IEA to Reduce Oil Demand Forecasts Again

November 5, 2009By Andy RowellBlog Post

The tar sands may be doomed. Two of the key arguments against exploiting it are gaining traction, and both may be enough to scupper investment. Yesterday I blogged about how the idea of a carbon-constrained world, which could fatally undermine tar sands extraction, was beginning to be debated in the mainstream press: the message being … Read More

Copenhagen Talks Spell Trouble for the Tar Sands

November 4, 2009By Andy RowellBlog Post 1 Comment

Critics of the oil industry’s relentless expansion into the Canadian tar sands have been pointing out for a while something that they thought was obvious: the multi-billion investment strategy is completely flawed. They have repeatedly pointed out that exploiting the highly polluting and energy intensive tar sands is extremely financially risky in a carbon constrained … Read More

Big Oil Front Group Fights for Tar Sands

October 15, 2009By Andy RowellBlog Post

The debate on energy and climate is littered with corporate front groups scare-mongering over action on climate change at the moment. On the blog we have recently talked about the American Petroleum Institute’s astroturf “Energy Citizen” campaign and American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCE)’s fake letter writers.

Oil Demand from Developed Countries Peaked in 2005

October 14, 2009By Andy RowellBlog Post

For a while now there has been a growing consensus that, whilst many people worry about peak supply of oil, peak demand is also an issue, especially in developed countries. I blogged on this back in August, after an analysis by Oil Change, Greenpeace and Platform, argued we could be seeing a demand peak. Well … Read More

Canada: The Climate Change Bully

September 15, 2009By Andy RowellBlog Post

Timed with perfection to undermine the meeting between Canada’s Premier Stephen Harper and Barack Obama, Greenpeace has issued a new report labelling Canada as a “climate change bully” that is doing everything in its power to undermine a new agreement at Copenhagen. Tomorrow will be the second meeting between the two leaders, who are expected … Read More

Chinese in $2 Billion Tar Sands Deal

September 4, 2009By Andy RowellBlog Post 2 Comments

To paraphrase the great writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain: “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated!” And so it is with the tar sands, one of the hottest debates in the energy industry. Its growing army of critics argue this highly polluting technology will help tip the world towards climatic … Read More

“British companies are killing us”

August 24, 2009By Andy RowellBlog Post 1 Comment

On Wednesday, the fourth Annual climate camp will happen at an undisclosed location in London, building on previous year’s success at Drax, Kingsnorth and Heathrow. With just months to go to the crucial Copenhagen Climate Summit in December, the intention is to force our politicians to act. But activists from around Britain will also be … Read More

What About the Demand-Side Warning?

August 3, 2009By Andy RowellBlog Post 1 Comment

It’s interesting how peak oil continues to grab the headlines. If you log on to the Independent newspaper this morning the “Exclusive” headline is “Warning: Oil supplies are running out fast.” The paper’s story was based on an interview with Fatih Birol, the lead economist with the International Energy Agency (IEA) who talked how depletion … Read More