Energy and politics

Currently, policy regarding national energy strategy is stuck in committee on Capitol Hill. People who want to solve these problems are squabbling with representatives in the Rust Belt who are afraid of losing jobs while paying higher taxes to finance the necessary infrastructure upgrades. I think we need to start moving forward now, even if we’re just taking baby steps.

Globally, energy politics seems to being out the worst in politicians. Countries who are temporarily riding high due to strong energy prices have been annoying everybody else at least as far back as the Arabs in the 1970s. Today, some of the most obnoxious political figures are people with little talent who happen to be sitting on gobs of oil and gas: Putin, Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Sarah Palin....the Jed Clampett Syndrome. They lord it over everyone when the price goes up, and then eat a slice of humble pie when the prices drop. You think maybe we might have more leverage with Russia and Iran than we did a year ago? Already the Russians are working with OPEC to stop the slide in energy prices.

Globally, the major player on the carbon issue is China: although they are trying to build environmentally-friendly cities, they are also still building a lot of coal plants; they get most of their energy from coal. They say they are doing all they can, and will evade further commitments in the coming carbon talks in Copenhagen, talks which really need to succeed unless we’re just going to give up on fixing climate change; taxing, capping and trading probably won’t do it by themselves. When pressed, the Chinese will point to our own emissions, and they’re not wrong.

China is not the only offender. Britain needs to shut down old coal plants but has nothing to replace them. France and Germany blocked Europe’s green-energy plans because they want to protect energy-hungry firms. Poland relies heavily on coal. India is building a lot of coal plants. Canada is fighting a civil war on coal: Alberta is booming thanks to coal and gas, but Ottawa wants to cut emissions. Even in the U.S., the EPA backed down from the coal industry on classifying coal ash as hazardous.


The Copenhagen talks pose other problems: Obama may not have a finished carbon law by the time of the meeting; Obama does not want to drill down to 25 percent below 1990 carbon levels the way the Europeans do (he thinks the 1990 level is low enough); Poland wants richer countries to pay to convert to the new technology, an idea which the Germans hate; and in a similar vein China, India and Brazil say they will not commit to carbon targets until the industrialized countries identify their own cuts and help third-world nations to pay for conversions.

Some advocate establishing a fixed price for carbon credits; the question is whether it would be enforceable globally. The EU proposed making its firms buy 100 percent of its credits at auction, but Germany drove that down to 70 percent, and Poland got concessions also.

An issue of growing importance on the carbon front is deforestation, which will probably be discussed in Copenhagen. Indonesia is among the poor performers on this issue.

Global resource politics could get much more serious further down the road. In addition to the fight over carbon, we could have wars for oil, wars for water and food, particularly if the massive populations of China and India are involved.

At home, the Republican party has been a slave to Big Oil and ridiculously resistant to using real science and accepting the reality of global warming. A few Republicans are saying their party needs an answer on energy, if only for political purposes. The power of their Big Oil allies needs to be broken; we cannot leave it to the oil firms to come up with the alternative energies, and we need them to cough up some key patents and technology. The Democrats are not without sin: Pelosi and Waxman want action on warming, but Democrats from the Rust Belt are not as enthusiastic – they are focusing on saving jobs.

There is no doubt that government must act and act now. The private sector has not shown the necessary leadership, so Obama and Pelosi must move quickly before the sense of urgency leaks out of Washington. We need a complete overhaul of the energy system, government efforts in solar and wind, and all the rest. The drop in oil prices will impel some to say “See? Crisis over.” Others will argue that in a recession, firms need to think profit and jobs rather than going green, and that we should spend on things other than energy research: it’s not an entirely invalid argument.

Other political issues will come into play: there will be more effort to block drilling offshore, on federal lands, and on the Alaska leases. Activists will get into green investing.