I had the privilege of presenting my slide deck and lecture on the future of energy today to students and faculty of the University of California Nuclear Engineering Department and the Lawrence Berkeley Lab, which was simulcast to the University of Tokyo. Thanks to all the great technology they have available, my lecture was videotaped and has already been uploaded to the Web. You can watch it here: http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/Chris-Nelder-Video (The sound is rough at the beginning, but once I start the presentation it clears up, although it is a bit overmodulated.)

I’d like to thank Dr. Kai Vetter for and Department Chair Dr. Jasmina Vujic for inviting me to speak at their Fall Colloquium series, and making me welcome. It was an honor and a pleasure to speak to such a technically adept audience, and they were very nice to me despite my moderate and less-informed outlook on nuclear energy.

This page has been moved to http://www.getreallist.com/media

I will be on http://www.cleanskies.tv live today at 1 pm PST, if you’d like to tune in.

The show will be re-broadcast on ABC TV this weekend (“Clean Skies Sunday,” after Stephanopoulos) and CBS radio…

UPDATE: The clip is now available online. I couldn’t get RealPlayer to work and make it a downloadable clip, nor does the pig of a Flash application that runs their entire site let you find links anywhere. But if you really want to see it, I suggest you shut down other applications, then follow these breadcrumbs:

1. Go to http://www.cleanskies.tv/#app=6609&b7d2-selectedIndex=3

2. In the center column of buttons, click on “The Energy Report with Susan McGinnis”

3. On the right, scroll down to the 10/2/08 segment, with the blurb “House members ar…” and click on it.

My bit runs from 3:00 to about 10:10.

I recently did an interview with Chris Morrison of Venture Beat, which was published today there and elsewhere (including The Industry Standard). I’m reposting it here.
It’s a condensed summary of what was a pretty long (and technically challenged) interview by cellphone, and all the words are his, not mine. But I think he did a good job of representing what I said, and I always appreciate the additional coverage.

We are really running out of time to get moving on the inevitable transitions ahead. We need to get the story of energy transition out there into the public a lot more than we are. I just heard today that at a recent convention in Norway of some 6,000 geologists from 170 countries, the presentations by peak oil gurus Colin Campbell and Jean Laherrere had paltry audiences, and it appeared that a large part of the conference attendees had no clue about peak oil. I could say the same, by the way, for some of the cleantech and renewable energy conferences I’ve been to. If that doesn’t tell you we’re in trouble, I don’t know what will…

–C

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It’s been a very long wait, but my videocast interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp on June 3rd is finally online. The topic was the problems facing the airline industry due to rising fuel costs. You can view it here.

It was a very technically challenged interview. I was alone in a videoconferencing room in San Francisco with only video of myself, a telephone at my side with the interviewer’s audio, another telephone line ringing constantly in the background (only on my end), and a signficant delay. The uplink quality wasn’t very good either. But it was my first international media appearance, so I’m blogging it for posterity.

–C

As I alerted you a few days ago, I did a video interview yesterday with Aaron Task for the Yahoo Finance “Tech Ticker” show, at their studio in Times Square. Check it out…and if you want a good laugh, read the comments threads!

Part 1: ‘Sky’s the Limit’ for Crude, says Peak Oil Advocate: Buy Drillers, Avoid Majors

Part 2: No Relief from $120 Oil Anytime Soon — or Ever, says Energy Expert

Part 3: The End Is Nigh: Peak Oil Proponent Forecasts Grim Future

Folks,

I was interviewed this week by veteran newsman Harry Fuller on ZDNet (a part of CNET), and am reposting his article. The original is here.

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I hosted a web chat on Monday at the Washington Post, along with my co-author Brian Hicks, to answer questions about energy. For those who are interested, here is the transcript.
–C
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Folks,

I did another interview with the Invest Express radio talk show on the Business TalkRadio network today. We discussed oil prices, the recent high stock valuations in the solar sector, and the new “Tupi” offshore oil discovery in Brazil.

