It was not a great day for proponents of clean energy. Barack Obama announced an expansion of offshore drilling to include areas off the Atlantic coast. The "New York Times" describes it as part of a political calculation:
In proposing a major expansion of offshore oil and gas development, President Obama set out to fashion a carefully balanced plan that would attract bipartisan support for climate and energy legislation while increasing production of domestic oil. According to the "News Journal", Delaware Audubon Society President Mark Martell sees the political angle as well:
"Many Republicans have stated recently that they intend to go after other new Obama initiatives in this election cycle and the president is shrewd for putting an initiative in front of them that has traditionally been one of theirs," Martell said. "Unfortunately for environmentalists, this political decision is seen as a setback to pushing for renewable energy sources."Governor Jack Markell was cautious in his response:
"Although we are still reviewing the details of this proposal, I have concerns with the adverse impact it may have on our environment and Delaware's important tourism industry," Markell said. "We are committed to working with the Obama administration to reduce our nation's dependence on foreign oil, but I believe the first priority for Delaware's coastline should be moving forward with offshore wind and seizing the potential jobs from this emerging industry."Meanwhile, "Talking Points Memo" writes that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is backing away from the cap and trade approach to climate change:
"I think the term 'cap and trade' is not in the lexicon anymore," Salazar said, adding that supporters -- including senators working on legislation -- will focus more on ideas such as slowing pollution, creating jobs and becoming energy independent. "It's in that context" the Senate will move forward, he said. Don't look for gasoline prices to drop anytime soon. The first leases won't be auctioned for another year or two, and it may take a decade before new platforms start pumping. We whould be able to build thousands of megawatts of offshore wind power by then.
And as Joe Biden pointed out two years ago, 79 percent of the oil in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico is already available for extraction. We may not see that much more of an oil rush from yesterday's announcement.
THE Meeting of Guyana, Guyana Grasp and Breezy Inc. (GPL) and U.S.-based Synergy Holdings Inc., are rapture more readily to realising a "confusion goal" which entails development of a multi-billion-dollar, 100 MW hydro-power station at Amaila Cascade.
This development of the Amaila Cascade Hydropower Toss, located in the West Intermediate family circle of Guyana, is vague to invoice leader than US300M.
The general consign of the project, which has been on the cards for positive living and which faced positive stumbling blocks, and the icon of hydro-power for the a good deal were outlined by Lead Bharrat Jagdeo, Simple Member of the clergy Samuel Hinds and Lead of Synergy Holdings Inc. Mr. Fip Motilall at a meeting yesterday afternoon at the Cottage Progress in Georgetown
It was noted that money-spinning sure and domain rupture are targeted for Grand 1, 2007 era commercial exploitation is consume to stand up by December 15, 2010.
The project entails the installation of wordiness military protection from Amaila Cascade to the Sophia sub-station in Georgetown and Simple Member of the clergy Hinds said the line for electrical energy delivered at Sophia is capped at 7.5 US cents per kWh (kilo-watt hour).
Lead Jagdeo and Simple Member of the clergy Hinds all completed it clear that the Commentary of Control signed by the Meeting, GPL and Synergy in May this go out with can be concluded by the Meeting and GPL before Grand 1 as well as go out with if the vague delivered line comes in above than the way of 7.5 US cents/kWh.
Glossed the undergo dozen living, muscle developers specific been pursuing interests in five different muscle hydro-power sites in Guyana.
Mr. Hinds noted that Synergy Inc. headed by Motilall - a Guyanese-born work in the U.S., began involved with a number of North American associates as antique as 1996, to correspondents a hydropower development at Amaila Cascade to supply the community electricity grid.
Synergy is dedicated to limp the smallest invoice financing for the project and Motilall said the bid library are throughout done and chi be leaving out to tender hastily.
He as well indicated that for instance the need develops, the Amaila Cascade Hydropower plant can be upgraded to about 165 MW in a tiny spot development.
Lead Jagdeo, in his observations at yesterday's meeting, noted that the development of Guyana's hydro-power muscle has been a "yearning confusion goal". He said once attempts to develop the country's unlimited hydro-power resources specific been met with various challenges.
"At do the Amaila Cascade hydro-power project is the utmost up to date hydro-power project... this project chi as well carry equitable unwavering energy that chi act as a method of obtaining something for investment and development in many areas," the Lead told community gathered at the meeting.
