The U.S. Energy Policy should be based on the following principles:
Energy Security – an urgent program to move away from oil as fast as possible:
- Stage 1 – reducing oil’s strategic value by breaking its monopoly in the transportation sector.
- Stage 2 – drive a worldwide effort to shift away from oil.
Climate Change (global warming) – a balanced program between the short and long term goals. Run both programs in parallel:
- Priority 1 (next 15 years) – Implement oil replacement solution with positive net effect on global warming. Avoid GHG lock-ins (e.g., improve building efficiency, utilities decoupling).
- Priority 2 (next 50 years) – an economic and scientific based program targeting the main sources of global warming worldwide.
Economic Development – all programs should accelerate economic development. The energy policy should provide the U.S. with a competitive and strategic advantage that will improve the well being of our people. We should strive for the most economically competitive solutions.
We are spending $1 trillion a year on importing oil and defending it. It is a liability – a drain on our economy. We should change our energy policy into an economic asset.Longevity – the policy should take into account the reduced worldwide availability of oil, natural gas and coal and their long term effect on our environment, economy and security. The policy should be built around a gradual but continual rollout plan of new sources of energy to replace the current dominant fossil based resources.
The growth of the developing world and its energy consumption will shorten the current time estimates of the availability of critical resources. We must plan for worst case scenarios.
It’s become almost a litany of sorts that the American public lacks the knowledge necessary to make responsible decisions about energy use habits and energy policy. Most Americans have enjoyed… Read more »
1. Is an energy literate public unnecessary, helpful, crucial, or even possibly hurtful, to the end of a more efficient and relatively sustainable energy economy? ABSOLUTELY YES! 2. What can… Read more »
Hi Lisa, Thank you very much for your insights. I agree with your overall sentiment, but fear that the language of my post, in an attempt to be conceptually inclusive,… Read more »
The question you pose is befouled with assumptions that at least misdirect us and possibly reveal us to be de-evolved to the brink of extinction. The public does not ‘get’… Read more »
Tom, Thank you for your comments. I applaud your efforts to push energy efficiency regardless of popular or market support, and I certainly enjoyed reading your portrayals of modern culture… Read more »
Mr. Kraus, I very much agree with the proposition that a public that is more energy literate will be helpful in transitioning the country to effective energy policies. However, having… Read more »
I agree with the comments that a lot of this is too remote to most people’s day to day lives. I know there are some interesting efforts underway to try… Read more »
From today’s Wall Street Journal. “…we have to have an energy policy. This is just stupid what we have today.” The statement was made by Jeff Immelt, CEO of General… Read more »
I wanted to provide further thoughts on energy security. First let me define what I mean by energy security: it is not the same as energy independence which is a… Read more »
A couple of observations The U.S. is much less efficient than the rest of the industrial world in the use of oil. The rest of the industrial world has high… Read more »
At page 7 (Fig. 17) of this UBS commodity report ( http://bit.ly/dZTPXd ), they are doing a forward projection of oil demand and supply curve with some sensitivity analysis. I… Read more »
What should the new Congress do to address America’s energy security challenge? First, insure America against the next oil shock. America is still mired in a recession yet oil, the… Read more »
Dear Gal, I very much like this article and agree with it fully. I do have a few additional thoughts to share with you. I too have major concerns that… Read more »
Regarding Gal’s fifth point, “open transportation fuel market to natural gas”: After (quite properly, in my opinion) disparaging the idea of tax credits up to $65,000 per vehicle for conversion… Read more »
The scientist in each one of us cringes when we “waste” energy by converting natural gas to methanol. However, this is simply the wrong question. We refine petroleum and it… Read more »
Yossie, Thanks for the reply, and for calling my attention to Methanex. I did a little research online, to see if they had a newer and slicker technology for producing… Read more »
Dear all: A few further thoughts. Just like the nation is pursuing advanced batteries, perhaps there should be more emphasis/research on developing small biorefineries. By that I mean small enough… Read more »
