Energy

Corresponding New Energy Research Series “Fuel for Thought” Will Analyze the Maps That Detail State-by-State Energy Production, Consumption and Sources

At the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference this week in Washington, former Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Gregory Jaczko said that each of our 104 nuclear power reactors currently in operation has a safety problem that cannot be fixed, and that we should start phasing them out. 

This is akin to a former USDA meat inspector saying everyone should become a vegetarian.

Key Facts

Today marks one year since President Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, and the $7 billion in infrastructure development and thousands of jobs that project would have generated.

Even if the administration were to approve the pipeline this year– certainly not an inevitable outcome – the one-year delay has already cost our economy and our goal of energy independence. 

The difference between how candidates frame public policy during election campaigns and how they frame it in policy discussions is deplorable. Sound bites make for good television and stump speeches but can make for awful policy.

One example in the 2012 presidential election was the shale gas critics justifying the Environmental Protection Agency's relentless push for a single, overarching federal law to regulate the entire industry. They made the dubious claim that one law is superior to a patchwork of 50 state regulations.

Standalone climate legislation seems exceedingly unlikely.  The parties cannot come to agreement on whether Congress should act to limit carbon, let alone what solutions are most appropriate.    Recent buzz over a carbon tax highlights what could be the outlines of a narrow agreement: using a revenue-neutral carbon price to buy down tax rates and spur economic growth. But despite the economics and the timing lining up, the politics remain daunting.

Precluding the emergence of bipartisan fervor in our nation’s capital, there’s relatively little that the next president will be able to change in energy policy.  That’s not to say that the candidates aren’t deeply divided on several issues, or that energy voters cannot make a meaningful decision between the two.  Throughout this election, Romney rejected the heavy-handed use of government subsidies to support emerging energy sources; Obama used his last term to implement programs and regulations to fast-track our economy away from fossil fuels.  Nevertheless, the next presid

It can feel difficult to overstate the dramatic recent history of natural gas.  In five short years, this fuel has gone from expensive and scarce to a marvelously abundant resource poised to increase its share of the global energy mix over the next several decades – something unique among fossil fuels.

In an effort to combat rising oil prices, the International Energy Agency (IEA) is poised to ask 28 nations to release oil reserves as soon as next month .  This would be the 4^th release in IEA’s 38 year history, and the first coordinated in response to the self-imposed supply constriction associated with Iranian sanctions.  The Administration has been publicly contemplating a unilateral release since April of this year; as AAF has pointed out, such action is ill advised.  

That the debate over whether to extend the PTC for wind power still wages on indicates that we haven’t really learned what it means to live in lean economic times. Is wind power really the best place for the United States to invest $1.1 billion plus in taxpayer dollars? With levelized costs increasingly on par with those for fossil power, energy from wind simply may no longer need these types of incentives. Consider the 30 state-based policies mandating increases in renewable investment, and the federal tax credit looks even more wasteful.