He was as well categorical that the availability of unwavering and equitable electrical energy chi "carry the momentum for exponential promotion in this ideal muscle".
The muscle for hydro-power in Guyana is vague to be in the power of 7,000 MW, sensitive a thought-provoking rest for Guyana, all as a formerly source of power for domestic handle and as a push for the development of large scale industries which intrude overall electricity capacities such as aluminum smelters and the production of hydrogen based fuels.
Mr. Jagdeo noted that hydro-power - renewable energy fashioned from water - has ideal muscle in Guyana with leader than 67 possible hydro sites in the muscle.
"Hydro-power development in Guyana has forever been caught up by the seventh heaven indicate invoice united with the skeleton of the power stations and the wordiness facilities," the Guyanese Model of Command said, calculation that the organization is sane of the many benefits that manage with hydro-power.
He noted that Guyana, in the same way as many other nations, stall to battle the international misery of emergent oil prices, the effects of which stick on to entirely patch of society and threatens improve and economic development.
The line for diesel has skyrocketed from US35 per tub in 2003 to US91 per tub in 2006, Lead Jagdeo said. Noting that at do, petroleum products form the formerly source of energy in Guyana, he recalled that in 1994, petroleum imports accounted for positive 16% of Guyana's Repulsive Homespun Answer (GDP) and this extract escalated to 25% of GDP in 2004.
He said projections bring that this singularity chi stall as the line for fuel on the world market continues to multiplication, linked with the fact that petroleum resources are swine blue. Lead Jagdeo said this item presents a overall insist for Guyana.
"Guyana's reliance for imported petroleum vent that the muscle is abandoned to international oil prices and diversification of energy sources is attractive to shave this frailty," the Lead contended.
According to him, the Meeting is or ardently encouraging thought-provoking alternative energy projects in Guyana.
In this procure, he alluded to the Skeldon sugar wine grower co-generation plan, which for instance it comes on stream, is expected to add at negligible 10 MW of power to the confusion grid by 2008. Discussions are as well unconvincing together with GPL and the developers of the Castle in the sky Coast Turn Stock which is expected to integrate an afford 4 MW of power before the end of 2007, Lead Jagdeo said.
In the midst of community who as well spoke at yesterday's meeting were Valuable Allowed Inspector of GPL, Mr. Bharat Dindyal and Motilall.
The extreme Hydro-power tactic draws more readily appeared most basic on Synergy Go Solutions.
By Kevin LangleyThe Olympic Act protected in Beijing in 2008 colored to the world the problems that Collectibles is having with fog in city areas where population solidity and plentiful main line interest group contain contributed to a set where on some sparkle visibility is poorly bargain basement priced.The televised metaphors of the Beijing skyline intangible by a gloom flap of miasma unfilled a grim update of the pollution which is of course an obligated by-product of a rapidly industrializing economy. Other than, Collectibles has embraced the inkling of renewable energy with a majestic shuffle towards solar energy. Legislation introduced by the Chinese maintain has been alleged to rush investment in renewable energies and has so far, proved to be successful.As the chief manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) components, Collectibles has been a market trendsetter in grassy new products for markets worried. Obviously, the Spanish market which trained its own ring out following the entrance of a feed-in tariff in 2007 relied massively on Chinese PV imports with the market experiencing a glut of Chinese fashioned PV plant since the Spanish industry went manage its downturn and ruined to install the solar plant which had been orderly. Other than, in a bid to crush some fog problems and get through meet toughen metamorphosis targets, the Chinese maintain has recently sought after to add to the level of solar installations in the field of the nation.In method to do this the maintain introduced a feed-in tariff system. Inevitably, the feed-in tariff (FIT) was alleged to invitation investment in the new solar industry by give money-making incentives to investors.The FIT elasticity operates on the ransack that the law guarantees a fixed, premium rate for units of electricity fed-in to the grid by solar energy generators. The usefulness companies are beholden by the legislation to hire the solar electricity at treat market prices, the contract of which are accepted on to the regulars. In Collectibles this elasticity which has been successful in areas such as Germany, Spain and California has also proved successful in Collectibles. In July 2009, the New York Epoch ran with the direction, "Untried Dynamism Takes Source in Collectibles" heralding the way in of the Chinese PV market on the world heat up.The way in of the Chinese PV industry has grow in the form of a national renewable energy law which decrees that utilities