Colleagues: A few thoughts, hopefully concise, on the thread below, specifically in response to points raised by Herschel on energy and population density relative to biofuels, by Roger on biomass… Read more »
I certainly concur that the goal has to be to get the cost down for biofuels and chemical engineering drives one to large plants. One question—what is your current estimate… Read more »
The rule of thumb is 100 gallons of ethanol per dry ton of biomass, so a 5,000 ton per day plant would produce 500,000 gallons of ethanol per day, or… Read more »
Roger, The way steam reformation works is that you need to get the steam to 900-1000 degrees Celsius in the reaction chamber. To avoid needing to burn (waste) a lot… Read more »
The Shell plant to convert natural gas to diesel is estimated to have a payback period of under four years—very profitable. Several reasons for that—starting with the fact that FT… Read more »
A comparison of the draft Kerry/Boxer Senate energy bill to the Waxman/Markey House of Representatives energy bill, HR-2454, shows that the the Senate version is much superior. This becomes clear… Read more »
That’s clearly a top priority for energy and national security reasons, and the transportation sector is the obvious target (with 2/3 of all oil used in transport, and 96% of… Read more »
Yes, this is a key point. Electric vehicles are viewed by some in the environmental community as a panacea. However, if they use coal-derived electricity, they will be very greenhouse… Read more »
The U.S. needs a coordinated infrastructure strategy to effectively move away from oil use in the transportation sector. The country needs to make the necessary investments in clean electricity sources… Read more »
We need some metrics to help guide our efforts and by which to measure our success. Tentatively, we could measure progress toward energy security as the total petroleum energy consumed… Read more »
It is worthwhile to read The CNA Corporation 2009 report on Energy and the Risks to National Security. https://www.ourenergypolicy.org/docs/4/PoweringAmericasDefense.pdf
The phrase “a balanced program between short and long term goals” worries me because it fails to place the consumer as the central actor in our energy policy. In the… Read more »
A December 2010 issue of the New Yorker featured “The Efficiency Dilemma” ( http://bit.ly/iiykgB ) in which writer David Owens argues that key ideas about energy efficiency may be off… Read more »
There is a small but determined cadre of people who seem determined to use the rebound effect, which is one rather narrow aspect of energy economics, to somehow discredit the… Read more »
[Originally posted at http://blogs.edf.org/markets/ ] David Owen asks a provocative question in the current <i>New Yorker</i>: If our machines use less energy, will we just use them more? He more… Read more »
I think that, while it may not always be the case that increased efficiency of use of a substance leads to increased consumption, our climate and environmental impact will continue… Read more »
This issue is a tad overblown. Yes, people drive more with energy efficient cars in terms of miles but usually not in terms of gross gallons (again, you only have… Read more »
It s worthwhile to look at The CNA Corporation 2007 report on National Security and the Threat of Climate Change
https://www.ourenergypolicy.org/docs/4/Nationa_Security_and_the_Threat_of_Climate_Change.pdf
This is an interesting article on the connection between oil price and recession and its relationship to climate policy. http://www.epmag.com/WebOnly2009/item41209.php
Rare earth minerals are metals that are critical to the production of advanced technologies such as consumer electronics, high-tech weaponry, fiber optics, and renewable energy technologies like batteries, photovoltaics, and… Read more »
A secure supply of rare earth elements is unquestionably strategic. IMO, it was insane that we ever allowed the Chinese near-monopoly to develop. Two policy positions should have a high… Read more »
The U.S. needs to develop an infrastructure investment strategy that addresses the global warming and energy crises, and will be the foundation for sustainable, economic growth. There would be three… Read more »
Our procurement and use of energy intersects with – and indeed fundamentally underpins – many of the questions most essential to contemporary American society: the economy, national security, employment and… Read more »
Prof. Hammer rightly poses the question how does the U.S. develop an effective, sustainable energy policy when different interest groups block taking any substantial actions. I believe there are two… Read more »
David, There is a possibility to get to Energy Policy. However to get there I think that we need to give up the ultimate Energy Policy and instead build two… Read more »