NS4054 Fall Term 2015

Fuels Paradise, Chapter 1The Puzzle: Diverse Responses

to Energy Insecurity

Overview

• 1970s saw a big increase in concerns over energy security

• Major countries undertook major reviews of their energy policies

• Initiated significant changes

• As in 1970s 2000s saw proposals for additional efforts within International Energy Agency (IEA), NATO, and the European Union (EU)

• Two periods not that comparable

• 1970s concern mainly over high oil prices and uncertainty about supplies

• 2000s much more diverse concerns

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Diversity of Concerns

• U.S. focus continued to be on reducing dependence on foreign oil

• France it was aging nuclear power plants

• U.K. the problem was how to manage transition from self-sufficiency in fossil to being a net importer of oil, and especially gas

• Germany energy security worries centered on the reliability of foreign natural gas supplies, especially from Russia

• As a result of these differences the responses varied considerably

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Different Approaches I

• Despite common interests in energy efficiency and diversifying energy supplies significant differences in approaches

• Emphasis on government intervention

• Market liberalization,

• Nuclear power,

• Renewable energy sources and

• Foreign policy initiatives

• Even in the 1970s developed democracies responded to energy insecurity in different ways

• Distinct mixes of external and internal policy instruments to address their concerns

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Differences in Approaches II

• Major differences in

• Development and promotion of alternatives to oil, such a as nuclear power and gas

• The reduction of energy consumption, energy efficiency

• Stances toward the oil-export regions of world especially in Persian gulf

• Differences reflect limited degree of cooperation even under the IEA wich was established expressly for that purpose

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• Puzzling patterns were the motivation for the book, which has three main objectives

• First, describe in comparative perspective how major developed democracies have responded to concerns over energy security

• What particular energy security problems have the countries faced?

• What policy options have they had at their disposal?

• What choices among those options have they made?

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Objectives I

Objectives II

• Second is to provide a theoretically informed explanation of state responses to energy security both across space and over time

• Why have the major developed democracies made—and not made– particular choices?

• What factors best account for the principal similarities and differences in their approaches and policies

• Of particular interest is understanding the reasons fro the observed variations in state responses.

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Objectives III

• Third purpose is to explore the implications of these response and their determinants – especially for international cooperation to promote energy security

• What are the prospects for, and principal obstacles to cooperation at the regional and global levels?

• What degree to they face common problems that lend themselves to joint approaches?

• In what ways could differences in their concerns and preferred policy responses limit their ability to work together?

• Book primarily concerned with state responses to energy security

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Main Arguments

• Book makes four broad arguments.• First concerns the determinants of policy responses to energy

security

• Emphasis is on the strength of the state

• Second addresses the impact of earlier policy choices on later energy security concerns and policy decisions

• So-called policy legacies – path dependence.

• Third relates to the obstacles to international cooperation to promote energy security and

• Fourth regards the impact of recent developments in the production and distribution of energy

• especially the fracking revolution on the prospects for achieving energy security

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