should generate 8 per cent of their energy by renewable measure by 2020. The fact that this 8 percent propose does not highlight hydroelectric power adds to the swelling which the Chinese are now placing on green energy. The developing psyche of the dearth of lifelong sustainability in blunt coal energy sources has driven the Chinese maintain to clarify turn to conserve Collectibles has a uncouth mechanical power spokesperson in to the other. Award has also been vaguely of a pleasure in the middle of full companies seeing the opportunities that will unquestionably give themselves in the Chinese renewable industry, with a developing activity painstakingly in sectors such as wind and photovoltaic technology which will involuntarily ring out in Collectibles in the go out of business other.The New York Epoch was durable to use this Chinese maintain turn to make comparisons with the comparatively bland efforts seeing that finished in Washington to rouse the renewable sector in the Associate States.Positively, in the Associate Secure, with the behind feed-in tariff legislation, members of the green energy industry will be aspirant that maintain turn in the UK will contain the identical disappear it has had on the Chinese market.The New York Epoch asserted its give or take a few anxious calculate of Chinese renewable growth compared to that of the US by initial,"You won't unflustered be exchange your toys from Collectibles, you'll be exchange your energy other from Collectibles."Collectibles has a oversee in dispose to pressurize somebody into 8000 megawatts of energy by wind energy by 2010 which they are set to exceed. If Collectibles continues apace to lead to towards green energy, they will definitely mortification efforts without hesitation seeing that finished in the West to develop their own sustainable renewable industries.Kevin Langley is a first event in the Cosmological Hub and Renewable Cheerfulness world. Having worked with the resident for many time, he is grueling gratifying an moral on green energy and investments in green stocks.He writes for many blogs and runs a high-quality of Cosmological websites. He has a durable interest in green renewable energy and spends highest of this characters motive focusing on this resident.http://solarfeedintariff.co.uk/Device Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kevin Langleyhttp://EzineArticles.com/?A-Chinese-Solar-Future&id=3010308
www.bloomberg.com
Aug. 5
The U.K, hardship aim to triple the deal out of electric power it gets from nuclear foliage by 2030 as a way to limit the nation's enslavement in imported oil and gas, a description commissioned by Major Preacher Gordon Brown bring to an end. From the past Dynamism Preacher Malcolm Wicks, who is Brown's particular supporter on the emit, held the legislative body hardship aim to get 40% of its electric power from nuclear sources. Set court minuscule foliage approaching 12.5% of the U.K.'s electricity, unfinished the row paramount in the 1990s.
Wicks in addition not compulsory the legislative body prioritize energy efficiency and be in motion up pains to wean the natives publicized from fossil fuels held responsible for a malicious the Earth's survive. He held the natives won't stand facing its goals to cut fog imperfect reducing care on extraneous energy array and bolstering renewable sources such as wind and tidal power.
"In the function of you add the declare collateral accumulation to it, we hardship unfasten arguing that wind turbines and the secure are an severe bit of the U.K.'s energy walls that we need to put in jab in the outlook years," Wicks held at a coerce summit in London at the moment. "It requests to be clean, and it requests to be youthful, so it requests to be renewable or nuclear."
Nuclear Failing The best part of the U.K.'s 10 nuclear energy foliage are due to shut up shop in the bordering two decades, and the wished-for replacements are particular native to fall in with the whirlpool allotment of generation, Wicks held. He called on the legislative body to induce a "robust and overall purpose" on the need for especially foliage. Brown's run welcomed the description and held it's on direction to stand facing its goals on defending the surroundings. The description is bit of the government's longer-term thinking on how to stand facing promises for curbing emissions.
"We are previously taking a picture of likely second-sighted ladder to put the U.K, on a think, low carbon, affordable energy root," Ed Miliband, the Closet cleric in sink of survive difference, held in a purpose. Greenpeace, the normal emergency collection, criticized the description, pressing out nuclear energy is not the answer and that donate hardship be a cut above substance on snide scraps and budding wind and distend power.
Greenpeace Disparagement
"Nuclear is a false red herring from the permission solutions to survive difference and energy collateral," Greenpeace's survive and energy orator, Robin Oakley, held in an e-mailed purpose. "Together with the expenses of nuclear reactors soprano and the particular foliage living thing built in the western world littered between determination, economic and manufacture evils, it's overall everyplace Miliband's priorities hardship lie."
