Security collapse in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia could pose far greater problems for the west than either Iraq or Afghanistan, a former US general said on Tuesday, according to the Australian Associated Press news agency. General John Abizaid, who headed US Central Command from 2003 until retiring in 2007, said the problem was that Pakistan had nuclear weapons while Saudi Arabia had about a quarter of the world’s oil reserves.

John Michael Greer, The Archdruid Report. Some leading authors on peak oil insist that US government complicity in the 9/11 attacks is crucial to understanding the subject. How relevant are these claims to the predicament of industrial society?

World oil production reaches the peak by 2020-40, the rate will be 90-100 million b/d, only 10-20% higher than it was in 2005. Peak is likely to last 20-30 years before production begins its ultimate decline.

Inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have concluded that Iran appears to have solved most of its technological problems and is beginning to enrich uranium on a far larger scale than before, according to the agency’s top officials.

The findings may change the calculus of diplomacy in Europe and in Washington, which aimed to force a suspension of Iran’s enrichment in large part to prevent it from learning how to produce weapons-grade material.

Tom Werner, CEO of solar cell and panel maker SunPower Corp., disagreed, insisting that the Intel Corp. co-founder Gordon Moore's famous dictum applies to the increase in solar tech efficiency. "We're where semiconductors were 20 or 30 years ago," he said.

"Solar's on the verge of going mainstream and will become a much bigger industry," Werner said. "There's going to be a land grab like the Wild Wild West."

Saudi Arabia has discovered two new oilfields near Ghawar, the world's largest field, Oil Minister Ali Al Naimi said.

Output from one of the fields was light crude with an API gravity measure of 35 degrees. The Derwaza-1 well on that field, 70 km southeast of Ghawar, produced 5,569 barrels per day of oil and 2.8 million cubic feet per day of gas.

It has not even reached parliament, but the oil law that U.S. officials call vital to ending Iraq's civil war is in serious trouble among Iraqi lawmakers, many of whom see it as a sloppy document rushed forward to satisfy Washington's clock.

The objections are as vast and technical as the measure itself and reflect the wider problems facing Iraq: regional distrust of the Shiite-led central government; wariness of foreign interest; and anger toward the United States, which many Iraqis believe invaded Iraq solely to get its hands on the oil.

Will oil hit $100 per barrel? That, surprisingly, is an easier question because there is one indicator that may give you a pretty good idea: the U.S. response to Iraq's civil war.

To date, the U.S.' Iraq strategy has lagged fatefully behind conditions on the ground. If we continue on our current path, the risk is high that the present civil war will pull in neighboring countries and drive oil prices to record levels. If we change course and adapt our strategy to the facts on the ground, that risk may be reduced. But that would require serious change of perspective in the White House.

Satellite data collected by the scientists between July 1999 and July 2005 showed clear signs that melting had occurred in multiple distinct regions, including far inland and at high latitudes and elevations, where melt had been considered unlikely.

“Antarctica has shown little to no warming in the recent past with the exception of the Antarctic Peninsula,” said Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado, Boulder. “But now large regions are showing the first signs of the impacts of warming as interpreted by this satellite analysis.”

Ministers of International Energy Agency member states warned major natural gas producers such as Russia and Iran on Tuesday against disrupting energy markets with production-adjusting actions based on nationalism and using their rich resources as leverage over others, IEA officials said.

"If energy-producing countries strengthen state control (on production) in an excessive manner, that may cause a slowdown in foreign investment" in those countries, Japanese Senior Vice Foreign Minister Katsuhito Asano said at the meeting, according to a Japanese official who was present at the forum.

President Bush's goal of putting the next generation of Americans into cars fueled by hydrogen is slipping away.

Alternatives include hybrid cars, plug-in hybrids, diesels, biofuels, improved conventional fuels and more efficient engines.

Asian desert dust and city pollution is swirling in vast plumes across the Pacific to North America, interacting with storms and possibly spurring climate change, an airborne scientist said on Tuesday.

"This is why dust and soot getting into the higher layers is so important," Ramanathan wrote. "This is what makes a local (problem) into a global problem."

At the climax of his book Twilight in the Desert, Houston investment banker and energy guru Matthew Simmons describes a visit to the world's most powerful oil company, Saudi Aramco, in Dhahran. Simmons listens in horror as a senior manager reveals the kingdom's darkest secret. The old ways no longer suffice. To keep their aging wells productive, the Saudis now rely upon one information age prop after another: advanced analysis of rock cores, 3-D seismic imagery, software for diagnosing underground oil flows - all integrated using something called fuzzy logic. Fuzzy logic? The Aramco man tries to explain the science of complex systems and partial information, but Simmons hears only tidings of a bleak future. Obviously, the end of energy as we know it is nigh.

So what's a price-shocked, carbon-afflicted highway jockey to do? Keep driving. In fact, drive more. The longer gas stays expensive, the higher the chance we'll see alternatives. Put that pedal to the metal. And smile when you see a big black $3 or $4 out in front at the gas pump. Those innovators need all the encouragement they can get. Shale oil, uranium, sunlight - there's enough energy out there for a dozen planets. Where we'll all park is another matter.

An interview with renowned climate scientist James Hansen

James Hansen, NASA's top climate expert, believes scientists have an obligation to speak out when their findings have important implications for the public -- and he certainly put that belief into practice last year when he told The New York Times that the Bush administration was trying to muzzle his calls for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

Hansen has been speaking publicly about the threats posed by climate change for more than two decades, though it's only in the last couple of years that the public has begun to listen. These days, Hansen is the closest thing climate science has to a celebrity. Lately, he's been using his star status to draw attention to the evils of coal-fired power plants and to chastise the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for not making strong enough statements on sea-level rise.

CONNECTICUT - Legislative Republicans said today they will try to amend as many bills as possible in the final weeks of the session to suspend Connecticut's 25-cent-per-gallon state gasoline tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Lawmakers said the state's growing budget surplus, currently estimated at $848 million, would easily cover the $120 million expense of the proposed three-month tax holiday.

Nicosia, May 15: Saudi Aramco and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation announced on April 30 that their LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) prices for May would increase by 30 dollars a ton.

Thus the price of butane will rise to 575 dollars a ton and the price of propane will increase to 560 dollars a ton.

Staff, EB. Moving oil and gasoline is a dangerous business
Shell exec: Oil prices could continue to rise

To be globally competitive Russia needs a viable energy strategy

The issue of energy security continues to dominate Russia's agenda. In his annual address to parliament, President Putin stressed this topic, too. While highlighting Russia's role as the world's largest oil producer in 2006, Putin lamented the sluggish pace of developing the nation's refining industry, which lags behind world leaders. Questioning Russia's ability to extract the maximum value out of its natural resources, Putin ordered the government to develop a set of measures intended to stimulate growth of the domestic refining sector.

Think you're stretching your gas dollars by killing the air conditioning or buying your gas on Wednesday? Think again.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Using a special additive or cutting off your A/C won't really cut your gasoline consumption. But myths like these run rampant in the minds of American drivers.

Right now, the price of gasoline is again setting record highs. The average price for a gallon of regular hit $3.087 Tuesday, the third record in a row.