Connecticut starts a Running on Empty caucus
• Create a State Department of Energy with overall responsibility to oversee the transition.
• Top priority: develop and coordinate State and local emergency plans to deal with the impacts of sudden fuel reductions. (Fuel allocation, food distribution, transportation, health services, emergency response, etc.)
• Conduct scenarios planning
• Lead long-range sustainability planning: 50 years versus 5.
Iraq is no longer about terrorism but about ensuring the safe flow of oil
November 12, 2007 (posted Oct. 25)
consensus, but there is no evidence that this is so. In fact, the
opposite appears to be the case: possibly fearful that the chaos in
Iraq will spread to other countries in the Gulf region, senior figures
in both parties are calling for a reinvigorated U.S. military role in
the protection of foreign energy deliveries.
independent task force report, *National Security Consequences of U.S.
Oil Dependency*, backed by many prominent Democrats and Republicans.
It was released by the bipartisan Council on Foreign Relations (CFR),
co-chaired by John Deutch, deputy secretary of defense in the Clinton
Administration, and James Schlesinger, defense secretary in the Nixon
and Ford administrations, in October 2006. The report warns of
mounting perils to the safe flow of foreign oil. Concluding that the
United States alone has the capacity to protect the global oil trade
against the threat of violent obstruction, it argues the need for a
strong U.S. military presence in key producing areas and in the sea
lanes that carry foreign oil to American shores.
In other words, Iraq is no longer about
democracy or WMDs or terrorism but about maintaining regional
stability to ensure the safe flow of petroleum and keep the American
economy on an even keel; it was almost as if he was speaking to the
bipartisan crowd that backed the CFR report cited above.
are finding it exceedingly difficult to contest this argument head-on.
In March, for example, Senator Hillary Clinton told the *New York
Times* that Iraq is "right in the heart of the oil region" and so "it
is directly in opposition to our interests" for it to become a failed
state or a pawn of Iran. This means, she continued, that it will be
necessary to keep some U.S. troops in Iraq indefinitely, to provide
logistical and training support to the Iraqi military. Senator Barack
Obama has also spoken of the need to maintain a robust U.S. military
presence in Iraq and the surrounding area. Thus, while calling for
the withdrawal of most U.S. combat brigades from Iraq proper, he has
championed an "over-the-horizon force that could prevent chaos in the
wider region."
challenge Bush when he says that an "enduring" U.S. military presence
is needed in Iraq or to change the Administration'
barring a major military setback or some other unforeseen event. By
the same token, it will be hard for the Democrats to avert a U.S.
attack on Iran if this can be portrayed as a necessary move to prevent
Tehran from threatening the long-term safety of Persian Gulf oil
supplies.
Matt Simmons also believes that an 8% rate of decline is possible, given how Saudi Arabia's fields were mismanaged, the use of technology to extract the oil sooner than it would have otherwise been pumped, other super giant oil fields having depleted rapidly after their peak, and the likelihood that Saudi oil reserves are probably half of what is reported.
The decline after peak might initially be low, buying a few years of time, but if it does reach 8% per year, world oil extraction would decline by almost half in eight years.
http://www.energybu
Venezuela has just announced it will not export even one pound of aluminum by 2012.15 Chavez seems to fully understand what Peak Oil will mean for his country. Building infrastructure to smelt aluminum at home is a form of re-localization for Venezuela and recognition that globalization will die with the coming peak in global hydrocarbon production. Chavez can't be the only world leader to realize this. If other heads of state follow through with similar declarations, global commodity markets will see even higher prices.
The global supply of aluminum has been extremely tight and as energy prices rise it is unlikely that there will be a glut of this metal anytime soon. FTW has previously reported on China's commodity buying binge over the last two years. China's demand for aluminum continues to soar which has forced them to announce restrictions on their exports of the metal. They have also cut down their aluminum production to save energy that is needed elsewhere in their economy.11
http://www.fromthew
Supplies of indium, used in liquid-crystal displays, and of hafnium, a critical element for next-generation semiconductors, could be exhausted by 2017.
In the respected British publication'
Shortages of rare metals could slow or prevent the development of new, more efficient solar panels (by, for example, DayStar Technologies Inc.) that use a combination of copper, indium, gallium and selenide.
http://www.informat
...according to a group of researchers who compiled data on its extraction, use, recycling and discard to estimate whether there is enough copper available (on Earth) to make a developed standard of living available to all the world's people. The short answer is: no. Copper is also relatively scarce compared to other metals like iron or aluminum that make up a good portion of the earth itself.
http://www.sciam.
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