Category Archives: Oil

Failing states, collapsing systems: biophysical triggers of political violence

Preface. In this post I summarize the sections of Nafeez’s book about the biophysical factors that bring nations down (i.e. climate change drought & water scarcity, declining revenues after peak oil, etc.) The Media tend to focus exclusively on economic … Continue reading

Posted in Cascading Failure, Caused by Scarce Resources, Collapse of Civilizations, Collapsed & collapsing nations, Drought & Collapse, Exports decline to ZERO, Food production, Interdependencies, Limits To Growth, Middle East, Other Experts, Over Oil, Overpopulation, Peak Oil, Violence, War & Violence | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

How Much Oil is Left?

The Power of Exponential Growth: Every 10 years we have burned more oil than all previous decades Preface. There is a lot of oil left. The problem is, most of the remaining oil is unconventional, which needs a lot more … Continue reading

Posted in How Much Left, Oil, Peak Oil | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

U.S. House meeting on terrorist threats to energy security

[ Even though this hearing was over a decade ago, the issues are still the same.  Nothing has changed. Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation, 2015, Springer] House 109-70. July 27, … Continue reading

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Scientific American: Peak oil and coal may keep catastrophic climate change in check

[ Since conventional oil, 90% of supply, peaked in 2005-6 we’ve been on a plateau.  Since the rate of conventional oil decline exponentially decreasing, and population is still exponentially increasing, it is unlikely unconventional oil like shale “fracked” oil, tar … Continue reading

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The Hidden Costs of Oil. U.S. Senate hearing 2006.

[ This post has excerpts from the 2006 U.S. Senate hearing “The Hidden Cost of Oil”.  It is a timely reminder, now that gasoline prices are low and peak oil off the radar, that we are nowhere near the American … Continue reading

Posted in Caused by Scarce Resources, Military, Peak Oil, U.S. Congress Energy Dependence, U.S. Congress Energy Policy | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on The Hidden Costs of Oil. U.S. Senate hearing 2006.

Energy return of ultra-deepwater Gulf of Mexico oil and gas

Moerschbaecher, M., John W. Day Jr. October 21, 2011. Ultra-Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas: Energy Return on Financial Investment and a Preliminary Assessment of Energy Return on Energy. Sustainability 2011, 3, 2009-2026 [Excerpts from this 18 page paper … Continue reading

Posted in EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Threats to oil supply | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Oil shocks and the potential for crisis U.S. House 2007

Preface. There have been two oil shockwave “oil crisis stimulations”, summaries of both from 2005 and 2007 are below.  Oil Shockwaves confront a mock U.S. cabinet with highly plausible geopolitical crises that trigger sharp increases in oil prices. Participants must … Continue reading

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Schlesinger predicts investments in 2006 will cause oil glut and denial of peak oil in future

Energy Security and Oil Dependence. Two Senate hearings from 2006. In these two 2006 hearings (excerpts below), there is a constant refrain of our dependence on oil,  yet now, many congressional hearings are about our energy independence.  Apparently congress has … Continue reading

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Shale Euphoria: The Boom and Bust of Sub Prime Oil and Natural Gas

[ U.S. house hearings have stated that the U.S. is energy independent, that shale oil and gas will give us a century of energy independence: House 112-176 in 2012, House 113-1 2013, and several others.  In fact we have so … Continue reading

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GAO asks Congress to prepare for Peak Oil

[The Department of Energy (DOE) asked Robert Hirsch to come up with a peak oil risk management and mitigation plan which was published in 2005.  Nothing happened, so in 2007 the Government Accountability Office asked Congress to prepare for Peak … Continue reading

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