Articles – Page 5 – write first draft

Climate cost of Total’s North Sea leak

March 30, 2012 By David Strahan2 Comments

First published at New Scientist, 30 March 2012. Coverage of the gas leak at Total's Elgin platform in the North Sea, off the UK coast, has so far focused on the potential for an explosion, and damage to sea life from hydrogen sulphide contamination - the latter now discounted. But methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, so what about the global warming impact? Here's what emerged from the back of my envelope. (more…)...

Tories play fast and loose with fuel supply

March 30, 2012 By David StrahanNo Comments

First published in the ODAC Newsletter 30 March 2012. While awareness of peak oil has advanced light years since the petrol protests of 2000, on the evidence of this week the same cannot be said for the conduct of British energy policy. (more…)...

Obama-Cameron dogging explained

March 16, 2012March 19, 2018 By David StrahanNo Comments

First published in the ODAC Newsletter 16 March 2012. Finally, a plausible explanation for the Obama-Cameron political orgy – ‘love-in’ doesn’t quite do it – in Washington this week. (more…)...

Gas: climate panacea or industry propaganda?

February 23, 2012March 19, 2018 By David Strahan2 Comments

First published in the New Scientist 25 February 2012. I once hitched a lift from New York to London in the private jet of an American gas billionaire. (more…)...

Nuclear: why Britain is right and Germany wrong

November 1, 2011March 19, 2018 By David Strahan4 Comments

First published in Energy World, November 2011. For decades Britain seemed to have cornered the market in bad energy policy, but these days it has some stiff competition from Germany. Which is ironic, really. (more…)...

DECC model highlights inconvenient energy truths

June 1, 2011March 19, 2018 By David Strahan4 Comments

First published in Energy World, 1 June 2011. For those of us with an anorak in the closet, the government’s new online energy planning tool, the 2050 Pathways Calculator, has provided hours of perplexing fun. (more…)...

How BP got into another fine mess

April 17, 2011March 19, 2018 By David StrahanNo Comments

The immediate cause of BP’s latest Russian crisis is the ruling last month of an arbitration panel in Switzerland. But its roots spread all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, and as far back as the company’s last but one chief executive. And it all reflects the company’s floundering attempts to secure production growth in a world of dwindling oil resources. (more…)...