Category: ‘ Oil Dependence ’

 

Updating the economic costs of U.S. oil dependence

The year 2009 was generally one of reduced economic activity—and therefore reduced demand for oil—in the United States.  Total oil consumption averaged just 18.7 million barrels per day (mbd) according to the BP Statistical R...

Tackling Congestion: Flowing Forward

What do road traffic congestion and energy have in common? The answer is simple: considerable amounts of fuel are wasted in congestion.  According to the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), 2.8 billion gallons of fuel were wast...

Why Rare Earths Are Not Like Oil

We find it worth clarifying the widely stated, yet mistaken assertion that by shifting to electric vehicles and clean energy we are simply substituting one kind of foreign dependency with another—oil for rare earth elements. ...

The Bus We Just Can’t Miss

Seeing as Congress has now shut its doors for the summer without having produced the hoped-for energy bill, some have asked what can be done at the state and local levels to cut back on oil use. One effective answer is often overl...

The world’s greatest deliberative body?

An interesting set of articles this morning as the fall-out continues from the Senate's failure to deal with even a limited oil spill liability bill.  Darren Samuelson has a great opening in his Politico article (http://www.poli...

It’s not the Oil Imports, It’s Just the Oil!

The distinction between domestically produced and imported oil has been a subject of considerable debate and confusion.  From an energy security standpoint, a common argument goes that increased production of oil in the United St...

China Got On The Bus

Central city decline, urban collapse, traffic congestion, air pollution and high oil demand are all problems linked to excessive dependence on automobiles. Many cities rely on transit to diminish such burdens, given the virtues of...

Hey, we’re not lagging everybody!

We hear a great deal these days about how the Chinese are eating our lunch with respect to both energy security and emerging clean energy technologies.  Yet, just as we finished ahead of the Brits in our group at the World Cup, a...

Political Roundup: A “Plan to Act” without a “Plan of Attack”

This Thursday, Democrats discussed their energy strategy in a closed door caucus meeting. After the meeting, E&E Daily quotes Majority Leader Reid as he states his four main goals for an energy bill: "Whatever form it takes...

Multiple Eggs, Multiple Baskets

In light of a recent Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing of testimony on a bill that would incentivize the mass deployment of electric vehicles across the country, it is interesting to assess the argument that...