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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (4320)	6/23/2006 10:09:02 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24210

The 2 horses of the apocalypse..GW and PO Clinton raises alarm about oil depletion By charlie smith Publish Date: 22-Jun-2006 Former U.S. president Bill Clinton has urged newspaper editors to focus more attention on the depletion of the world’s oil reserves. In a June 17 speech to the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies convention in Little Rock, Arkansas, Clinton said a “significant number of petroleum geologists” have warned that the world could be nearing the peak in oil production. Clinton suggested that at current consumption rates (now more than 30 billion barrels per year, according to the International Energy Agency), the world could be out of “recoverable oil” in 35 to 50 years, elevating the risk of “resource-based wars of all kinds”. During a question-and-answer period, the Georgia Straight asked Clinton if he believed that Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates had exaggerated claims about their proven oil reserves. The four Persian Gulf states are among the six nations with the greatest listed proven reserves. (Canada and Iraq are the other two.) “I don’t know if they’re overstating their reserves,” Clinton replied. He added that he expects oil prices will reach US$100 per barrel “in five years or less”. Texas-based energy-investment banker Matthew Simmons, author of Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy (John Wiley & Sons, 2005), told the Straight last October that 60 percent of all Saudi oil has come from one field, Ghawar. Simmons said that after the Saudis nationalized the industry, they increased their proven reserves by 100 billion barrels without making any new discoveries. In 1998, retired petroleum geologists Colin Campbell and Jean Laherrère wrote an article in Scientific American, claiming that Saudi Arabia and several other Oil Producing and Exporting Countries had also increased their proven reserves. This enabled those countries to export more petroleum under OPEC’s quota system. At the AAN convention, Clinton delivered a detailed scientific explanation of some of the problems with the Ghawar oil reservoir. Clinton echoed Simmons’s claim that massive amounts of water have been injected into Ghawar to maintain oil pressure. “It implies less oil than we previously thought,” Clinton said. Clinton also recommended that everyone at the convention read The Empty Tank: Oil, Gas, Hot Air, and the Coming Global Financial Catastrophe (Random House, 2005), by Jeremy Leggett, a petroleum geologist and international campaigner for Greenpeace. (For more information on the book, see the Straight’s January 5-12, 2006, edition at www.straight.com/.) Clinton also emphasized the importance of developing the alternative-energy industry and weaning his country off its dependence on imported oil. He claimed that promoting renewable power would also stimulate the American economy. “Unlike us, the U.K. has found a source of new jobs in this decade,” he said, referring to the Blair government’s efforts in this area. “The implications are dire if we don’t do something.” straight.com

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (4320)	6/23/2006 10:53:45 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24210

Elusive cornucopia: why it will be hard to reap the benefit of biofuel James Mackintosh, Financial Times Not long ago, politicians encountered ethanol only when sipping a dry martini. But now a combination of soaring petrol prices, fears over a reliance on Middle East oil and concern about global warming has led governments in Europe, America and Asia to promote alcohol as a fuel for cars. Wall Street is drunk on ethanol, pouring cash into constructing refineries and searching for any company that can claim a link to "green" fuels. ...But strip away the hoopla and it becomes clear that the benefits of this investment, both for the environment and for energy security, are being wildly overstated - because money is being poured into technologies likely to be outdated within a decade. Moreover, a big switch to biofuel with today's technology would serve only to replace US and European dependence on foreign oil with a dependence either on foreign biofuels or foreign food. Neither is likely to gladden the hearts of national security hawks. ...So how sound is the rationale for all this activity? Ethanol and biodiesel can certainly help reduce greenhouse gases from road transport, which produces about one-quarter of global emissions. As plants grow, they absorb carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, which is then emitted again when the fuel is burnt in an engine. But what is rarely highlighted is just how small the savings are in the US and Europe from using the current technology - and how much land is needed. It is difficult and expensive to convert food crops such as corn, wheat, sunflower, sugar beet or rapeseed grown in Europe or the US into fuel and requires intensive energy. As a result, according to a study by Alexander Farrell of the University of California, Berkeley, published in Science magazine, today's ethanol production processes cut overall greenhouse gas emissions by only about 13 per cent compared with petrol. In Brussels the Commission has found that the standard production methods for sugar-beet ethanol in Europe reduced global warming emissions by a "modest" one-third compared with petrol. The Commission's study concludes that home-grown biofuels are an expensive way to cut emissions: "More greenhouse gas could be saved for the same money in other sectors," it says. ...Mr Hwang - who, like many environmentalists, spent a decade fighting attempts to boost ethanol use before becoming a supporter - argues that first-generation biofuels need support in order to have a market ready for when better fuels arrive. (21 June 2006) Long in-depth article. The original at Financial Times is behind a paywall. The entire article is posted here. registration.ft.com energybulletin.net