You can download the interview here.

–C

I did a brief (about 10 minute) call-in interview on the Invest Express show on Business Talk Radio last Friday. If you want to check it out, you can download it here.

–C

Folks,

If you follow the markets, you are more than aware that they have been melting down for the last three weeks, with the Dow crashing hundreds of points in a day. For those of us who trade stocks, it’s been a very volatile time, with fear and greed hashing it out big-time.

The cause of all this was the “sudden” realization that a huge number of adjustable rate mortgages out there were sold to people with poor credit, and that many of those mortgages are about to have their interest rates raised, leading to a large number of defaults. This in turn caused the rapid devaluation of many other investing vehicles which were levered to those loans, which in turn has sharply devalued the businesses of some of the biggest banks on Wall Street, and caused carnage in the hedge fund world (like, losing 60% of their portfolio values).

I won’t try to get into more detail than that here–there is plenty to read elsewhere on the subject written by more knowledgeable observers–but I’ll give you my bottom line, based on my research: The economy is in trouble, banks are in trouble, there’s not a whole lot that the Fed can do about it, and it is going to take a while to unwind…not days or weeks, but months or even years.

Consequently, I have unloaded almost all my long positions and gotten short via ETFs: SKF and SRS. I believe that this is a good time to be in cash or in a defensive posture. But the markets have been extremely volatile and irrational. There has already been a rally since the first selloff two weeks ago–when the Dow and oil had both reached record highs–but it has been a classic “dead cat bounce” and more than a few investors (like myself) swooped in on an apparent buying opportunity, only to get stopped out of those positions a day or a week later.

Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!

That’s about all I’ll say on the markets right now.

Moving on…I feel compelled to comment on the announced resignation of “Hot” Karl Rove, since he’s been a regular whipping boy in these pages, but I’m not sure what to say. In a sense, I think I felt safer knowing approximately where he was and what he was doing. Who knows what his next trick will be? But of this I’m sure: he’s not going anywhere. I have no doubt that he will continue to work on Republican campaigns and do everything he can to divide and conquer America by actively destroying its social fabric, pitting us against each other in order to scrape a few more votes his way. Just for grins, feel free to email me your best guess at Rove’s next gig.

Finally, I did a short (~6 minute) guest appearance at the daily online podcast The Real Story with Aaron Task today. Check it out here (“No Shelter From the Selling”). My bit starts around 27:00.

Keep your powder dry and your stops tight, and good luck everybody!

–C

Folks,

I did another interview on Ken Brown’s show on Wednesday. We discussed recent action in the markets, the situation with oil and renewables, and the energy legislation that was recently passed in the House.

You can download it here (33 mins, 84 MB).

–C

Folks,

If you tried to tune in to my interview on the Ken Brown show last week only to find another interview being broadcast, my apologies. I’m new to the broadcast business, but it seems to be a very flexible environment where last-minute changes to the schedule are common. Such was the case at the Florida radio station hosting my interview last week.

But they were kind enough to give me an MP3 of it, so I can share it with you here. Do note this is a large file–85 MB–so if you’re not on a broadband connection, you might want to let it download overnight or something.

I was pleased to have this opportunity to speak at length (45 minutes) on a broad range of energy topics, and I hope that it is informative and useful to the public. If you listen to it, please drop me a line with your constructive criticism!

Download here: Chris Nelder on the Ken Brown show July 5, 2007

–C

Folks,

Today I had the privilege of appearing as a guest on The Real Story with Aaron Task, a daily podcast from TheStreet.com. We talked about alternative energy stocks.

You can listen to it here: Bulls Feel the Pinch.

He also covered my stock picks in his article today, Gurus: Top Alternative Energy Stocks.

For those who are interested in alternative energy investing, you might also want to check out the recommendations in Aaron’s article yesterday, Coming Week: Alternative Ideas. .

–C