Robert Rapier

Latest articles from Robert

• Rising Ethanol Prices and the Lessons to be Learned

  Published 29 September 2010 | viewed 6,558 times

  I thought it was a bit humorous recently — when corn ethanol prices dipped and were cheaper than both sugarcane ethanol and gasoline (even when…

• How to Destroy a Domestic Oil Industry: A Lesson from Hugo Chavez

  Published 28 September 2010 | viewed 7,183 times

  Hugo Chavez is putting on a clinic in Venezuela. The theme is “How to Destroy a Domestic Oil Industry.” I have warned for years that…

• Peak Oil Interview With Robert Rapier

  Published 23 September 2010 | viewed 16,434 times

  Back in June, I gave a presentation on Peak Oil at the Global Footprint Conference in Siena, Italy. Following my presentation, I was asked to…

• Respected Oil Analyst Forecasts Peak Oil by 2017

  Published 15 September 2010 | viewed 39,646 times

  Respected oil analyst and oil industry veteran Charles Maxwell (nicknamed the “Dean of Oil Analysts”) has forecast peak oil by 2017 or 2018: Bracing For…

• Why Oil Prices Aren’t Dropping

  Published 13 September 2010 | viewed 8,249 times

  I saw a humorous story a few days ago: Oil Should Be Around $10 a Barrel The price of a barrel of oil would be…

• Leaked German Military Study Warns of Peak Oil Crisis

  Published 03 September 2010 | viewed 12,560 times

  This week a study on peak oil by a German military think tank was leaked on the Internet. The document shows that the German government…

• A More Rational Approach to Ethanol Policy

  Published 23 August 2010 | viewed 6,233 times

  In my recent post Thoughts on an Ethanol Pipeline, I described what I feel would be a more rational approach to ethanol policy than some…

• Is Matt Simmons Credible?

  Published 27 July 2010 | viewed 27,623 times

  I am going to address a touchy subject in this essay, but I simply can’t ignore it any longer. I have noticed that a lot…

• USDA Publishes New Papers on the Energy Return of Corn Ethanol

  Published 08 July 2010 | viewed 16,719 times

  Over the past decade, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published several papers in which they investigated the energy return of corn ethanol.…

• Why Energy Independence has Eluded the U.S.

  Published 22 June 2010 | viewed 5,608 times

  I have noted before that every president since Nixon has talked about the need to get the United States off of foreign oil and moving…

• Next Generation Biofuels: 5 Near-Term Challenges

  Published 09 June 2010 | viewed 7,993 times

  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has just issued a report detailing the outlook and challenges of next generation biofuels. I provided some input during…

• The Death of BP?

  Published 06 June 2010 | viewed 11,901 times

  It was about six weeks ago that the man I work for walked into my office and asked what was happening in the world of…

• EIA’s Energy Outlook for 2010 Reveals Disturbing Figures

  Published 15 May 2010 | viewed 14,893 times

  The Energy Information Administration just released their Annual Energy Outlook for 2010: Annual Energy Outlook 2010 It is about 220 pages long, and therefore I…

• 5 Issues with Algae Fuels

  Published 12 May 2010 | viewed 42,038 times

  Here are 5 issues with Algae fuels that are covered in my new book on jatropha and algae as fuel sources. 1. The present cost…