The OurEnergyLibrary aggregates and indexes publicly available fact sheets, journal articles, reports, studies, and other publications on U.S. energy topics. It is updated every week to include the most recent energy resources from academia, government, industry, non-profits, think tanks, and trade associations. Suggest a resource by emailing us at info@ourenergypolicy.org.
Resource Library
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While U.S. energy independence may be unattainable in the foreseeable future, energy security is a realistic and achievable goal.
Most proposed national energy policies have shared goals concerning adequate supplies, reliable service and affordability. Every president since Richard Nixon has explicitly called for either “energy independence” or, at least, increased “energy security.”
Policymakers, however, should consider whether energy “independence” is really necessary to achieve these goals, including security. In fact, the answer is probably no. The real issue is not independence from all foreign oil, but reducing oil imports from unfriendly nations, diversifying our supply of energy sources and ensuring …
View Full ResourceThe First Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) expressed concerns about anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their impact on climate stability. In 1992, this concern led the world community to create the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The ultimate objective of that Convention is to achieve stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.
Although what constitutes dangerous interference has yet to be defined, it is obvious from IPCC’s Third Assessment Report (“Global average temperatures and sea level are …
View Full ResourceThere are clear alternatives to allowing the United States to be an oil conduit for tar sands merely to accommodate ever- growing profits for big oil companies. As American gasoline consumption continues to shrink, the United States can continue its current trajectory to reduce its oil dependency by improving fuel efficiency and clean energy investments. These 2005 2010 EXPORTS: EUROPE 2020 2025 20 Ja C an EXPORTS: investments will create tens of thousands more jobs than Graph 2. Pipeline capacity taking Canadian oil to the United States far exceeds current and future production Keystone XL ever would—and without risking a …
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This inaugural edition of the International Index of Energy Security Risk (International Index) is designed to complement the annual reports on U.S. Energy Security Risk, first published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy in 2010. The International Index measures energy security risks across different countries for the years 1980 through 2010. The risk index scores are calculated for the United States and 24 other countries that make up the large energy user group: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, …
View Full ResourceThe authors demonstrate that the United States profits handsomely in all circumstances by imposing an embargo on imports of foreign crude oil. The US removes its exposure to foreign oil supply shocks and recovers deadweight lost producers surplus. The embargo plan will lead to greater domestic production of crude oil and alternative fuels without the tax and subsidy schemes heretofore employed.… View Full Resource
This Roadmap to Achieve Energy Delivery Systems Cybersecurity provides a plan to improve the cybersecurity of the energy sector. The strategic framework within presents the vision of industry, vendors, academia, and government stakeholders for energy delivery systems security, supported by goals and time-based milestones to achieve that vision over the next decade. It marks a continued effort by public and private stakeholders to identify steps to build, deploy, and manage resilient energy delivery systems for the electric, oil, and natural gas industries.
The roadmap is an update of the 2006 Roadmap to Secure Control Systems in the Energy Sector, representing …
View Full ResourceThe recent events in Japan remind us that while the likelihood of a nuclear power plant accident is low, its potential consequences are grave. And an accident like Fukushima could happen here. An equipment malfunction, fire, human error, natural disaster or terrorist attack could—separately or in combination—lead to a nuclear crisis.
The U.S. will continue to obtain a significant portion of its electricity from nuclear power for many years to come, regardless of how rapidly energy efficiency measures and other sources of electricity are deployed.
View Full ResourceSparked by unrest in North Africa and the Middle East, high oil prices are back after a short reprieve in 2009 and 2010. At well over $100 per barrel, there is concern about the repercussions for an economic recovery that was just beginning to gather strength. And long-standing anxieties about our dependence on a far-off region that seems perennially unstable and conflict-prone have re-emerged. Against this backdrop, no one was surprised to see President Obama announce a reinvigorated national effort to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
After all, we’ve been here before—most recently in 2008 and before that in …
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We present evidence on one facet of energy security in OECD economies—the extent of diversification in sources of oil and natural gas supplies. Viewed from the perspective of the energy-importing countries as a whole, there has not been much change in diversification in oil supplies over the last decade, but diversification in sources of natural gas supplies has increased steadily. We document the cross-country heterogeneity in the extent of diversification. We also show how the extent of diversification changes if account is taken of the political risk attached to suppliers; the size of the importing country; and transportation risk.…
View Full ResourceThe world of energy is in upheaval. “It is a time of unprecedented uncertainties,” as the International Energy Agency put it in its 2010 World Energy Outlook report. Economic recovery after the crisis is still fragile. The hunger for energy resources gnaws at rapidly emerging economies; energy poverty is rampant. 1.4 billion people lack access to electricity; New york City uses as much energy as 800 mil- lion people in Sub-Saharan Africa. Energy markets are in flux as producer and consumer positions shift dramatically. Even as Russia has overtaken Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer, the United States …
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