Who Will Pay for Nuclear Power Plant Cleanup?
Yves here. Holy moley, the cost estimates focus the mind!
Read more...Category Archives: Energy markets
China Decides that South China Sea Oil is a National Asset
By John Daly, a non-resident scholar at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and chief analyst at OilPrice. Cross posted from OilPrice
While the Western press is fixated on both recent North Korean nuclear tests and Beijing’s recent skirmishes with Japan over the Senkaku (“Diaoyu” in Chinese) islands, other maritime issues have developed further south, where China is involved in sovereignty disputes over the Spratly islands’ 750 islands, islets, atolls, cays and outcroppings with the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
Read more...Dan Dicker: Aubrey McClendon and the Destruction of the Natural Gas Market
This post on the near term outlook for natural gas may give environmentalists cheer.
Read more...Iran on the Offensive
Until now, the Arab oil producing countries of the Persian Gulf, also called the Arabian Gulf, or to those seeking political neutrality, simply the Gulf, looked at their Persian neighbour with suspicion and trepidation. The fear came from mainly the military superiority that Iran wields over the Gulf, Persian or Arabian, depending on how you prefer to call it.
Read more...SEC Gives JP Morgan and Other Big Banks License to Manipulate Commodities
An SEC action that appears likely to do considerable harm to companies and individuals in the US and abroad appears to have gone completely unnoticed, save for an important piece in The New Republic by Linda Khan.
Read more...The Political Implications of America’s Oil & Gas Boom – James Kwak Interview
By James Stafford, editor of OilPrice. Cross posted from OilPrice
In the interview James talks about:
Read more...• The political implications of America’s oil & gas boom
• How the shale boom will impact climate change
• Why China may be forced to change its political system
• An easy way to solve the debt crisis
• Why we should expect a comeback from coal in the future
• Why we must invest in renewable energy
• Why cheap energy isn’t vital to economic growth
• How Obama’s second term will alter the energy landscape
• Why we need to focus on conservation
• Why we shouldn’t take note of the doom and gloom predictions
Conservation Not Technology will be our Savior – Chris Martenson (Part 2)
In part 2 of our interview with Chris Martenson, economist and editor of the popular financial website Peak Prosperity, Chris talks about:
Read more...• How tight oil is being oversold
• An idea for solving the storage and bBattery problem
• How price, not technology, has unlocked boom reserves
• Why it’s about conservation now, not new technology
• Why we should be concerned about another financial meltdown
• Future opportunities for investors
• Why exporting natural gas is a terrible idea
• Why Governments should help renewable Energy innovation
• Why net energy returns are the MOST important thing
Don’t Fall for the Shale Boom Hype – Chris Martenson Interview
By James Stafford, editor of Oil Price of Oil Price. Cross posted from Oil Price
In part 1 of our 2 part interview Chris discusses:
Read more...• Why we shouldn’t talk about energy independence
• What the media is failing to report about the “massive” Shale discoveries
• How oil analysts are getting the economics wrong
• Why we could see $200 a barrel Oil in the Near Future
• The relationship between energy and the economy
• Why peak oil is not a defunct theory
• Why electric vehicles are the future
• Why natural gas should be a bridge to a new energy future
• Why Washington just doesn’t get it
How the Koch Brothers Manipulate Climate Change Studies
By Joao Peixe. Cross posted from OilPrice
The Koch brothers, Charles and David, are the billionaire owners of Koch Industries, and two of the most obstinate climate change deniers out there.
Read more...New Econoparody: “Oil to the World”
Readers have enjoyed past productions by Versus. Here’s their latest holiday release:
Read more...Obama Signs Bill to Exempt US Airlines from EU Aviation Carbon Tax
I managed to avoid listening to pretty much all of Obama’s election victory speech but managed to click onto a news site that had a streaming video of it, and caught his tepid reference to climate change, a passing comment on “the destructive power of a warming planet.” This wasn’t a commitment of any kind; I took this as a sign simply that the president now feels he has to give global warming lip service.
This news story, of Obama undermining an EU carbon tax, is consistent with that theory.
Read more...Homeless in New Jersey
Yves here. This article points out what others have noted: that Hurricane Sandy has given much more visibility to the dangers of climate change. It’s an environmental version of the old economists’ joke: A recession occurs when your neighbor loses his job. A depression takes place you lose your job. The media and policymakers in large measure live in a bubble centered on New York and Washington DC, and it has taken an event that hit their sheltered world hard to get them to wake up and take notice.
Read more...Shale Gas Will be the Next Bubble to Pop
By James Stafford, publisher of OilPrice. Cross posted from OilPrice.
To help us to look past the hype and take a critical look at whether shale really is the golden goose many believe it to be or just another over-hyped bubble that is about to pop, we were fortunate to speak with energy expert Arthur Berman.
In the interview Arthur talks about:
Read more...• Why shale gas will be the next bubble to pop
• Why Japan can’t afford to abandon nuclear power
• Why the United States shouldn’t turn its back on Canada’s tar sands
• Why renewables won’t make a meaningful impact for many years
• Why the shale boom will not have a big impact on foreign policy
• Why Romney and Obama know next to nothing about fossil fuel energy
High Risk Investing – The New Trend in Energy
Yves here. I’m giving this interview from OilPrice more of an intro than usual because I find it surreal.
Read more...Iran’s Untouchable Energy Exports
Yves here. Media reports in the US stress how tightening sanctions against Iran, particularly on banks, are increasingly isolating Iran, leading its currency to fall sharply. This article describes a key break in the cordon, that of electricity exports. But Iran’s major source of foreign exchange, its official dollar oil-related payments, via Standard Chartered, were roughly $500 million a day. The electricity trade is small relative to this total, but it is also an interesting act of defiance among American “allies”.
Read more...