I appeared on the Financial Sense with Jim Pupalava program this week, to discuss the tightening forecasts for peak oil; why drilling new, smaller fields can’t keep up with the depletion of the mature, giant fields; why the US leadership refuses to acknowledge the peak oil problem; and why investors seem to have turned their backs on oil and gas this year.

You can download the show (16 minutes) here:

RealPlayer | WinAmp | Windows Media | MP3

I had the great pleasure of taping a video interview with my friend Paul Denlinger last week, which is now hosted at StockTwits.tv. Paul is a truly international guy, who has spent his life in the US, the UK, and China, and I met him on Twitter (@pdenlinger). A trenchant observer of global politics and a student of peak oil, Paul offered some excellent insights on the relationship of the US and China, including currency issues, our collision course on energy, China’s massive infrastructure building programs, China’s aging population problem, the rare earth metals sector, and other subjects.

As always, I am grateful to StockTwits for their continued support of my work, and helping me to get video published!

Watch the video below the fold.

(more…)

Jim Puplava featured Robert Hirsch for a long, in-depth interview on his Financial Sense program last weekend, which I recommend to the attention of anyone interested in peak oil. It covered a full range of the topic’s complexity, including data on reserves, production, discovery and demand;  economic implications; the reasons why the US Government has maintained silence on the issue while other developed economies are grappling with it; and the likely responses to the crisis as it unfolds over the next couple of years–including rationing, priority allocation, and interruption of food supplies. You won’t find a better or more expert testimony anywhere. Listen to it here:

RealPlayer | WinAmp | Windows Media | MP3

Hirsch is the co-author of a new book on peak oil, designed for an educated layman audience, entitled The Impending World Energy Mess. He is a Senior Energy Advisor at MISI and a consultant in energy, technology, and management. His primary experience is in research, development, and commercial applications. He has managed technology programs in oil and natural gas exploration and production, petroleum refining, synthetic fuels, fusion, fission, renewables, defense technologies, chemical analysis, and basic research.

I don’t normally blog news stories, but this one struck me as important enough to mention.

Robert Hirsch, the principal author of the famous “Hirsch Report” from 2005 (“Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation, & Risk Management“) has a new book out with his co-authors of that report, titled
The Impending World Energy Mess: What It Is and What It Means to You

In this new interview with Le Monde, Hirsch explains that U.S. government officials are fully aware of peak oil and the risks it carries, but has deliberately quashed discussion about it and directed people within the Department of Energy not to speak about it. And he is in a position to know.

Le Monde: Interview with Robert L. Hirsch
Part 1: Peak Oil: Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of Energy sounds the alarm
Part 2: Peak oil : “A conspiracy to keep it quiet” in Washington, says Robert Hirsch

See also the recent interview of Hirsch by Steve Andrews, for ASPO-USA.

I appeared on the Financial Sense with Jim Pupalava program today, to discuss several new forecasts of peak oil (meaning all liquids) in the 2015-2020 time frame, including a leaked German military study on peak oil recently reported in Der Spiegel,  an interview with Robert Hirsch, comments by veteran oil analyst Charlie Maxwell, a repeated warning from the IEA‘s executive director Nobuo Tanaka that “the age of cheap energy is over,” and an editorial by energy analyst Anas Alhajji on the inability of OPEC to meet growing world oil demand. I wrapped up the interview by revisiting my March 2010 article, “‘Peak Demand,’ Yes, But Not The Nice Kind.”

You can download the show (1 hour) here:

RealPlayer WinAmp Windows Media MP3

My segment begins at 38:41

I had the great pleasure of videotaping a long conversation with KrisCan in mid-July, which is now online in seven parts. Topics included the Deepwater Horizon spill, the implications for U.S. oil production, my critique of various energy policies, and the challenges of energy transition. (more…)

I don’t know if I’m the first one to notice this, but it was too good to pass up. Compare these two covers of Time Magazine:

(more…)

I have been engaged in some non-energy related projects of late, so I haven’t been writing. But I realized that I have been remiss in not alerting my readers to a Peak Oil Reference section that I authored recently for ASPO-USA.  Despite the volumes of material that have been written on peak oil, there still did not exist (to the best of my knowledge, anyway) a single online reference that presents this very complex topic in a form that’s both accessible to newbies, and that links to the deeper data and theory. So I built one, on contract with ASPO-USA, based on some of their existing material and my old “Peak Oil Media Guide” from 2008.

