Search

Begin New Search Topic Energy Policy Political Geography United States

81. Juggling the New Triad--Energy, Environment and Security: A Case Study of the Canadian Oil Sands

Author:
Hendrik Spruyt
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Peace and Security Studies
Abstract:
The desire to acquire reliable and cheap sources of energy has long been linked to security objectives. When the British fleet transferred from coal to oil, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill saw to it that the British government acquired a controlling interest in the Anglo-Persian oil company (the forerunner of today's BP). In more recent years President Nixon argued for energy independence in the face of the Arab oil embargo and skyrocketing oil prices that increased twenty fold in less than a decade. And if the U.S. Department of Defense today were considered as an independent energy consumer similar to sovereign states it would outrank more than 100 countries, including such states as Sweden. Among the great powers, China in particular has linked geostrategic calculations with acquiring secure and affordable energy sources. Acquiring such sources is thus for most states a desirable objective which enhances a state's autonomy and security. Similarly, further development of such supplies is expected to correlate with enhanced security. Both objectives, however, stand in uneasy tension with new environmental concerns. Pending dramatic advances in renewable energy production, fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas, remain key sources of energy. Indeed, in the United States 95% of the energy used in the transportation sector derives from oil. Consequently, the desire to become more energy independent or acquire reliable supplies of such energy will for the foreseeable future lead to the continued use and even further exploitation of fossil fuels. Yet, the consumption and production of fossil fuels has been one of the key sources of greenhouse gases.And if, environmental degradation in turn leads to conflict, as, for example, the work of Homer Dixon has suggested, then environmental concerns must also enter into the agenda that is usually reserved for traditional security calculations (Homer Dixon 1999).
Topic:
Security, Climate Change, Energy Policy, and Environment
Political Geography:
United States, Canada, Arabia, Sweden, and Persia

82. U.S.-India Dialogue on Sustainable Energy Security

Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The world is at a critical junction in history that will shift the course of economic, social and political developments. The steps major economies take will have a profound impact on international developments and make increasing global cooperation on a number of issues crucial to the well-being of citizens throughout the world. The “US-India Dialogue on Sustainable Energy Security” was the latest effort by the Atlantic Council's Program on Energy and Environment to work with other leading policy institutions to identify the challenges of international cooperation to resolve the difficulties associated with providing the energy resources required to support growing and sustainable economic and social prosperity. The Council's activities are designed to provide non-partisan, pragmatic assessments and recommendations that recognize the need for international energy structures that support the worldwide physical supply security of environmentally responsible and affordable energy.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Bilateral Relations, Natural Resources, and Biofuels
Political Geography:
United States, India, and Southeast Asia

83. Central Europe and the Geopolitics of Energy

Author:
Franklin D. Kramer, John R. Lyman, and Mihaela Carstei
Publication Date:
12-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
Energy security presents quintessential geopolitical challenges. In Central Europe, achieving energy security can be a critical element for a continent seeking to resolve vestigial Cold War complexities with Russia and toward meeting 21st century challenges including balanced economic development, energy diversity and climate change. Central Europe, utilizing both European Union support and Western European national assistance and enhanced by United States technical assistance, can take five key steps that will go far toward resolving energy security challenges and help to reframe the geopolitics of the continent.
Topic:
Security, Economics, Energy Policy, Oil, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, and Europe

84. Biofuels Impact on Crop and Food Prices: Using an Interactive Spreadsheet

Author:
Scott Baier, Mark Clements, and Jane Ihrig
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
This paper examines the effect that biofuels production has had on commodity and global food prices. The innovative contribution of this paper is the interactive spreadsheet that allows the reader to choose the assumptions behind the estimates. By allowing the reader to choose the country, time period, supply and demand elasticities, and the size of indirect effects we explicitly illustrate the sensitivity of the estimated effect of biofuels production on prices. Our best estimates suggest that the increase in biofuels production over the past two years has had a sizeable impact on corn, sugar, barley and soybean prices, but a much smaller impact on global food prices. Over the past two years (ending June 2008), we estimate that the increase in worldwide biofuels production pushed up corn, soybean and sugar prices by 27, 21 and 12 percentage points respectively. The countries that account for most of the upward pressure on these prices are the United States and Brazil. Our best estimates suggest that the increase in U.S. biofuels production (ethanol and biodiesel) pushed up corn prices by more than 22 percentage points and soybean prices (soybeans and soybean oil) by more than 15 percentage points, while the increase in EU biofuels production pushed corn and soybean prices up around 3 percentage points. Brazil’s increase in sugar-based ethanol production accounts for the entire rise in the price of sugar. Although biofuels had a noticeable impact on individual crop prices, they had a much smaller impact on global food prices. Our best estimate suggests that the increase in worldwide biofuels production over the past two years accounts for just over 12 percent of the rise in the IMF’s food price index. The increase in U.S. biofuels production accounts for roughly 60 percent of this effect, while Brazil accounts for 14 percent and the EU accounts for 15 percent. The key take- away point is that nearly 90 percent of the rise in global food prices comes from factors other than biofuels.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Food, Biofuels, and Ethanol
Political Geography:
United States, Brazil, South America, and North America

