Peak Oil and Climate Change

Dieter Helm, writing in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, offers the counter-argument to the point made recently by Andy Dessler that the peak and inevitable decline of fossil fuels may put some sort of upper limit on our ability to to put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere: Some argue that, however intense the dash-for-resources, …

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Energy News of the Day

“China National Nuclear Corp., the nation’s biggest nuclear plant builder, said a decline in the spot price of uranium will affect the country’s exploration for the fuel at home and overseas.” – Bloomberg “Petro-Canada, the country’s third- largest oil company, has delayed the C$25.3 billion ($20.6 billion) Fort Hills oil-sands mining project in Alberta because …

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Collier on Global Food Prices

Paul Collier, writing in the current Foreign Affairs, argues thus about climate change and food prices: In recent years, the increase in demand resulting from gradually increasing incomes in Asia has instead been matched with several supply shocks, such as the prolonged drought in Australia. These shocks will only become more common with the climatic …

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The Peak Oil-Climate Linkage

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a short piece for the newspaper about a talk by David Rutledge on his analysis of the peak oil-climate linkage: Humanity may be rapidly running out of fossil fuels, according to Dave Rutledge, but every cloud has its silver lining. In this case, the California Institute of Technology …

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Mixing Solar and Coal

Via Rich Sweeney, and interesting project to test adding solar energy to existing fossil fuel plants: Both projects involve adding steam generated by a solar thermal field to a conventional fossil fuel-powered steam cycle, either to offset some of the coal or natural gas required to generate electric power or to boost overall plant power …

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Cities Getting Bad Rap on Climate Change?

David Satterthwaite argues that the oft-repeated claim that cities generate three quarters of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions is just plain wrong. Writing in the current issue of the journal Environment and Urbanization, he charts what sounds a lot like one of those oft-repeated urban legends: Perhaps this was an estimate for the United States, …

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