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01.18.20- Five Clean Energy Trends
To Watch In 2020
At the start of 2020, analysts bravely stepped out on a limb to predict how the turbulent energy market and energy systems will evolve at the beginning of the new decade.
Clean energy and climate policy experts have shared in Forbes their forecasts for this year's energy system in the United States with Silvio Marcacci, Communications Director for climate policy think tank Energy Innovation. Read More
01.17.20- Solar Installations to Grow by Additional 142 GW in 2020 – Seven Times the World's Total Solar Installations a Decade Ago
Global solar installations will continue double-digit growth rates into the new decade, according to the new 2020 Global Photovoltaic (PV) Demand Forecast by IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions. New annual installations in 2020 will reach 142 gigawatts (GW), a 14 % rise over the previous year.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here:
Diversification of the global solar PV market. Read More
01.16.20- Florida To Buy Part Of Everglades To Protect Them From Oil Drilling
Florida has agreed to buy part of the Everglades wetlands to protect the sensitive ecosystem from oil drilling, Reuters reports, citing an announcement by the Florida governor.
The deal, which will involve 20,000 acres, will be the largest acquisition of wetlands in Floridain ten years. The seller is Kanter Real Estate LLC, which had requested a permit for oil exploration in the area from the state. The Environmental Protection Department denied the permit, Kanter sued and the court ruled in favor of the company. Read More
01.15.20- Massive Oil Product Build
Sends Prices Lower
A day after the API's crude oil inventory report pressured prices, the EIA relieved some of the pressure by reporting an inventory draw of 2.5 million barrels for the week to January 10.
Analysts had expected the authority to report an inventory decline of 750,000 barrels for the period. A week earlier, the EIA estimated inventories had added 1.2 million barrels, after for the last week of 2019 it reported an inventory decline of 11.5 million barrels. Read More
01.14.20- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Australia Burning... Disaster Capitalism or Something Else?
Joseph P. Farrell
By far and away this past week, the biggest story flooding my email inbox were the fires in Australia. That's partially understandable, as many members and readers of this website live in Australia. When these first started, though, I was skeptical of the explanations – what few there were – on the media. I did manage to hear a story from the Australian media that in one instance they had arrested two young men committing arson, who somehow managed to get the uniforms of a fire department in New South Wales. But the lack of details thus far has been the most suspicious thing. Note that I said "thus far", because details are beginning to emerge… Read More
01.13.20- How residential energy storage could help support the power grid
Sean Kane
Household batteries could contribute to making the grid more cost effective, reliable, resilient, and safe—if retail battery providers, utilities, and regulators can resolve delicate commercial, operational, and policy issues.
The growth of battery storage in the power sector has attracted a great deal of attention in the industry and media. Much of that attention focuses on utility-scale batteries and on batteries for commercial and industrial customers. While these larger batteries are critical segments of the energy-storage market, the rapid growth of residential energy storage is outpacing expectations, and these household systems will likely become important assets sooner than many expect. The growth trajectory and potential value of these household systems to customers and the power grid warrants a closer look. Read More
01.11.20- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Atlanta Police Make Monumental Move, Disband Entire Drug Unit to Focus
on Actual Crime
Matt Agoris
The Atlanta police department just made a revolutionary move. Let's hope other cities follow suit!
In one of the most revolutionary moves we've reported on to date, the Atlanta Police Department announced this week that they are disbanding their narcotics unit so they can fight actual violent crime. This move is both revolutionary and heartening and is another nail in the war on drugs' coffin. Read More
01.10.20- Progressive Eco-Group Admits It: Renewable Energy is a Hoax that Benefits its Greenie Elmer Gantries like Al Gore
John Eidson
Independent physicist John Droz, Jr. alerted me to the website of Deep Green Resistance (DGR), an international environmental organization that calls for the total destruction of what it refers to as the "global industrial economy," a.k.a. capitalism. Given the group's hard-left credentials, its call for dismantling capitalism throughout the world is not surprising.
What is surprising is that in an unusual show of progressive candor, Deep Green Resistance openly acknowledges what skeptical scientists have been saying for more than two decades: that renewable energy is a government-backed hoax that enriches big corporations -- and green energy investors like Al Gore -- at the expense of taxpayers and the environment. Read More
01.09.20- "Solar umbrellas" could reduce the blight of evaporation ponds
Berkley Labs
Scientists at Berkeley Lab have developed a sort of "solar umbrella" which could radically reduce the amount of land needed for industrial evaporation ponds.
Evaporation ponds are a cheap way to deal with waste water contaminated by industrial processes in various industries, including power plants, desalination plants as well as the oil, gas and lithium industries.
The idea behind evaporation ponds is to create shallow expanses of waste water which is naturally evaporated by sunlight, leaving behind solid waste which can be more easily disposed of. Read More
01.08.20- Why Is The U.S. Military Funding This New Biofuel Breakthrough?
Haley Zaremba
Trying to wrest energy from the sea is not a new trend. The science of tidal energy has been around since the 1900s, a new algal biofuel "breakthrough" is announced every year or so, and Russia has even launched its nuclear power plants out into the arctic sea where they have been labelled as a floating "Chernobyl on ice." Read More
01.07.20- 2020: The Decade For Energy Storage
The developers of the lithium-ion battery won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019, in recognition of a scientific achievement that has helped power our mobile phones, laptops, and electric vehicles (EVs).
"It can also store significant amounts of energy from solar and wind power, making possible a fossil fuel-free society," The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said, noting that lithium-ion batteries have created a rechargeable world over the past decade. Read More
01.06.20- Is This The Future Of Solar?
Earlier this month, many of the world's leading experts and authorities on climate change and clean energy met at the United Nations' Climate Change Conference COP25 in Madrid to discuss the state of the world and the strategy going forward to combat catastrophic climate change. There the UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the gathered delegates and experts that "By the end of the coming decade we will be on one of two paths. One is the path of surrender, where we have sleep walked past the point of no return, jeopardizing the health and safety of everyone on this planet. Do we really want to be remembered as the generation that buried its head in the sand, that fiddled while the planet burned? The other option is the path of hope." Read More
01.04.20- Physicists Just Achieved Quantum Teleportation Between Computer Chips
Manuel García Aguilar
"Quantum" may possibly have been one of the most common words we've been reading, listening to, and even writing about last year - and there is a big reason for that... quantum is no longer the future, quantum is now.
Physicists have been able to demonstrate quantum teleportation between two computer chips for the first time. Read More
01.03.20- CapEcon: If Iran Closes The Strait Of Hormuz, Crude Would Jump To $150
When we first reported the news of Qassam Suleimani's assassination, one of the first things we showed was the placement of US naval ship around the globe, emphasizing the location of aircraft carrier CVN 75 "Harry Truman" which is currently located just off the Straits of Hormuz in the Gulf of Mexico (and may or may not have been instrumental in the Baghdad airport strike that took out Suleimani). Read More
01.02.20- And Now, for Something Entirely Differeny: The Wounded Knee Massacre... The Forgotten History of the Native American Gun Confiscation
This war put an end to the Indian Wars and is marked as the last official defeat of the Native Americans…
The Battle at Wounded Knee is a significant battle in American history, as it put an end to the Indian Wars and is marked as the last official defeat of the Native Americans. But what's not taught in history lessons is that Wounded Knee was one of the first federally backed gun confiscations in the history of the United States, and it ended in the massacre of nearly 300 unarmed people. Read More
01.01.20- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: America Is Over But You KNEW That Already…
Doug Lynn
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
And old lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne. ~ Robert Burns Read More
12.31.19- The European Auto Industry Is Racing To Ditch Diesel
Metal Miner
As if the downturn due to a trade-war-induced slowdown in China were not enough, the European automotive industry is facing the challenge of a rapid switch from diesel to petrol engines that has been gathering pace for the last two years. At the same time, the industry has also had to deal with the implementation of new legislation designed to reduce car makers' overall fleet emission levels.
An article in the Financial Times explains the impact of the new legislation on Europe's automakers, an industry that supports some 14 million workers across the continent. Read More
12.30.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: The Deep-State Democrats Have Months To Gain Control of America,
Or It's The CHICOMS Turn
Dave Hodges
I have been fortunate, over the past 6 years to have Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) contacts that are wholly independent from one another. I have regular, encrypted contact with one agent. He has served at the highest pinnacle of power in the DEA both in foreign stations, working closely with the CIA, and domestically where they work more closely with the ATF and the FBI. Read More
12.28.19- LG turns the sod on its first indoor gardening appliance
Darren Quick
LG will show its first foray into indoor gardening appliances at CES 2020. The company has leveraged its expertise in home appliances in designing the new device, which sports more than a passing resemblance to a thin, tall fridge and is intended to give urban dwellers without a backyard, or even a balcony, the ability to raise their own crops year-round.
The LG Column Garden is designed to take all-in-one seed packages that contain seeds, peat moss and fertilizer. The automated unit can take up to 24 of these seed packages at once, which LG says will result in enough home-grown vegetables for a family of four. Read More
12.27.19- The Real Reason Oil Prices Remained Low In 2019
Dimitri Speck
The year that is drawing to a close has not been good for oil. Despite production caps across OPEC and beyond, and despite the extra-large number and size of production outages, benchmark prices have stubbornly stayed range-bound below what oil-reliant OPEC economies consider a good price for their product. How did this happen?
