ACT Peak Oil

Solar thermal is a way of harnessing the largest source of energy available to us, so in this post I'll have a look at the upswing in interest in the use of this technology for electricity generation in recent years and look at some of the approaches being pursued to make it economically competitive with coal fired power generation.

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-US EPA chief concerned about gas drilling fluids
-Europe the new frontier in shale gas rush
-The true cost of shale gas production
-The Natural Gas Shopping Spree Quickens

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Science has a paper on the changes to the current global food system required to support the expanded global population we'll see in a couple of decades time, noting that radical changes to agriculture will be required to support 9 billion people.

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The world is immensely complicated, and the forces of sweeping change may overall boost transition towns for their positive contribution. Or as Ted Trainer lays out below, a course correction is needed now.

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Staff, Energy Bulletin. Julian Darley: Are we at PO tipping point?
IEA's Fatih Birol offers the world an oil health check - prognosis isn't good
Peak oil and Hubbert on Charlie Rose show
Peak and prices as drivers of change
S. Africa: PO paranoia on path to presidency
Nelder: The impending oil export crisis
Geologist vs investor: Why is oil so high?

Staff, Oil Depletion Analysis Centre. A digest of news and commentary from a UK peak oil perspective.

Staff, Energy Bulletin. Gazprom's bravado about $250 oil conceals output jitters
BP's review of global reserves tainted by 'political' oil
OPEC wants oil price `solution' from Saudi meeting
Libya says oil supply problem lies ahead
Murti of Goldman: oil prices may dip to $75
Australian natural gas - how much do we have and how long will it last ?

Staff, Energy Bulletin. Factories close, supermarkets empty and jets run out of fuel as truckers' strike bites (Spain, Portugal)
Oil price crisis threatens to reverse globalisation
Today's high oil prices could be here to stay

Staff, Energy Bulletin. U.S., UK agencies seek oil trading limits
Congress wary of oil-market speculation
Oil executives: "What do they know?"

John Michael Greer, The Archdruid Report. As soaring oil prices and economic turmoil seize the headlines and announce the arrival of peak oil as a social fact, it may be worth looking ahead at the implications of the end of the industrial age. Is modern science here to stay, or is it time to start taking steps to ensure its survival through a new Dark Age?

Tom Whipple, Falls Church News-Press. A good place to start looking at the current situation is with the latest International Energy Agency (IEA) and Energy Information Administration (EIA) monthly reports which were released earlier this week.

Staff, Energy Bulletin. Independent: Is this the end of oil?
Hamish McRae: Old King Coal alive and kicking
What they said at Globel Energy Conference
Book Review: Profit from the Peak
New Statesman: After the oil crunch?

Staff, Energy Bulletin. Riot police break up Spanish truckers' fuel protests as protests spread around world
Spain's car plants shut as fuel protests mount
Fuel protests in Asia and Europe, two dead
Fuel shortage in Buenos Aires
Nepal raises gasoline price by 25%

Staff, Energy Bulletin. BP chief's bleak view on oil crisis as production gap keeps widening
World has enough oil reserves -BP boss
La production mondiale de pétrole a décliné de 0,2% en 2007, selon BP
BP CEO: oil markets will save us (critique)
BP chief bets against 'peak oil' backer

Tom Whipple, ASPO-USA. A mid-week update on peak oil, featuring:
- Prices and imports
- British Petroleum
- Forecasts
- Chinese demand

Kelpie Wilson, Energy Bulletin. What are the character traits that will help us through the post-carbon transition? Report on the International Conference on Peak Oil and Climate Change held in Grand Rapids, Michigan on May 30 - June 1.

Jerome a Paris, European Tribune. Tony Hayward's ode to markets allows him to mix reasonable arguments with highly toxic ones.

Dave Cohen, ASPO-USA / Energy Bulletin. Can this oil price spike go on? Yes, indeed it can. Is oil in a speculative bubble? Mostly not, but there may be a downward market "correction" at some point.

Staff, Energy Bulletin. Chris Skrebowski interview: Oil leaps to new record
BP chief bets 'peak oil' backer Aleklett that output will keep rising
Gazprom's warning: rise in oil prices has only just begun
Australia's peak oil billionaire
Nicholas von Hoffman: Oil change

Ron Steenblik, Gristmill. The United States and Asia's four largest economies (Japan, China, India and South Korea), meeting in Aomori, Japan, have formed a sort of Petro-holics non-Anonymous club, calling for an end to oil subsidies in their countries.