Well, look at us bloggers, all spiffy on the takepart front page, being all important and whatnot. And, if you’ve read us at all in the past, you know it’s times like these I like to lay down a big old buzzkill. You may have noticed gas prices going down recently, which of course is tied to the price of oil, and you’re all thinking, hey, great, I can drive again. Sweet deal.

Not so fast there, speedster. Nobuo Tanaka, the head of the International Energy Agency, has proclaimed that even with this dip in prices, “The low energy price age is over.” The New York Times also reports that Christophe de Margerie, chief executive of a French oil company, has a bleak outlook as well.

Mr. de Margerie said that when oil prices bounce back, they could reach unprecedented levels, making it wise for investors to keep investing in alternatives.

So, on the plus side of all this, though, is that this may lead to more investment in alternative energy. But once again, not so fast there tree hugger.

Read the rest of this entry »

Two Thirds of the Triumvirate Share a Handshake and a Smile

Russia, Iran and Qatar today announced they were forming a “big gas troika” for natural gas production similar to OPEC for oil. Just when it looked like falling oil prices might slow the roll toward alternative energy, another pressing reason pops up like a whack-a-mole game.

Natural gas is already a huge source of energy around the globe, with widespread usage of the greenhouse gas emitting fuel for home heating and electrical power generation. Recently it has even been seriously proposed by T. Boone Pickens for his own Pickens Plan as an alternative fuel source to power automobiles in the United States. However, as this recent announcement coming specifically from Iran and Russia (I don’t want to pick on little Qatar) clearly illustrates, increasing the usage of Natural Gas around the globe in place of oil will put us in the familiar and unenviable position of being beholden to some of the more troubling governments on Earth to satisfy our energy demands.

Read the rest of this entry »

Alternative energy sources like wind power may be under threat because of the credit freeze and sudden drops in the price of oil and gas, according to the New York Times.   Despite both presidential candidates talk of increasing the use of green energy, advocates are worried that the changeover might not be so smooth and that clean power could lose support.   Companies are having a hard time raising money for projects because of high initial costs, but hopefully investors will see that the long term financial and environmental benefits of wind and solar power far out weigh the ugly costs of fossil fuels.

takepart by thanking your legislator for extending Wind Energy Tax Credits and urge them to continue to support Clean Energy.

Related:

Inconvenient Truth of the Day

Green Policies Are Good For The Economy, Too!

Don’t Let Falling Oil Prices Slow the Push For Alternative Energy

It’s easy to run around convincing people of the need for alternative energy sources when they’re being forced to pay over $4.00 for a gallon of gasoline.   But now that oil prices have nosedived to about $74.00 per barrel, just slightly more than half their record all time high of $145 per barrel reached earlier this year, the job of pushing for alternative energy becomes all the more challenging.

The facts remain the same.   Regardless of what you’re paying at the gas pump, the emissions spewing out of the tailpipe of your vehicle are speeding Global Warming and destroying the environment as we know it on this planet.   And if environmentalism isn’t your thing, keep in mind that the money from your gasoline purchases is still going straight into the bank accounts of some of the most repressive governments on the face of this earth.   They may not be getting a flush as quickly as they were at peak prices, but that’s still money that could be staying here in America to pay for energy resources like wind, solar and tidal that are readily available every day across this country.

Read the rest of this entry »

Less than a week ago, I wrote about how a barrel of oil had dropped below $100 for the first time in a half billion years, and I was thinking aloud on whether this was a good thing or not.   Well, that whole post is totally moot now as oil prices jumped up to $120 a barrel today.   This probably has something to do with Wall Street falling apart.

The New York Times reports that oil prices surged as investors were drawn to commodities today due to the uncertainty stemming from the news of, well, everything.   Take your pick.   Goldman, AIG, Fannie, Freddie, Morgan, Lehman’s, Citi, and we can keep going and going and going.   The dollar grew even weaker today, too, hitting $1.478 against the Euro, giving Europeans another reason to be all snooty about themselves.   Oh, and the Dow dropped 372 points today, too.   Anyway, we were talking about oil prices.

