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Canada's 'dirty oil' challenge - Vocal opposition to Canada's growing oil sands industry
BBC Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:25:18 GMT
In April this year, about 500 migrating ducks on their way north landed in what looked like a large lake in western Canada.

It was not a lake, but a tailings pond - a store for toxic waste from the oil sands extraction process, made up of water, clay, sand, residual bitumen and heavy metals.

Most of the ducks died, killed by the slick of oil on the water's surface.

Oil sands production, which requires large amounts of energy and water to extract the bitumen from the sand, is said to produce on average at least three times the greenhouse gas emissions of conventional oil extraction.

The industry is already Canada's largest single greenhouse gas emitter, which has led opponents to call oil from the oil sands "dirty oil". Output is expected to triple by 2020.

The oil sands are single-handedly preventing Canada from meeting any of its Kyoto obligations, Mr Hudema says.

Under the UN climate agreement, Canada was to have reduced its emissions to 20% below 2006 levels by 2020. The federal government has said it will not even attempt to meet those targets.

It has been widely reported in the Canadian media that oil sands company Suncor admitted to a leak of 1,600 sq m from its Tar Island Pond 1 tailings pond in 1997, although a current spokesman for Suncor says he does not have any information about the incident.

Environmental scientist Kevin Timoney says he has seen data that suggest elevated levels of PAHs downstream of the plants, which he says could only be attributable to oil sands production.

"I think eventually, when all the studies are complete, we should be able to conclude that the tar sands industry is creating an environmental catastrophe," Mr Timoney says.
2009 oil price forecasts slashed
PRESSTV Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:52:55 GMT
Energy price forecasts have been slashed by the US Department of Energy and the International Energy Agency as economic woes intensify.
UK experts give blackouts warning
BBC Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:05:28 GMT
Energy experts warn the UK could face an unacceptable risk of major blackouts in less than 10 years unless policy is improved.
Many energy bills 'unjustified'
BBC Tue, 21 Oct 2008 05:00:56 GMT
A former energy watchdog says better regulation and market reforms could reduce household power bills by £300 to £400 annually.
Why power prices aren't falling
BBC Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:13:45 GMT
There was a hope that a global economic slowdown, which has led to a fall in oil prices, would also lead to a fall in the gas and electricity prices we all pay.

Well, don't hold your breath - for all the pressure that the prime minister, no less, put on the energy companies this weekend to cut their energy tariffs.

Wholesale gas prices for delivery in the first quarter of 2009 are 62% above last winter's price. And electricity prices for the same period are 67% up, year on year.

As for wholesale electricity prices for November and December, they are even higher.

What's galling is that wholesale gas was supposedly priced off the oil price on the way up - but now that the oil price has more than halved, the gas price seems to have de-coupled (to use the awful jargon).

There's a bit of a smell around all of this. Few would probably argue that the gas market is either rational or efficient.
China, Pakistan up nuclear cooperation
PRESSTV Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:31:37 GMT
China agrees to fulfill Pakistan's aspiration for an expanded nuclear program after a nuclear deal was struck between the US and India.
Britain 'faces power cuts threat'
BBC Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:22:05 GMT
The UK will experience prolonged power cuts in about five years unless urgent action is taken, a report warns.
New hydroelectric scheme: A good invesment for the future?
GUARDIAN Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:12:23 GMT
A small-scale hydroelectric scheme promises green power and offers investors a 7.5% annual return in what could be a model for the rest of the UK. Miles Brignall reports
"Mechanics see ethanol damaging small engines"
WORLDPRESSNETWORK Wed, 3 Sep 08
Fuel blend, already implicated in high food prices, linked to rise in repairs
N-waste containers likely to fail, warns 'devastating' report
INDEPENDENT Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:00:01 GMT
Thousands of containers of lethal nuclear waste are likely to fail before being safely sealed away underground, a devastating official report concludes.
Look out for the 125mph electric car (because you won't hear it)
INDEPENDENT Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:00:01 GMT
It looks as stylish as a Lotus, can outpace a Porsche 911 and is coveted by Hollywood A-listers such as Brad Pitt and George Clooney. But unlike the average super car, the Tesla Roadster is electric.
Gulf 'dead zone' suffocating fish and livelihoods
BAYNEWS9 Thu, 21 Aug 2008
Oceanographers who test the Gulf of Mexico waters every month confirm the veteran fisherman is right.