It’s still a fairly skeletal first draft, comprising only 16 web pages, but hopefully it will grow, and serve as a useful guide to the public, the media, and others. It is located here:

Peak Oil Reference

I invite feedback and suggestions for future revisions.

Yesterday I had another web video chat with StockTwits founder Howard Lindzon on the future of energy and its implications for global population, plus related subjects. View the video (32 minutes) below the fold.

(more…)

I appeared on the Financial Sense with Jim Pupalava program today to discuss the shifting of oil supply and demand to the developing world and the diminishing influence of the international oil companies; the “energy suicide” of shutting down offshore oil drilling; the long-term production losses due to deepwater drilling rigs leaving the Gulf of Mexico; the slim hopes of new production from tar sands, Saudi Arabia and Iraq; and the urgent need to begin energy transition.

You can download the show (1 hour) here:

RealPlayer WinAmp Windows Media MP3

My segment begins at 47:04.

Energy analyst Chris Nelder sees a chance to get energy policy right in the death of the cap and trade bill. It’s time to put carbon legislation aside and focus on energy transition.
(more…)

I had a fun, freewheeling chat with my friend and fellow energy analyst Gregor Macdonald yesterday, which was broadcast today on the Abnormal Returns show on Stocktwits.tv. Gregor and I chat about energy frequently and thought it would be good to share one of our conversations with the public. In this episode, we talk about some of the implications and larger issues around the BP oil spill. (And yes, it was my idea to open with a music bed of “Only The Beginning.”) Video below the fold.

(more…)

I appeared on the Financial Sense with Jim Pupalava program today to discuss why officials, the media, and the oil industry have been so lagging in their responses to peak oil; the deep institutional and cultural denial about the implications of peak oil on economics; and the need to reinvent our economic theory and cultural ideals.

For background material on this discussion, see my recent articles:

195 Californias or 74 Texases to Replace Offshore Oil
Another Wake-Up Call for the World’s Biggest Oil Junkie
Officials Wake Up To Peak Oil, Part 1
Officials Wake Up to Peak Oil, Part 2

You can download the show (1 hour) here:

RealPlayer | WinAmp | Windows Media | MP3

My segment is at the top of the program.

Here is a guest post I wrote for the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) – USA’s Peak Oil Review, in which I put the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster into perspective against the challenges of energy transition and America’s crushing dependence on oil imports. (Cross-posted to HuffPo)

(more…)

I had my first guest post at The Huffington Post today, courtesy of Howie Klein (who’s a real mensch).

I weighed in on the Horizon deepwater oil drilling rig disaster, trying to put it in perspective and get people to understand the reality of our energy situation, all politics aside. As my regular readers well know, this was only the latest in a series of wake-up calls we’ve received. Are you listening now, America?

(more…)

To my readers: This is my final article for Angel Publishing and its newsletters Energy and Capital and Green Chip Stocks. I can hardly think of a better note on which to end my run with them. It was a privilege write professionally about energy for the last three-plus years, and their platform offered me a much wider readership and higher profile than I had enjoyed previously. But now it is time for me to move on. Please stay tuned to this space as I sort out my next direction.

–C

In this second part of a two-part series for Energy and Capital, energy analyst Chris Nelder reviews several more recent studies indicating that peak oil is upon us. Government officials and industry are clearly worried about it, but not worried enough to tell Americans the truth.
(more…)

For Green Chip Stocks two weeks ago, I surveyed some interesting new utility-scale electricity storage applications, and found a $200 billion market just getting started.
(more…)

For Energy and Capital last week, I outlined several new studies suggesting that oil production will soon go into permanent decline, and how officials outside the U.S. are beginning to come to grips with it. (Part 1 of a two-part series.)
(more…)

For Green Chip Stocks last week, I detailed a few battles in the war breaking out between consumers who want renewable power and the fossil fuel industry.
(more…)

For Energy and Capital last week, I took a fresh look at how software is enabling the energy revolution by streamlining rooftop solar design, improving home energy efficiency, and putting the “smart” in smart grid.
(more…)