You know when you’re a blog-writin’, energy wonkin’ wonk when you go bike riding with friends, and the whole thing turns into an energy policy riff. On the Internet. I’ll let Scot tell it: I see at Bloomberg this morning that oil is $55 a barrel. $85 dollars down from $140, carry the one….that’s…a 61% …
The Washington Post thinks you’re not paying enough for gas*: In a perfect world, we’d like to see a gas tax that was the equivalent of oil at $100 per barrel. This would send a loud-and-clear signal to drivers to continue eschewing gas guzzlers for fuel sippers and mass transit. Automakers would get the message …
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 …
I wrote a piece for this morning’s Albuquerque Journal trying to address what I think is a misunderstanding afoot in New Mexico about the future of Los Alamos and Sandia labs – the idea that they can shift to energy reserach as support for nuclear weapons spending declines. It ain’t gonna be easy: During the …
James Hamilton: It is sometimes argued that if economists really understand something, they should be able to predict what will happen next. But oil prices are an interesting example (stock prices are another) of an economic variable which, if our theory is correct, we should be completely unable to predict.
Suppy and demand isn’t just a theory, it’s the law. Demand drops (EIA): Price drops (AAA): (I find that consumption graph from EIA incredibly compelling.)
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 …
Drought does not only mean thirst and failed crops. In Kyrgyzstan it also means blackouts: The question of whether the country will be able to avoid major heat and electricity outages has become more pressing than ever. Due to the especially dry weather since the summer of 2007 the level of water in Toktogul reservoir, …
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 …
Rich Sweeney may be an Al Gore enthusiast, but he’s got some good questions about the gritty details of Gore’s “renewable in 10 years” plan.