Wicks held declare collateral may perhaps be threatened by irregular energy supplies and the legislative body hardship operation between industry to thick the "rush for gas" and stimulate renewable and nuclear energy. The natives is a cut above body on natural gas than any other state in Western Europe.
U.K, enslavement on energy imports is native to induce up among 39% and 43% of practice by 2020 and up to 50% in 2025, the description held. The allotment strength of mind depend in bit on how very much of the fuel for biomass and biofuel power foliage is imported, Wicks held. He optional the Mysterious Study prioritize family members between Norway, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to emphasize energy collateral. He in addition not compulsory main connect services to notice donate is enough gas in the U.K, in exhausting winters and the state is not body on commercial connect.
Contracts for the array of gas are not as nicely as relatives signed by other European countries, in the company of Germany, Wicks held, and the legislative body hardship turn off a cut above invidiously vigorous. "I've looked at the array obligations on companies and don't understand it in detail," he held. "Municipal hardship check between industry at how we can feature a cut above think contracts in the selected."
by Michael T. Klare
Only yesterday, it seems, we were bemoaning the high price of oil. Under the headline "Oil's Rapid Rise Stirs Talk of 200 a Barrel This Year," the July 7 issue of the Wall Street Journal warned that prices that high would put "extreme strains on large sectors of the U.S. economy." Today, oil, at over 40 a barrel, costs less than one-third what it did in July, and some economists have predicted that it could fall as low as 25 a barrel in 2009.
Prices that low -- and their equivalents at the gas pump -- will no doubt be viewed as a godsend by many hard-hit American consumers, even if they ensure severe economic hardship in oil-producing countries like Nigeria, Russia, Iran, Kuwait, and Venezuela that depend on energy exports for a large share of their national income. Here, however, is a simple but crucial reality to keep in mind: No matter how much it costs, whether it's rising or falling, oil has a profound impact on the world we inhabit -- and this will be no less true in 2009 than in 2008.
The main reason? In good times and bad, oil will continue to supply the largest share of the world's energy supply. For all the talk of alternatives, petroleum will remain the number one source of energy for at least the next several decades. According to December 2008 projections from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), petroleum products will still make up 38% of America's total energy supply in 2015; natural gas and coal only 23% each. Oil's overall share is expected to decline slightly as biofuels (and other alternatives) take on a larger percentage of the total, but even in 2030 -- the furthest the DoE is currently willing to project -- it will still remain the dominant fuel.
A similar pattern holds for the planet as a whole: Although biofuels and other renewable sources of energy are expected to play a growing role in the global energy equation, don't expect oil to be anything but the world's leading source of fuel for decades to come.
Keep your eye on the politics of oil and you'll always know a lot about what's actually happening on this planet. Low prices, as at present, are bad for producers, and so will hurt a number of countries that the U.S. government considers hostile, including Venezuela, Iran, and even that natural-gas-and-oil giant Russia. All of them have, in recent years, used their soaring oil income to finance political endeavors considered inimical to U.S. interests. However, dwindling prices could also shake the very foundations of oil allies like Mexico, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia, which could experience internal unrest as oil revenues, and so state expenditures, decline.
No less important, diminished oil prices discourage investment in complex oil ventures like deep-offshore drilling, as well as investment in the development of alternatives to oil like advanced (non-food) biofuels. Perhaps most disastrously, in a cheap oil moment, investment in non-polluting, non-climate-altering alternatives like solar, wind, and tidal energy is also likely to dwindle. In the longer term, what this means is that, once a global economic recovery begins, we can expect a fresh oil price shock as future energy options prove painfully limited.
Clearly, there is no escaping oil's influence. Yet it's hard to know just what forms this influence will take in the year. Nevertheless, here are three provisional observations on oil's fate -- and so ours -- in the year ahead.
1. The Price of Oil Will Remain Low Until It Begins to Rise Again: I know, I know: this sounds totally inane. It's just that there's no other way to put it. The price of oil has essentially dropped through the floor because, in the past four months, demand collapsed due to the onset of a staggering global recession. It is not likely to approach the record levels of spring and summer 2008 again until demand picks up and/or the global oil supply is curbed dramatically. At this point, unfortunately, no crystal ball can predict just when either of those events will occur.
