The Institute for Energy Research has published an analytically weak study written by Chamberlain Economics (CE) that distorts the Kerry-Lieberman energy and climate bill and overstates its costs. Expect it to be much-cited in the coming weeks. Read more »

The G20, in its final communique (PDF), reaffirmed its agreement of last September (PDF) to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies in the “medium term”. Much is being written about how the Obama administration successfully blocked attempts to refer to each country’s efforts as “voluntary”, which, while not trivial, conveniently ignores the fact that everything agreed to by the G20 is voluntary anyhow. Read more »

I wrote yesterday about where utility-only cap-and-trade might go wrong. There is, however, a potential upside. If the United States ever gets serious about reducing its use of oil, utility-only cap-and-trade could actually lead to deeper emissions cuts than an economy-wide system. Here’s how. Read more »

ClimateWire (via The New York Times) reports that several key players are considering a push for a utility-only cap-and-trade system as part of an energy bill. That could be a wise move, if it’s done right. Read more »

There is a lot of buzz over Senator Frank Lautenberg’s suggestion that oil companies be required to drill a relief well at the same time as they drill any deepwater production well. That would allow the company to go in and plug any leak in relatively short order. Kate Mackenzie over at the FT Energy Source flags the most promiment objection, other than cost, as articulated by ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson: Read more »

[This post is coauthored with Trevor Houser.]

The Chamber of Commerce has responded to our analysis, published on Tuesday, of the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act using their Energy Security Risk Index. They don’t challenge our basic conclusion: that the bill would improve U.S. energy security as measured by their own index. They do, however, make a host of other claims, to which we respond here. Read more »

Now that George Clooney and Angelina Jolie are CFR members, who might be next? I don’t have any idea, but I hope that, having mentioned them, this blog’s Google ranking will go up. One thing I do know, though, is that the new report from the American Energy Innovation Council is well worth reading. Read more »

The phrase “energy security” is on my business card, yet whenever anyone uses it, I scratch my head. About a year ago, I decided to plan a workshop that would try to identify what we actually know about the relationship between oil, gas, and national security. This past April, I hosted 36 experts on subjects including international relations, economics, political science, finance, and science and engineering, from academia, NGOs, government, and industry, to survey the state of knowledge and identify questions that need to be answered. Read more »

Trevor Houser and I have a new piece up at Slate. We’ve used the new Chamber of Commerce Index of Energy Security Risk to evaluate the impact of the Kerry-Lieberman clean energy and climate legislation. Here’s our concluding graf: Read more »

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the Chamber of Commerce’s new Energy Security Risk Index. At the end of the post, I asked a question:

“It will be interesting… to see how various energy and climate bills being debated in Congress score on [the energy security risk index]. Anyone with an economic model want to take up that challenge?” Read more »