Conspiracy Theory, Peak Oil, and the IEA

There is an interesting article nearing publication by Swedish professor Kjell Aleklett who is president of the Associate for the Study of Peak Oil. His article effectively claims that the IEA’s forecast for oil supply is nothing more than fiction and that the IEA is simply a puppet to larger political bodies. For more on this read the Platts’ article from The Barrel:

The latest peak oil projection: a stunning difference | Platts

A great book on sustainable energy

Don’t waste another minute … buy this book! With Energy being a more and more important topic for our lives, the planet, and the geo-political landscape it is critical that we all start to have legitimized frameworks for thinking about how energy is used and how much real

potential different sustainable energies can help to move us away from our dependence on a hydrocarbon-based (aka, non-sustainable) energy economy. This book doesn't explore the economic or moral angles to energy or environment but instead by focusing on clear and quantitative data it helps the reader to clearly understand the true limits and potentials that certain technologies have in providing a greener future. This information should be mandatory reading for all citizens who vote on alternative energy legislation.

Both the UK and US Amazon sites give this book a 5 out of 5 stars. Find out why.

Sungard announces another ETRM product

http://www.sungard.com/pressreleases/2009/energy042909.aspx

Could this be the beginning of the end for Zainet, Nucleus and rest. The website now only talks about Entegrate and Aligne. It is not clear what the difference is unless you are a data manager or power generator.

But there are still questions - like no mention of support for European markets, where Zainet has been winning clients recently.

API to get into baking

A mildly amusing article in Platts about the American Petroleum Institutes reaction to the new EPA mandate related to greenhouse gases:

API views endangerment finding as threat to US economy, families and bakers

European Gas Markets

Listen to a two part discussion on the European Gas Markets with Thiery Bros, Senior Financial Analyst, Société Générale:

Part I

Part II

The silver lining from the recession cloud

Looks like being in a recessionary economy aint all bad. The number of people being killed in road accidents on US highways has dropped dramatically to 1960s levels, according to 2008 figures. This was partly due to the high gas prices last year. But in general, less vehicle miles are being driven and less gas being used than in the boom years.

See this link for more

Doesn’t matter if its not true … it’s my point of view and I’m sticking to it

Politicians are well known for their strong opinions and moral fibre. Oh wait, that’s not quite correct … politicians are known for taking a position which serves them well and flogging it. Yes, that sounds better.  

Friday’s “The Barrel” from Platts contributed on article titled: Regardless, House Republicans stick to their story. It illustrates how an MIT report (undoubtedly seen as a left-leaning educational source and hence a better base for a Republican platform) was used by the Republicans to flog Cap-and-Trade as overly expensive to consumers ($3k per tax payer). When the author of the article pointed out that they had come to a conclusion that was exponentially off the mark they decided to … ignore the criticism and keep flogging the message.

It sure would be nice if this kind of behaviour was laughed out of existence but I’m afraid this is just politics-as-usual.