First and foremost, it happened because of the U.S. shale boom, as Bloomberg's Grant Smith wrote in a recent overview of oil in 2019. The consensus on the role of U.S. shale oil production growth seems to be unchallengeable. All oil price forecasts, including OPEC's own, now regularly include U.S. oil production growth as the main reason for growth in non-OPEC supply that acts as counterweight to OPEC's production curb efforts. Read More
12.26.19- Renewables On The Rise
In The Mining Industry
In a recent report, consultancy firm THEnergy stated that 2019 saw significant growth in the number of mining companies materially committing to develop onsite renewable energy projects.
"The year 2019 has been identified as the tipping point. The business case for partly substituting expensive fuel like diesel, heavy fuel oil (HFO) or gas by solar and wind had been positive on paper for years. However, actual projects have evolved slowly," the report states. "[Yet] in 2019, almost a dozen new projects have been officially announced and at the same time many more projects are under development and on the verge of being announced." Read More
12.25.19- Stairs are no obstacle for flying robovac
Paul Ridden
If your busy lifestyle leaves little time for housework, robot vacuum cleaners can help. Though models can employ some pretty advanced tech to autonomously tackle dirt in the living space, they're pretty much limited to one story. If you want your robovac to clean upstairs, you'll have to carry it up and set it off. Peter Sripol wasn't happy with that situation so made his Roomba fly. Read More
12.24.19- Doug Casey on Elon Musk's Cybertruck
Doug Casey
Chris' note: It looks like something out of a sci-fi novel… and it's got everyone's attention.
I'm talking about Elon Musk's latest project… his long-awaited "cybertruck."
As you can see below, it's not your typical truck:
Now, if you didn't already know, our founder Doug Casey is a life-long car guy. So I had to get his take on this new truck since it's truly unlike anything we've ever seen. Read More
12.23.19- Why Hasn't Hydrogen Gone Mainstream?
As the world pays more and more attention to reducing emissions and mitigating climate change, analysts believe that the most abundant element in the universe—hydrogen—has the potential to become a mainstream energy technology and a key clean fuel source in the future that could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In some industries, including oil refining, ammonia production, and methanol production, hydrogen is already widely used. Read More
12.21.19- Did Scientists Just Crack
The Solar Code?
Scientists the world over have been trying to take a space-grade, super-efficient process for creating spray-on solar cells and make it economically feasible--on Earth.
Everyone said it was impossible.
There are two things that have kept solar from exploding on the market: efficiency and cost. Never have the two been able to meet. Read More
12.20.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: A Plot To Make Pelosi President? Now Adam Schiff Wants To Go After
Vice-President Mike Pence…
I was really hoping that this wouldn't happen. Within hours of President Trump being impeached by the House, the mainstream media was reporting that Adam Schiff "has declared war" on Mike Pence. At this time of the year, most Americans are celebrating holidays and spending time with their families, but Adam Schiff continues to be deeply focused on his twisted obsession to take down the Trump administration. When Rachel Maddow asked him if he was "actively looking at Vice President Mike Pence and his role in this scandal", Schiff made it quite clear that he has targeted Pence. Is Schiff doing this because he wants "justice", or is there some deeper plot afoot? Read More
12.19.19- How to choose the best battery for a solar energy system
There are certain specifications you should use when evaluating your solar battery options, such as how long the solar battery will last or how much power it can provide. Below, learn about all of the criteria that you should use to compare your home energy storage options, as well as the different types of solar batteries. Read More
12.18.19- The Not-So-Secret Component In Next-Gen Solar Cells
Materials researchers at Estonia's Tallinn University of Technology partially substituted copper with silver in solar cells' absorber material to improve the efficiency of the devices.
In a study published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, the scientists explain that their goal is to develop the next generation of thin-film solar cells based on compound semiconductors. Read More
12.17.19- New water-splitting process could kick-start "green" hydrogen economy
Loz Blain
Australian scientists claim they've worked out a much cheaper, more efficient way to split hydrogen out of water, using easily sourced iron and nickel catalysts instead of expensive, rare ruthenium, platinum and iridium catalysts favored by current large-scale hydrogen producers, which are literally thousands of times more expensive.
Much is being made of the developing "hydrogen economy" idea, in which compressed hydrogen fuels will become an energy source as common as gasoline, and fuel cell cars will take a place alongside combustion engines and electric vehicles in the transport mix. Read More
12.16.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: USAF General: Hidden Space Tech
There's been a lot of space news recently, from studies increasingly questioning whether or not so-called dark matter actually exists, to a quiet debate on whether or not the U.S.A. should disclose at least some of its hidden technology. That debate may have been more or less recently settled as a retired United States Air Force Lieutenant General, Steven Kwast, has recently given a speech, and authored an opinion piece, which has had some circles of the internet buzzing with speculation. And since speculation is what we do here, and since these two articles were sent to me by all sorts of people, this story became one of this week's "must blog" topics. The article was written earlier this year in March, and more recently, General Kwast spoke to Hillsdale College. Read More
12.14.19- 'Artificial leaf' successfully produces clean gas
A widely-used gas that is currently produced from fossil fuels can instead be made by an 'artificial leaf' that uses only sunlight, carbon dioxide and water, and which could eventually be used to develop a sustainable liquid fuel alternative to petrol.
The carbon-neutral device sets a new benchmark in the field of solar fuels, after researchers at the University of Cambridge demonstrated that it can directly produce the gas -- called syngas -- in a sustainable and simple way. Read More
12.13.19- IEA: An Oil Glut Is Inevitable In 2020
Despite the OPEC+ cuts, the oil market is still facing a supply surplus in 2020, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
OPEC+ announced additional cuts of 500,000 bpd, which sounds more impressive than it is because the group was already producing under its limit. In November, for instance, OPEC was producing 440,000 bpd below the agreed upon ceiling. Read More
12.12.19- Scientists punch holes in regular solar cells to make them transparent
Nick Lavars
Crystalline silicon has been the go-to material for solar cell makers since the 1950s, with the material offering supreme conversion efficiency and stability over the alternatives. One thing it doesn't offer, however, is transparency, but scientists in Korea believe they've found a way around this long-standing limitation, with a new technique that involves punching carefully placed holes right through the material.
Transparent solar cells would be a huge boon to our renewable energy efforts, with the potential to replace windows in skyscrapers, replace the sunroofs in cars or act as electricity-generating screens. Read More
12.11.19- LFTRs in 5 minutes - Thorium Reactors
Kirk Sorensen
12.10.19- Thorium
Alvin Lowi, Jr. and Chas Holloway
The Age of Elecreicity
The late 1800s. A time in America of unlimited freedom. A time of the rugged individualist. Tom Edison, deep in his Menlo Park laboratory, creating the Electric Age. Nicola Tesla, the immigrant competitor, with his electric motor and alternating current. It was the Golden Age of America. A time of invention, entrepreneurialism, and genius set free.
At least, that's the popular myth. Read More
12.09.19- Forget The Hype, Aramco Shares May be Valued At Zero Next Year
Simon Watkins
This week will see the onset of full trading activity in the shares of Saudi Arabia's flagship oil company, Aramco. Through a combination of wooing local retail investors via preferential loans, threatening wealthy Saudis with the sort of treatment they had during their imprisonment in the Ritz Carlton in 2017, and inveigling the two principal credit ratings agencies to toe the exact Saudi line on the 'lack of significance' of the 'Houthi' attacks on Abqaiq and Khurais, the Saudis have finally been able to sell off a part of Aramco. It may be nearly three years late, only around one third of the original amount intended, have no foreign listing, and be priced to value the entire company at much less than the US$2 trillion that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) had staked his reputation on but it is done. Read More
12.07.19- Shale's Debt-Fueled Drilling Boom Is Coming To An End
The financial struggles of the U.S. shale industry are becoming increasingly hard to ignore, but drillers in Appalachia are in particularly bad shape.
The Permian has recently seen job losses, and for the first time since 2016, the hottest shale basin in the world has seen job growth lag the broader Texas economy. The industry is cutting back amid heightened financial scrutiny from investors, as debt-fueled drilling has become increasingly hard to justify.
But E&P companies focused almost exclusively on gas, such as those in the Marcellus and Utica shales, are in even worse shape. An IEEFA analysis found that seven of the largest producers in Appalachia burned through about a half billion dollars in the third quarter. Read More
12.06.19- Momentous Change in US Crude Oil Market, with Global Impact
Wolf Richter
But US "Energy Independence" is More Complicated.
US exports of crude oil and petroleum products – this includes gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, naphtha, and many others – exceeded imports in September by 89,000 barrels a day, the EIA reported today, and so the US became a "net exporter" of crude oil and petroleum products for the first time in the EIA's data going back to 1973: Read More
12.05.19- Renewables Can't Offset Growing Need For Fossil Fuels
Solar and wind power are among the renewable energies forecast to spike in 2020, accounting for two-thirds of the new power generation capacity comings on line, a new report shows.
