Energy Wars

The Business Insider reports that OPEC is expecting oil at US$75 a barrel by the end of the year - Even If Oil Hits $90, OPEC Won't Increase Production. Oil prices could reach $80-$90 a barrel by early next year, but OPEC will not increase its output until a huge amount of over-supply has been absorbed, the group's Secretary General said on Tuesday. OPEC officials have been nudging up their price aspirations since Saudi Arabia's oil minister said last week an oil price of around $75 could be achieved later this year and would not undermine a tentative global economic recovery. "The price will go to $80-$90 maybe at the beginning of 2010," OPEC's Abdullah al-Badri told the Reuters Global Energy Summit. "I don't think the price will go down... By the end of the year we'll see $75. $80-$85 is possible -- not with the demand we see at this time, but if demand picks up month after month, then maybe we'll see this price."

Congressman Ben Ray Luján announced today that he introduced legislation designed to encourage environmental research at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The bill would authorize $5 million in funding for LANL's National Environmental Research Park (NERP) as well as $5 million for each of six other NERPs throughout the country. "These parks are unique outdoor laboratories that offer secure settings for long-term research on a broad range of subjects, including wildlife biology, ecology, climate change effects, and maintenance of freshwater ecosystems," said Luján. More from a press release from Luján's office:

I was going to write about Tom Paine. The upcoming 200th anniversary of his death on June 9 certainly needs to be acknowledged, but if the people of Cumberland County can pull together to prevent the despoiling of their God-given land, they will do more to honor Tom's memory than my feeble words, so I'll defer for now. When coal burns, most of it turns into gas (carbon dioxide), but heavier minerals are left behind in the ash. Therefore, coal ash contains concentrated amounts of toxic metals such as mercury, lead, arsenic and heavy radioactive elements. As I said in an earlier column, Wake Forest University found Emory River arsenic measurements hundreds of time higher than allowable levels after the TVA ash spill. Radioactivity in the ash is over 50 percent above allowable levels in uranium mining waste.

The cost to build a new nuclear power plant in Texas has risen to $10 billion, up from early estimates, but much below price tags of other proposed U.S. nuclear projects, an executive with NRG Energy Inc's nuclear development arm said on Tuesday. The "all in" cost to build two 1,350-megawatt nuclear reactors in South Texas has risen 40 percent from 2006 estimates which did not include financing costs, Steve Winn, chief executive of Nuclear Innovation North America (NINA), told the Reuters Global Energy Summit. While higher, NINA's current estimate is more than $10 billion under estimates from other nuclear developers that operate in states where regulators determine how much money utilities can charge customers for new power plants.

A new audit by DOE's Office of Inspector General takes a close look at how the agency is following up on directives to improve energy efficiency and to reduce energy costs. The report focused on energy associated with information technology, and Y-12 and ORNL were among the facilities audited and cited for less-than-laudatory practices. "Despite its recognized energy conservation leadership role, the Department had not always taken advantage of opportunities to reduce energy consumption associated with its information technology resources," the report said. Among the findings was that DOE had not fully reduced the power consumed by laptop and desktop computers.

Much ado and attention has been paid to the pollutants emmitted from the tail pipes of cars and trucks in recent years, both here in the U.S. and across the pond in Europe. With an estimated 250 million passenger vehicles in the U.S. alone, it would seem that cars would be a major contributor to pollution and air quality issues here and abroad. But newly released data from Europe suggests that a single container ship may cause as much pollution as 50 million cars and release as much as 5,000 tons of sulfur oxide into the air annually. And there are 90,000 such ships of varying sizes across the world at any one time.

This week's Graphs of the Week come from the US Dept. of Energy's energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program, and they address a pretty basic fact of American transportation: The mix of cars vs. light trucks in new vehicle sales, and who's driving them. ("Light trucks" is a term of art meaning pickup trucks, minivans, and SUVs. Add your own rude comment here about how "light" some SUVs are.)

Republicans are not just talking about slowing progress on clean energy, energy efficiency, and climate change, they're doing it…by doing nothing about it. I'm over it. There's a lot of phooey balooey about compromising, reaching across the aisle, Republicans and Democrats working together, a spirit of bipartisanship, a 'new kind of politics'…

The first-ever report exclusively focused on the global human impact of climate change indicates that more than 300 million people are seriously affected by climate change at a total economic cost of $125 billion per year. Earlier today, former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum, announced the results of a report on the human impact of climate change. The study, Human Impact Report: Climate Change - The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis, emphasizes the present impacts of a changing climate, pulling the debate away from a focus on "future generations."

Alex at WorldChanging has a look at some recent events in global warming politics - Latest to Sound the Climate Alarm: Doctors, Lawyers, Generals, Bankers and Diplomats.