85. Did Easy Money in the Dollar Bloc Fuel the Global Commodity Boom?

Author:
Christopher Erceg, Luca Guerrieri, and Steven B. Kamin
Publication Date:
08-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
Among the various explanations for the runup in oil and commodity prices of recent years, one story focuses on the role of monetary policy in the United States and in developing economies. In this view, developing countries that peg their currencies to the dollar were forced to ease their monetary policies after reductions in U.S. interest rates, leading to economic overheating, excess demand for oil and other commodities, and rising commodity prices. We assess that hypothesis using the Federal Reserve staff’s forward-looking, multi- country, dynamic general equilibrium model, SIGMA. We find that even if many developing country currencies were pegged to the dollar, an easing of U.S. monetary policy would lead to only a transitory runup in oil prices. Instead, strong economic growth in many developing economies, as well as shortfalls in oil production, better explain the sustained runup in oil prices observed until earlier this year. Moreover, a closer look at exchange rates and interest rates around the world suggests that the monetary policies of many developing economies, including in East Asia, are less closely influenced by U.S. policies than is frequently assumed.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Oil, Commodities, and Interest Rates
Political Geography:
United States and North America

86. Oil, Gas and International Insecurity: Tackling a Self-fuelling Fire

Author:
Daniel Litvin
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
In the United States, European Union and Asia, fears about dependence on oil and gas imports from unstable regions have become a major theme of political debate. This paper provides a high-level and historical perspective on this complex issue. Dependence on oil and gas imports raises real economic- and political-security issues for many countries. Neither the global economic crisis nor climate change policies - both of which look set to restrain oil and gas demand - will solve the problem entirely. In fact, over the next few decades it is likely to become worse.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, and Oil
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, and Asia

87. The Canadian Oil Sands: Energy Security vs. Climate Change

Author:
Michael A. Levi
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
Half a decade of high and volatile oil prices alongside increasingly dire warnings of climatic disaster have pushed energy security and climate change steadily up the U.S. policy agenda. Rhetoric in Washington has emphasized opportunities to deal with both challenges at once. But energy security and climate change do not always align: many important decisions in areas including unconventional oil, biofuels, natural gas, coal, and nuclear power will involve complex trade-offs and force policymakers to carefully navigate the two goals. Ongoing and heated debates in the United States and Canada over the future of the Canadian oil sands—touted at once as an energy security godsend and a climate change disaster—highlight that tension and emphasize the need to intelligently address it.
Topic:
Security, Climate Change, Energy Policy, and Oil
Political Geography:
United States, Washington, and Canada

88. Crossing the Natural Gas Bridge

Author:
Matthew Frank, Jenna Goodward, Sarah Ladislaw, and Kate Zyla
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Abstract:
While natural gas can play a critical role during the transition to a secure, low-carbon economy, there are both climate and energy security risks associated with a dramatic shift to natural gas. This paper explores the current role of natural gas in the United States' energy mix, reasons that climate change and energy security policies might increase demand for natural gas, and the implications of such a shift. It concludes with several recommendations for policymakers looking to craft a rational role for natural gas in the U.S. energy sector.
Topic:
Economics, Energy Policy, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
United States

89. Addressing the Risks of Climate Change: The Politics of the Policy Options

Author:
Elaine Kamarck
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
It often takes a long time for a policy issue to get to the point where all the complex factors required for change through the American political process come together. Take health care. President Harry Truman advocated universal health care for all Americans in the late 1940s, universal health care was provided for senior citizens and the poor in 1965, and now we are well into the 21st century and still arguing about whether and how to guarantee health care coverage for all Americans.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, and Environment
Political Geography:
United States and America

90. Emerging U.S. Climate Policy: Where We are and How We Got Here

Author:
Geoffrey Clemm and Mark Griffin Smith
Publication Date:
04-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Department of Economics and Business, Colorado College
Abstract:
After eight years of non-engagement, the new administration and the U.S. Congress, led by a majority in the President's party, are rapidly developing climate policy legislation. This paper summarizes past efforts to establish a national climate policy in the United States as well as the major forces influencing the current debate. While this debate is largely shaped by domestic considerations, it takes place as the international community moves to agree on a post-Kyoto policy regime in Copenhagen next December. Whether the United States is willing to take strong action will significantly influence the actions of other nations.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Globalization, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
United States