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Last Wednesday, the Obama administration officially denied approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. A rider included by the GOP in the payroll tax plan President Obama signed last month required the Administration to decide on the pipeline within a 60-day window. In rejecting the pipeline, the White House said “imposing an arbitrary 60-day deadline on this process would make it virtually impossible for an adequate review [of the pipeline] to take place.” House Speaker John Boehner criticized the decision saying “President Obama is destroying tens of thousands of American jobs and shipping American energy security to the Chinese. [There’s] no… [more]
View InsightPresident
Micro-Utilities, Inc.
A number of studies have shown that high oil prices have been a major factor in causing recessions in the United States. The cause of previous high oil prices has often been tied to events such as strikes in oil producing nations (e.g. Venezuela), wars (Iraq invading Kuwait, the Iran/Iraq war, the Gulf war), oil embargoes (Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations cutting off oil supplies to countries that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur war), and revolutions like the Iranian revolution. In one form or another all of these events could be grouped together as political events that caused high… [more]
View InsightProfessor of Public Policy
Georgia Institute of Technology
In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama proposed a Clean Energy Standard (CES) requiring that 80 percent of the nation’s electricity come from clean energy resources by 2035. Over the past decade, Congress has debated renewable electricity standards, typically allowing energy efficiency to meet a portion of the target. For example, in 2009, an RES was included in the American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009, requiring 15% renewables by 2021, and 27% of this target could be met by energy efficiency. What happened to energy efficiency in the President’s proposal? A well-designed CES policy would enable… [more]
View InsightUniversity Distinguished Professor
Michigan State University, Dept. of Chemical Engineering
The past century can rightly be called the Age of Oil. World oil consumption grew from about 20 million metric tons/year in 1900 to nearly 4000 million tons/year in 2005—a 200 fold increase. The economic activity enabled by oil consumption also greatly increased both human wealth and the human population size over the last century. But it is also clear that the Age of Oil is winding down. It is obvious, but often forgotten, that we must discover oil before we can produce, refine and use it. Worldwide, the rate of discovery of new oil reserves peaked in the 1960s.… [more]
View InsightThe New York Times recently published an article outlining the role of energy storage in facilitating increased adoption of renewable energy. The article highlights two companies – SolarReserve and BrightSource – that will open and operate solar thermal storage plants over the next several years. These plants will use the daytime sun to heat water and salt. The latent heat will then be used to power traditional electric turbines after the sun has set. The Energy Storage Council lists the following among the uses of energy storage: Enabling “renewables, solar or wind, to store energy generated during off-peak hours for… [more]
View InsightOn December 31, 2011 Congress allowed a decades-old corn ethanol subsidy to sunset. It also sunsetted an import tariff on foreign cellulosic ethanol. The dissolution of these policies has prompted some concern about impacts on gasoline prices and the future of the U.S. ethanol industry. Nearly all gasoline blended and sold in the U.S. contains at least 10% corn ethanol. USA Today is reporting that the end of the subsidy could raise gasoline prices by as much as $0.045/gallon as early as next week. In an interview on NPR, Bruce Babcock, a professor of energy economics at Iowa State University,… [more]
View InsightA federal judge has ruled to block California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, arguing that it “unconstitutionally discriminates against out-of-state producers and tries to regulate activities that take place entirely outside state boundaries.” The standard “impermissibly treads into the province and powers of our federal government, reaches beyond its boundaries to regulate activity wholly outside of its borders,” the judge said. [The New York Times] The standard would function by using life-cycle analysis to identify the CO2 intensity of fuels. Fuel-makers whose products have lower CO2 intensity would be rewarded with tradable credits. Those selling higher CO2 fuels would have to… [more]
View InsightOil prices are expected to average between $100 and $120/barrel in 2012. “Economists say they expect prices to remain high despite the relative weaknesses of the American and European economies because global demand for oil … is escalating and outstripping supply.” [New York Times] Due in part to consumers driving less and purchasing more fuel efficient cars, the United States economy has weathered high oil prices relatively well in 2011. Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group, told the Times that “the danger is if oil starts to move toward $130 a barrel, or even higher… Then… [more]
View InsightThe New York Times has reported that Iran has threatened to block all oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, which serves as a transport corridor for approximately 1/5 of world oil supply. The threat is in response to U.S. sanctions on Iran that are awaiting President Obama’s signature. The sanctions, if enforced, would penalize foreign businesses for doing business with Iran’s national bank, which is responsible for collecting payment on much of the country’s energy exports. The sanctions are in response to a November IAEA report, and are intended to penalize Iran for pursuing secretly nuclear weapons in spite… [more]
View InsightEarlier this year, the Obama Administration announced that it would be delaying its decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until after the 2012 election, drawing criticism from some pipeline proponents. In negotiating the FY2012 spending bill, the House and Senate have included language that would require the Administration to decide on the pipeline within 60 days. Republican lawmakers have made the Keystone XL pipeline issue a centerpiece of the spending negotiations. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) described his party’s spending-debate concessions on this issue as “giving the sleeves off a vest” because the State Department has said that they will withhold… [more]
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