Experts from The Economist Intelligence Unit (The EIU), forecast energy consumption from non-hydro renewables to rise by 14 percent next year, while oil-generated energy would grow by just 1 percent, even with prices remaining range-bound despite political tensions in the Middle East. Read More
12.04.19- The Remarkable History Of Solar Energy
Everyone's got an origin story, and solar energy is no exception, but you might be surprised to learn just how far back this origin story goes.
Mankind has been using solar energy in one form or another for thousands of years. Even ancient civilizations were aware of the benefits of solar energy. Read More
12.03.19- Signs Of The Times: Mt. Rainier And The New Madrid Fault Zone Were Both Just Hit By Significant Earthquakes
Mt. Rainier and the New Madrid fault zone are both shaking, and a catastrophic seismic event at either location would cause death and destruction on an unimaginable scale. Mt. Rainier has been called "one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world", and scientists tell us that it is just a matter of time before a major eruption occurs. When that day finally arrives, Mt. Rainier has the potential to bury hundreds of square miles with a colossal tsunami of super-heated mud that is literally several hundred feet deep. And since Mt. Rainier is very close to major population centers, we are talking about the potential for the worst disaster that we have seen in modern American history.Read More
12.02.19- Electric Cars Cost More Than Too Much
Eric Peters
Electric cars are costing us more than just too much money.
They're also costing jobs.
Just in time for Thanksgiving, Audi announced the end of 9,500 of them – to help finance the development of electric cars. "We are now tackling structural issues in order to prepare Audi for the challenges ahead," said Audi's CEO Bram Schot.
The "structural issues" he speaks of are the outlawing of other-than-electric cars by the German government, effective come 2030 Read More
11.30.19- Tech Breakthrough Could Spark A Geothermal Energy Boom
Geothermal energy is often billed as one of "the cleanest energy sources" --and with good reason. It's carbon-free, renewable, and efficient. Even those stoic anti-hyperbolists over at the United States Department of Energy sing its praises, saying, "this vital, clean energy resource supplies renewable power around the clock and emits little or no greenhouse gases -- all while requiring a small environmental footprint to develop."
While geothermal is one of the superheroes of clean energy production, however, it still has a lot of room for improvement. First and foremost, it needs to be massively scaled up in order to have any real environmental impact or significant market share compared to where it stands now, a speck in the giant shadow of fossil fuels. What's more, there are significant barriers and high costs to the initial phases of exploration and infrastructure. Read More
11.29.19- Powering The $1 Trillion Black Friday Shopping Spree
Alex Kimani
The famous trifecta of American holidays is already knocking at the door: Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It forebodes a massive amount of food, but it also forebodes a massive amount of online shopping and the digital hunt for holiday deals.
Deloitte has predicted that holiday sales this year could climb 5 percent and exceed $1.1 trillion. The e-commerce sector is expected to enjoy another bumper year, with digital sales expected to clock in at $144B-$148B, good for 14-18% growth compared to 11.2% last year. Read More
11.28.19- The Fatal Flaw In A Perfect Energy Solution
More than thirty years ago a giant tower was built in Manzanares, Spain, to produce electricity in a way that at the time must have seen even more eccentric than it seems now, by harnessing the power of air movement. The Manzanares tower was, sadly, toppled by a storm. Decades ago, several other firms tried to replicate the idea, but none has succeeded. Why?
A simple idea
The idea behind the so-called solar wind towers is pretty straightforward. The more popular version is the solar updraft tower, which works as follows: Read More
11.27.19- How Much Energy Do Americans Use
On Thanksgiving?
Julianne Geiger
This Thanksgiving, Americans will suck up 350 gigawatts of electricity--equivalent to the entire world's nuclear power capacity in 2012--making turkeys.
So, while we spend time being thankful this Thursday as we gather around the dinner table with family and friends, we should take a moment to extend that thanks to the energy that will be consumed making the turkey and all the trimmings. Read More
11.26.19- Getting to 100% renewables requires cheap energy storage. But how cheap?
New research gives energy storage a cost target.
This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. This piece was originally published in August and has been lightly updated.
One of the most heated and interesting debates in the energy world today has to do with how far the US can get on carbon-free renewable energy alone. Read More
11.25.19- Most Energy Will Come From Fossil Fuels, Even In 2040
Which is more plausible: flying taxis, wind turbine arrays stretching miles into the ocean, and a solar roof on every house--or a scorched-earth, flooded post-Apocalyptic world?
We have no way of peeking into the future, but we can certainly imagine it. There is plenty of information about where the world is headed and regardless of how reliable this information is—or isn't—we never stop wondering. Will the energy world of 20 years from now be better or worse than the world we live in now?
The answer may very well lie in the observable trends. Read More
11.23.19- Did Oil Really Save The Whales?
If it weren't for the discovery of crude oil, whales would have been hunted to extinction for blubber. We've all heard the argument, and it makes sense from this perspective: For a time, whale fat was the dominant fuel for lamps and material for candles because it was less smelly than tallow and created less smoke. Then, kerosene came on the scene and rendered whale fat obsolete. One point for the oil industry and one point for the whales.
However, reality is rarely linear or black and white. Read More
11.22.19- Could Bill Gates' Secret Startup Kill Fossil Fuels?
A clean energy startup, backed by Bill Gates, says it has achieved for the first time commercially very high temperatures from solar energy that could replace the need for fossil fuels in many heavily energy-intensive industries such as steel, cement, and petrochemicals production.
The new company, Heliogen, announced its launch on Tuesday alongside the solar breakthrough that it had concentrated solar energy to exceed temperatures greater than 1,000 degrees Celsius. Read More
11.21.19- The Next Gold Rush Could Be About To Happen Here
Ian Jenkins
Gold major Barrick just tripled its profits…
Newmont Goldcorp, also reported a big jump in profits over the last couple of months.
But what most investors don't know is that most of the money is made in the discovery of new world-class gold deposits.
And geologists now think they could have hit the motherlode in a new mining frontier… Read More
11.20.19- Forget OPEC: China Now Moves The Oil Markets
Anes Alic
Not so long ago, oil prices would surge or plummet on just a whisper from OPEC, who at the time held all the supply cards.
The mere hint that the world's most powerful oil cartel was going to cut production could send oil prices up dramatically.
Those days are over.
When the cartel announced on November 30, 2016, that it would cut production for the first time in eight years amid a major oil-price crisis, the market cheered. Before any cuts even happened, the sentiment alone boosted prices from a $50.74 close on that day to $54.94 at the close on December 5th, 2016. Read More
11.19.19- 17-Year Old Genius Gets Google Prize For Renewable Energy Breakthrough
Each year Google hold an international science fair for innovative teens to solve a problem they care about with science. The breakthroughs coming from these young, driven researchers have been as far-ranging and impactful as a method of pulling microplastics out of ocean waters (this year's grand prize winner) to sensors that help mitigate risk for ambulatory Alzheimer's' patients (the grand prize winner from 2014). That year, there was another invention that caught the world's attention, with the potential to not only provide clean drinking water to some of the most marginalized communities in the world--but to produce electricity at the same time. Read More
11.18.19- U.S. Shale Growth To Flatline
Robert Rapier
Earlier this summer, it seemed that U.S. shale oil growth was beginning to slow. But then production growth picked back up headed into the fall, and is presently at 12.6 million barrels per day (BPD) – equal to its all-time high.
But a new market outlook from data provider IHS Markit projects that shale oil growth will slow in 2020, and then flatten in 2021. Raoul LeBlanc, Vice President for North American unconventionals, forecasts the strongest headwinds for the shale industry since the oil price collapse in 2015: Read More
11.17.19- IEA Sees $90 Crude Ahead Of
Oil's Downfall
Global oil demand will plateau around 2030, according to a major new report, but the decline in demand is way too slow to head off the worsening effects of climate change.
Oil demand begins to flatten out in the 2030s "under pressure from rising fuel efficiency and the electrification of mobility," The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its widely-anticipated annual World Energy Outlook.
However, the agency does not see a peak in CO2 emissions through 2040, even in a scenario that incorporates some intended policy targets. The IEA says that an expanding economy and growing global population outweigh efforts to cut emissions. Reducing emissions will require "significantly more ambitious policy." Read More
11.15.19- What Happens If Oil Collapses Below $40 Before The End Of 2019?
This type of commodity price collapse could lead the world into a chaotic economic mess if it is prolonged…
Currently, commodity prices are the cheapest they've been in over 40 years compared to equity prices. US Equities have continued to rise over the past 7+ years due to a number of external processes. QE1, 2, 3, and Fed Debt Purchases Share Buy-Backs and creative credit facilities. Only recently have investors really started to pile into the US stock market (see charts below). Global investors were very cautious throughout the rally from 2011 to 2016. Read More
11.14.19- After lithium-ion batteries, the next step is… sodium-ion batteries?
Ralph Flores
(Natural News) The world's running on batteries – lithium-ion batteries, to be precise. Over the past 20 years, global production for lithium has tripled, with lithium-ion batteries found in many of today's technological devices – from smartphones to pacemakers, and even cars. Despite their long list of real-world applications, lithium-ion batteries are still limited in what they can do, especially when it comes to battery life.
