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From Edge-City to Real City
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
Its way of life no longer en vogue, the auto-centric suburb of Tysons Corner, VA plans to undergo a large-scale transformation into a walkable, “real” city over the course of the next 30 years.
BofA Ends Financing for Mountaintop Removal Mining
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
Rainforest Action Network and Natural Resources Defense Council enjoyed a huge victory when Bank of America decided last week to end its financing of controversial, destructive mountain top removal coal mining in Appalachia.
Recycling Through Underground Tubes
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
London’s Wembley City development is the proud owner of the first automated waste collection system in the U.K. Recycling or garbage are deposited in bins, then sucked underground, eliminating the need for trucks or garbage collectors.
Uncertain Times See Cities Planning for Peak Oil
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
With energy and the economy both causing headaches, 2008 has been a big year for local governments recognizing and planning for peak oil. Finding a way forward in a future of constrained energy will require much of planners.
Obama Announces Energy Team
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, will be the President-Elect’s pick for Secretary of Energy, and Carol Browner (formerly head of the EPA) will take on the newly created role of Energy Czar.
Qatar warns of crude supply shock
ASPO International | The Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas -
The world faces a crude supply shock if oil prices remain below $70 per barrel, Qatar’s Energy Minister Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah said on Wednesday arguing that lower prices would discourage investment in new capacity.
A price of $70 per barrel is needed "to avoid any (supply) shock in the future," he said, explaining that this price level should be sufficient to encourage companies and oil producers to continue investing in capacity expansion projects. "Below $70, it will be non-economical to invest in the hydrocarbon sector," Al Attiyah told the Gulf Petrochemical and Chemical Association (GPCA) forum. "Today there is no cheap oil" he added.
Now that the price has fallen dramatically to below $50, this could discourage investment in finding new deposits and extracting them from difficult places. Countries and oil companies may postpone many upstream projects if they do not get a return on their investments.
"So this is our concern that when the economic crisis is over and demand starts (to pick up) again, then the world will face a big shortage of supply," Al Attiyah said.
EIA and IEA disagrees over future oil demand
ASPO International | The Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas -
World oil demand growth will return in 2009 after shrinking this year for the first time since 1983 due to the global economic slowdown, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said today.
The IEA’s view is in stark contrast to the US Energy Information Administration, which on Tuesday said demand is expected to shrink by 450,000 barrels per day in 2009 following a predicted 50,000 barrel decline in 2008.
"Our working scenario rests on assumed resilience outside of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) regions, albeit with slower growth than in the past five years," the IEA said in its monthly report.
Read more: Upstream Online
Patches of Grass Attract Unexpected Users
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
In Abu Dhabi, medians and ‘leftover spaces’ are attracting unanticipated users playing soccer, exercising or just hanging out. Planners are grappling with why people use these spaces and the public parks they’ve designed are less successful.
Ethnic Integration Up in Greater L.A. Suburbs
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
Many residents can still recount when their neighborhoods were far less ethnically diverse than their are now, which is backed by new census data showing that in most cities, the white population is down.
$1/Gallon Gas Consumption Tax Proposal
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
In this Mercury News Op-Ed, San Jose State University Professor Larry Gerston proposes this bold tax for mass transit and alternative energy programs. It yields $175 billion annually and creates green jobs, enabling us to determine our destiny.
