Henry Lee

April 13, 2006

"Tame Oil's Wild Price Ride with a Tax"

Op-Ed, Christian Science Monitor

By Henry Lee, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program

Volatile oil prices keep energy companies from investing in alternatives. With the onslaught of high oil prices, war in the Middle East, an increasingly bellicose Iran, and the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, energy security has reemerged as a major public policy priority.

March 14, 2005

"Cape Wind Damage"

Op-Ed, Boston Globe

By Henry Lee, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program

"Massachusetts is one of the few states in the country that has decided to address the climate problem and restrict carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. On paper, it has extolled the virtues of renewable energy and has put in place requirements that will force its utilities to purchase an ever increasing amount of their power from renewable sources. At this time, the only feasible renewable option for meeting a significant portion of these requirements is to build a measurable amount of wind generation. Since no one is suggesting that the state or federal government build this capacity themselves, private developers have to be willing to step up to the plate and invest their money to meet their goals."

July 2012

North American Oil and Gas Reserves: Prospects and Policy

Discussion Paper

By Jonathan Bailey and Henry Lee, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program

Expanding estimates of North America’s supply of accessible shale gas, and more recently, shale oil, have been trumpeted in many circles as the most significant energy resource development since the oil boom in Texas in the late 1920s. How large are these resources? What challenges will need to be overcome if their potential is to be realized? How will they impact U.S. energy policy?

To address these questions, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and two of its programs ― the Environment and Natural Resources Program and the Geopolitics of Energy Project ― convened a group of experts from business, government, and academia on May 1, 2012, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The following report summarizes the major issues discussed at this workshop. Since the discussions were off-the-record, no comments are attributed to any individual. Rather, this report attempts to summarize the arguments on all sides of the issues.