America's Energy Gamble

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanti Gamper-Rabindran

How can America get back to an energy transition that's good for the economy and the environment? That's the question at the heart of this eye-opening and richly informative dissection of the Trump administration's energy policy. The policy was ardently pro-fossil fuel and ferociously anti-regulation, implemented by manipulating science and economic analysis, putting oil and gas insiders at the helm of environmental agencies, and hacking away at democratic norms that once enjoyed bipartisan support. The impacts on the nation's health, economy, and environment were - as this book carefully demonstrates - dire. But the damage can be reversed. Ordinary Americans, civil society groups, environmental professionals, and politicians at every level all have parts to play in making sure the needed energy transition leaves no one behind. This compelling book will appeal to course instructors and students, government and industry officials, activists and journalists, and everyone concerned about the nation's future.

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 1072-1092 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Le Billon ◽  
Berit Kristoffersen

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions has generally been approached through demand-side initiatives, yet there are increasing calls for supply-side interventions to curtail fossil fuel production. Pursuing energy transition through supply-side constraints would have major geopolitical and economic consequences. Depending on the criteria and instruments applied, supply cuts for fossil fuels could drastically reduce and reorient major financial flows and reshape the spatiality of energy production and consumption. Building on debates about just transitions and supply constraints, we provide a survey of emerging interventions targeting the supply of, rather than the demand for, fossil fuels. We articulate four theories of justice and criteria to prioritize cuts among fossil fuel producers, including with regard to carbon intensity, production costs, affordability, developmental efficiency and support for climate change action. We then examine seven major supply constraint instruments, their effectiveness and possible pathways to supply cuts in the coal, oil and gas sectors. We suggest that supply cuts both reflect and offer purposeful political spaces of interventions towards a ‘just’ transition away from fossil fuel production.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Karapin

Much literature on federalism and multilevel governance argues that federalist institutional arrangements promote renewable energy policies. However, the U.S. case supports a different view that federalism has ambivalent effects. Policy innovation has occurred at the state level and to some extent has led to policy adoption by other states and the federal government, but the extent is limited by the veto power of fossil fuel interests that are rooted in many state governments and in Congress, buttressed by increasing Republican Party hostility to environmental and climate policy. This argument is supported by a detailed analysis of five periods of federal and state renewable energy policy-making, from the Carter to the Trump administrations. The negative effects of federalism on national renewable energy policy in the United States, in contrast to the West European cases in this special issue, are mainly due to the interaction of its federalist institutions with party polarization and a strong domestic fossil fuel industry.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
Lukas Hermwille ◽  
Lisa Sanderink

Theoretical advances suggest that international governance in general and the Paris Agreement in particular provide a strong signal guiding sociotechnical systems toward decarbonization. We assess this signal and its effects empirically, by examining the struggle of competing narratives as present in the communications of leading US fossil fuel industry associations and companies. The results are then discussed in the context of the national and international climate and energy policy debates in a study period from late 2014 until the announcement of withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in June 2017. We find that the Paris Agreement has institutionalized a narrative paradigm that is surprisingly resilient. While the election of Donald Trump and his climate and energy policy led to a narrative shift in the coal industry, the oil and gas industry remained conspicuously silent in its immediate response and maintained its narrative strategies despite its alignment with the Paris Agreement.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (22) ◽  
pp. 7474
Author(s):  
Joanna Wiśniewska ◽  
Joanna Markiewicz

Sustainability and decarbonisation are buzzwords in today’s economy. The fossil fuel sector has had a great impact on development of many countries and it is interesting how this sector is going to survive in the era of climate neutrality imposed by the European and national decarbonisation policies. PKN Orlen is one of the largest industrial corporations in Poland and Central Europe representing the energy and fossil fuel sector. The article sets out to identify the main areas of PKN Orlen’s strategic plans resulting from the energy transition process in Poland. For this reason, the research question posed in this study is: to what extent and in what direction has Poland’s energy policy influenced the new strategy of PKN Orlen? Poland’s most recent energy policy was adopted in 2021, therefore an attempt to assess the impact of this policy on the strategy of a large player in the fossil fuel sector in such a short time horizon proves the originality of the study. The applied methodological approach, including case study, comparative analysis, and in-depth interview, was determined by the specific nature of the research problem and the fact that the analyzed sector and entity are strategic from the point of view of the country’s economy, which imposes the confidentiality of some data related to the study and determines the possibility of making them public. As shown by the research, PEP2040 had an indirect impact on shaping the strategy of PKN Orlen, while the main source of knowledge about the current and future trends is the analysis, evaluation and synthesis of various sources of information, including those from consulting companies.


