Energy Probe

How U.S. labour and environmental rules blocked Dutch spill-cleanup technology.

Is it any wonder that the BP calamity occurred? Here’s what has been preoccupying its environmental regulator, the Minerals Management Service, ever since MMS was established in 1982.

Washington laid the groundwork for the Gulf oil spill by letting the offshore oil industry dodge its liabilities.

In doing some research on my modest energy investments, I came across a link that led me to a website called Energy Probe where I discovered a very interesting article entitled Endless Oil by Canadian environmentalist, Lawrence Solomon, which if true, could cause anti-fossil fuel Greens to turn hotly red.

Russian research has shown that the Earth doesn’t need dinosaurs to produce oil.

Do dead dinosaurs fuel our cars? The assumption that they do, along with other dead matter thought to have formed what are known as fossil fuels, has been an article of faith for centuries. Our geologists are taught fossil fuel theory in our schools; our energy companies search for fossil fuels by divining where the dinosaurs lay down and died. Sooner or later, we will run out of liquefied dinosaurs and be forced to turn to either nuclear or renewable fuels, virtually everyone believes.

Welcome to the first installment of the National Post's non-fiction book club, Speaking Volumes, an ongoing series that features National Post writers and expert guests. In this edition, we examine Jeff Rubin's new book, Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller (Random House Canada) on peak oil and the end of globalization.

Oil imports are destroying the U. S., say a rising tide of alarmists in the U. S., chief among them T. Boone Pickens, the legendary oil man turned wind power developer. "It is a clear and growing threat to our national security, and our national economy," he testified to the U. S. Senate. "It has to be stopped. We are on the verge of losing our Super Power status."

Up! Up! Up! The world is consuming more and more energy and, as if by miracle, the amount left to consume grows ever higher. Never before in human history has energy been accessible in greater abundance and in more regions, never before has mankind had more energy options and faced a brighter energy future.

Toronto: With the price of crude oil continuing its climb to hit a record high of $50 US per barrel this week, Canadian consumers are feeling the pinch at the gas pumps and gearing up for a winter of high heating costs. Analysts said yesterday that prices could keep rising because of a sharp rise in global demand, tight supplies and threats to output in petroleum-producing nations such as Iraq and Nigeria.

Toronto: With the price of crude oil continuing its summertime climb to hit a record high of $50 US per barrel this week, Canadian consumers are feeling the pinch at the gas pumps and gearing up for a winter of high heating oil costs.

Oil prices are sky high but the sky is not falling. Improvements in efficiency since the oil price shocks in the 1970s mean that high prices won't cause a repeat of the nasty economic indigestion we suffered then.

Calgary -- Canadian drivers should brace themselves for a summer of high pump prices despite today's expected announcement of oil production increases by OPEC, according to briefing papers prepared by Canada's gasoline industry.

An analysis by the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute, which compiled a variety of economic data and forecasts by industry analysts, suggests that sustained relief at the pumps won't be immediate because of the time required to rebuild gasoline inventory levels.

Kudos to our federal government if it gets out of Petro-Can, a venture it should never have started. Once they are no longer an investor, the feds may do a better job enforcing environmental rules in the oilpatch. The sale proceeds might constructively be used restoring environmental enforcement, with any leftovers going to remediate federal contaminated sites.