Thursday, May 22, 2008

Something's Got To Give on Energy

The Seattle Times had this to say about yesterday's hearing on energy in the Senate, where politicians did well scoring rhetorical points against oil company executives but there was little talk of solutions.

We have a U.S. energy strategy predicated on a series of "no"s--and many members of Congress are complicit in enacting them.

This is what we have:

No to increased exploration and exploitation of domestic U.S. sources of hydrocarbons, for environmental and aesthetic reasons;
No to increased use of nuclear power in the U.S, for fear of accidents.;
No to increased use of nuclear power around the world, for fear of the proliferation risk;
No to increased use of coal, especially by China and India and other developing countries, for power generation, because of global warming;
No to providing low-cost clean coal technology because of the expense that would be borne by the developed world;
No to opening up Iran's major deposits of gas and oil because of the continued rule of the Islamic Republic and instead pushing for stronger sanctions.

What's left? Strategy one--ask the Indians and the Chinese to voluntarily limit their use of energy and stop their economic growth--not going to happen. Strategy two--ask the Saudis to pump large volumes of extra oil into the market. We got an answer to that question this past week.

Something will have to give--and the question is whether we make choices in order to shape events or whether the dam begins to break. My guess--as we've seen with Iran--is that maintaining strong sanctions long-term is not going to happen. The nuclear genie is also increasingly out of the bottle.

We'll see where things go from here.

Comments:
Dear Mr Gvosdev

I would like to reach you but have been otherwise able to do so since you don't list your e-mail address.

I would like to discuss with you my idea for a lusophone realist blog.

I hope I'm not imposing.

Please forward your answer to my email mignunsil@gmail.com
 
I suggest flying to Tehran and make a combined Oil, Gas, and Nuclear deal as a package.

Leave Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon out of those negogiations - all of those are marginal to US interest (but paramount to Iran's).
 
Immediately after the end of the Cold War, the Bohemians decided that they did not want no stinking coal power plant and definitely not a BIG BAD BAD nuclear power station. They also rejected a hydroelectric plant on the Danube. Well, a few years later and after landing back on Earth, they (re)started on that nuclear plant. Expect to see similar things in this case as well.
 
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