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Picturesque views of the snow-covered Alps may soon be relegated to picture books due to increasing climate change, a new European environmental report says. And it's not just skiers and tourism officials who are getting nervous about the fate of the continent's famous mountains.

Temperatures in the Alps are increasing at a rate more than twice the global average, according to a recent report by the European Environment Agency, "Regional climate change and adaptation: The Alps facing the challenge of changing water resources."

Group of 20 leaders put off tackling how to help poor nations deal with climate change, directing finance ministers to report in November on “a range of possible options” for the world’s most vulnerable countries.

The world leaders also agreed to phase out almost $300 billion in subsidies for fossil fuels in the “medium term.” They asked that each country develop strategies and timetables to end the government aid, according to a statement issued after the meeting yesterday in Pittsburgh.

I've often thought that moving to the country is one of dumber things you could do in response to peak oil. My reasoning for this is simple: people in the country have a massive dependence on cars and gasoline. For example, my brother used to live on a ranch in the extreme boondocks of Idaho (the area was only electrified in the 1980s) and he and his wife had to drive about 100 miles to go to the supermarket. That's an extreme case, but the general principle is very true. The country has incredible sprawl, and you have to drive really long distances to take care of your daily business.

Through September 2009, the government of India has issued a variety of statements designed to quell India's long-lived China bogey. It has done so to contain what it calls panic and scare-mongering about alleged incursions over the India-China border by units of the People's Liberation Army. The 'incidents' (as the Indian media like to call the events) have all occurred over India's north-western border with China, in the mountainous Jammu and Kashmir state.

Officials in both New Delhi and Beijing quickly issued statements to explain away these incidents. The Chinese Foreign Ministry outright rejected Indian media reports that its army crossed the border into India's Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir. India's media - in this case an English press whose nationalism is not usually tempered by sound reportage - reported that Chinese troops came more than a kilometre into Indian territory.

ITS Tubular Services (Holdings) says that economic conditions and the fall in available credit facilities have had a major impact on operators’ capital investment programmes.

Directors of the Aberdeen-based provider of specialised products and services to the global oil and gas industry say this has resulted in cancellations or delays in activity.

There has never been a more global, more integrated, more transparent market than the modern crude oil and oil products market. And yet, the calls for America to be “energy independent” continue to be heard from both the Right and the Left.

The most persistent of the advocates for “energy independence” are the neoconservatives affiliated with Set America Free, a Washington-based group that has been touting the mirage of independence since 2004. And the highest-profile member of that group is former CIA director James Woolsey. Woolsey and his allies at Set America Free have written several articles, and have even recently published a book, claiming that the US should take the lead by, as they put it, “turning oil into salt.” Their claim: oil’s importance as a strategic commodity will end if only the US would get more aggressive in its use of plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles, as well as the use of more “methanol, butanol, and other alternative fuels produced from grasses and even waste.”

With the prospect of Israel bombing Iran's nuclear facilities looming, Tehran has renewed its threat to shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which up to 40 percent of the world's oil supplies pass, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The strait is a 112-mile-long, horseshoe-shaped, six-mile wide strategic water passageway located between Iran to the north and the United Arab Emirates to the south. It is one of the world's most strategic – and vulnerable – shipping chokepoints.

ALI AL-NAIMI, OIL MINISTER, SAUDI ARABIA: You know, Saudi Arabia today is highly dependent on one source of revenue from hydrocarbons production for (INAUDIBLE) of oil. Now we cannot continue forever on this source of income. The whole purpose is, let us do our best to diversify the economy, industrialize and move to a knowledge society eventually.

GHARIB: But Mr. Naimi, when you -- what are you going to focus on? What will be the biggest growth industry outside of oil ultimately?

The wide deployment of solar power across the nation hinges on federal policies that mandate renewable power and government spending to promote the technology, utilities and manufacturers told Congress Thursday.

"America's ability to develop thriving domestic renewable solar power depends on this," said Stephanie Burns, the CEO of Midland, Mich.-based Dow Corning, which produces the polycrystalline silicon that is a component of solar panels.

