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From Arab Spring to American Summer: The Politics of Power Outages Posted: 09 Jul 2012 03:11 PM PDT Amidst record-high temperatures and a very anti-climactic 4th of July, power outages have left millions without air-conditioning and even water in rural areas where households rely on electric pumps. At least 52 people have died from heat and three million people are still without power. No it’s not Yemen, where power outages in the capital Sana’a have sparked a new round of protests. It’s the United States of America, where corruption converges with a moribund electricity distribution system to produce increasingly frequent…
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Denmark to Lead EU in Going Green Posted: 09 Jul 2012 03:02 PM PDT Amidst the on-going roiling European Union debate over the organization’s crisis, politicians in Brussels have been scrambling to construct a fiscal policy that will shore up the organization’s common currency, the Euro.But the on-going hardball fiscal discussions have laid bare the fact that, quite aside from a common financial policy, the EU suffers from a number of sovereign disconnects as well, and one of the most notable of these is energy policy.In Spain, the government is preparing to raise taxes on renewable energy generation…
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Posted: 09 Jul 2012 02:57 PM PDT Your humble writer has been watching for the news out of the International Low Energy Nuclear Reactions Symposium, ILENRS-12 held at The College of William and Mary Sadler Center early last week. At long last, after years of little available event news we’re getting some interesting bits out.The process of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR) or Cold Fusion or your choice on an array of ideas on what to call it, have required the element palladium as a catalyst, that isn’t consumed, but represents an expensive initial outlay. …
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Shell’s Arctic Oil Spill Recovery Barge Refused Coast Guard Certificates Posted: 09 Jul 2012 02:43 PM PDT In the event of an offshore oil spill in the Arctic, Shell has previously admitted it can only “encounter” most of the oil in the frigid, pristine waters — not clean it up. However, it may lack the resources to do even that.As Shell’s fleet sails north to prepare offshore drilling in Arctic waters, Shell’s oil spill recovery barge, the Arctic Challenger, remains docked in northern Washington after failing to receive Coast Guard certification. The Los Angeles Times reports:The delay in certification adds another notch…
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Changing the Definition of ‘Oil’ to Make the Figures Look Better Posted: 09 Jul 2012 02:34 PM PDT Everyone knows that world oil production has been running between 88 and 89 million barrels per day (mbpd) this year because government, industry and media sources tell us so. As it turns out, what everyone knows is wrong.It’s wrong not because the range quoted above can’t be found in official sources. It’s wrong because the numbers include things which are not oil such as natural gas plant liquids and biofuels. If you strip these other things out, then world oil production has been running around 75 mbpd this year. The main thing you need to know…
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Norwegian Oil Companies to Shutdown All Oil Production at Midnight Posted: 09 Jul 2012 02:19 PM PDT The strike between offshore Norwegian oil workers and the oil companies is now into its third week with little progress made in the talks over pensions. The oil companies have been hoping that the Norwegian government will step in to force a resolution to the problem, however the Labour-led coalition government has been reluctant to intervene due to the upcoming elections at the end of this year, in which the trade unions are wield a lot of power.In order to try and force the governments hand a little Eli Ane Nedreskaar, a spokeswoman for the Norwegian…
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Landfills Contain Precious Metal Deposits 40-50 Times Richer than Mines Posted: 09 Jul 2012 02:18 PM PDT Technology advances at a phenomenal rate in the consumer electronic device market, with more efficient, faster, lighter, more powerful devices being released each year. This means that each year thousands of tonnes of devices are discarded as newer versions replace them, in fact e-waste is one of the fastest growing components of human waste. Not only is the quantity of waste vast, but also the value in terms of precious metals and plastics, which could be recovered and recycled. According to experts at the first ever Global e-Sustainability Initiative…
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