Energy Policy?

For a tense period last summer, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster forced a debate about offshore drilling and the direction of U.S. energy policy. The Obama administration imposed a moratorium on further drilling as the world watched the uncapped well expel millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. But soon after BP engineers slowed and then stopped the leak, the nation moved on to other news. It is hard to imagine a worse event, or better opportunity, to hold public attention. Political inertia, however, seems to have outlived the urgency of the moment. MORE

 
Part II: Energy Sources

Solar and Wind: The first thing to know about solar and wind energy is that they are intermittent resources. Unlike base load energy sources (the name the industry gives to the most reliable forms of generation designed to run continuously, such as oil, coal, and nuclear), solar and wind can be captured only when nature cooperates. MORE
 

Part III: Facts, Politics, and Policy

The possibility of soon developing a coherent national energy policy given the current political environment seems vanishingly small. To succeed, such a policy would have to navigate through and around special interests, the “NIMBYs,” and the hardened silos of partisan ideologies. Yet, as far as energy policy goes, this has been the case for decades. MORE