Maine lawmakers last month quietly passed a non-binding resolution backing the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline. The pipeline has become political fodder during the U.S. presidential campaign season and the Maine Senate, along partisan lines, said it was time to lend its voice to the contentious debate. Left out of the Senate debate, however, were controversial plans for a similar pipeline planned to deliver oil to ports in their very own state. And it’s an election year. For critics of U.S. President Barack Obama, the Keystone XL has…

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In the Manichean struggle between the forces of light and dark, energy companies are frequently portrayed as accomplices to Darth Vader with their disregard of the environmentalists, whilst everyone else cheers on those allying themselves with Mother Nature. But, sad to say, sometimes environmentalists, particularly those in government, can fall prey to practices more identified with energy issues, like bribery. Such a case is now wending its way through Croatia’s courts, with Zagreb being regaled with tales of high level embezzlement and…

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Oil smuggling is embedded into the social, political and economic fabric of Greece, with annual revenues generated from illegal fuel smuggling reaching €3 billion euros as of 2008, and some sources say that although Greece imports up to 99 percent of its fuel needs, it still manages to export more than it imports.  Greece thrives on its shipping industry and one of its main contraband markets is petroleum. Greek regulations have shipping oil priced at one-third the price of automotive and home heating oil. In response, smugglers transform…

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The current health of Venezuelan President Hugo Rafael Chavez can best be described as parlous. The health of the leader of Latin America’s self proclaimed Bolivarian revolution has enormous global implications, even as the American press regards it as a minor diversion somewhere below March Madness. Why should American’s care? Well, for a start, according to the U.S. Energy Administration, the United States total crude oil imports now average 9.033 million barrels per day (mbpd), with the top five exporting countries being Canada (2.666…

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I am firmly convinced that one of the best investment opportunities in the world today is in nuclear power. In this article I will discuss why that is, and how one can go about making such investments. The first point to be made in any discussion of a coming nuclear renaissance is that peak oil is real. In other words, oil production will continue to decline over the next couple decades, at a time when population and energy demand are rising. This creates a situation in which the energy market is being hit on both ends: on the supply side, oil…

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A lot has happened in Mali in less than three weeks’ time. Renegade soldiers have declared a coup d’état; Touareg separatists have carved out their own state the size of France in the country’s north; the president has formally resigned; elections have been promised within 40 days; and a handful of Algerian diplomats have been kidnapped. All of this has happened to the surprise of Malians, Mali’s neighbors, the entire African community and Western Intelligence. The media across the board has provided us with the “news”…

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A team of researchers from Ford Motor Company are asserting in a paper published in the journal Fuel that “substantial societal benefits” would arrive for consumers by using higher volume blends of ethanol to leverage the alcohol’s inherent high octane rating to produce ethanol-gasoline blends with higher octane numbers. Octane numbers measure in scale the ability of a fuel to resist “knock” an ignition event resulting from premature fuel burning in spark-ignited engines.  The early ignition drives the piston…

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The European Union and US sanctions against Iran, intended to limit its oil exports and put the nation under economic pressure, will soon take full effect. They have been established in an attempt to force the cessation of uranium enrichment which the West fears is aimed at developing nuclear weapons; although Iran protests that their intentions are peaceful. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has recently stated that the wide-ranging sanctions against Iran could its oil exports by as much as 1 million barrels per day (40% of total production).…

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In 2010 Chile had a GDP per capita of $15,400, far more than most of its neighbours and a sign that it could be become one of the first Latin American nations to become a fully developed country. However it faces a major obstacle before it could hope to achieve this status; the fact that it has been struggling to fulfil its energy needs. In September 2010, nearly 60 percent of the Chilean population found themselves without electricity due to a blackout caused by the inability to match the power supply to demand. The blackout left the country’s…

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In 2009, the percentage of the planet’s population living in urban areas crossed the 50% threshold…this year the population of the world’s cities will grow by a further 65 million people, equal in size to the total population of France…As recently as 1990 the United States had the highest number of one million plus inhabitant urban agglomerations globally with a total of 33….by the year 2020 China will lead the world with 121 followed by India with 58…Remarkably, in 2009 China generated some 40.9% of GDP…

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