Last week’s most galling example of green cynicism was offered by Nicolas Sarkozy, who told us in July he could not stand by and allow Europe’s most endangered fish, the bluefin tuna, to become extinct. Yet last Monday France sided with the European Union’s Mediterranean nations and blocked a ban on the tuna trade. Sarkozy’s volte-face seems uniquely snake-like because it happened so soon after the president had promised the opposite. But one should not forget other brazen examples of duplicity. A prime one is our own government’s admission that it could not meet its manifesto commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2010, because the steps it would have to take might damage its chances of re-election.

Consumption exceeds Earth's annual 'biocapacity' today amid warnings of dependence on overseas food and energy

Rich consumers are still voraciously gobbling up the world's resources, despite the worst recession in a generation, with their appetite pushing the planet into "ecological debt" from today , according to a report by think-tank the new economics foundation.

This "ecological debt day" marks the point in the year when consumption around the world exceeds the Earth's annual "biocapacity" — so for the remainder of the year, we will be eating into environmental resources that will not be replaced, according to nef's calculations.

DAWSON CREEK, B.C. — In the wake of six bombings targeting natural-gas pipelines on the B.C.-Alberta border, the B.C. government announced Friday a package of reforms aimed at improving relations between the oil and gas industry and residents.

"While the industry brings jobs, infrastructure and economic development to the area, it also creates increased traffic, dust, noise, environmental and maintenance concerns," said Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Blair Lekstrom. "These programs and regulations will help to address these issues that are so important to residents."

The challenge of climate change usually brings to mind images of industrial smokestacks or gas-hungry SUVs. But commercial and residential buildings consume nearly two-fifths of all energy produced worldwide and spit out 8.4 billion tons of CO2 emissions each year, or 30 percent of the global total. And while the price tag for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is cheaper for buildings than for transportation or hard industries, construction of more energy-efficient buildings won't pay for itself through lower energy bills. Pure market incentives aren't enough; governments must get involved.

Canada's oilsands may take a daily beating in the international media and from environmentalists, but the arithmetic of U. S. consumption and supply all but ensures a long, prosperous future for our dirty oil.

The United States imports 60% of its daily fuel requirements. President Barack Obama has vowed to wean his country off Middle East oil within 10 years. The U. S.'s other nearby secondary suppliers are either hostile (Venezuela) or their production is dwindling so quickly that they could be a net importer of oil within five years (Mexico). For every five barrels of oil America consumes a day, one comes from Canada. One barrel of every 20 now consumed in the United States is pumped straight out of the oilsands, a number that could triple inside of 15 years.

Many farming communities think global warming won't hurt them. They're wrong.

You might think a little global warming is good for farming. Longer, warmer growing seasons and more carbon dioxide (CO2)—what plant wouldn't love that? The agricultural industry basically takes that stance. But global warming's effects on agriculture would actually be quite complicated—and mostly not for the better.

BEIJING (Xinhua) -- China has successfully excavated combustible ice, a kind of natural gas hydrate, in permanent tundra in the south margin of the country's northwestern Qilian Mountains, the Ministry of Land and Resources said Friday.

Samples of combustible ice were collected in the area in November 2008, making China the first country to collect the gas hydrate in tundra in the medium and low latitudes, according to the ministry.

The problem The Fed and America faces is that this latest "blast of the liquidity firehose" is not limited to The United States in its impact.

Indeed, the problems that this sort of "monetary policy" generates have almost nothing to do with the US Economic picture - rather, they have everything to do with the international nature of markets and monetary flows and the impact that such a policy pronouncement has on them.

Two utilities pull out; group says it just wants EPA to be transparent

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A rift widened between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and some utilities as another major power provider quit over the business group's hard stance on pending climate regulation.

The Public Service Company of New Mexico, the state's largest utility, quit the chamber Friday just days after California's largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., said it was leaving because of the chamber's "extreme" positions.

MEXICO CITY, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Mexican oil production fell again in August but state oil company Pemex said it had some early indications the rapid fall in output at its giant Cantarell field may be slowing.

Mexico pumped 2.542 million bpd in August, a decline of 7.9 percent on a year ago but production at Cantarell edged higher for the first time in more than two years.

LOS ANGELES - California is embarking on the most aggressive energy efficiency plan among U.S. states, having earmarked $3.1 billion to retrofit homes and other programs that will cut power needs equivalent to three medium-sized power plants.

The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday unanimously approved plans by Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Southern California Gas to provide $3.1 billion in consumer rebates and other efficiency programs over the next three years.