This article was first published in the 3 December print edition of New Scientist and online at energyrealities.org. Whisper it. Oil production in the US is increasing. The country where output peaked in 1970 and then shrank by 40 per cent over four decades, has turned some kind of corner. (more…)...

First published in New Scientist, 12 October 2011. Greece is going to default, one way or another, that much is clear. The bigger question is whether it will also leave the Euro and what that would mean. What is so far underappreciated is that a Greek exit would have appalling consequences not only for the world economy, but also the climate. (more…)...

First published in the New Scientist, 29 July 2011. Europe's energy consumers will find themselves paying a high price for Germany's decision to get out of nuclear power. (more…)...

First published in the New Scientist, 7 July 2011. Chancellor Angela Merkel's government claimed to be "ushering in the age of renewables" as German MPs passed legislation this week to phase out nuclear power by 2022 – but the basic arithmetic of the energy-switch policy suggests the country will struggle to fill the hole left by nuclear power – and emissions may rise in the interim. (more…)...

A version of this article was published in New Scientist on 3 December 2009. The oil crisis is not dead, only sleeping, according to an emerging consensus. The price may have collapsed from last year’s all-time high of $147 per barrel to around $75 today, as the recession grinds away at demand for crude, but nobody expects that to last when the economy recovers. (more…)...

A version of this article was published in New Scientist on 12 March 2009. Thomas Edison might have relished the irony. Just as his most famous legacy, the incandescent light bulb, heads for extinction, his other great passion, direct current, is set to boom. (more…)...

A shorter version of this article appeared in New Scientist magazine on 26 November 2008. Whatever happened to the hydrogen economy? At the turn of the century it was the next big thing, promising a Jetsons-style future of infinite clean energy and deliverance from climate change. (more…)...