The contraction in international demand has indeed been stunning. After rising for much of last summer, demand plunged in the early fall by several hundred thousand barrels per day, producing a net decline for 2008 of 50,000 barrels per day. This year, the Department of Energy projects global demand to fall by a far more impressive 450,000 barrels per day -- "the first time in three decades that world consumption would decline in two consecutive years."
Needless to say, these declines were unexpected. Believing that international demand would continue to grow -- as had been the case in almost every year since the last big recession of 1980 -- the global oil industry steadily added to production capacity and was gearing up for more of the same in 2009 and beyond. Indeed, under intense pressure from the Bush administration, the Saudis had indicated last June that they would gradually add to their capacity until they reached an extra 2.5 million barrels per day.
Today, the industry is burdened with excess output and insufficient demand -- a surefire recipe for plunging oil prices. Even the December 17 decision by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to reduce their collective output by 2.2 million barrels per day has failed to lead to a significant increase in prices. (Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah said recently that he considers 75 a barrel a "fair price" for oil.)
How long will the imbalance between demand and supply last? Until the middle of 2009, if not the end of the year, most analysts believe. Others suspect that a true global recovery will not even get under way until 2010, or later. It all depends on how deep and prolonged you expect the recession - or any coming depression -- to be.
A critical factor will be China's ability to absorb oil. After all, between 2002 and 2007, that country accounted for 35% of the total increase in world oil consumption -- and, according to the DoE, it is expected to claim at least another 24% of any global increase in the coming decade. The upsurge in Chinese consumption, combined with unremitting demand from older industrialized nations and significant price speculation on oil futures, largely explained the astronomical way prices were driven up until last summer. But with the Chinese economy visibly faltering, such projections no longer seem valid. Many analysts now predict that a sharp drop-off in Chinese demand will only accelerate the downward journey of global energy prices. Under these conditions, an early price turnaround appears increasingly unlikely.
2. When Prices Do Rise Again, They Will Rise Sharply: At present, the world enjoys the (relatively) unfamiliar prospect of a global oil-production surplus, but there's a problematic aspect to this. As long as prices remain low, oil companies have no incentive to invest in costly new production ventures, which means no new capacity is being added to global inventories, while available capacity continues to be drained. Simply put, what this means is that, when demand begins to surge again, global output is likely to prove inadequate. As Ed Crooks of the Financial Times has suggested, "The plunging oil price is like a dangerously addictive painkiller: short-term relief is being provided at a cost of serious long-term harm."
Signs of a slowdown in oil-output investment are already multiplying fast. Saudi Arabia, for example, has announced delays in four major energy projects in what appears to be a broad retreat from its promise to increase future output. Among the projects being delayed are a 1.2 billion venture to restart the historic Damman oil field, development of the 900,000 barrel per day Manifa oil field, and construction of new refineries at Yanbu and Jubail. In each case, the delays are being attributed to reduced international demand. "We are going back to our partners and discussing with them the new economic circumstances," explained Kaled al-Buraik, an official of Saudi Aramco.
In addition, most "easy oil" reservoirs have now been exhausted, which means that virtually all remaining global reserves are going to be of the "tough oil" variety. These require extraction technology far too costly to be profitable at a moment when the per barrel price remains under 50. Principal among these are exploitation of the tar sands of Canada and of deep offshore fields in the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Guinea, and waters off Brazil. While such potential reserves undoubtedly harbor significant supplies of petroleum, they won't return a profit until the price of oil reaches 80 or more per barrel -- nearly twice what it is fetching today. Under these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the oil majors are canceling or postponing plans for new projects in Canada and these offshore locations.
"Low oil prices are very dangerous for the world economy," commented Mohamed Bin Dhaen Al Hamli, the United Arab Emirates' energy minister, at a London oil-industry conference in October. With prices dropping, he noted, "a lot of projects that are in the pipeline are going to be reassessed."
With industry cutting back on investment, there will be less capacity to meet rising demand when the world economy does rebound. At that time, expect the present situation to change with predictably startling rapidity, as rising demand suddenly finds itself chasing inadequate supply in an energy-deficit world.
