Category Archives: Experts

experts in energy, ecology, collapse, carrying capacity, biophysical and neoclassical economics, etc.

U.S. House 2000 Ensuring adequate supplies of natural gas and crude oil

Posted on July 27, 2016 by

[ The usual partisan nonsense can be found here — Republicans blaming Democrats for not solving the energy crisis by “Drill Baby Drill” and Democrats berating  Republicans for cutting energy efficiency programs. There are a few biophysical acknowledgements that energy … Continue reading →

Posted in U.S. Congress Energy Policy | 1 Comment

Is large-scale energy storage dead?

Posted on July 18, 2016 by

 April 8, 2016 by Roger Andrews at euanmearns.com Many countries have committed to filling large percentages of their future electricity demand with intermittent renewable energy, and to do so they will need long-term energy storage in the terawatt-hours range. But … Continue reading →

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National security implications of international energy and climate change policies, Senate hearing

Posted on June 26, 2016 by

[This is an excerpt of a very interesting senate hearing that looks at how war can be caused by climate change (i.e. drought, hunger, rising sea levels) and how climate change will affect infrastructure. The European emissions trading scheme and … Continue reading →

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Emerging threats of resource wars. U.S. House hearing

Posted on June 15, 2016 by

Goh Chun Teck, Lim Xian You, Sum Qing Wei, Tong Huu Khiem. 2011. Resource Wars. Players compete with each other for territories that generate resources such as coal, water, gold and gas. A Player can sell resources for money, which … Continue reading →

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House of Representatives hearing 113-2 Feb 13, 2013: American Energy Outlook: Technology market and policy drivers.

Posted on June 12, 2016 by

House 113-2. February 13, 2013. American Energy Outlook: Technology market and policy drivers. House of Representatives hearing. [ Excerpts from the 119 page transcript of this hearing ] Chairwoman Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming. It is difficult to overstate the importance of … Continue reading →

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Once upon a time Congress knew an energy crisis was coming

Posted on June 4, 2016 by

Extracts from the 2005 Senate hearing “High Costs of Crude” [ In Mason Inman’s outstanding biography of M. King Hubbert, “The Oracle of Oil”, he shows five different models Hubbert used to predict the continental peak of U.S. production that … Continue reading →

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Sex, crime, and death on the high seas. A U.S. Senate investigation of the cruise ship industry

Posted on June 1, 2016 by

Senate 113–642. July 24, 2013. Cruise Industry Oversight: recent incidents show need for stronger focus on consumer protection. U.S. Senate hearing. 169 pages. Since 2011, cruise lines voluntarily reported 959 alleged crimes to the FBI, and 130 crimes that must … Continue reading →

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

Posted on May 25, 2016 by

[ 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 →

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Tar sand EROI 2013 Poisson and Hall

Posted on May 21, 2016 by

Alexandre Poisson, Charles A. S. Hall. 2013. Time Series EROI for Canadian Oil and Gas. Energies 2013, 6, 5940-5959 [ This is an extract from this 20-page paper. Tar sands are the hope offered by techno-optimists that a great deal … Continue reading →

Posted in Charles A. S. Hall, EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Tar Sands (Oil Sands) | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Peter Turchin: violence and social unrest in the U.S. and Europe likely by 2020

Posted on May 18, 2016 by

Preface. Peter Turchin, an expert on the cycles of history and the rise and fall of civilizations, has used mathematical models of complex systems to predict political instability. Debora MacKenzie at NewScientist interviewed him about his upcoming book “Ultrasociety” in … Continue reading →

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