by Richard Douthwaite. In a widely-circulated article in September 2011, Chris Skrebowski, who runs a peak oil consulting firm and was editor of the Petroleum Review for eleven years until 2008, argued that there are two forms of oil peak. One is, or will be, caused directly by depletion – the oil is no longer in the ground in sufficient quantities for producers to be able to maintain production. The other is the economic oil peak, which he says is the “price at which oil becomes unaffordable to consume and therefore to produce.” Is this assessment realistic?

The EU’s collective austerity programme will do little or nothing to save the problem countries – Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain – from default and the rescue fund set up by the IMF and the ECB will only buy time before they do so. Richard Douthwaite argues that a limited, targeted injection of non-debt-based euros could provide a neat and swift solution to a debt problem the whole eurozone shares.

Two long reviews of Feasta’s book Fleeing Vesuvius have appeared recently, one enthusiastic, the other markedly less so. Andy Wilson of An Taisce writes that ” The point hammered home repeatedly is that solo runs are futile, while collaboration and working together offers communities their best chance….. Wonderful book. Buy it.” Graham Strouts is not so convinced. Is he raising questions which Feasta members should not ignore?

The development of techniques which allow the extraction of gas from some carboniferous rocks known as shale has completely transformed the world’s natural gas market. The gas price has fallen and in one case in the US, a terminal that was built to import gas is now being used to export it.

by Richard Douthwaite. The price of Brent oil reached $122 per barrel last week (April 6th) and JP Morgan have forecast that it will hit €130 in the next few months. Energy prices at these levels mean that Ireland can say goodbye to any hope that it can grow its way out of its debt crisis. Because government spending cuts mean that domestic demand is almost certain to fall the country’s only hope of increasing its national income is to earn more from overseas. That wiil be hard if the global economy is depressed but if the global economy grows, the world…