hydrogen from a variety of fuels with oxygen from the air - will drastically
reduce oil consumption and that, in the longer term, no one will need oil. His views
reflect those of many in the industry, although few would go so far as to predict an end
to the use of oil.
|
June 30,
2000 Farewell to Riches of the Earth by Gyles Brandreth
- Sunday Telegraph (UK) |
"Our
long-term goal is to provide affordable energy, whatever energy that is. There are other
forms of other energy, like hydrogen, that can be profitable, clean and available at our
service stations."
--- James Metzger, Texaco chief technology officer
Texaco Buys Stake in Troy Energy Firm - Detroit Free Press 2/3/2000 |
Oil Minister Prediction of Oil Industry
Decline Accords With Allied Business Intelligence Forecasts - Allied
Business Intelligence
June 26, 2000
According to K. Atakan Ozbek, ABI Senior Energy
Analyst:
"By the second decade of
this century, mass production of automotive fuel cells will result in first, a glut in the
world oil supply and then, in a total rejection of oil as a vehicle fuel."
"Domestic and world demand for fuel,
especially for transportation fuel, is growing rapidly. US demand is at a rate of about
half that of the rest of the world," notes Ozbek. "Initial fuel cell
applications are in stationary power markets but fuel cells are now moving into the
automotive sector. The dominant automakers are preparing fuel cell models. We will soon
see the maverick of fuel cells, portables, challenge the battery industry by powering
cellular phones, laptops and PDAs," said Ozbek.
Goodbye Battery, Hello Fuel Cell - Salon
|
 Batteries Lack
Juice Now,
But Will Power Up Someday
by David LaGesse - U.S. News & World Report
July 10, 2000 Issue |
The next great wave of portable power
may owe less to the wired traveler and more to the needs of national security. Fuel cells,
which make electricity by mixing oxygen and hydrogen, have been around since the
mid-1800s, and are used to power the space shuttle. A big challenge will be constructing
safe plumbing for the volatile mixture. It was, after all, an exploding fuel cell that
crippled Apollo 13 in a near-fatal trip around the moon in 1970.
Transportation officials and
automakers have financed research into fuel cells for cars and buses in the name of
creating cheap, clean fuels whose emissions are little more than water vapor. And
battery-starved Army units are driving research that could make fuel cells available for
portable devices but that's at least three years, and possibly a decade, away.
After grunts reported their batteries
ran low during the Persian Gulf War, Pentagon brass showed up with research money, says
Illinois Institute of Technology researcher Eugene Smotkin. Consumer companies weren't far
behind, with Motorola joining scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Their design envisions cheap and light fuel in the form of methanol, a type of alcohol
that contains hydrogen, that can be carried in pocket vials. A Los Alamos scientist says a
portable fuel cell could be ready in three to five years, one small enough to serve as a
battery recharger on a civilian plane or covert military mission. "
Special forces commanders say they
have a tough choice now," says Shimson Gottesfeld, a Los Alamos fuel cells
researcher. "They are forced to choose between taking food and water, or more
batteries."
|
 Pocket-sized PEMs
- Fueling the Cells
February 2000 by Paul Sharke
December 1999
Mechanical Engineering
Journal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers |
"Just as hydrogen power may be the oil of tomorrow, that's
fine, so long as it's Shell hydrogen that everyone's buying. For my part, if the
world thinks that carbon dioxide emissions should be reduced, I see this as an
opportunity. The Stone Age didn't end because they ran out of stones -- but as a
result of competition from the bronze tools, which better met people's needs. I feel
there's something in the air -- people are ready to say that this is something we should
do."
-- Shell Oil Chief Jeroen van der Veer
to the World Petroleum Congress - June 13, 2000
Shell Invests in Green Future by Todd Nogier - CANOE |
Experts Warn of 'Catastrophe'
With Rapid Consumption of Oil
April 28, 2000 Toledo Blade (Ohio) |
The oil shortages of the 1970s were temporary, minor, and
political in origin. Yet inflation became rampant worldwide, economic growth was
imperiled, and monetary systems were strained, said Dr. Craig Bond Hatfield, a professor
emeritus of geology at the University of Toledo.
"When the price of oil goes up, the price of everything
increases because our economy is largely oil-driven," Dr. Hatfield said. "If you
can envision that situation on a permanent rather than a temporary basis, with oil
production rates declining indefinitely every year into the future, then you can begin to
appreciate the magnitude of the problem.
...The oil won't run out for more than a
century, but "that time of exhaustion is an unimportant date," Dr. Hatfield
said. "The important date is the time when oil production rates stop growing and
begin that permanent decline," he said, "because that will be an economic
catastrophe unless we prepare for it, and that time will be within 12 years."
...Dr. Hatfield advocates accelerated research in fuel
processors, which extract hydrogen from gasoline, and fuel cells, which use the hydrogen
to generate electric power. But such efficiency can only buy time. "We must use that
time to quickly develop long-term alternatives to conventional fuels," Dr. Hatfield
said. |
Pearl
Harbor 2001
World Trade Center
Destroyed
in Terrorist Attack
thousands dead
Manhattan, New York: Tuesday September 11, 2001
Photos
World Trade Center List: Principal
Businesses All Businesses
One-fourth of the oil imports
comes from the Persian Gulf, the wellspring of terrorism.