Researchers from the University of Tokyo, however, found a way to improve battery life using a more common element – sodium. In their paper, published in Nature Communications, the team discussed how creating a battery using a sodium-derived model material can lead to better and longer-lasting batteries. Read More
11.13.19- Dramatic cold spell sweeping across half the USA is already causing
catastrophic food crop failures
JD Heyes
(Natural News) Once upon a time so-called "preppers" — people who believe they should be prepared for any and all possible scenarios including the great apocalypse — were deemed 'crazies,' though mostly by city folks who believe, falsely, that grocery stores magically have endless supplies of food.
The fact is grocery stores don't have much fresh food stock at all, and limited supplies of long-term shelf items. Once the delivery trucks stop coming, they'll run out of grub pretty quickly. Read More
11.12.19- Natural Gas Is Fighting For Survival
Natural gas has been hailed as the bridge fuel between the fossil fuel economy of the past and present, and the renewables economy of the future. With renewable energy costs falling steadily and considerably, some are beginning to worry that gas is facing increasingly fierce competition amid fast-growing supply.
A recent couple of reports from a nonprofit organization promoting renewable energy suggested solar and wind, plus storage, could become cheaper than most gas-fired power plants in the United States in just 16 years. Read More
11.11.19- The One Metric That Matters
For Electric Cars
Leonard Hyman and William Tilles
Looking beyond the dramatic headlines - the cliff-hanger nature of Tesla's financial statements and the Trump administration's efforts to re-engineer the auto industry - we need to focus on one number that determines when electric vehicles (EVs) will make economic sense. So says a report out of Argonne Laboratories sponsored by the Department of Energy.
That number, according to researcher George Crabtree, is the price of the battery (as measured in $ per kwh), which he says has to halve in order to make EVs competitive with conventional cars. Not promising one might think. Well, researchers now believe that battery prices could reach the magic level somewhere between 2022 and 2026. Read More
11.09.19- The Renewable Solution To One Of The World's Dirtiest Industries
"If all the ships on Earth were a single country, that country would be the sixth-largest polluter in the world." This shocking fact comes from a recent NPR report by the Short Wave science podcast that delves into the dirty business of shipping, which as an industry ranks just behind Japan in its pollution levels. This is partly because of the gargantuan scale of the shipping industry, but it's also in large part because these massive ships burn a particularly dirty heavy fuel oil, also known as bunker fuel. Read More
11.08.19- Another Energy Tech Breakthrough Involving Jellyfish
Jellyfish aren't just a menace—they may very well have the power to save the planet.
The marine creatures have long been studied for their potential to help combat major diseases from cancer to Alzheimer's, but now they can help us with something that affects everyone on the planet: renewable energy.
That eerie jellyfish glow that creeps out wayward swimmers could power your next home. That glow is caused by the green fluorescent protein (GFP), which, as the name suggests, fluoresces under UV light as it absorbs photons and emits electrons. Read More
11.07.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: How to End the Drug Cartel Violence
In Mexico
John J. Baeza
Nine Americans-including three women and six children-were gunned down by drug cartel members in Mexico's northern state of Sonora. Eight young children survived the gunmen's attack. Although violence of this type occurs in Mexico on a regular basis this attack caught the attention of the American news media due to the citizenship of those killed. They were U.S. citizens with dual Mexican citizenship. And it was a horrible attack.
Both President Trump and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) have come up with solutions to stop the cartel violence. Read More
11.06.19- Could Heat Storage Be The Future Of Energy?
Now that it has become abundantly clear energy storage is the most important factor that can ensure the long-term success of renewable energy, the field has been brimming with potential breakthroughs. But while the majority of these seem to focus on improving existing batteries or finding alternatives to them, some scientists have taken a different path: heat storage.
A team of chemistry scholars from the Chalmers University of Technology on Sweden have been working on a project for the development of a so-called molecular solar thermal system since 2013, and now they have news to report. Read More
11.05.19- Is Cold Fusion Making A Comeback?
Three decades ago, we threw cold fusion in the sci-fi trash bin. But if the idea was so outrageous, why is a multi-billion-dollar defense company now returning to the cold fusion revolution?
Because what we shrugged off thirty years ago, says Lockheed Martin, could well change the world forever.
If the world is ever going to solve the ongoing energy and climate change crisis, scientists and researchers need to start thinking outside the box. Way outside the box. Read More
11.04.19- Is Wireless Electricity Within Our Reach?
Besides the death ray and the oscillator that could cause earthquakes, one Nikola Tesla invention still has the power to pique the interest of those fascinated by all things physics, even today: wireless electricity.
By today's standards, Nicola Tesla was something of a populist. Free electricity was unheard of then, and it's still unheard of today. And like many of Tesla's inventions, this one has given rise to a flurry of speculation, extending even to the Tunguska meteor mystery.
Is wireless electricity even possible? And if so, why don't we have wireless electricity today? Read More
11.02.19- The $32 Trillion Push To Disrupt The Entire Oil Industry
Global oil and gas companies are increasingly facing an uphill battle as global warming policies are taking their toll. Most analysts and market watchers are focusing on peak oil demand scenarios, but the reality could be much darker. International oil companies (IOCs) are likely to face a Black Swan scenario, which could end up being a boon for state-owned oil companies (NOCs).
Increased shareholder activism, combined with global warming policies of institutional investors and NGOs, are pushing IOCs in a corner, constricting financing options for oil companies. Read More
11.01.19- Will OPEC+ Declare War On U.S. Shale?
It's that time of the year again, the final OPEC+ meeting of 2019 has been scheduled and is ready to take place in December. Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are running high and so are worries about the balance between supply and demand. The top concern, however, is whether the production cuts agreed last December will be extended or deepened once again.
Russia is, of course, in the spotlight. The world's second-largest oil producer has made it a habit of demonstrating reluctance about any final commitment until the last moment when it agrees to cut. This time is no exception. Read More
10.31.19- End the Failed Renewable Fuel Standard Expeiment
Veronique de Rugy
Why Congress should abolish the ethanol mandate
It's time for the annual congressional fight over the Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS. In one corner sit corn farmers and their representatives, who fight tenaciously not just to preserve the RFS but to expand it. In the other sits, well, just about everyone else. Whether you are a refiner, a consumer, an environmentalist, a free market economist, or just someone who cares about good government, there is ample reason to oppose the ethanol mandate. Read More
10.30.19- The Secret To Unlocking The Holy Grail Of Energy
Ah, nuclear fusion. That holy grail of clean energy. For decades, its potential as a near-limitless source of totally green, emissions-free, radioactive nuclear waste-free power has been touted as the next frontier of energy with the potential to save the planet. But it has also become a bit of a joke, as we have never gotten anywhere close to making commercial fusion a reality despite all the pie-in-the-sky rhetoric. Until now. Maybe. Read More
10.29.19- And Now, foe Something Entirely Different: They Live, We Sleep: Beware the Growing Evil in Our Midst
"You see them on the street. You watch them on TV. You might even vote for one this fall. You think they're people just like you. You're wrong. Dead wrong." — They Live
We're living in two worlds, you and I.
There's the world we see (or are made to see) and then there's the one we sense (and occasionally catch a glimpse of), the latter of which is a far cry from the propaganda-driven reality manufactured by the government and its corporate sponsors, including the media. Read More
10.28.19- Five Energy Innovations To Transform The World
The term "disruptor" has become an overused phrase that has cheapened the perceived impact that new tech, new processes, new ideas, and new generations have on the world. But there are a handful of true disruptors in the energy industry that may rather unexaggeratedly change the way in which the world works.
The EIA's chief energy modeler disagrees. "First, there are no technology revolutions between now and 2050, no structural breaks, no technology breakthroughs. Sure, technology can lead us to evolve, prices get cheaper, technology continues to improve, but no breakthroughs, no dilithium crystals," Daniels said earlier this week at Rice University's Baker Institute. Read More
10.26.19- Renewable Energy's Inconvenient Truth
The energy needs of the world's economy seem to be easy to model. Energy consumption is measured in a variety of different ways including kilowatt-hours, barrels of oil equivalent, British thermal units, kilocalories and joules. Two types of energy are equivalent if they produce the same number of units of energy, right?
For example, xkcd's modeler Randall Munroe explains the benefit of renewable energy in this video. He tells us that based on his model, solar, if scaled up to ridiculous levels, can provide enough renewable energy for ourselves and a half-dozen of our neighbors. Wind, if scaled up to absurd levels, can provide enough renewable energy for ourselves and a dozen of our neighbors. Read More
10.25.19- Residential Energy Storage VPPs Are Gaining Traction
Ricardo F. Rodriguez
Aggregated residential energy storage systems are increasingly deployed by utilities to provide a variety of services including replacing fossil fuel power plants, supporting increased renewable generation, and improving grid-resilience and reliability.