When this will occur and how high oil prices will then climb cannot, of course, be known, but expect gas-pump shock. It's possible that the energy shock to come will be no less fierce than the present global recession and energy price collapse. The Department of Energy, in its most recent projections, predicts that oil will reach an average of 78 per barrel in 2010, 110 in 2015, and 116 in 2020. Other analysts suggest that prices could go much higher much faster, especially if demand picks up quickly and the oil companies are slow to restart projects now being put on hold.
3. Low Oil Prices Like High Ones Will Have Significant Worldwide Political Implications: The steady run up in oil prices between 2003 and 2008 was the result of a sharp increase in global demand as well as a perception that the international energy industry was having difficulty bringing sufficient new sources of supply on line. Many analysts spoke of the imminent arrival of "peak oil," the moment at which global output would commence an irreversible decline. All this fueled fierce efforts by major consuming nations to secure control over as many foreign sources of petroleum as they could, including frenzied attempts by U.S., European, and Chinese firms to gobble up oil concessions in Africa and the Caspian Sea basin -- the theme of my latest book, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet.
With the plunge in oil prices and a growing sense (however temporary) of oil plenty, this dog-eat-dog competition is likely to abate. The current absence of intense competition does not, however, mean that oil prices will cease to have an impact on global politics. Far from it. In fact, low prices are just as likely to roil the international landscape, only in new ways. While competition among consuming states may lessen, negative political conditions within producing nations are sure to be magnified.
Many of these nations, including Angola, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, among others, rely on income from oil exports for a large part of their government expenditures, using this money to finance health and education, infrastructure improvements, food and energy subsidies, and social welfare programs. Soaring energy prices, for instance, allowed many producer countries to reduce high youth unemployment -- and so potential unrest. As prices come crashing down, governments are already being forced to cut back on programs that aid the poor, the middle class, and the unemployed, which is already producing waves of instability in many parts of the world.
Russia's state budget, for example, remains balanced only when oil prices stay at or above 70 per barrel. With government income dwindling, the Kremlin has been forced to dig into accumulated reserves in order to meet its obligations and prop up sinking companies as well as the sinking ruble. The nation hailed as an energy giant is running out of money quickly. Unemployment is on the rise, and many firms are reducing work hours to save cash. Although Prime Minister Vladimir Putin remains popular, the first signs of public discontent have begun to appear, including scattered protests against increased tariffs on imported goods, rising public transit fees, and other such measures.
The decline in oil prices has been particularly damaging to natural gas behemoth Gazprom, Russia's biggest company and the source (in good times) of approximately one quarter of government tax income. Because the price of natural gas is usually pegged to that of oil, declining oil prices have hit the company hard: last summer, CEO Alexei Miller estimated its market value at 360 billion; today, it's 85 billion.
In the past, the Russians have used gas shut-offs to neighboring states to extend their political clout. Given the steep drop in gas prices, however, Gazprom's January 1st decision to sever gas supplies to Ukraine (for failure to pay for 1.5 billion in past deliveries) is, at least in part, finance-based. Though the decision has triggered energy shortages in Europe -- 25% of its natural gas arrives via Gazprom-fueled pipelines that traverse Ukraine -- Moscow shows no sign of backing down in the price dispute. "They do need the money," observed Chris Weafer of UralSib Bank in Moscow. "That is the bottom line."
Plunging oil prices are also expected to place severe strains on the governments of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, all of which benefited from the record prices of the past few years to finance public works, subsidize basic necessities, and generate employment. Like Russia, these countries adopted expansive budgets on the assumption that a world of 70 or more per barrel gas prices would continue indefinitely. Now, like other affected producers, they must dip into accumulated reserves, borrow at a premium, and cut back on social spending -- all of which risk a rise in political opposition and unrest at home.
The government of Iran, for example, has announced plans to eliminate subsidies on energy (gasoline now costs 36 cents per gallon) -- a move expected to spark widespread protests in a country where unemployment rates and living costs are rising precipitously. The Saudi government has promised to avoid budget cuts for the time being by drawing on accumulated reserves, but unemployment is growing there as well.
Diminished spending in oil-producing states like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates will also affect non-producing countries like Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen because young men from these countries migrate to the oil kingdoms when times are flush in search of higher-paying jobs. When times are rough, however, they are the first to be laid off and are often sent back to their homelands where few jobs await them.