"We're not finding enough oxygen to support life, aquatic life," said scientist Lora Pride aboard the Pelican, the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium research vessel that studies the Gulf.
Comment from Mike Rivero :

So, let us recap.

Ethanol is sold to us on the claim that it is "carbon neutral" (which it isn't when you add in the emissions form the processing itself), and therefore a way to deal with the crisis-de-jour, human-caused global warming (at a time when the Earth's temperature is actually in decline). Since ethanol contains less energy than an equivalent amount of gasoline, drivers must buy and burn more of it to drive the same distance, which means it is actually more expensive per mile than gasoline. Plus, Germany has just banned ethanol because they discovered it actually damages the fuel system on cars designed to run on gasoline, thereby driving up the cost of car repairs (and the carbon output from the factories that make those spare hoses and gaskets).

As a side effect of turning corn into ethanol, food prices went through the roof. Crop surpluses vanished, and as a consequence, weather and flood-induced food shortages occurred right here in the United States.

And now we find out that the run-off from all this intensified corn farming is creating oxygen-free dead zones, killing off another source of food, deep ocean fish.

So what we have here is a media hoax used to sell us a product that we did not really need that costs more and does more harm to the world than the non-existent crisis supposedly did.

It sounds good in Al Gore's TV Commercials, but it has not been thought out very well. It may be good public relations, but it is not good science.

But then, snake oil never is.

Compost bug offers hope for biofuel industry
GUARDIAN Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:24:42 GMT
A detritus-loving bug that can be found in nearly every garden compost heap in the land could be about to transform the way the world makes biofuels. By James Randerson
Five charged over depot protest
BBC Fri, 8 Aug 08 08:20:40 BST
Five people are charged with obstructing a highway after a protest at a biofuel depot in Essex.
Jenny Jones: Boris: no more energy for sustainability?
GUARDIAN Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT
I knew the mayor would ditch some of his predecessor's more radical environmental plans, but he's pushing London back years
Arthur Scargill: Coal isn't the climate enemy, Mr Monbiot. It's the solution
GUARDIAN Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:15:40 GMT
Arthur Scargill: We must draw on existing resources as part of an integrated energy policy, not flirt with nuclear, the most dangerous option
'Major discovery' from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution
SILVERBEARCAFE Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:47:42 GMT
Scientists mimic essence of plants' energy storage system

In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine.
Plutonium leak at Austrian plant
PRESSTV Mon, 04 Aug 2008 05:04:36 GMT
The International Atomic Energy Agency says plutonium has leaked in one of its laboratories but no radiation escaped the building.
Andhra Pradesh hit by energy woes
PRESSTV Sun, 03 Aug 2008 05:09:28 GMT
Andhra Pradesh State has suffered a rain shortfall the past four years and cities like Heyderabad are rationing electricity for industrial sectors.
China's 'rapid renewables surge'
BBC Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:33:30 GMT
Rapid investment in low carbon energy catapults China to second place in the global renewables ranking, a report shows.
Biofuels: Green energy or grim reaper? - Little wonder that many are calling biofuels "deforestation diesel"
BBC Flashback Friday, 22 September 2006
Biofuels could end up damaging the natural world rather than saving it from global warming, argues Jeff McNeely in the Green Room. Better policies, better science and genetic modification, he says, can all contribute to a greener biofuels revolution.

Of course we all want greater energy security, and helping achieve the goals (however weak) of the Kyoto Protocol is surely a good thing.

However, biofuels - made by producing ethanol, an alcohol fuel made from maize, sugar cane, or other plant matter - may be a penny wise but pound foolish way of doing so.

If ethanol is imported from the US, it will likely come from maize, which uses fossil fuels at every stage in the production process, from cultivation using fertilisers and tractors to processing and transportation. Growing maize appears to use 30% more energy than the finished fuel produces, and leaves eroded soils and polluted waters behind

With so much farmland already taking the form of monoculture, with all that implies for wildlife, do we really want to create more diversity-stripped desert?