As the behind-the-meter distributed energy storage market continues to mature, a series of factors have propelled residential energy storage systems (RESSs) to the forefront of industry consciousness. These factors include technological progress, legislative and regulatory tailwinds, and new grid challenges associated with intermittent renewable generation. Read More
10.24.19- The U.S. Doubles Down On Domestic Lithium Production
Richard Mills
In 2010 the US Department of Energy's Critical Materials Strategy included lithium as one of 14 elements expected to play a vital role in America's clean energy economy.
Lithium is also among 23 critical metals President Trump has deemed critical to national security; in 2017 Trump signed a bill that would encourage the exploration and development of new US sources of these metals. Read More
10.23.19- The Holy Grail Of Energy Is Finally Within Reach
Theoretically, two lone nuclear reactors running on small pellets could power the entire planet, safely and cleanly. That's the promise of nuclear fusion. So, why are we still relying on fossil fuels?
For decades, scientists have viewed nuclear fusion as the Holy Grail for clean, abundant and sustainable power. Based on the same principle that powers the stars, including our own sun, a couple of nuclear reactors running on small pellets could power our planet without the risk of a catastrophic meltdown & zero greenhouse gas emissions. Read More
10.22.19- The IMF's Latest Report Could Spell Disaster For Oil Markets
The International Monetary Fund slashed its global growth forecast once again, predicting economic growth will fall to its weakest rate since the financial crisis a decade ago.
The IMF said that the world economy is in a "synchronized slowdown," and will only expand by 3 percent this year. At one point last year, the IMF forecasted 3.9 percent growth for 2019. "Growth continues to be weakened by rising trade barriers and increasing geopolitical tensions," the Fund said in a statement. Read More
10.21.19- Navy Patents UFO-Like Compact Nuclear Fusion Reactor And Hybrid Space/Sea Crafts
A mysterious set of patents filed recently by a U.S Navy researcher has caught the eyes of technologists and conspiracy theorists alike.
These patents describe exotic technologies that do not exist in the commercial or military spheres—as far as we know—and that usually only surface in UFO lore, including high-energy electromagnetic force fields, revolutionary propulsion systems, and a "hybrid aerospace-underwater craft." Read More
10.19.19- Is This The Next $170 Billion Energy Industry In The US?
Hydrogen is the simplest element on earth and most abundant element in the universe. It is an energy carrier as it has high energy content per unit of weight. And it has the potential to become a mainstream energy technology and a key clean fuel source in the future that could also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The development of hydrogen research and technology in the next few decades could make hydrogen a multi-billion industry in the United States alone, Jeffrey Rissman, Industry Program Director & Head of Modeling at climate policy think tank Energy Innovation, writes in Forbes. By 2050, the hydrogen industry could generate as much as US$170 billion in annual revenues. Read More
10.18.19- Tesla's 5 Most Inspiring Inventions
A casual internet search on Tesla these days will typically turn up a few pages of everyday news along the lines of… will Tesla meet its ambitious delivery targets, will the gigafactory get more gigas, has anyone else been maimed in a bizarre self-driving incident, are the solar panels junk or the best thing since sliced bread, or an occasional Twitter rant by the Tesla Inc founder and CEO, Elon Musk.
One might almost think that everyone's forgotten about the 'real' Tesla, Nikola, whose work still surrounds us on a daily (and nightly) basis, including alternating currents, remote controls, radios, neon lights, and the Tesla coil. Read More
10.17.19- The Cheapest Oil Ever Sold
An elite government-appointed group called the National Conservation Commission is charged with taking a comprehensive inventory of natural resources in the United States and discover where resources are being inefficiently handled and even squandered. They come back to the United States Congress with an alarming report that the national supply of oil will be entirely used by within just 25 or 30 years more at the rate that the country is currently burning through the precious and decidedly finite fuel source. The year is 1909. Read More
10.16.19- Due To The Weather, Midwest Farmers Fear Widespread Crop Failures And A "Record-Low" Harvest In 2019
Snow usually blankets the Upper Midwest around the first week of November, and so that means that many farmers in the Midwest only have about two weeks to salvage what they can before everything is lost. The unprecedented October blizzard that we just witnessed dumped massive amounts of snow on millions upon millions of acres of crops from Colorado to Minnesota. Even if the weather is absolutely perfect between now and November 1st, farmers are still "expecting massive crop losses". In fact, one South Dakota lawmaker told the press that the crop losses will be "as devastating as we've ever seen". Read More
10.15.19- $10 Oil - How Far Could Oil Prices Fall If We See A 2009 Style Crash?
While predictions about volatile oil prices abound, one theme keeps popping up: geopolitical risk premium. First it was theories about a closure at the Strait of Hormuz. Then it was fears of an all-out war between Iran and the United States or Iran and Saudi Arabia. All those are merely possibilities, but the reality suggests that a whole different kind of extreme is far more likely: crushingly low oil prices.
In amongst the screams of geopolitical risk premium are far scarier whispers of words such as demand destruction, trade disputes, and economic climate deterioration. And those words describe the current reality in the market, and as such, suggest a similar future reality—a reality where demand destruction continues to push prices down, down, down. Is $10 oil really possible? Read More
10.14.19- Big Oil Baffled By Trump's Flip Flop On Ethanol Policy
Facing possible impeachment, President Trump is trying to patch up his badly damaged relationship with American farmers.
On Friday, the Trump administration announced its latest proposal that comes as a sort of apology to ethanol groups for an earlier decision to favor refineries. The EPA has exempted dozens of refineries from mandates on purchasing ethanol, decisions that have not gone down well in rural America. Read More
10.12.19- Unprecedented Blackouts And $6 Gasoline: California's Energy Crisis
Millions of Californians may have just suffered an unprecedented, induced blackout by the state's largest (and bankrupt) utility, PG&E, just so it isn't blamed for starting even more fires causing it to go even more bankrupt... but at least the price of gas is soaring.
According to Fox5NY, citing figures from AAA and the Oil Price Information Service, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in Los Angeles County was $4.25 on Wednesday, 4.5 cents higher than one week ago, 57.6 cents more than one month ago and 37.1 cents greater than one year ago. It has also risen 86.4 cents since the start of the year. What is more troubling is that as California gas prices reached the highest level in the state since 2015, some Los Angeles area gas stations are charging more than $5 a gallon. Read More
10.11.19- An "All-Out Blizzard" That Is "Unheard Of For October" Is About To Hit Farms In The Midwest With Up To 2 Feet Of Snow
Farmers in the middle of the country are about to get hit by what could potentially be the worst October blizzard in U.S. history. According to USA Today, "the massive size and intensity of this snowstorm is unheard of for October". In other words, we have never seen anything like this in the month of October ever before. Such a storm would have been disastrous enough in a normal year, but this has definitely not been a normal year for Midwest farmers. As I detailed extensively in previous articles, endless rain and horrific flooding made planting season a complete and nightmare for many Midwest farmers this year. Read More
10.10.19- More Than 50% Of The Mighty Permian's 2018 Oil Production Has Vaporized
Steve St Angelo
As dark clouds gather on the financial horizon, big trouble is brewing in the U.S. Shale Oil Industry. While most Americans are focused on the Mainstream media's coverage of the ongoing Washington D.C. circus, the real threat to the domestic economy lies in the country's oil heartland. And, if we look at what is taking place in the United States' largest shale oil region, the signs are troubling.
The Permian Oil Basin in Texas and New Mexico accounts for nearly half (46%) of the total U.S. shale oil production. According to the data from Shaleprofile.com, Permian's oil production peaked in May at 3.43 million barrels per day. Due to the massive decline rate, production in the Permian has stalled this year. Read More
10.09.19- Human "Enhancement" and the Transhumanist Space Agenda
There's a school of thought out there that has been gaining some traction in the past few years, and it's time to pay attention to it. That school of thought thinks that (1) the future of humanity is in space, and that we must "go to the stars", and (2) in order to do so, we need not only (a) exotic new technologies, things like ion propulsion, warp drives, "anti-gravity" and so on, but also (b) a fundamental "enhancement" or modification of the humans destined to do so. It is point (2(b)) with which we are concerned today. It could, perhaps, be argued that this point is the fusion of the transhumanist agenda with that of space. Read More
10.08.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Will the Democrats' Treasonous Coup Against Trump Succeed?
The orchestrated coup to overthrow Trump based entirely on lies moves forward despite having been completely exposed, while the Trump administration's indictments of the Obama era officials who organized the coup remain remote. It seems that the entirety of Washington, including Trump's own administration, has organized against the outsider who would upset the privilege-ridden system.
Most Americans have no idea where to look for real news as contrasted with the fake news of the media directed at unseating President Trump. Two new reports show that the print, TV, and social media are in the hands of the CIA and UK government propaganda units. Read More
10.07.19- Solar, Wind Are Now Cheaper Than Coal In Most Of The World
The world's premiere authority on global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (or IPCC for short), announced in an alarming report at the end of last year that the world is running out of time to curb carbon dioxide emissions. In fact, the data they collected found that in order to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees centigrade over pre-industrial averages within this century (the goal set by the Paris climate agreement), the entire world would have to transition to 100 percent clean energy by the middle of the century. This, it goes without saying, is a lofty goal. But up until now, clean energies just haven't been able to compete in a market flooded with cheap fossil fuels. Read More
10.05.19- Oil Pirates: The Gulf Of Mexico's
Billion Dollar Problem
Pirate activity in the Gulf of Mexico is on the rise and so is oil theft from platforms operating in the area, Fox News reports, with losses for Pemex as high as $1 billion annually.