Two interesting observations: 1. 50% of U.S. power generation (in MWh) comes from coal, while only 20% comes from natural gas. 2. 32% of total U.S. power generation capacity (in MW) is coal-fired, while 42% is gas-fired. When it runs, the natural gas fleet emits just 50% of the CO2 of the coal fleet, which raises a rather interesting question: what would we have to do to make it run harder? And how big a difference would that make in our national CO2 footprint? MW vs. MWh So why, if we have more natural gas generation capacity, do we get more of our power from coal?

China produces 95% of the worlds supply of the rare earth metal, dysprosium, a key metal in magnets used in the drive motors for hybrid electric vehicles - up to 100 grams of dysprosium per hybrid car produced, according to a Wikipedia reference. Dysprosium's magnetic properties also make it an important metal for wind turbines and electric vehicles. Could be vital for MagLev trains, too. Scarcity of the metal is a sustainability and a political issue, according to a recent article in the TimesOnline, Crunch looms for green technology as China tightens grip on rare-earth metals. This does not look good.

Are the relocalization eco-freaks finally getting a clue??

President Obama today announced over $467 million from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to expand and accelerate the development, deployment, and use of geothermal and solar energy throughout the United States. The funding announced today represents a substantial down payment that will help the solar and geothermal industries overcome technical barriers, demonstrate new technologies, and provide support for clean energy jobs for years to come. Today's announcement supports the Obama Administration's strategy to increase American economic competiveness, while supporting jobs and moving toward a clean energy economy. "We have a choice. We can remain the world's leading importer of oil, or we can become the world's leading exporter of clean energy," said President Obama. "We can hand over the jobs of the future to our competitors, or we can confront what they have already recognized as the great opportunity of our time: the nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy. That's the nation I want America to be."

As part of a public strategy to offset global warming, the president and Congress are considering possible "cap and trade" laws to limit the United States' carbon dioxide emissions. One question raised in this debate is the amount that such limits would cost United States taxpayers and consumers. Many scientists argue that carbon dioxide emissions are a significant contributor to global warming, and that humanity would benefit if the government did something to stop, or partly offset, global warming.

President Obama's energy secretary, Nobel prize-winner Steven Chu, arrives in Europe this week to discuss global warming. But his recent policy decisions on coal-fired power stations and hydrogen cars have angered many environmentalists US energy secretary Steven Chu will fly to Europe this week to begin talks that will be crucial in the global battle against climate change. The 61-year-old physicist will hold key discussions with energy ministers from the G8 nations in Rome before travelling to London to take part in a debate with Nobel prize winners on global warming.

Some days you have to wonder if everyone who's been sounding the alarm about oil issues for years have been right all along, and the rest of the world, including the US power structure, is just now playing catch-up. At least that's the thought I had when I read BusinessWeek's U.S. Reliance on Oil an 'Urgent Threat': A group of retired senior U.S. military officers has concluded that the country's reliance on fossil fuels undermines its capacity to defend itself. Citing a "serious and urgent threat to national security," the group has urged the Pentagon to take the lead in shifting to a new age in energy.

A new social media site for "experiments in local living" has been launched called "Live Local" which should be of interest to those of you interested in relocalisation and related ideas like the Transition Towns movement. The site aims to be "a place to share stories and ideas about improving your community", with the user generated ideas and stories being dubbed "experiments". live local is a project which we've developed as a joint social venture with Piers Dawson-Damer. The website is a place to share stories about improving our communities. It makes it easy for local residents to document their experiences and adventures meeting neighbours, discovering neighbourhoods, supporting local economies, saving energy, water and much more. At its heart the project encourages people to take more time to connect and engage with their community. I think its clear the alternative; working crazy hours to earn more money to more buy 'stuff' while leaving us little time to get to know our neighbours and spend time with family and friends, has spectacularly failed. Many of us crave a smarter way of living; one that makes us happier. As part of the launch of the site, they have issued the "live local challenge", which encourages people to "live local" for a week.

A GOP senator from the nation's leading coal-producing state contends Democrats will increase energy costs and make the U.S. more dependent on foreign oil if they focus solely on alternative energy. In the party's weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said Republicans support a more comprehensive energy plan that would increase funding for energy research, develop U.S. oil and gas resources and promote clean coal and nuclear power.

President Barack Obama announced plans on Tuesday for a national fuel-economy and greenhouse-gas standard that would significantly increase mileage requirements for cars and trucks by 2016. Obama called it "an historic agreement to help America break its dependence on oil, reduce harmful pollution and begin the transition to a clean energy economy." The new requirements mark the first time there has been a nationwide standard for emissions of greenhouse gases. They require an average mileage standard of 39 miles per gallon for cars and 30 mpg for trucks by 2016 - a jump from the current average for all vehicles of 25 miles per gallon.