Others are worried about the impacts of biofuels on food prices, which will affect especially the poor who already spend a large proportion of their income on food.
Uranium leak at France's Tricastin nuclear plant
GUARDIAN Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:17:40 GMT
Local rivers and groundwater contaminated, leading locals to rely on bottled water and tanks trucked in from other parts of France
France's EDF ready to unveil £12bn deal for British Energy
GUARDIAN Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:19:12 GMT
An agreement will raise questions about a French takeover of the British nuclear sector. By Terry Macalister and David Gow
Gore challenges US to ditch oil
BBC Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:11:40 GMT
Nobel Laureate Gore urges Americans to abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade.

To secure this green revolution, Mr Gore said the single most important policy change would be to "tax what we burn - not what we earn".
Gore lets his mask slip : Tax the poor more than the rich
WORLDPRESSNETWORK Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:11:40 GMT
Gore has let his mask slip. When Gore advocates that the single most important policy change would be to "tax what we burn - not what we earn", he really means we should shift the burden of taxation away from the rich capitalist towards the rest of society since a person earning ten million dollars doesn't burn one thousand times as much fuel as a person earning ten thousand. Indeed, a shift of taxation onto to the "burners" will further burden the workers who have to travel long distances since either they don't live near their place of work (due to the high cost of accommodation in these central locations), or who have to travel due to their work (e.g. truck drivers or traveling salesmen).

The rich capitalists also have the option of staying overseas (whether in Dubai, Moneco or Israel) thus avoiding paying these fuel taxes which the US tax payers will be lumbered with. As a double-whammy, a considerable amount of this money which is then channeled to Israel, further assisting the dual-nationals. I smell a small conflict of interest here, not least since most senators and congressmen are multi-millionaires, so they are voting themselves a tax cut, whilst lumbering the rest of the US tax payers with the bill. No change there then.
Energy potential of Alberta's oil sands place Canada in a ecological dilemma
GUARDIAN Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:18:10 GMT
As oil prices continue to reach record highs, the search for new sources of energy has led the world to Alberta, Canada, and its vast oil sands. Now, John Vidal finds, the country famed for its wilderness and clean living finds itself caught between fuelling the world's oil-hungry economy and the ecological devastation and soaring greenhouse gas emissions that exploiting the tar sands produces
Video: John Vidal asks the oil firms tough questions on their plans for exploiting Canada's tar sands
GUARDIAN Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:19:42 GMT
What happens when the world's biggest oil companies target a northern wilderness? John Vidal heads to Canada to ask some tough questions of the oil industry and its intentions in northern Alberta
Food inflation blamed on biofuels - UK to slow expansion of biofuels "The review admits we are hurtling towards environmental disaster and should be used to put the brakes on biofuels"
BBC Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:40:32 GMT
The UK is to slow its adoption of biofuels, Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly has told the House of Commons.

She said that while biofuels had the potential to cut carbon emissions there were "increasing questions" about them.

The uncontrolled expansion of biofuels might actually contribute to higher food prices and see the destruction of rainforests, she said.

Ms Kelly said she agreed with the conclusions of the Gallagher report to "amend not abandon" biofuel policies.

Her statement came on the day the World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, called for reform of biofuel policies in rich countries, urging them to grow more food instead.

A panel of government experts, chaired by Professor Ed Gallagher, head of the Renewable Fuels Agency, looked at the impact of biofuels on land use.

Poverty fears

The report did not go as far as a damning study from the World Bank last week, which blamed biofuels for a 75% rise in food prices.

But it called for biofuels to be introduced more slowly than planned until controls are in place to prevent higher food prices and land being switched from forests or agriculture to growing fuels.

It fears that current policies could see grain prices in the EU rise by 15%, sugar by 7% and oil seed by 50%, while millions more people in other parts of the world could be pushed into poverty.

Biofuel use 'increasing poverty'
BBC **Wednesday, 25 June 2008 01:51 UK**

The replacement of traditional fuels with biofuels has dragged more than 30 million people worldwide into poverty, an aid agency report says.

Oxfam says so-called green policies in developed countries are contributing to the world's soaring food prices, which hit the poor hardest.

The group also says biofuels will do nothing to combat climate change.

Its report urges the EU to scrap a target of making 10% of all transport run on renewable resources by 2020.