Oil theft is not uncommon in Mexico, with most of it linked to local cartels using the services of crooked Pemex employees. Yet most of this theft takes place on land: over just two months in 2018, criminals drilled almost 2,300 illegal taps into Pemex pipelines in Mexico. Read More
10.04.19- Battery storage systems at 'the edge of profitability,' as German households reach 1GWh of capacity
Clint Siegner
The dramatic fall in cost, occuring alongside the mass roll-out of home storage systems in Germany since 2013, has highlighted the potential of decentralised batteries in virtual power plants to utility companies and grid operators.
Since 2017, every second residential PV installation in the European state has been accompanied with a battery pack, and there are now roughly 150,000 home storage systems with an estimated capacity of about 1GWh in circulation. Decentralised batteries are "one of the hottest topics in energy research," according to Dr Kai-Philipp Karies, Jan Figgener and David Haberschusz, energy storage researchers at RTWH Aachen University in Germany. Read More
10.03.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Conserving NOTHING: The Big Con
Jack Kerwick
"[Conservatism] never conserves anything.
"Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation.
"What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution; to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. Read More
10.02.19- Is This The End Of The
Lithium-Ion Battery?
Researchers have been in a race to find ways to improve lithium-ion batteries. They are also looking to develop alternatives to the lithium-ion battery that would be lower cost and more sustainable to manufacture. And they may just have found one.
Aluminum-based batteries would be cheaper to make, because aluminum is the third most abundant element in the Earth's crust after oxygen and silicon. Aluminum is also light-weight and could be ideal for use in batteries. Read More
10.01.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Civil War On
Someone in Impeachmentville is not paying attention. Of course, diverting the rubes is exactly the point of the latest CIA operation to negate the 2016 election. Has nobody noticed that there is treaty between Ukraine and the USA, signed at Kiev in 1998 and ratified by the US Senate in 2000. It's an agreement on "Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters." Here, read the cover letter for yourself: Read More
09.30.19- September Snowblast 2019: Weather Modification out of control
(Global Intel Hub – 9/28/2019) — Charlotte, NC — While Canadians have nothing better to do than march and protest 'climate change' there is an ongoing massive weather modification program that's creating storms, droughts, floods, and other 'natural' events. Recently we exposed the modifications of major Hurricanes, such as the recent Hurricane Dorian that ruined the Bahamas and amazingly just 'scraped' the U.S. coastline.
Now, there's a record early winter Blizzard heading for Colorado that's going to wreak havoc on the other side of USA. Read More
09.28.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: A Dumpster Fire on a Garbage Barge
UkraineGate, son of RussiaGate, raises an interesting question: is our Central Intelligence Agency really this crude that they would loan out a CIA officer to the White House's National Security Council (NSC) and use him as a weapon to shiv the occupant of the oval office? Or was The New York Times's unmasking of the "whistleblower" just another ruse by the Deep State Disinfo Division?
Let's face it, there were not so many CIA spooks working in that White House office, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out who it was. A leading candidate is veteran CIA officer Michael Barry, an assassination expert, as it happens, who was loaned out during Mike Pompeo's brief stint as CIA chief. Read More
09.27.19- Is This The Next Big Thing In Solar?
Solar power installations out in the open are a common sight in many parts of the world, but how about household solar generators? A team of Swedish and Chinese scientists recently reported this might become part of our future after they successfully converted indoor light to electricity using organic photovoltaic cells.
Organic photovoltaic cells, or OPV cells, are a third-generation solar technology that holds a lot of promise as a cheaper alternative to previous generations of solar cells. They are flexible because they are made of two layers of semiconductors, which are made of plastic polymers. This flexibility makes OPV cells attractive for various applications, but they are particularly attractive for the building-integrated segment of the solar industry. Read More
09.26.19- And Now, for Someting Entirely Different: The Assassination of JFK: Who was the "Mastermind" — Johnson or Dulles?
Phillip F. Nelson
Is that E. Howard Hunt in Dealey Plaza shortly after JFK's Assassination? Indubitably.
Was it mere serendipity that caused all of the highest-level men behind the plot to kill President Kennedy to come together and develop a plot to assassinate Kennedy? Or was there a single man who had the forcefulness, the cunning guile, the ruthlessness, and a history of criminal, even murderous, acts and the subsequent power to assure the others that it would be covered up for all time, that there was nothing to worry about? Read More
09.25.19- Why The Saudis Are Lying About Their Oil Production
Saudi Arabia's comments about its hydrocarbons industry have long been regarded by industry experts as being as believable as China's comments about its economic growth: that is, not at all. Saudi Arabia's skill in lying is definitely improving, though, from the outright transparent lies about its level of oil reserves, spare capacity, and why the omni-toxic Aramco should nonetheless be valued at US$2 trillion. Read More
09.24.19- And Now, foe Something Entirely Different: The Mainstream Media Says The Middle Class Isn't Shrinking – But That Is Only Because Their Definition Includes Lots Of Poor People
If you ask the mainstream media, they will tell you that about half the country is still middle class. In fact, a CNBC article that just came out says that "52% of American adults live in 'middle class' households". Of course that is down from 61 percent in 1971, but considering everything we have been through in recent years, that still looks pretty good. But is it the truth? In the end, it all comes down to how you define "the middle class". If I defined the middle class as anyone that makes from zero dollars to a trillion dollars a year, then 100 percent of Americans would be considered "middle class" by that definition. Read More
09.23.19- Has Iran Won The War
For The Middle East?
Yossef Bodansky
The most important historic milestone was not the heavy damage to the Saudi oil installations during the attacks on them on September 14, 2019.
Rather, it was a quiet Ashura ceremony held in the Imam Khomenei Hussainia in Tehran on September 11, 2019. AyatollahSayyed Ali Khamene'i led the mourning ceremony for the Martyrs of the Tragedy of Karbala on the Day of Ashura1. To Khamene'i's left, sitting on cushions on the ground, were, in order of proximity to Khamene'i, Hojjat al-Islam SayyedMuqtada al-Sadr, the Shi'ite-Iraqi leader known as "nationalist" and far from being Tehran's protégé, and then, Qods Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani, and the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Maj.-Gen. Hossein Salami. Read More
09.21.19- Weekend Rant: Notes From The Edge Of
The Narrative Matrix
Most human suffering is due to believed mental stories, from the psychological suffering of the individual to the large-scale suffering caused by international power structures who advance violence and oppression via propaganda.We must evolve a new relationship with narrative.
Most people's lives are dominated by mental story, so whoever can control those stories controls the people. The good news is that all we need to do to reclaim our world from the controllers is to reclaim our stories. The barrier between us and freedom is as thin as a fairy tale. Read More
09.20.19- The Sky is Falling
Jeff Thomas
Governments are in the flimflam business.
Pared down to the bare essentials, governments can be very useful in passing and enforcing a small number of very basic laws. These laws should be limited to policing those who would seek to aggress against others, or their property. Governments may also have a value in providing protection from invasion – organizing an army of able-bodied people to address this collective problem, if and when it occurs. Read More
09.19.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Differeny: The Bolsheviks even want to tax your toaster oven…
Simon Black
In a concept paper called "Treat Wealth Like Wages", the ranking member of the US Senate Finance Committee laid out a plan late last week to radically overhaul the tax code in a way never before seen.
Just as you'd expect from the title, his central idea is to tax wealth; if you own just about anything, this Senator wants you to start paying an annual tithe to the federal government.
It's sort of like how property tax works: you don't actually -own- your own property. You're just renting it from the government. Read More
09.18.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Disabling a single protein
could "cure" the common cold
Researchers have found that disabling a single protein in human cells can prevent viruses from causing infection
As common as the common cold is, it's been notoriously difficult to actually cure. That's largely because there are so many different viruses in the same family, and they can mutate quickly to get around our best efforts. Now, a new study shows that disabling a single protein in human cells could render the cold virus ineffective. Read More
09.17.19- Israel Made the Attack
on the Saudi Oil Fields
Bob Moriarty
As any fan of detective books or shows knows well, when you observe a crime you must first ask yourself, "Who benefits." The Latin is Cui BonoLiterally to whom is it a benefit?
