Kurt Cobb

Latest articles from Kurt

• Will the Monterey Shale Downgrade Cause Climate Activists to Change Strategy?

  Published 02 June 2014 | viewed 5,652 times

  There is an important hidden lesson for climate activists in the vast downgrade of recoverable oil resources now thought to be available from California's Monterey…

• Could NAFTA Force the Keystone XL Pipeline On the United States?

  Published 09 May 2014 | viewed 5,036 times

  As the Obama administration puts off once again any decision on authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline, there are whispers of another intriguing possibility. If the…

• Did Crude Oil Production Actually Peak in 2005?

  Published 14 April 2014 | viewed 10,372 times

  "Wait a minute," you must be saying. "Haven't we been hearing from the oil industry and from government and international agencies that worldwide oil production…

• Net vs. Gross Energy: Is it Wise to be Complacent?

  Published 17 March 2014 | viewed 7,021 times

  Everyone knows that when a potential employer makes a job offer, the salary or wage he or she proposes isn't what you'll be taking home.…

• 7 Known Energy Facts which are Actually Untrue

  Published 08 January 2014 | viewed 7,436 times

  Mark Twain once said, "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."…

• Will the Mexican Oil Bubble Burst Before its Even Begun?

  Published 31 December 2013 | viewed 15,617 times

  Recent reforms that would open oil exploration and development in Mexico to major oil companies for the first time in decades has the media all…

• What Does Shell’s Decision to Cancel GTL Plant Say about US Shale Gas Boom?

  Published 16 December 2013 | viewed 19,034 times

  When civil rights advocates grew restless because of President Richard Nixon's right-wing rhetoric on the issue of desegregation, then-Attorney General John Mitchell told them, ''Watch…

• Who is to Blame if the US doesn’t Achieve Energy Independence?

  Published 13 December 2013 | viewed 6,508 times

  Will anyone who is currently predicting U.S. energy independence be punished if the story turns out to be wrong? I ask because the story--and that's…

• Sustainability is Only Achievable if New Systems are Better than Old Ones

  Published 05 December 2013 | viewed 9,498 times

  No doubt you know someone who's told you about his or her great aunt who lived to be 98 and never went to a doctor.…

• Does the IEA Know What It’s Talking About?

  Published 21 November 2013 | viewed 4,715 times

  It was as if the International Energy Agency were appearing on the old American television game show To Tell the Truth last week as it…

• Why Risk Management Plays Such a Large Role in our Energy Future

  Published 11 November 2013 | viewed 8,698 times

  Optimistic, but unwarranted, energy supply forecasts permeate the media (courtesy of the oil and gas industry) even as the occasional dire scenario gets coverage. But,…

• The Battle Against Climate Change: Does the World Need Saving?

  Published 05 November 2013 | viewed 73,612 times

  Hardly a day goes by without someone writing or saying that we need to save the Earth. My geologist friends scoff at such language for…

• Helium: Abundant but Unavailable

  Published 30 October 2013 | viewed 26,732 times

  If I had had space, I would have included a subtitle for this piece as follows: Things do not have to run out to become…

• US Energy Independence: The Numbers Don’t Add Up

  Published 22 October 2013 | viewed 20,279 times

  Energy independence sounds good, and that's why politicians and oil company executives love to say the words. It's so easy to say, but oh so…

• How Our Inability to Calculate Risk Opened the Doors for Fukushima

  Published 09 October 2013 | viewed 8,827 times

  Perhaps the most important energy story on the planet right now is the precarious situation for fuel rods stored in a damaged building at the…

• Fossil Fuel Demand is too High to be Controlled

  Published 04 October 2013 | viewed 7,771 times

  American political conservatives like to say that their strategy of tax cuts all the time is designed to "starve the beast." The "beast," of course,…

• Shell Abandons 800 Billion Barrel Deposit, Beaten by the Regions Geology

  Published 01 October 2013 | viewed 24,717 times

  The belief that technology can always overcome natural limits just took a big hit this week when Royal Dutch Shell PLC decided to shut down…

• The Problems with a Growing Population

  Published 19 September 2013 | viewed 23,348 times

  Albert Bartlett might have been another obscure physics professor had he not put together a now famous lecture entitled "Arithmetic, Population and Energy" in 1969.…

• The Energy Future may Rely on US not THEM

  Published 10 September 2013 | viewed 6,840 times

  With oil prices hovering near historic highs and coal, natural gas and uranium prices yo-yoing during the last several years, concerns about the future of…

• Tight Global Oil Supplies Turn Syria into an International Problem

  Published 03 September 2013 | viewed 11,274 times

  I've been watching old episodes of The West Wing, the acclaimed television series about life and work in the West Wing of the White House.…