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How to Use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Lincoln Anderson, Wall Street Journal
John McCain and a number of other senators have been recommending that the Bush administration stop buying crude oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). They're right.

Over the last eight months, the Department of Energy purchased more than 10 million barrels of oil for the SPR as the price rose $40 to above $120. This is not sensible. It puts upward pressure on oil prices at the worst possible time. It is a waste of taxpayer money. It gives aid and comfort to unfriendly nations. And it is an insurance policy that, for the most part, is no longer needed.

In fact, we should be selling oil from the SPR at $120. Doing so could be a powerful tool for U.S. energy policy.

... The blunt fact is that the price of crude oil on global markets is controlled by this cartel of governments [OPEC].

Mr. Anderson is chief investment officer and chief economist at LPL Financial in Boston, Mass.
(9 May 2008)
Just from an investment point of view, selling oil from the SPR seems like a poor idea. As an investment professional, Mr. Anderson knows that he is in effect advocating selling short, with the expectation that oil prices will fall. He may be right, he may be wrong, but the decision is fraught with uncertainty. The SPR was not established for gambling, but, as he says, as an "insurance policy." -BA

U.S. security linked to our ability to withstand shortages
Carl Etnier, Times Argus (Vermont)
... I reported in my previous column on April 27 on Richard Heinberg's suggestion last month that the disaster preparedness infrastructure adapt to prepare for expected, extended oil shortages, as well as the food shortages that are likely to accompany them. Heinberg calls communities "resilient" if they are prepared to keep functioning in spite of sudden and severe shortages of basics like food, fuel and electricity.

Next week, Renewable Energy Vermont explores how to make Vermont's electricity and heating fuel sectors more resilient. Their second annual Distributed Energy Conference, with the theme "Building Resilient Communities," takes place in Stratton on Thursday. Their interesting choice of keynote speaker, John Robb, illustrates the connection of resiliency to national and local security.

Robb, a former Air Force pilot, studies counter-terrorism, and his first book examines how small groups of 21st century terrorists can damage much larger organizations by targeting critical infrastructure like oil pipelines. He is working on a new book about how resilient communities can, through their very design, withstand such attacks. It turns out that those same design properties also can buffer the communities against energy and food shortages, whether they are caused by resource depletion or sabotage.

... John Robb expands on the Lovins' work to picture a resilient community that can "survive an extended disconnection from the global grid" in many areas, including energy, food, communications and transportation. For electricity, for example, he promotes "micro-grids." They are tied into the continental electrical grid, but they are designed to be disconnected and supplied with local power when there is a large-scale blackout like the Northeast blackout of Aug. 14, 2003, that left 50 million North Americans in the dark.

... Community resilience and national security are connected not only domestically, but also internationally. In his new book, "Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet," Michael Klare describes a "new international energy order." Klare, director of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College, argues that Russia has become a superpower once more, due to its abundant energy sources.

I interviewed him on Equal Time Radio on WDEV Wednesday, and this is how he described our security situation: "In an era of energy scarcity, which we're in today, those few countries that are 'energy surplus powers' are extraordinarily privileged in the world power system, and countries like the United States and the European countries are in an inferior status. We don't have enough energy to meet our needs, so we're dependent on the handful of countries that are wealthy in resources. The country that's wealthiest in the world in resources is Russia. Russia has the fourth or fifth largest supply of oil, but it's No. 1 by far in natural gas. Because oil is likely to disappear in another decade or two, natural gas will then be the No. 1 source of energy, and Russia has by far the largest supply of natural gas. It also has lots of coal and uranium. Vladimir Putin grasped this essential reality 10 years ago and was determined to use this inherent power to restore Russia's role as a superpower. He understood that in this century, energy would be the source of power, in the way that nuclear weapons were in the previous century."
(11 May 2008)

NRDC's Lashof discusses new analysis of carbon allowance proposals of various bills (transcript and video)
Monica Trauzz, OnPoint, E&E TV
How will greenhouse gas limits affect the 100 largest power companies in the United States?

During today's OnPoint, Dan Lashof, science director of the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council, discusses a new report that analyzes carbon allocation scenarios and their varying financial effects on power companies and consumers.

The report, cosponsored by Ceres, outlines how the Lieberman-Warner bill's allowance approach could help offset electricity rate increases. Lashof also discusses how lawmakers should be using the example provided by the European Union's emissions trading scheme when developing carbon allocation scenarios for the United States.
(6 May 2008)

Senators Probe Restructuring of FutureGen Project
US Senate via Energy Policy TV
The Senate Subcommittee holds a hearing on the Department of Energy's decision to restructure the FutureGen Program and obtain information about the approaches to advance carbon capture and storage technologies.
(8 May 2008)

Proposed Water Protection Regulation Related To Carbon Sequestration
Scott Nance, Energy Policy TV
Ben Grumbles, Assistant Administrator for Water, Environmental Protection Agency, is interviewed about the linkages between energy, water and climate change. That includes, particularly, a regulation EPA has proposed aimed at protecting drinking water around the areas where carbon dioxide would be stored underground through future carbon sequestration technology.
(7 May 2008)