ENERGY
November 2012
"Can New Market Mechanisms Mobilize Emissions Reductions from the Private Sector?"
Discussion Paper
Negotiators, business leaders, and others concerned with climate change are attempting to develop market mechanisms that expand and improve upon those provided by the Kyoto Protocol. These "new market mechanisms" might be incorporated into a new international arrangement called for at COP-17 in Durban, South Africa. Dr. Michaelowa explores the paths forward.
November 6, 2012
"The Coming Oil Glut"
Op-Ed, Wall Street Journal
By Leonardo Maugeri, Roy Family Fellow, Geopolitics of Energy Project
"The price of oil continues to be set by fear, not by supply and demand," writes Leonard Maugeri. "World-wide oil production is growing quickly. By the end of the year, it will probably surpass 92 million barrels per day, with additional spare capacity of more than 3.5 million barrels. Thanks to the shale oil revolution, U.S. crude production could exceed 6.5 million barrels per day by the end of the year: around one million more barrels than the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted in January."
AP Photo
November 2012
"The Energy Technology Innovation System"
Journal Article, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, volume 37
By Kelly Sims Gallagher, Senior Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, Arnulf Grubler, Laura Kuhl, Gregory Nemet, Former Visiting Scholar, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, January–June 2011 and Charlie Wilson
This article reviews the concept of an energy technology innovation system (ETIS). The ETIS is a systemic perspective on innovation comprising all aspects of energy transformations (supply and demand); all stages of the technology development cycle; as well as all the major innovation processes, feedbacks, actors, institutions, and networks.
October 17, 2012
"Debate Dominated By Issues Important To Voters In Swing State Ohio"
Op-Ed, WBUR
By Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
"...[T]he subtext of this second presidential debate was all Ohio, all the time. At every opportunity the two candidates came back to the three C's that matter in Ohio — cars, China and coal. If this seemed a little strange to everyone else in the country it made perfect sense in the dynamic of this campaign....By the time the second debate rolled around last night, though Obama still held an edge in the electoral college, the race had gotten so close that it looked like it was coming down to who could win Ohio."
October 1, 2012
"Energy Policy Shows Fallacy of a 'Domestic' Debate"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"But nowhere is the divide between domestic and foreign so artificial than in the area of energy policy. It is in this arena that the debates over domestic fracking, environmental harms, dependency on foreign oil, geopolitical threats, global warming, melting glaciers, and a host of other head-scratching policy problems come together — proving that the distinction, in Wednesday's debate, between domestic and foreign policy is about as definitive as sand on the shoreline."
August 2012
The U.S.-Japan Alliance: Anchoring Stability in Asia
Report
By Richard Armitage and Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
The following report presents a consensus view of the members of a bipartisan study group on the U.S.-Japan alliance. The report specifically addresses energy, economics and global trade, relations with neighbors, and security-related issues. Within these areas, the study group offers policy recommendations for Japan and the United States, which span near- and long-term time frames. These recommendations are intended to bolster the alliance as a force for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.
AP Photo
Forthcoming February 2013
"Measuring the Energy Consumption of China's Domestic Investment from 1992 to 2007"
Journal Article, Applied Energy, volume 102
By Feng Fu, Former Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group (ETIP), 2011–2012; Former Research Fellow, ETIP, 2010–2011, Hongtao Liu, Karen R. Polenske and Zheng Li
The key findings derived from this study improve the understanding of the effects of China's domestic investment on its energy consumption expansion and reflect the fact that China's rapid urbanization and industrialization processes are among the main reasons for the large amount of energy consumption in China. The authors provide some quantitative information for further determining the energy-saving potentials of China's economy during these processes.
August 15, 2012
"The U.S. Natural-Gas Boom Will Transform The World"
Op-Ed, Wall Street Journal
By John M. Deutch, International Council Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Two summers ago, natural gas cost $4.50 per thousand cubic feet, which was less than half what it had cost two summers earlier. Today the price is under $2.50," writes John Deutch, former director of teh C.I.A. and a member of the Belfer Center's International Council. "A United States hopelessly dependent on imported oil and natural gas is a thing of the past. Most energy experts now project that North America will have the capacity to be a net exporter of oil and natural gas by the end of this decade."
AP Photo
August 2, 2012
"Fear the Grid"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"India's woes should strike a warning for modern nations to invest in themselves and in the networks and infrastructure that unite their citizens. It's important to be a competent nation....It means that the lights go on, trains run on time, and a capital city — whether it is New Delhi or Washington, which suffered its own debilitating blackout last month — continues to function."
July 2012
The Geopolitics of Natural Gas
Report
By Amy Myers Jaffe and Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Some of the most dramatic energy developments of recent years have been in the realm of natural gas. Huge quantities of unconventional US shale gas are now commercially viable, changing the strategic picture for the United States by making it self-sufficient in natural gas for the foreseeable future. This development alone has reverberated around the globe, causing shifts in patterns of trade and leading other countries in Europe and Asia to explore their own shale gas potential. Such developments are putting pressure on longstanding arrangements, such as oil-linked gas contracts and the separate nature of North American, European, and Asian gas markets, and may lead to strategic shifts, such as the weakening of Russia’s dominance in the European gas market.
