Word: gas
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Anyone who ever doubted the centrality of oil and natural gas to the global economy should have been convinced by the political events of the past few months. As petroleum prices have risen to record levels, the spiraling price of gasoline has become issue number one in the American Presidential election. That's prompted Republican candidate John McCain to make expanded offshore oil drilling a focus of his campaign. For years, offshore drilling has been illegal outside parts of the Gulf of Mexico due to environmental concerns, with public support. But that has reversed in recent months, with even green...
...Save America's Forests, however, the western Amazon could be on the brink of an energy bonanza - and that could be bad news for the rich array of plants and wildlife the forest supports. Finer points out that there are approximately 180 separate zones of development for oil and gas exploration in the western Pacific, run by at least 35 multinational energy companies. The area covers almost 700,000 sq. km. and it's growing fast. In 2003 Peru cut oil and gas royalties in an effort to kick start energy investment; that discount, compounded by the rapidly rising price...
...gas projects represent a vital source of government revenue for impoverished nations like Peru or Bolivia, but they may come at a high environmental cost. The reason much of the western Amazon remains intact - quite unlike the rainforest to the east - is simply because there are still relatively few roads into the forest. But oil and gas projects will require new roads, and roads destroy forests and damage wildlife habitats. Roads also invite in the most formidable agent of ecological disruption: humans. That means an influx of hunters and loggers, along with the heavy equipment and personnel needed...
There are ways to extract oil and gas without building an extensive network of roads - in fact, Finer points out that the energy company Petrobras plans to use helicopters to transport all personnel and material to and from a site in Yasuni National Park in Ecuador. That move came at the behest of the Ecuadorian government, and it's representative of the sort of smart energy policies that South American governments will need to follow if the western Amazon isn't going to be sacrificed for oil. Just as important are the environmental impact assessments that can accurately gauge just...
...looking to get involved in Iraq faces some major disincentives. Without an oil law, which appears unlikely anytime soon because of political bickering, companies wanting to start work in Iraq must essentially lobby both the Iraqi parliament and the government, which rarely find consensus. Two of the biggest projects, gas fields in the provinces of Anbar and Diyala, sit in territory plagued by violence and tribal politics. And none of the ventures are likely to allow companies to have a stake in any newly discovered oil reserves, the real moneymaking prize. "These deals themselves are not likely to be hugely...