clair031

Summary .   The OECD reports that the sustainability of the Earth’s natural environment and human population is threatened over the next forty years.   In its “OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050” it summarizes threats to the planet’s climate, its biodiversity, the water resources that supply human needs and economic activities, and human health.   Growth of the world’s population and concomitant significant expansion of its economic output will put strains on these systems.   Importantly, under its Baseline scenario, which assumes no new policies to combat emissions of greenhouse gases, OECD projects that the world will need 80% more energy in 2050 than now, 85% of which will still be supplied by fossil fuels.   The resulting increase in greenhouse gas emissions will threaten many aspects of human life, because Baseline policies are insufficient to keep the rise in global average temperature below the internationally formulated goal of 2ºC.   OECD proposes...

Summary .   Two reports on federal subsidies to the energy industry are examined here.   Despite very different approaches to the topic, both agree that federal subsidies have supported, and continue to support, the oil and gas industry to a far higher extent than the renewable energy sector, by factors of 2.5 to 5.   This effect is very pronounced during the first 15 years of a subsidy program (on a constant dollar basis), when the effects of subsidies will have the greatest effect in promoting development of a technology. It is concluded that deploying renewable energy technologies in the U. S. is an important objective, and that federal subsidies supporting renewable energy should be expanded 3- to 5-fold. Introduction .   The role of the U. S. government in supporting new energy technologies and startup companies has come under scrutiny recently.   Some have questioned whether research and development (R&D) of new energy technologies is an appropriat...