Significance The zero-carbon fuel, promoted as a way to assist a global energy transition away from oil and gas, is the focus of major planned projects in Oman and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the region’s oil and gas exporters are also looking to maximise the value of their fossil fuel resources before the transition is complete. Impacts GCC oil and gas exporters will become increasingly aggressive in their efforts to knock high-cost operators out of the market. Economic diversification will gather pace, and Gulf states will seek to become hubs for new forms of energy, in particular green hydrogen. The Gulf faces a high risk of economic, political and social turbulence during the transition.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 925-943
Author(s):  
I.V. Filimonova ◽  
◽  
L.V. Eder ◽  
V.Yu. Nemov ◽  
M.V. Mishenin ◽  
...  

Polar Record ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sohvi Kangasluoma

Abstract Despite the global alarm caused by accelerating climate change, hydrocarbon companies are exploring and opening up new oil and gas fields all over the world, including the Arctic. With increasing attention on the Arctic, companies address the growing global environmental pressure in their public marketing in various ways. This article examines the webpages of Norwegian Equinor and Russian Gazprom & Gazprom Neft. Building on feminist discussions, I analyse the different justification strategies these fossil fuel companies working in the Arctic utilise in order to support their ongoing operations. This article concludes that in order to justify their operations in the Arctic, the Norwegian and Russian companies emphasise values based on discourses that have historically and culturally been associated with masculine practices, such as the control of nature enabled by technology. These justifications are thus reinforcing the narrative of the Arctic as a territory to be conquered and mastered. Even though the companies operate in different sociopolitical contexts, the grounds of justification are rather similar. Their biggest differences occur in their visual presentations of gender, which I argue is part of the justification. Approaching the fossil fuel industry from a feminist perspective allows questioning the dominant conceptualisations, which the justifications of Arctic hydrocarbon companies are based on.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osamah Alsayegh

Abstract This paper examines the energy transition consequences on the oil and gas energy system chain as it propagates from net importing through the transit to the net exporting countries (or regions). The fundamental energy system security concerns of importing, transit, and exporting regions are analyzed under the low carbon energy transition dynamics. The analysis is evidence-based on diversification of energy sources, energy supply and demand evolution, and energy demand management development. The analysis results imply that the energy system is going through technological and logistical reallocation of primary energy. The manifestation of such reallocation includes an increase in electrification, the rise of energy carrier options, and clean technologies. Under healthy and normal global economic growth, the reallocation mentioned above would have a mild effect on curbing the oil and gas primary energy demands growth. A case study concerning electric vehicles, which is part of the energy transition aspect, is presented to assess its impact on the energy system, precisely on the fossil fuel demand. Results show that electric vehicles are indirectly fueled, mainly from fossil-fired power stations through electric grids. Moreover, oil byproducts use in the electric vehicle industry confirms the reallocation of the energy system components' roles. The paper's contribution to the literature is the portrayal of the energy system security state under the low carbon energy transition. The significance of this representation is to shed light on the concerns of the net exporting, transit, and net importing regions under such evolution. Subsequently, it facilitates the development of measures toward mitigating world tensions and conflicts, enhancing the global socio-economic wellbeing, and preventing corruption.


2021 ◽  

The compendium of works presented at the international conference of young scholars, organized by the Center of Energy Studies, IMEMO RAS and Faculty of International Energy Business of Gubkin Russian State University (NRU) of Oil and Gas, covers various trends of world energy complex development in the context of energy transition. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the situation in the energy sector of Vietnam, China, India, Iran and Uzbekistan as well as to prospects of hydrogen and LNG transport development.


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