Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Middle East is likely to plummet in significance for the United States over the next two decades. Let’s face it, the main reason we hear so much about Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (as opposed to Senegal and Uruguay) is that they produce petroleum, and the world transportation […]
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Petroleum
Uh, oh: Oil field operations likely triggered earthquakes in California a few miles from the San Andreas Fault
By Thomas H. Goebel | – The way companies drill for oil and gas and dispose of wastewater can trigger earthquakes, at times in unexpected places. In West Texas, earthquake rates are now 30 times higher than they were in 2013. Studies have also linked earthquakes to oil field operations in Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and […]
Big Oil’s Funeral: Pure Electric Car Purchases in Germany skyrocket 260%
By Sören Amelang | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – A record number of car buyers in Germany have opted for electric vehicles in September. The number of new purely electric vehicles rose to 21,188 last month, an increase of 260 percent compared to a year ago, the country’s Federal Motor Transport Authority KBA […]
A clear Choice on Climate: Trump wants to Wreck the Planet; Biden has taken strides toward a Green Vision
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump doesn’t get climate change or the ways to combat it. He is a greedy, venal person, and I presume he is encouraged in his obscurantism by some sort of business interest in the oil and gas industry, or backing by them with campaign dollars. Or perhaps he just, by […]
How ExxonMobil’s plan to Surge its CO2 output is Like Trump’s plan to Deal with the Coronavirus
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump made a mad dash to escape his hospital room at Walter Reed, browbeating his military physicians into letting him go while he was pumped full of a cocktail of potions that included euphoria- and delusion-inducing steroids. His lungs laboring with broken glass syndrome, he vaulted up the stairs to […]
War for Oil, again? Why are Russia and Turkey intervening in the Azerbaijan-Armenia Clashes?
Belgrade (Special to Informed Comment) – Clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh threaten to destabilize the Caucasus. Turkey and Russia – the major foreign actors in this proxy conflict – are still not directly involved in bloodshed that erupted on September 27, although Ankara openly supports Baku by providing full […]
The Pandemic and Oil
Foreign Policy in Focus) – With oil prices down and wealthy countries bungling COVID-19, the pandemic has exposed the weaknesses that wealth papers over. During the reign of the Emperor Justinian I (527-565 AD), a mysterious plague spread out of the Nile Valley to Constantinople and finished off the Roman Empire. Appearing first in China […]
Russia defies US Sanctions, presses Syria on Long Term Trade, Investment deal for Energy
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Russia and Syria are preparing to enter into a wide-ranging trade and investment deal, according to RT Arabic. Sunday night, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov arrived in Damascus to meet with high Syrian officials. On Monday, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov arrived, meeting with Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad and his […]
Burning Oil Strengthens Hurricanes like Laura, which sow Environmental Catastrophe when they Strike Petroleum Facilities like Lousiana’s
By John Pardue | – Hurricane Laura plowed through the heart of Louisiana’s oil and chemical industries as a powerful Category 4 storm, leaving a chlorine plant on fire and the potential for more hazardous damage in its wake. The burning BioLab facility sent dark smoke and chlorine gas into the air over the small […]