Stories in topic "Policy/Politics"
The Russia-Belarus Oil Dispute and Western Oil Supplies
Posted by Heading Out on January 16, 2010 - 10:49am
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: belarus, florida, gas pipeline, oil pipeline, power blackouts, russia, turkey, ukraine [list all tags]
I hadn’t actually been paying much attention to the Russian:Belarus dispute over oil supplies. After the annual debacles that we are used to over natural gas supplies that flow from Russia to Western Europe through Ukraine, and which seem somewhat quiescent at the moment, I had failed to grasp how much Western supplies of oil from Russia flow through Belarus. But as is pointed out in Foreign Policy, the flow is significant, and this is a more far-reaching conflict than I grasped.
Heads in the Sand? Or, Why Don’t Governments Talk about Peak Oil?
Posted by Gail the Actuary on January 5, 2010 - 10:15am
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: government, peak oil [list all tags]
This is a guest post by Shane Mulligan. Shane is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Waterloo, and is working on a book on the security implications of peak oil. Shane writes on The Oil Drum as bioprospector.
There is a train crash about to happen from an energy point of view. But politicians everywhere seem to have entirely missed the scale of the problem… [G]overnments and multilateral agencies have failed to recognize the imminence and scale of the global oil supply crunch, and most of them remain completely unprepared for its consequences.1
Anyone aware of peak oil has had to wonder (at least briefly) why the world's governments seem to be ignoring the issue. The official silence is difficult to fathom in light of the fact that the IEA has decidedly come down on the side of a likely peak by 2030, while Fatih Birol (the Agency's Chief Economist) suggests it's more likely a “plateau” from 2020, or even earlier – a claim recently published in the influential magazine, The Economist.2 As the UK's Energy Research Council points out, “The growing popular debate on ‘peak oil’ has had relatively little influence on conventional policy discourse. For example, the UK government rarely mentions the issue in official publications and …..'does not feel the need to hold contingency plans specifically for the eventuality of crude oil supplies peaking between now and 2020'.”3 The report notes that “the UK is one of many countries that are failing to give serious consideration to this risk.”4 But are governments really ignoring peak oil? Are they unaware of it? Or are they aware and taking steps to deal with it – even while they keep silent on it in public? Indeed, is their silence a policy choice itself?
This research note is an attempt to map out the range of reasons for governments' silence on peak oil. These reasons can be seen along a continuum, from ignorance (“we don't know”), to disbelief, to conspiratorial silence (“we know well, and have plans, but we're not sharing them”). This post surveys some of the more common ideas regarding governments' lack of attention to the issue, in the hope of spurring comments from readers regarding which of the scenarios is more plausible in light of available evidence.
Aviation White Paper: Flight Path to the Future (or Disaster)?
Posted by Phil Hart on December 24, 2009 - 3:21am in The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: aviation [list all tags]
This is a guest post by Cameron Leckie of ASPO Australia
On 16th December 2009 the Honourable Anthony Albanese MP, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, released the long awaited Aviation White Paper.

American Freedom from Oil: A Bipartisan Pipedream
Posted by Robert Rapier on December 16, 2009 - 11:36am
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: energy independence, energy security, globalization [list all tags]
By Kevin Kane
During election campaigns, presidential candidates, policy leaders, and pundits pander to both American fears and desires when they demand that the U.S. should pursue “energy independence” by eliminating oil imports. This has been a rallying cry of every President since the 1970s when American domestic production began a steady decline that continues through today.
Is energy independence a realistic policy, or as we are a part of one globally integrated economy, do we need a more relevant global energy strategy that captures the inherent economic and financial vulnerabilities associated with our age of irreversible interdependence?
The EPA Endangerment Finding
Posted by Heading Out on December 9, 2009 - 10:12am
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: carbon dioxide, epa [list all tags]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday made its long awaited announcement regarding greenhouse gases. In this post, I highlight a few of the sections of the announcement and findings that caught my attention.
Let's start with the announcement on Monday:
After a thorough examination of the scientific evidence and careful consideration of public comments, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten the public health and welfare of the American people. EPA also finds that GHG emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat.
GHGs are the primary driver of climate change, which can lead to hotter, longer heat waves that threaten the health of the sick, poor or elderly; increases in ground-level ozone pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses; as well as other threats to the health and welfare of Americans.
The Food System and Public Policy
Posted by Jason Bradford on December 4, 2009 - 10:50am
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: agriculture [list all tags]
Note: This post is based on a portion of my presentations at the recent Association for the Study of Peak Oil conference in Denver. Go to the ASPO web site for the complete slide deck. And thanks to Debbie Cook for inviting me to be on her panel.
As reported by the Des Moines Register, Colombia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs had some strong words for the food industry at the 2009 Borlaug Dialogue:
Sachs said agriculture is the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions, and he also linked the industry to depletion of water supplies and fisheries and poor dietary habits.
What I'd like to do for this post is ask if government policies contribute to the troubles in the food system. I see ways in which we are we working against our own interests, akin to a giant tug of war game, where the work of one only serves to counter the work of another. Once we identify the policies that support current conditions, we can readily suggest adjustments that will align with broad measures of well being.
Tony Abbott doesn’t know what “peak oil” is
Posted by Phil Hart on December 2, 2009 - 5:19am in The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand
Topic: Policy/Politics
Australian Senate: Peak Oil motion defeated 31:6
Posted by Phil Hart on November 20, 2009 - 10:02am in The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand
Topic: Policy/Politics
The Government and Opposition today voted against a Greens motion in the Senate calling on the Government to plan for peak oil.
Some predictions on the forthcoming Russian-Ukrainian gas 'crisis'
Posted by Jerome a Paris on November 17, 2009 - 10:16am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: europe, european gas, gas pipelines, pipelines, russia, ukraine [list all tags]
- the internal infighting between groups of powerful Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs for the control of unofficial Russian gas deliveries to Ukraine (more on this below) is still not conclusively settled, and requires "action" using official levers of State and interference with Gazprom's export deliveries through Ukraine;
- Russia thinks it stands a better chance to focus European blame on Ukraine and, even more importantly, to get Europeans to buy off the Ukrainians (thereby increasing the available unofficial gas loot for the players involved).
So let's try to make some predictions and unravel what's actually going on.
Originally posted on European Tribune. See also my full series of articles on earlier episodes of the Russian-Ukrainian crises here
The US stimulus and "green jobs" for wind energy
Posted by Jerome a Paris on November 13, 2009 - 10:26am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: clean energy tax stimulus act of 2008, industrial policy, taxation, wind [list all tags]
I'd like to make a few comments on this.
This is part of my series on wind power.


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