Oxfam estimates the EU's target could multiply carbon emissions 70-fold by 2020 by changing the use of land.

The report's author, Oxfam's biofuel policy adviser Rob Bailey, criticised rich countries for using subsidies and tax breaks to encourage the use of food crops for alternative sources of energy like ethanol.

"If the fuel value for a crop exceeds its food value, then it will be used for fuel instead," he said.

"Rich countries... are making climate change worse, not better, they are stealing crops and land away from food production, and they are destroying millions of livelihoods in the process."


G8 urged to cut down on biofuels
BBC Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:02:48 GMT
Rich nations should produce less biofuel and more food to help relieve hunger, the World Bank chief tells a G8 summit.
UK government to 'proceed cautiously' on biofuel transport targets
GUARDIAN Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:14:38 GMT
The UK will continue to expand the use of biofuels in petrol and diesel for transport but will slow down their introduction in line with the recommendations of a new government review, transport secretary announces
US warns Iran of further sanctions
PRESSTV Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:42:05 GMT
Deputy US Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt has warned Iran to suspend enrichment or face further sanctions over its nuclear program.
US urges Iran to suspend enrichment
PRESSTV Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:48:33 GMT
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack has asked Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment prior to resumption of formal talks.
Disaster Capitalism: State of Extortion by Naomi Klein
COMMONDREAMS Friday July 4, 2008
Privatizing Iraq’s oil, ensuring global dominance for genetically modified crops, lowering the last of the trade barriers and opening the last of the wildlife refuges… Not so long ago, those goals were pursued through polite trade agreements, under the benign pseudonym “globalization.” Now this discredited agenda is forced to ride on the backs of serial crises, selling itself as lifesaving medicine for a world in pain.
Something Big is Going On
CAMPAIGNFORLIBERTY Fri, 04 Jul 2008
The following statement is written by Congressman Paul about the pending financial disaster.
...
Though the world has long suffered from the senselessness of wars that should have been avoided, my greatest fear is that the course on which we find ourselves will bring even greater conflict and economic suffering to the innocent people of the world—unless we quickly change our ways.

The notion that a country can afford “guns and butter” with no significant penalty existed even before the 1960s when it became a popular slogan. It was then, though, we were told the Vietnam War and a massive expansion of the welfare state were not problems. The seventies proved that assumption wrong.

If modern technology had been used to promote the ideas of liberty, free markets, sound money and trade, it would have ushered in a new golden age—a globalism we could accept.

Instead, the wealth and freedom we now enjoy are shrinking and rest upon a fragile philosophic infrastructure. It is not unlike the levies and bridges in our own country that our system of war and welfare has caused us to ignore.

I’m fearful that my concerns have been legitimate and may even be worse than I first thought. They are now at our doorstep. Time is short for making a course correction before this grand experiment in liberty goes into deep hibernation.

There are reasons to believe this coming crisis is different and bigger than the world has ever experienced. Instead of using globalism in a positive fashion, it’s been used to globalize all of the mistakes of the politicians, bureaucrats and central bankers.
We must end our oil dependency, says chancellor
GUARDIAN Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:52:10 GMT
Alistair Darling says new nuclear power stations and green energy can counter the 'huge threat' of high oil prices, which today hit a new record. By Julia Kollewe
IMF issues oil and food warning
ALJAZEERA Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:08:28 GMT
The International Monetary Fund has warned that rocketing oil and food prices could worsen poverty.

Many poor and developing countries will have to adjust their economic policies in response to soaring commodity prices, according to an IMF report issued on Tuesday.

"Some countries are at a tipping point," Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF's managing director, said.

"If food prices rise further and oil prices stay the same, some governments will no longer be able to feed their people and at the same time maintain stability in their economies," he said in Washington DC.

The IMF report said poorer countries were having to pay out billions of dollars more for imported oil and food.

The report said global food inflation almost doubled in 2007.

While food inflation in major industrial nations was relatively low - around three per cent - it reached 10 per cent in developing countries and would have been higher without food subsidies, the IMF said.

Preliminary data showed food inflation in 120 developing nations had risen to 12 per cent in March this year, the report said.
Food price rises force biofuel U-turn
INDEPENDENT Fri, 04 Jul 2008