Our nation is addicted to fossil fuels, a non-renewable source for energy found in deposits beneath the earth formed from plants and animals that lived up to 300 million years ago. Petrochemical based oil is used as a major power source to fuel our factories and homes, modes of transportation including automobile and aircraft as well as the production of every day products such as plastics, nylon, paints, tires, cosmetics, and detergents. It's completely omnipresent in our everyday lives!
Polls indicate that the U.S. population would like to come clean and pursue a balanced energy policy. The current world conflict and rally cry of anti-war protesters, "No Blood for Oil" represents a struggle for control over the greater Persian Gulf region - the location of about two-thirds of the world's known petroleum. "It’s time to wean ourselves from the dinosaur tit."... we have to kick the habit of our dependence.
We have a lot of work to do. Help all of us make a difference, e-mail the voiceyourself team with your ideas on conservation, alternative products and any other petroleum related information.
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Judges Reject Alaska Offshore Drilling Plan
Alaska Offshore Drilling Plan Rejected.
Federal regulators improperly granted Shell Oil permission for exploratory drilling in Alaska's Beaufort Sea, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Minerals Management Service to reconsider how exploratory drilling would affect wildlife and Inupiat Eskimo subsistence hunting and fishing. The ruling was hailed by conservation groups.
The Associated Press | Anchorage, Alaska - , November 21, 2008
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The Dirty Side of "Clean" Coal
The Samples Mine abutting Larry Gibson's property | Photo by Dennis Dimik, National Geographic
DOROTHY, W. Va. – Larry Gibson lives on an island in the sky.
It didn’t start that way: His land was once a low hill in a rugged hardwood forest – cherry, oak, hickory – skipping from ridge to ridge across one of the poorest, most rural areas of the Lower 48.
Douglas Fischer - The Daily Climate , November 5, 2008
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Under Obama, Dark Days Seen Ahead For Fossil Fuels
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Under President-elect Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., the fossil fuels industry may face "dark days ahead," while alternative energy sectors are likely to flourish.
Although it will take years to engineer and implement, an Obama administration energy and environment policy marks a tectonic shift for the nation. He would move the U.S. away from petroleum as its primary energy source and towards renewable energy, advanced biofuels, efficiency and low greenhouse-gas-emitting technologies.
Ian Talley - Dow Jones Newswire | CNN.com , November 5, 2008
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Offshore oil drilling's promise and problems
Risks of offshore drilling.
Offshore drilling could provide much-needed energy or create huge environmental problems, panelists at a Richmond Times-Dispatch Public Square said last night. The debate at the newspaper's downtown offices drew about 40 people, including the four panelists -- two in support of drilling for oil or natural gas and two against. High gasoline prices and concerns over oil imports have heightened interest in offshore oil and gas. Congress and President Bush recently set aside longstanding bans on new drilling. The nation will continue to need oil for a long time, said Michael Ward, executive director of the Virginia Petroleum Council, an industry group.
By Rex Springston - The Times-Dispatch | Richmond, VA , October 08, 2008
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Peak oil "wrong," says Schwartz
Who knows how much oil is left?
"The peak oil people simply don't know what they're talking about," said environmental futurist Peter Schwartz today at the Cleantech Forum in Washington, D.C. Forget everything you've heard about peak oil as a driver of clean technology, said futurist Peter Schwartz today in a provocative closing session at the Cleantech Forum XVIII in Washington D.C. "The peak oil people simply don't know what they're talking about, they don't know the facts," claimed Schwartz, co-founder and chairman of the Global Business Network and author of five books.
By Dallas Kachan - Cleantech Group , September 17, 2008
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Canada's Tar Sands Lobbyists Focus on Democrats
Alberta tar sands lobbyist work conventions.
As the U.S. election campaign kicks into overdrive, Canadian politicians and oil executives are stepping up lobbying efforts to make sure whoever controls the White House keeps purchasing notoriously dirty oil from the Alberta tar sands. Executives from Nexen Inc., which has major investments in northern Alberta's heavy oil industry, and Tony Clement, chair of a Canadian cabinet committee on energy security, met with Democratic candidate Barack Obama's top energy advisor Jason Grumet late last week to cement the "energy partnership" during the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.
By Chris Arsenault - Inter Press Service | Vancouver , September 02, 2008
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UN urges phasing out of energy subsidies
Greenpeace activists with scales symbolising imbalanced energy subsidies.
A new U.N. report urges countries to phase out energy subsidies, saying they often waste money, do not always help the poor and are bad for the environment. Gas-rich Russia leads countries spending the most in energy subsidies, laying out $40 billion a year, according to the U.N. Environment Program report released Tuesday at a 160-nation conference aimed at drafting a new treaty to contain global warming. Oil-exporter Iran is second, spending $37 billion, while Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer, is also among the top five. Governments spend as much as $300 billion a year total in subsidies that encourage consumption and discourage efficiency.
By Arthur Max - The Associate Press | Accra, Ghana , August 26, 2008
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If We Drill in the U.S., We Don't Get the Oil
U.S. oil exports 1965 / 2005
One thing has been driving me crazy about this drilling debate -- everyone seems to assume that if we drill for oil in the US, that we will get the oil. And hence, we won't be dependent on foreign oil anymore. But we won't get anything, Exxon-Mobil will. The oil that comes from that drilling will not be United States property. It will be the property of whichever oil company got the rights to that contract. They can then sell it to whoever they like -- and they will.
By Cenk Uygur - The Huffington Post , August 07, 2008
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The Cost of Oil Subsidies
Drowning in oil & money.
It is not too surprising that oil prices have retreated from the lofty highs of more than $140 a barrel reached in July. Energy consumption is falling across the industrial world. Americans, the world’s most avid gas guzzlers, finally responded to higher prices. They drove about 10 billion miles less in May than they did in the same month last year. They are trading in their S.U.V.’s for more sensible vehicles. As oil prices rose by two-thirds, American oil consumption fell by 900,000 barrels a day between the first quarter of 2007 and the same period of 2008.
Editorial - The New York Times , August 01, 2008
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Report warns of Canadian oil sands climate risks
The black gold rush is on!
The rush to exploit Canada's heavy tar-sand oil, which necessitates more energy to recover than conventional oils, could significantly increase global risks of dangerous climate change, warns a new report by the WWF and the Co-Operative Financial Services. The exploitation of unconventional oil reserves in Canada and North America could increase global atmospheric CO2 levels by up to 15%.
The continuous rise in oil prices, worsened by increasing difficulties in accessing "easy oil" in supply countries such as Russia, mean the costly exploitation of Canada’s tar-sands and Colorado’s oil-shales have gone from economic nonsense to profitable business.