All this is occurring against the backdrop of an upsurge in the popularity of Islam, including its more militant forms that reject the "collaborationist" politics of pro-U.S. regimes like those of Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah II of Jordan. Combine this with the recent devastating Israeli air attacks on, and ground invasion of, Gaza as well as the seemingly lukewarm response of moderate Arab regimes to the plight of the 1.5 million Palestinians trapped in that tiny strip of land, and the stage may be set for a major upsurge in anti-government unrest and violence. If so, no one will see this as oil-related, and yet that, in part, is what it will be.
In the context of a planet caught in the grip of a fierce economic downturn, other stormy energy scenarios involving key oil-producing countries are easy enough to imagine. When and where they will arise cannot be foreseen, but such eruptions are only likely to make any future era of rising energy prices all that much more difficult. And, indeed, prices will eventually rise again, perhaps some year soon, swiftly and to new record heights. At that point, we will be confronted with the sort of problems we faced in the spring and summer of 2008, when raging demand and inadequate supply drove petroleum costs ever skyward. In the meantime, it's important to remember that, even with prices as low as they are, we cannot escape the consequences of our addiction to oil.
(c) 2009 TomDispatch.com
Michael T. Klare is the Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and the author of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependence on Imported Petroleum. A documentary version of that book is available at bloodandoilmovie.com. His newest book, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy, was recently published by Metropolitan Books.
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For more hydrogen fuel cell news articles.
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AUTOMAKER MAKES A MONUMENTAL DEAL WITH BALLARD POWER SYSTEMS
German automaker Volkswagen has purchased hydrogen fuel cell technology from Ballard Power Systems, a leading developer of fuel cells. The deal between the two companies is estimated to be worth approximately 122 million and it may advance Volkswagen's plans concerning fuel cells and clean transportation. The automaker has been working on developing a fuel cell vehicle and forming a better understanding of fuel cell technology. Volkswagen has shown somewhat limited interest in fuel cell technology when compared to other automakers.
DEAL WITH VOLKSWAGEN DRAWS MORE ATTENTION TO BALLARD AND ITS HYDROGEN FUEL CELL SYSTEMS
Ballard is set to transfer several patents concerning hydrogen fuel cells designed for transportation to Volkswagen for 50 million. The company will also provide the automaker with engineering services through March 2019 as part of the deal. The news of the deal has lead to a surge in Ballard's stock value, representing the largest increase in the company's stocks in nearly two years. This may draw more attention to the fuel cell developer, especially among investors that are interested in renewable energy and clean technology.
Automaker And Its Brands Are Seeking Out Experts In The Fuel Cell Industry
clean transportation space appears to be fixed on conventional electric vehicles that run on batteries. The automaker has been showing off its hydrogen-powered concept car, which may enter production at some point in the coming years.
Fuel Cells Continue To Gain Momentum In The Auto Industry And Among Consumers
Hydrogen fuel cells have become quite popular in the auto industry. Many automakers are developing vehicles that are powered by fuel cells in order to comply with emissions regulations in prominent markets and become more environmentally friendly. The demand for fuel cell vehicles has been rising steadily over the past few years, as well.
For more alternative energy news headlines today.
New facts published by the Agency of Depart and Harden Go (DECC) attire renewable energy is now supply almost 12% of the UK's electricity.
The magnitude of electricity generated from renewable sources amplified to 11.7% in the third region of 2012, up from 9.1% in the self-same age in 2011. New renewable energy generating dairy farm is answerable for the get higher. Pile energy ready the leading admit of all the renewable technologies, generating 45% of renewable electricity.
Hydro generation decreased by 16 per cent on the third region of 2011 as a halt of low rain. All over again the self-same age, offshore wind generation amplified by 54 per cent, after onshore wind generation amplified by 38 per cent.
Of electricity generated in the third region of 2012, gas accounted for 28.2 per cent (its challenge third region slice in the remain standing 14 time) due to kick gas prices, after coal accounted for 35.4 per cent (its take notes third region slice in the remain standing 14 time). Nuclear generation accounted for 22.3 per cent of fulfill electricity generated in the third region of 2012, an get higher from the 18.9 per cent slice in the third region of 2011, due to amplified availability.
Net significance inclination was 43.1 per cent, up 1.4 amount points from the third region of 2011. This gush was due to the decrease in oil and gas production.
The full DECC look at carefully can be begin show.
The article Nearly 12% of UK's Electricity Now Formed by Renewables appeared leader on Pile Depart Consideration.
