October 10,2008----Recent reports of enhanced methane (CH4) leaks off the eastern Siberian coast (about 100 times the background level of about 1780 parts per billion CH4) and off Svalbard, Norway have been overshadowed in the media by the collapse of the global credit bubble.

At the root of both is a common thread, deregulation, including open-ended permits to pollute the atmosphere and the oceans, little-regulated financial systems and economic globalisation, representing failure by governments to protect the life and welfare of their hapless populations.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Climate taxes, not cap and trade markets alone, will lead to the vast technological changes the world's energy system needs to fight global warming, a top U.S. economist said on Thursday.

Cap and trade has emerged as the dominant attempt to slow global warming. Global deals in permits to emit greenhouse gas emissions have hit nearly $65 billion a year. The European Union, under the Kyoto Protocol, has embraced cap and trade since 2005 and voluntary markets have developed in the United States, the developed world's top carbon polluter.

Nothing quite hits the nations hip pocket like home loan interest rate rises and spiralling petrol prices. But while interest rates generally fluctuate within a range of a few per cent, and go towards paying off a significant family asset that appreciates in value in the longterm, petrol is a disposable commodity burned chiefly in order to get to work from our sprawling outer suburbs. Petrol prices have been skyrocketing this year. Cue electoral unrest.

But the recent spike that sent petrol prices to $1.70 per litre is merely a taste of things to come. Indeed the CSIRO-led Future Fuels Forum predicted in July that petrol prices could reach $8 per litre within 10 years.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A nearly 40 percent drop in crude oil prices since July will not discourage U.S. research and demand for renewable fuels, Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said on Tuesday.

"I don't think we've seen anything that would suggest that oil prices are going to be so low that they are going to diminish interest in renewable energy," Bodman told reporters during a visit to the U.S. Agriculture Department to unveil a plan to better meet future demand for biofuels.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 8, 2008) — Alternative sources of fossil fuels such as oil sands and coal-to-liquids have significant economic promise, but the environmental consequences must also be considered, according to a RAND Corporation study issued October 8.

The study by RAND, a non-profit research organization, provides a review of coal-to-liquids and Canadian oil sands technologies, considers possible impacts on fuel costs from future limitations on carbon dioxide emissions, and compares costs of the alternative fossil fuels to conventional petroleum fuels in 2025.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Four miles under the ocean's surface off Brazil's lush coast lie billions of barrels of recently discovered light crude — a treasure that could transform the country into an oil superpower.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called it "a gift from God" and pledged to end chronic poverty and narrow the country's broad gap between the rich and the poor.

The financial meltdown isn’t just giving fits to Wall Street, homeowners, and the oil market. It’s throwing a wrench into wind power’s breakneck growth, too.

Renewable energy should be celebrating, after Congress included an extension of clean-energy tax credits in the bailout package. But solar power has been reeling. Wind power, which managed a one-year extension of its vital tax credits (solar power got an eight-year reprieve), isn’t doing much better. The problem? The credit crunch.

MURPHY, N.C. (AP) — When oil topped $100 a barrel earlier this year, and gasoline prices soared above $4 a gallon, Americans cried out for relief.

Some called for more offshore oil drilling. Others pushed for the development of alternative fuels. And many made energy policy a top priority as they consider the presidential campaign.

Governor leads cause; $1 billion offshore plan may power 125,000 homes

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - New Jersey is powering up an ambitious plan to become a world leader in the use of wind-generated energy.

LONDON (Reuters) - Iraq will next week provide foreign oil and gas companies with details of the contracts under which it hopes the companies will help boost the country's oil output by 1.5 million barrels per day.

A delegation led by Iraq's oil minister Hussain al-Shahristani will present prequalified companies at a meeting in London on Monday with geological data on the fields, as well as details on the financial terms of the contracts and the process for applying.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is battling to keep its currency stable and prevent the stock market panic spreading to the streets but a further decline in oil prices could trigger a change in course.

With almost $550 billion accumulated in reserves, the world's third largest, Russia's authorities have enjoyed a certain degree of comfort in defending the ruble since foreign investors fled, spooked by the confrontation with Georgia that erupted in August just when global risk aversion was ramping up.

If you're staring at a fuel bill you can't afford, for a car you can't afford to tax, then welcome to the boracic-lint club. Just eight years into the millennium, oil prices have risen by 539 per cent; small wonder BP is earning profits of £42 million a day and it's only Russian petro-oligarchs and gas-company bosses who can afford to heat their houses. Car prices might have fallen over the last eight years, but they are now on their way back up and motoring taxes haven't fallen one iota. If you're the proud owner of a BMW road smoker, Range Rover or similar, then you're looking down the barrel of a very expensive future. Based on your car's carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions, your annual Vehicle Excise Duty bills will be rising to £455 in the next two years, not to mention up to £950 in showroom tax from 2010.

"This is a political decision, not an economic one," said Rolf Hartl of Association de L'industrie Petroliere Suisse in a telephone interview today. "The whole of Tamoil's business in Switzerland is at risk."

The producer group announced it will hold an emergency meeting on November 18 in Vienna to discuss the impact of the financial crisis on oil markets, which has helped knock prices from a record peak over $147 a barrel in July.

"We are going to create an international petroleum bank," Chavez said Wednesday on the eve of the 41st anniversary of the death of Che Guevara, who was executed by the Bolivian army on Oct. 9, 1967.

To quote the Post, "The shaky house of financial cards that has come tumbling down was erected largely in public view: overextended investment banks, risky practices by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, exotic mortgage instruments that became part of a shadow banking system. But while these were conveyed in incremental stories -- and a few whistle-blowing columns -- the business press never conveyed a real sense of alarm until institutions began to collapse."

Now, as municipalities count every penny amid the economic crisis, he drives a four-cylinder Chevrolet Malibu that, according the Environmental Protection Agency, gets about 30 mpg on the highway.

A slew of Canada's most respected oil and gas outfits slammed into 52-week lows during Monday's tumultuous trading session, highlighting fears that companies in the oil patch face a struggle to rustle up the cash necessary to plow ahead with expensive projects.

Private oil and gas companies, unable to offer investors liquidity, are in the worst spot, but larger publicly traded oil sands entities are also feeling the pinch. Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd., which produces crude oil, natural gas and bitumen, Monday iced plans to more than triple the capacity at its heavy oil refinery in Montana.

WILMINGTON, Del. — BP has dropped plans for a $700-million liquefied natural gas terminal on Gloucester County's Delaware River waterfront, citing changes in global energy markets.

..."As of now we're stopping work on the project," said company spokesman Tom Mueller. BP previously had said the terminal would produce 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, or enough to supply about 55 million homes per day in the mid-Atlantic region. It was expected to generate approximately 70 jobs.

Europe needs oil and gas from the South Caucasus and the Caspian. So while the conflict between Georgia and Russia might appear to be mainly about territory, the biggest practical effects are being felt in energy supply. None of the solutions is especially appetising. a FEW DAYS AFTER THE END OF THE GEORGIAN WAR, MAJOR flows resumed through the twin arteries than carry Azerbaijani oil and gas to Europe: the $4 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline and the $1 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum (BTE) gas pipe. But the restoration of the greater part of Azerbaijan's export capacity masked a string of underlying problems that will force companies and governments, producers and consumers, to re-evaluate energy policy in general and their reliance on routes through the South Caucasus in particular.