PS 3480, Environmental Politics, October 15, 2012

How Does the United States Govern Energy?

4.  The Politics of Oil

-  Oil in American economy and culture

    Geography: Large amounts in a few states

    Product characteristics:

             Extraction requires drilling - and can create a difficult collective action problem

            Moved by pipelines, large tankers

            Prices have been very volatile

 - The central problem for the industry:
                      How to control production and prices after a new pool is discovered

 

· Solution 1: The Large Corporation

 

        The Standard Oil Company and the Governing of Oil

 

The History of the Standard Oil Company by Ida Tarbell, 1904

 

 

· Solution 2: Government Regulation 

 

    The Texas Railroad Commission

 

    OPEC

 

 

· OPEC, the Oil Crises of the 1970s and the environmental agenda
 

4. The Politics of Nuclear Power    

     Characteristics:

            Geography: anywhere you want

            Product characteristics: requires a very high capital investment, including decommissioning & waste disposal

            Cost driven by high capital investment and potential liability

The Promise of Nuclear Power

• A history of nuclear regulation

Nuclear Power and Public Policy: Government Encouragement

• The Price Amendment (1957) - limits power company liability
   
• 1975: Nuclear Power at the height of its popularity

The Problems of Nuclear Power

Image Problems

1979: Three Mile Island
 

1986: Chernobyl
 

2011: Fukushima

 

Technical & Economic Problems
 

Economic Problems
 

Nuclear Waste
 

Political Conflict (Shoreham)

 

5. Alternatives to Coal, Oil, and Nuclear Power

a. Nonrenewable sources

• Natural gas: Oil’s cleaner twin
   

b. Renewable sources

• Geothermal
   
• Hydropower
   
  • The Tennessee Valley Authority

• Wind Power
  The American Wind Energy Association
   
• Solar Power
   
• Biomass

c. Conservation