On Saturday September 14th someone fired missiles or sent armed drones against Saudi oil facilities reducing world oil production by 5% and Saudi production by 50%. The beleaguered Houthis group at war by Saudi Arabia in Yemen quickly claimed credit for the attack. Read More
09.16.1- If You Think The Price Of Oil Is Skyrocketing Now, Just Wait Until
The War Starts…
In the aftermath of the most dramatic attack on Saudi oil facilities that we have ever seen, the price of oil has exploded higher. The Wall Street Journal is calling this attack "the Big One", and President Trump appears to be indicating that some sort of military retaliation is coming. Needless to say, a direct military strike on Iran could spark a major war in the Middle East, and that would be absolutely devastating for the entire global economy. Just about everything that we buy has to be moved, and moving stuff takes energy. When the price of oil gets really high, that tends to create inflation because the price of oil is a factor in virtually everything that we buy. Read More
09.14.19- Coal Is Fueling China's Data Center Boom
China's data center sector is heating up. "The rapidly growing market is largely driven by data-intensive industries such as cloud computing, an industry that the government has marked for rapid development as it ramps up the country's artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities" reports TechNode, a news source dedicated solely to Chinese technology sector reporting. "China is aiming to close the AI technology gap with the US by 2030." Read More
09.13.19- IHS Markit: US Natural Gas Prices To Fall To 50-Year Low
Huge natural gas stockpiles in the United States are set to push prices for the fuel to a near 50-year low, IHS Markit said on Thursday in a new report, with Henry Hub nat gas prices averaging $1.92 per million British thermal units in 2020.
The low prices are expected to come despite a robust export and domestic demand outlook, as more oil and gas pipelines come online to alleviate this constraint. Oil production is set to surge as a result the increased takeaway capacity, and natural gas will be produced as a byproduct of this extra oil production, IHS Markit said. Read More
09.12.19- Yergin: Expect Extreme Volatility
In Oil Markets
Rising pipeline takeaway capacity in the Permian and global oil demand growth at its weakest in a decade are set to lead to more volatility in oil prices in the near term, a prominent energy expert said, joining a growing number of analysts who see prices further depressed by slowing economies and crude demand.
"The pipeline bottlenecks are in the process of being resolved, so a lot more oil is going to come onto the market by the end of the year. We expect the U.S. (crude oil output) to be up to 13 million barrels a day," IHS Markit's vice chairman Daniel Yergin told CNBC on Tuesday. Read More
09.11.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: 9/11 Solidified the
Destruction of Our Freedom
The 9/11 attacks not only killed thousands of Americans, they also led to America's forever wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iran, and elsewhere, which have brought about the deaths of thousands of other Americans and millions of foreigners. But the 9/11 attacks did more than that. They also fortified the U.S. government as a national-security state, which solidified the destruction of the freedom of the American people. Read More
09.10.19- "Climate Change" Is A Hoax
I hate science, evidently, because I'm woke to the manifest truth about what the leftist elite currently calls "climate change." It is the second most staggering fraud ever perpetrated upon the American people after the media's promotion of the unstoppable candidacy of Beto (who is a furry). Like some suckers still do, I once believed that "science" was a rigorous process where you tested theories and revised those theories in response to objective evidence. But in today's shabby practice, "science" is just a package of self-serving lies buttressing the transnational liberal elite's preferred narrative. Our alleged betters hope that labeling their propaganda "science" will science-shame you into silence about what everyone knows is a scam. Read More
09.09.19- Unsettled Weather
After leaving the Bahamas for dead, Hurricane Dorian barely grazed the US mainland en route to the Canadian shoals of oblivion, perhaps saving America's insurance industry. But the steamy west coast of Africa is hurling out a cavalcade of replacements as the high season for Atlantic storms commences, so better keep the plywood sheets at hand. Lots of things are looking stormy around the world just now: nations, markets, politics — everything really except all three divisions of the American League… yawn…. Read More
09.07.19- The Best Way To Play The Energy Sector Sell-Off
Last week I received a news alert that highlighted the extent of the current bear market in energy stocks. Typically, late in a business cycle and with a potential recession on the horizon, some sectors that tend to fare well are utilities, real estate, and energy. That has been the case with the utilities and real estate sectors, as they are two of the top-performing S&P 500 sectors over the past year.
But the sell-off in energy has been brutal. Market data provider FactSet sent an alert last week that showed how many companies in various sectors were setting new 52-week highs and lows. The energy sector, in particular, stood out: Read More
09.06.19- China and Iran flesh out strategic partnership
Staggered 25-year deal could mark seismic shift in the global hydrocarbons sector
Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Zarif paid a visit to his Chinese counterpart Wang Li at the end of August to present a road map for the China-Iran comprehensive strategic partnership, signed in 2016. Read More
09.05.19- Globalist media ordered to start pushing cannibalism as a food source; planetary collapse of Earth's biosphere
is now being engineered
Item 1: The mainstreammedia has been ordered to start promoting cannibalism
A Swedish scientist is now promoting the "food of the future" … and it's dead humans. And yes, just as you suspected, eating dead humans is being pushed in the name of stopping "climate change." As Paul Joseph Watson reports, "He told the host of the show that one of the biggest obstacles to the proposal would be the taboo nature of corpses and the fact that many would see it as defiling the deceased." Read More
09.04.19- The Cannabis Industry is Coming Like a Freight Train with No Brakes
Able Danger
Ed.'s note: The first important part about understanding the "war on drugs" is to understand there exist hidden bureaucratic networks within the federal government that profit off the drug trade. These bureaucracies are not too favorable towards the idea of legalizing marijuana all across the US just as soon as the federal government realizes legalizing marijuana will be in everyone's best economic interests. Then there is the irrational fear brought about by the stigma created during the Vietnam war of the "drug culture" of hippies lighting up joints. The bottom line is the federal government's resistance to legalizing marijuana at the federal level is dissolving fast. Read More
09.03.19- Natural Gas Prices Poised For Dramatic Price Increase
Dwayne Purvis
The recent fall of natural gas prices to extraordinary lows attests to a misunderstanding of how precarious supply remains, and it has poised the market for potentially explosive price increases in the near term.
Years of waning interest in natural gas simplified the public discussion of gas prices to a single factor: gas in storage compared to five-year average. This spring and summer as storage trended up toward, but still below the five-year average, prices swooned to levels only touched briefly since the early 2000s. The idea of gas storage as the keystone indicator worked in a previous incarnation of the gas market, but it fails to understand the market's ongoing metamorphosis. Read More
09.02.19- Artificial hurricanes manufactured by deep state enterprise
GlobalIntelHub
Global Intel Hub — Boca Raton, FL – 8/31/2019 — The weather has been weaponized as well has every other aspect of American life, by the Military Industrial Complex, an advanced form of Artificial Intelligence (that works and thinks beyond the petty political disputes humans can imagine.) This has been well documented right here on Zero Hedge here, here, and here. As explained in Splitting Pennies, the world is not as it seems. In addition, the powers to be have created technology so vast, it would not be believed were it to be revealed to the public all at once. Read More
08.31.19- Hurricane Dorian Leads To Gasoline Crisis In Florida
Hurricane Dorian is rapidly approaching the coast of Florida, forcing people to scramble for fuel and stockpile supplies.
At the time of this writing, the storm had strengthened to a Category 3 and was on track to reach Category 4 before making landfall, likely on Monday. Read More
08.30.19- Guess What the NWO has Planned for Humanity
Harley Schlanger
08.29.19- Prominent Yale Professor Explains How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Doesn't
Match The Science
Arjun Walia
Science never ceases to question. When a theory is taught as an unquestionable fact, it should be quite obvious that something is wrong. Today, science isn't really science, and this is not only true for topics such as evolution, it's true in many areas where science is used for an agenda by powerful and corrupt forces.
Health sciences are a great example. As Bud Relman, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine said,"The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice of medicine, but also in terms of teaching and research. The academic institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid agents of the pharmaceutical industry. Read More
08.28.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: The Coming Whiskey Bubble?
Matt Kubiak
We are always looking for evidence to lead us to the next bubble…
As Austrians we are always looking for evidence to lead us to the next bubble. I think most of us are on high alert after a decade of easy money, stock price inflation, and ever decreasing bond yields. However, identifying the specific bubble sector(s) ahead of time is extremely difficult (unless you are Mark Thornton). This notwithstanding, one industry seems to me to display all of the signs that it is in the midst of an Austrian business cycle theory (ABCT) bubble. That industry is whiskey (or whisky) production. Read More
08.27.19- Quantum teleportation takes on a new dimension in new experiments
Unlike regular computers where data is stored in binary bits as 0 or 1, the "qubits" in quantum computers can exist as both at the same time. Stranger still, this information can be effectively "teleported" over any distance. Now, scientists from Austria and China have managed to create photons that exist as 0,1 and 2 simultaneously, and teleported these complex quantum states.
Quantum computers are poised to leave traditional computers and even supercomputers in the dust, and they owe their exponential increase in power to the fact that they go beyond binary. One "bit" of information isn't limited to a 0 or a 1 – it can be either or both at the same time, much like Schrödinger's infamous cat. Read More
08.26.19- Oil Plunges On Trade War Escalation
Tom Kool
A special investment opportunity has just come across our desk…And we wanted to give you a first look at this exciting new industry.
It's so big that even billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are dedicating a significant chunk of their fortunes to this emerging sector.
This will be bigger than anything we've ever seen. Forget the tech boom of the 2000s... The shale boom…Or even the cannabis boom. Read More
08.24.19- Coal's Last Hope: Carbon Capture Tech
Leonard S. Hyman and William I. Tilles
Coal usage continues to fall and the coal industry wants to do something about that. So does the Trump administration. Their proposed solution to the problem of waning coal usage is carbon capture and sequestration (CCS)—a technology that has been around for a long time.
