A weekly review from a UK perspective - "The first round in the great Iraqi oil sale was an interesting affair if not a very conclusive one. In the live TV auction which took place on Tuesday, only one deal was reached as international oil companies refused to meet the terms demanded...

Just a year and a half after a breakthrough Solar Grand Plan study was published in the January 2008 Scientific American, the U.S. government has begun plans to implement major elements of such a Plan.

If we are to have any chance of working our way out of this mess, we must avoid regressive thinking, stay calm, appreciate complexity, and think clearly about the right course of action. I’m going to take a proper look at speculation in the oil market to see what the problems are and what we might actually do about them.

...the ongoing healthcare debate in Washington is anachronistic. A future oriented analysis has to include two driving forces: first, the long-term consequences of the fiscal/economic crisis and, second, the arrival of geological peak oil...

A weekly round-up including:
- Prices and production
- The auction

BP shuts alternative energy HQ
ExxonMobil continuing to fund climate sceptic groups, records show
Oil companies reject Iraq's terms

A major source of mistaken policy toward natural resources is the assumption, enshrined in modern economic theory, that the goods and services provided by nature are subject to the same rules as those provided by human labor. This seems abstract enough, but its impacts are profoundly tangible -- and may well include the financial crisis currently shaking the global economy to its core.

Auto-psy
Boeing's nightmare: Qantas dumps Dreamliners
Why gardening is more dangerous than cycling
Feathered fuel tank soaks up hydrogen

"We’re not going to have to help the oil industry. They already have all the help they need. I wouldn’t take away what they have but I wouldn’t add to it."(Charlie Maxwell is the life-long oil industry analyst viewed by Barrons’ magazine as their energy guru.)

Comedian, screenwriter and peak oil activist Jon Cooksey (How to Boil a Frog) presents his alt-reality agenda for the 2009 ASPO-USA conference.

Day 1. 9-9:01: Announcement that yes, peak oil is real and here now, and we’re running out of everything. All the usual presentations will be handed out as footnotes.

9:01-noon: Everyone who flew to the conference on a plane plants trees outside the hotel, followed by a pledge to forego driving double the number of miles they flew in the coming year. A Cadillac Escalade will be sacrificed to the god of climate change, Carbonus, just before lunch