Oil | Grist

Life Magazine ad breaks my brain

Oil: enough energy to melt glaciers! 12
Posted 2 days, 5 hours ago The greatest oil ad of all time, from 1962.
Redefining Chutzpah

Saudis want aid if world cuts oil use 0
Posted 1 month ago
Amanda Little talks energy on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ 0
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago
CRUDE AWAKENING

The violent twilight of oil and a strategy to expose it 1
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago An interview with journalist Peter Maass on why it doesn't matter what gas station you choose, and why oil is very bad for the people who live above it.
Road hogs

NASCAR and the high-octane American dream 11
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago A tour of America's energy landscape would be woefully incomplete without a visit to a NASCAR race, so Amanda Little trekked to the Talladega Superspeedway to get a first-hand view of the action. Don't miss this third installment in our series of exclusive excerpts from Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells—Our Ride to the Renewable Future.
Over a barrel

Exploring the extreme frontiers of oil drilling 2
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago To witness firsthand the world’s most extreme drilling territory -- the Mount Everest of oil frontiers -- Amanda Little took a 175-mile helicopter trip to Chevron's "Cajun Express" oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. "I found the whole enterprise of deep-sea drilling doggedly ambitious, but also seemingly desperate—like an addict forcing a syringe into the earth’s innermost veins," she writes. Of course, the director of Chevron’s offshore drilling divisions sees it differently, as he explains while giving Little a tour of the rig. This is the second installment in a series of exclusive excerpts from "Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells—Our Ride to the Renewable Future."
The first step is admitting you have a problem

Confessions of a fossil-fuel addict 2
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago You are right now completely surrounded by products of fossil fuels, from the screen you're reading to what you're wearing, eating, probably even sitting on. This same revelation sent Amanda Little on a surprising cross-country journey as she tried to come to grips with America's energy system. Read about it in an exclusive excerpt from her new book Power Trip.
the crude cost of fuel

Two new documentaries—‘Crude’ and ‘Fuel’—examine two sides of our petroleum problem 2
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago Crude and Fuel, two new documentaries, show the damaging effects of the world's addiction to oil, each film from its own unique angle.
Extra largesse

Fossil fuel subsidies dwarf clean energy subsidies; Obama wants to eliminate them 13
Posted 1 month, 4 weeks ago One often hears opponents of clean energy say that renewable sources are too expensive; they can't get by without subsidies; they can't compete in a "free market." One of the many reasons this is a daffy argument is that there is no such thing as a free market, certainly not in energy. Fossil fuels have benefited from a century of subsidies and supporting infrastructure -- and are still subsidized lavishly relative to their scrappy little competitors. This is a point enviros often make, but a new report from the Environmental Law Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars puts some teeth in it.
A WALK THROUGH THE WEEK'S CLIMATE NEWS

The Climate Post: A climate for monkey business 1
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
A "tragedy of the commons," Chinese steps toward renewable energy, watermelon diesel, and other pure monkey business in this week's climate news.
the perils of mixing oil and water

Sen. Landrieu’s plan to export Louisiana’s coastal destruction to Florida 2
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
While Louisiana struggles to restore coastal wetlands ravaged in large part by decades of oil and gas drilling, its senior senator is leading the effort to lift the ban on drilling off Florida's Panhandle.
drilling democracy

Big Oil holding ‘town halls’ on climate bill 0
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
Following in the footsteps of the corporate-backed protest movement against health care reform, a group founded and funded by business interests opposed to regulating greenhouse gas pollution is planning a series of rallies to oppose the climate legislation being considered by Congress.
But is it working?

Surprisingly popular Cash for Clunkers program raises hopes—and questions 2
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
The sight of car buyers back in showrooms these past two weeks has raised hopes that U.S. consumers are ready, primed by government stimulus, to spend again. But questions remain.
Signed. Sealed. Will they deliver?

ForestEthics mails Fortune 500 companies to kick off tar-sands campaign 1
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
ForestEthics has mailed letters to more than 100 Fortune 500 companies, warning that their continued consumption of fuels from Canada’s tar sands—the world’s dirtiest oil—puts their brands at risk.
well deserved!

Damning look at Canada’s tar sands tops enviro journalism awards 1
Posted 3 months, 4 weeks ago
Canadian journalist Andrew Nikiforuk won the top prize from the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual reporting awards for his investigation of oil extraction in the tar sands of northern Alberta.
Not all green jobs are created equal 2
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
The stimulus package and the climate bill recently passed by the US House and now being considered in the Senate will create jobs while delivering a boost to our economy. A "green" stimulus will create approximately three times as many jobs as the same amount of spending in traditional energy industries. But clean energy is too diverse to consider a single industry. What are the differential jobs creation effects of different types of clean energy and are the most effective sectors getting the most money?
Trope-a-dope

Replace the “Saudi Arabia of wind/solar/etc power” trope 0
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
How many times have you heard that Place X is the "Saudi Arabia of solar power" or "Saudi Arabia of wind power" or "Saudi Arabia of geothermal"? Kate Galbraith of The New York Times' Green Inc. blog has heard it one too many times, so she's launched a contest for a new phrase to describe renewable energy potential.
Our Oil Obsessed Civilization

The oil intensity of food 0
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
Today we are an oil-based civilization, one that is totally dependent on a resource whose production will soon be falling. This prospect of peaking oil production has direct consequences for world food security, as modern agriculture depends heavily on the use of fossil fuels.
A tax to grind

House GOP unveils energy bill heavy on fossil fuels and nuclear power 13
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
House Republicans have rolled out their own energy plan, the American Energy Act, intended to compete with the American Clean Energy and Security Act put forward by Democrats.
Energy Department changes tune on peak oil

It’s official—the era of cheap oil is over 44
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
Every summer, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy issues its International Energy Outlook (IEO) -- a jam-packed compendium of data and analysis on the evolving world energy equation.