Energy demand

The United States Joint Forces Command regularly (about every two years) issues its “perspective on future trends, shocks, contexts and implications for… the national security field.”...Amid the multitude of security threats, energy has moved rapidly to the forefront, and it is the oil supply issue which is the focus of this review.

A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-China

Alan Kohler had an interesting column in The Business Spectator recently ("The cars that ate Australia") warning that as our car fleet transitions from the internal combustion to electric vehicles, local car manufacturers need to start looking to manufacture EV's or they (and all their suppliers) will end up shutting down.

David Orr was in the UK recently, and the two of us were part of a panel at an event organised by the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment. After the event, we retired to the bar of a rather grand London hotel, and chatted for an hour about energy, climate change, the Precautionary Principle, Transition and whether or not we are beyond talk of ’solutions’. Part two will follow shortly.

-The Case Against Biofuels: Probing Ethanol’s Hidden Costs
-Big Oil Behind Yet Another Biofuels Research Paper
-Harrabin's Notes: Battle over biofuel strategy

-Detroit Wants To Save Itself - By Shrinking
-Orange officials sue couple who removed their lawn
-Obama’s Nuclear Blind Spot
-Tory budget ‘walks away' from renewable energy, environmentalist says

-World oil demand’s shift toward faster growing and less price-responsive products and regions
-Economists deliver a sturdy smackdown of peak oil demand
-Study Finds that Peak Oil Demand is Decades Away, but Minimizes Effects of Rising Consumer Product Prices
-Forecasts underestimate oil demand, study says

The National Intelligence Council has released a report on the expected effects of climate change to the Caribbean region. This 21 page report is entitled Mexico, The Caribbean and Central America: The Impact of Climate Change to 2030: Geopolitical Implications (NIC Conference Report, Jan. 2010). The report is authored by a team of private researchers under the Global Climate Change Research Program contract with the CIA’s Office of the Chief Scientist.

EROI theory is rooted in the biological principle that in order to survive each species on earth must procure more energy from its food than it expends attaining that food. From this basic principle the importance of energy surplus became evident, as food sources needed to “pay” not only for metabolism but also for reproduction and storage for leaner times. Part 1 of this three part series presents a brief history of the concept of surplus energy and how it has influenced both biological and human evolution.

My busy eating, drinking & breathing schedule prevented me from going down to Houston for CERAWeek this year. It's funny how that works—something seems to come up every year. So I'll have to use news reports to get a feel for how this year's exciting oil & gas Schmooze-Fest went. Tuesday, March 9th was Oil Day.

David Shields is a journalist and independent oil industry analyst based in Mexico City. Steve Andrews caught up with him yesterday and posed a few questions.

A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-From the IEA
-China
-CERA week
-Quote of the week
-Briefs

-EU to exceed 2020 green energy target: forecasts
-Quantum Physics Breakthrough: Scientists Find an Equation for Materials Innovation
-Solar PV has failed in Germany and it will fail in the UK

-World’s Pall of Black Carbon Can Be Eased With New Stoves
-Treasure Trove in World's E-Waste
-City sets out healthy ambitions for local food
-Galleria mall is giant greenhouse, raising organic crops in Cleveland

-Is East Africa the Next Frontier for Oil?
-'Market can absorb spare Saudi capacity' - Al Falih
-Royal Dutch Shell halts gasoline sales to Iran
-Traders bet on higher gasoline prices
-How a 22-year-old student uncovered peak oil fraud