A Free-Market Energy Blog

Running Into Oil

By -- September 21, 2009

“Some commentators hope that new technology will lead to important deepwater finds.  Some new deepwater areas with giant potential, such as the Perdido Trend in the western Gulf of Mexico, will no doubt be found, but generally, the geology of most deepwater tracts is not very promising.” 

– Colin Campbell (founder: Association for the Study of Peak Oil),  Noroil, December 1989. 

The past week was a bad one for peak oil enthusiasts, as three separate announcements indicated the abundance of undiscovered petroleum.

First, BP announced that it has found a field in the Lower Tertiary basin in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, named Tiber, containing something on the order of 3 billion barrels.

Next, Petrobras announced another discovery in the pre-salt basin, this one Guara, containing about 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil.…

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IER’s Danish Wind Study: Response to Critics

By -- September 19, 2009

[Editor note: The post is a slightly revised version of what was posted at the Institute for Energy Research website on September 17. The primary author was Daniel R. Simmons, director of state energy affairs. Next week, Michael Giberson will evaluate IER’s defense of the Danish study at MasterResource in light of his own first impressions.]

Energy is critical for our economy and our future, and the real issues deserve to be debated. That is why we appreciated the initial response on the American Wind Energy Association’s website to the recent study, Wind Energy: The Case of Denmark. It appears that AWEA actually read the study and raised some questions related to energy.

The same cannot be said of other responses, such as this blog post from NRDC.…

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The United States is the World’s True Energy Superpower

By Donald Hertzmark -- September 18, 2009

We are used to hearing about how far behind the curve the United States is on energy. Just today, we were reminded that Germany and China will gobble up our future since we have failed to invest in solar and wind technologies, in particular, photovoltaic fabrication plants.

Actually, that’s not quite true. There are quite a number of PV plants in the U.S., just not any using the technology touted by the New York Times reporter.

And as for wind: did you know that “China is going to eat our lunch and take our jobs on clean energy.” That is not true either. Current wind generating capacity in the U.S. is just shy of 30,000 MW, larger than any other country, including Germany (24,000 MW) and China (13,000 MW).…

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The Iron Age & Coal-based Coke: A Neglected Case of Fossil-fuel Dependence

By Vaclav Smil -- September 17, 2009
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Even the Generals are Worried! Mission Creep, Climate Change, and National Security (Part 2)

By -- September 16, 2009
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Even the Generals are Worried! Mission Creep, Climate Change, and National Security (Part 1)

By -- September 15, 2009
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A War on CO2? Civil Libertarians, Beware!

By Robert Murphy -- September 14, 2009
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Energy Malthusianism in the Sweep of History (and Rockefeller, Insull, and Lay)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 12, 2009
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Dear Thomas Friedman: Are You a Fascist Wannabee?

By Donald Hertzmark -- September 11, 2009
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On the Fall of Enron and Ken Lay: ‘Philosophic Fraud’ at an Errant Energy Company (and cap-and-trade, renewables forerunner)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 10, 2009
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