The basic idea behind CCS is to remove the carbon dioxide from the exhaust stream after burning the coal. Then the "captured" CO2 can be redirected. Read More
08.23.19- Fukushima: "An Ongoing Global Radiological Catastrophe" & "A Huge Coverup"
– Dr. Helen Caldicott
Dr. Helen Caldicott is considered by many to be one of the foremost experts on Nuclear Radiation. Here she shares her thoughts on the Fukushima disaster nearly a decade after it happened.
How many incidents need to occur before the human race changes? Why are we still using nuclear energy when there are several other solutions that are more harmonious with the planet and all life on it? Read More
08.22.19- U.S. To "Drown The World" In Oil
The U.S. could "drown the world in oil" over the next decade, which, according to Global Witness, would "spell disaster" for the world's attempts to address climate change.
The U.S. is set to account for 61 percent of all new oil and gas production over the next decade. A recent report from this organization says that to avoid the worst effects of climate change, "we can't afford to drill up any oil and gas from new fields anywhere in the world." This, of course, would quickly cause a global deficit, as the world continues to consume around 100 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil. Read More
08.21.19- Rampant Corruption In The World's
Last Oil Frontier
It seems that as fast as any positive news appears about the massive and under-developed oil and gas resources of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, more negative manifestations of its endemic corruption quickly follow. OilPrice.com can exclusively reveal that a lawsuit has been brought against the government of Kurdistan (the KRG) – and also personally against the former Minister of Natural Resources, Abdullah Abdul Rahman Abdullah (commonly known as Ashti Hawrami) - alleging a range of illegal practices. Read More
08.20.19- Calling out the climate hypocrites
Thomas Lifson
Obvious and repulsive hypocrisy on the part of wealthy and connected people telling us we must sacrifice our standard of living — indeed, our very way of life — finally is being called out. They want us to bear the entire burden, while their jet-setting lifestyles remain untouched.
The alarmists are getting more and more shrill about their predictions of doom due to the increase in an atmospheric trace gas, CO2, purportedly able to act as the control mechanism for world climate. (Meanwhile, their climate models, the sole basis for their doomsterism, don't know how to reckon with the influence of clouds, which have an obvious impact on temperature.) Read More
08.19.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Those Who Seek to Rule
We'd like to think that all people have a sense of compassion and fair play, but this isn't so. Roughly ten percent of all people, in any population, are estimated to have traits associated with narcissism. Roughly four percent are estimated to be sociopathic and one percent are estimated to be psychopathic.
The reader may be familiar with the Russian parable of the frog and the scorpion. Read More
08.17.19- Climate Activist Greta Thunberg's Yacht Trip To America More Harmful To Environment Than Flying
Climate activist Greta Thunberg's virtue signalling trip on a $4 million dollar yacht to lecture Americans about climate change will be more harmful to the environment than if she had flown via aircraft.
Thunberg and her team set sail on the Malizia II for a voyage that will take 2 weeks to reach New York. Read More
08.16.19- Corn Industry Battered By Shocking Ethanol Decision
The Trump administration has tried to thread the needle between the corn ethanol and oil refining industries, as the two battle it out over federal policy. The EPA may have thought it came up with a balanced approach when it issued a series of recent decisions, but judging by market reactions, the agency seems to have decidedly come down on the side of oil over ethanol.
Federal policy requires a certain volume of biofuels to be blended into the nation's fuel mix. Each year, the EPA decides on the exact levels, and it is a bit of a zero-sum game between ethanol producers and oil refiners. Read More
08.15.19- China Prepares Its "Nuclear Option"
In Trade War
As the trade war with the U.S. continues to escalate, China has re-engaged with Iran on three key projects and is weighing the use of what both Washington and Beijing term the 'nuclear option', a senior oil and gas industry source who works closely with Iran's Petroleum Ministry told OilPrice.com last week.
For the first of these projects - Phase 11 of the supergiant South Pars non-associated gas field (SP11) - last week saw a statement from the chief executive officer of the Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) that talks had resumed with Chinese developers to advance the project. Originally the subject of an extensive contract signed by France's Total before it pulled out due to re-imposed U.S. sanctions on Iran, talks had been well-advanced with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to take up the slack on development. Read More
08.14.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Alternate theory emerges... Was Jeffrey Epstein swapped out of his cell to prevent him from being murdered?
(Natural News) The apparent murder of Jeffrey Epstein is sending shock waves around the world, jolting more people awake to the fact that the deep state is so dangerous that even prisoners are not safe from being murdered. It has now become apparent to every thinking person that America is occupied by an enemy force, a corrupt criminal cartel known as "Democrats" who will kill anyone that gets in their way or threatens their power. Jeffrey Epstein, of course, could have testified to the fact that Bill Clinton is a serial rapist and child abuser whose perverted crimes have been covered up by the complicit left-wing media for decades. Read More
08.13.19- Sinabung Eruption
eat2live2travel
08.12.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: How To Avoid Being Called
A Russian Agent Online
The always reliable NBC News has published an important and informative article titled "Russia-linked Twitter accounts promoted 'doxxing' over racial tension videos", which uses fearless investigative insinuations and cutting-edge vagueness to inform readers that viral videos of Americans being racist are essentially a Russian fabrication.
The article's four authors boldly document the shocking, bombshell findings of a Clemson University study that "almost 30 suspicious Twitter accounts" were involved in retweeting videos of racist behavior from white Americans. Read More
08.10.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Jeffrey Epstein: Financier 'found dead in cell' in New York
Financier Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead in his prison cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, US media report.
His body was discovered at 07:30 local time (11:30 GMT) on Saturday at a facility in New York.
He was reportedly on suicide watch following an earlier incident in which he was found injured in his cell. Read More
08.09.19- IEA says oil demand growth
at lowest since 2008
Noah Browning
"The situation is becoming even more uncertain ... global oil demand growth has been very sluggish in the first half of 2019," the IEA said in its monthly report.
The Paris-based agency said that compared with the same month in 2018, global demand fell by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May - the second year-on-year fall of 2019. Read More
08.08.19- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Sears Employees' Life Insurance Payments Could Amount To Just $135 Per Person
People who retired after spending decades working for department store Sears came together early in 2019 to protest the company's plan to terminate their life insurance as part of its bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg.
And it seems as though they have good reason to. Benefits that once would have been worth as much as tens of thousands of dollars have been priced at just $135 by the Sears estate in a proposal to its former employees. Read More
08.97.19- A Turning Point For U.S. Power Generation
Global Risk Insights
For the first time in U.S. history, renewable energies briefly generated more electricity than coal in April this year, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. This development is significant for U.S. clean energy champions, environmental advocates, and a coal industry that has anchored U.S. energy for much of the 20th Century. Renewable energy potential merits review of trends and evolving dynamics in a dramatically changing U.S. energy sector.
New innovations and technologies, including large-scale shale extraction, has led to an abundance of domestic oil and gas. The cheap price of natural gas enabled it to surpass coal as America's primary power source in 2016. Read More
08.06.19- Energy Storage Boom Goes Into Overdrive
Continuously falling battery costs, and rising capacity and usage of clean energy are set to result in booming global stationary energy storage over the next two decades, which will require total investments of as much as US$662 billion.
That's one the key findings of the latest report on new energies by research company BloombergNEF published this week. Read More
08.05.18- The Future Of Better Farming
Sustainable practices + smart technology = thriving soils
While it's *soooo* tempting to write about the stomach-churning drop/spike/dive thrill ride the financial markets have embarked on after this week's Federal Reserve rate cut, I will resist and instead direct your attention to a topic much more important to our future. Read More
08.03.19- War With Iran Could Trigger the
Next Oil Shock
Nick Giambruno
Today, the chances of a war with Iran are higher than ever…
And if it does happen, it will have tremendous consequences for the price of oil.
You see, about a year ago, I warned readers of my newsletter, The Casey Report, that the next big war in the Middle East was coming. And I showed them why it would focus on Iran.
The momentum in the Middle East has turned in favor of Iran. It won't surrender its strategic gains. It's unthinkable. Read More
08.02.19- Why Oil Prices Plunged Today
Oil traders – along with financial markets everywhere – were disappointed with the decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve despite the first interest rate cut since the global financial crisis a decade ago.
The Fed cut rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, and one would think that the monetary easing would push up equities and commodities. Crude oil, priced in dollars, tends to benefit with the central bank cuts rates, as it tends to weaken the dollar and make oil more affordable for much of the world. Read More
08.01.19- A Surprising Innovation In Energy's Hottest Market
The world's geothermal power generation capacity this year hit 14.9 GW. The figure is minuscule compared with fossil fuel or even renewable generation capacity but a figure that's growing. And now, a team of scientists may have found a way to add a battery storage system tailored specifically for geothermal power.
Led by Dr. Sachiko Matsushita, the team from the Tokyo Institute of Technology has developeda battery that can convert heat directly into power at temperatures of 100 degrees Celsius or even less. The scientists have called their invention sensitized thermal cells (STCs) and say they can be buried in the ground and generate and store electricity directly from the Earth's crust. Read More
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