Due to refinery issues stemming from the hurricanes, prices at the gas pump had remained inflated, so it’s difficult to say how much of an impact the higher price of crude will have when you fill up your tank.

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, the opposite of what I expected to see happen in my lifetime happened, and the price of crude oil actually closed below $100 a barrel yesterday, and this morning it’s already down to about $91.  However, The New York Times reports that even with this development, refinery disruptions due to Hurricane Ike have driven gas prices at the pump over the last few days.

Oil was at a ridiculous $145 in July, and many analysts had a barrel going above $200 by the end of the year.   Now, one analyst is guessing prices may go even lower.

Paolo Scaroni, the chief executive of Eni, Italy’s largest oil company, predicted on Saturday that the slowdown may push prices to $70 a barrel, a level that could bring average gasoline prices below $3.50 a gallon nationwide.

We have to be careful to decide if this is good or bad news.   We’ll call it bittersweet.

Read the rest of this entry »

Remember when oil reached its high of nearly $150 a barrel back in July?  Well, the price has been quietly falling since then (or, maybe loudly, I don’t know, I just hadn’t heard anything about it), and today the price closed at $103.20 a barrel.  And OPEC is not happy.  The cartel met last night and, deciding prices needed to stay above $100 a barrel, stated they would cut production by 500,000 barrels a day.

And Saudi Arabia said no.  According to The New York Times, in June King Abdullah assured “that his country would pump at full tilt to bring prices down.”  Last month, the nation produced 9.7 million barrels a day to drive down prices.  Even now, Saudi Arabia is producing 9.5 million barrels a day, 600,000 more than its quota.  OPEC surprisingly went against the nation last night when it stated it would cut production by 500,000 barrels a day to keep prices up.  Almost immediately, as early as this morning, the Saudis were already assuring everyone that they would not be cutting production.

Why are the Saudis doing this?

Read the rest of this entry »

1) U.S. role in Georgia/Russia war: Al Jazeera interviews Jon Sawyer

For the Cinema YouTube Video of the Day, Click here>>

Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps one good thing will come out of the brutal fighting between Russia and Georgia this past weekend; a renewed push away from oil.   Just when falling oil prices had begun to sap some of the urgency out of the need for a viable alternative to a petroleum based economy, Vladimir Putin’s newly enriched Russian Petrostate came through with yet another compelling reason to let oil go the way of the dinosaur.   The attacks on the tiny Democratic Republic of Georgia have not only highlighted the urgency of leaving the future of our energy needs in the hands of unpredictable, sometimes openly aggressive countries around the world.   They have also, at least temporarily, driven slumping oil prices back up, with Russian bombing campaigns over Georgia just nearly missing the Baku-Tblisi-Erzerum oil pipeline, a conduit for 1% of all world supplies, coming out of Azerbaijan.

Read the rest of this entry »

“War has started” declared Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin referring to the commencement of bombing and a land invasion on the neighboring Republic of Georgia.   Russian forces are responding to a recent offensive by Georgian troops in the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia, whose population are majority pro-Russia.   Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said he had mobilized Georgia’s military reserves.

Although no reports are in as to who has taken control of the capital of South Ossetia, it seems doubtful the small Georgian Republic - population 4.6 million - will be able to hold back Russian troops.   Russia’s foreign policy stance has become increasingly emboldened and nationalistic since the ascension of Putin into the high leadership of the formerly communist country.   Buoyed by sky-high oil prices, a commodity which Russia now ranks as the number two producer of worldwide, behind only Saudi Arabia, the Russian leadership has more and more frequently stoked nationalist sentiment as it has tightened its grip on power.   Given how today’s military action serves little to no strategic purpose whatsoever, one would assume the point is to play to emotions of the Russian people, making them feel that through flexing its military muscles on a weaker neighbor, Russia has once again returned to the world stage - and all this on the opening day of the Olympics.  

Read the rest of this entry »