Fuel Cells' Promise: Reduced Dependence on Foreign Oil
By Lynn E. Weaver Orlando Sentinel (Flordia) January 30, 2002
Recently, the Bush administration gave the nation a glimpse
of its vision of what might help achieve such energy independence. At least part of that
vision is refreshingly new. The key is fuel cells. The Energy Department and the auto
industry have devised a plan to develop hydrogen-based fuel cells to power the cars of the
future. ...This technology promises to help solve many of the problems associated with
America's dangerous dependence on foreign oil, now at the 60 percent mark and rising.
Voices Mount
in Call for
"MANHATTAN II" Project
to Wean America and the West
Away from Imported Arab Oil
"The attack on the
World Trade Center put eyeballs back on the... concept of energy security. If the U.S.
feels its oil supplies are in jeopardy, the administration might promote renewable
energies, and investors are looking for some insurance in their portfolio."
Eric Prouty, analyst
for Adams, Harnkness and Hill Inc.
Fuel Cell Shares
Continued Surge on Security Concerns
Does Access
to Oil Drive U.S. Military Strategy?
A Eurasian Energy Transport Corridor and the Afganistan
Pipeline
OPEC's "Environmental Agenda"
"It is almost certain that OPEC will take
a tougher line in seeking to protect its members’ interests on the issues of the
taxation of oil products in consuming countries and on initiatives aimed at reducing oil
consumption on environmental grounds."
The 112th (Extraordinary) OPEC
Ministerial Meeting Vienna 12th - 13th November 2000 - Centre for Global Energy Studies
If fuel cells appear to be close to becoming a reality, the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could respond by letting the
price of oil fall, making fuel-cell cars less attractive, said John Tobin, a former
oil-company strategic planner who is executive director of the Energy Literacy Project, a
fledgling effort to educate the public on energy. He added, "Short term, OPEC can
certainly ignore the fuel-cell issue. It's going to have zero effect on the imports of oil
for the foreseeable future."
Reducing
Foreign-Oil Dependence with Fuel Cells is Still Years Away by Ken Moritsugu - Seattle Times/Knight Ridder
January 10, 2002
|
What would U.S.
military strategy be with a hydrogen economy?
What Price Oil?
U.S. Response Will Imact Oil
Market
STRATFOR - Intelligence for Individuals
The long-term future of the oil market depends on a single
factor: Which state helped the terrorists? If the world's operating hypothesis -- that an
oil-producing Middle Eastern state was involved -- holds true, then the United States must
seek to reduce its dependence on energy supplies from that region. Since that
region holds two-thirds of all known oil reserves, that all but translates into not just
weaning the world's largest energy consumer off of Middle Eastern oil, but off of oil
period. more
"We could see an
evolutionary progression, the so-called carbon shift, from coal to gas, to renewables, or
possibly even to nuclear. A second scenario explores something rather more revolutionary;
the potential for a truly hydrogen economy, growing out of new and exciting developments
in fuel cells and advanced hydrocarbon technologies."
Phillip Watts, Chairman, Royal Dutch/Shell
Group
Shell
Chairman Warns Oil Firms
to Prepare for End of Hydrocarbon Age
Oil & Gas Journal October
4, 2001
On the bourses, the oil sector
emerged as the only gainer from the acts of carnage, amid speculation of a Middle East
connection. Uncertainty over possible US policy response in the Middle East sent the crude
oil price breaking above $30 a barrel. President Bush vouched to track down the
terrorists, who also hit the Pentagon, leading to the evacuation of key federal government
offices and suspension of transport routes.
US Attacks Leave
Markets Reeling
September 11, 2001
Financial Times (UK)
"North America has no
excess natural gas capacity. What we do have is extremely aggressive decline rates, making
it harder each year to keep current production from falling. A massive number of gas-fired
power plants have been ordered. But the gas to run them is simply not there."
Matt Simmons, investment banker, to George Bush
Methane Madness
- A Natural Gas Primer - CORE
ARCO Chairman Says Last Days of Oil
Age Have Begun
ARCO February 9, 1999
Speaking at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates'
18th annual executive conference, Bowlin said the world is entering ``the last days of the
Age of Oil,'' and the energy industry must respond wisely or face the consequences.
``Global demand for clean energy -- natural gas, renewables, electricity and new energy
technologies -- will grow faster than overall demand for energy, including oil and coal,''
said Bowlin, who heads the nation's fifth largest oil and gas company. ``Ten or fifteen
years from now there still will be a large and healthy market for oil -- of course. We
hope that it would be a healthier market than today. But it is also true that the market
share for oil will diminish, as the demand for other forms of energy grows.'' The energy
equations of the 21st Century, focusing on alternative fuels, will leave oil and gas
companies with a critical choice, said Bowlin: ``Embrace the future and recognize the
growing demand for a wide array of fuels; or ignore reality and slowly -- but surely -- be
left behind.''
MORE: HYDROGEN VS OIL
Part 1 2
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"Why
didn't they warn us? Why?"
