2005-2018 Conventional Crude Production on a Bumpy Plateau – With a Little Help from Iraq
In the last 4 years, conventional crude production was just 1 mb/d higher than in 2005. This was mainly an increase from Iraq (which was 2.7 mb/d).
Energy featured
Climate Politics/Capitol Light (26)
Congress is back from its August recess. It appears the break did nothing to cool tensions—either between Congressional Republicans and Democrats or between Hill Democrats and Trump. If anything, inter-party relations are more acrimonious than before.
Oil prices and the coming financial ‘Ice Age’
Tverberg claims that added debt cannot seem to provide oil and other energy sources at cheap enough prices for the economy to flourish.
Climate Politics/Capitol Light (25)
The rise in the percentage of young Republicans that are concerned about the future of Earth’s climate and its populations is a critical bit of information. It speaks to a better future.
It will be interesting to see if the youth on the right and left are any better able to cooperate than the generation that has gone before.
Pipeline Permit Scandal Highlights Confusion Amid Push to Build Plastics Plants
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) audit highlights what can go wrong when state and local regulators are unprepared for the arrival of a powerful industry, illustrating the pressures when once-unobtrusive offices suddenly take on outsized importance amid a push to promote rapid development.
Climate Politics/Capitol Light (24)
It is hard to take the Trump administration at its word when it comes to environmental impact assessments and studies.
The administration continues to assault NEPA requirements without any real regard to the science involved.
The Green New Deal Battles Business as Usual. Both Will Doom Us
We’ve begun to experience collapse in all spheres of life. Collapse can be both slow and rapid. It is a series of unending emergencies. Instead of responding or preparing, we’re cheering on a fight between fantasies.
Did North Dakota Regulators Hide an Oil and Gas Industry Spill Larger Than Exxon Valdez?
In July 2015 workers at the Garden Creek I Gas Processing Plant, in Watford City, North Dakota, noticed a leak in a pipeline and reported a spill to the North Dakota Department of Health that remains officially listed as 10 gallons, the size of two bottled water delivery jugs.
But a whistle-blower has revealed to DeSmog the incident is actually on par with the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, which released roughly 11 million gallons of thick crude.
Explainer: The High-Emissions ‘RCP8.5’ Global Warming Scenario
In this article, Carbon Brief examines how the emissions scenario underlying RCP8.5 was developed and how it has subsequently been used in the academic literature and media.
Transition as Wildfire Adaptation in California
We are fortunate to have Michael Wara as our guest in this episode—a bona fide expert on the subject who is a member of the state-appointed wildfire commission in California—to help us think through this complex web of issues and understand how to start plotting a new path into the future.
Why was the Blackout Used to Attack Renewables? Because Some Media Still Have an Anti-Climate Action Agenda
England recently experienced its most severe blackout in more than a decade, leading to a cacophony of calls from the usual suspects to scrap windfarms and abandon plans to turn the country’s electricity supply from brown to green.
One Word—Plastics: Why the World Will be Slow to Abandon Natural Gas
Petrochemicals are the 800-pound gorilla that many fail to account for in their climate defense plans. Termed a blind spot of the global energy system by the International Energy Agency (IEA) petrochemicals are a driving force behind the increasing demand for fossil fuels.