Blake Clayton and Greg Sharenow explain how the threat of a Strategic Petroleum Reserve release is a tantalizing tool to influence the oil market and consider whether the White House is the new Federal Reserve of oil.

In an article launching a new Forbes.com blog, "Risk and Return," Blake Clayton says that President Obama, having learned the hard way last year that a Strategic Petroleum Reserve release can't reliably lower oil prices for very long, is likely weighing the potential political costs of a release versus its possible economic benefits.

Michael Levi discusses the sharp increase in U.S. natural gas production, the associated controversies, and the future of nuclear power.

Michael A. Levi examines whether a surge domestic oil and gas productions really liberates the United States from the Middle East.

John Campbell says that as oil-rich Nigeria continues to suffer from decades-long dysfunctional governance and tensions between the Christian South and the Muslim North are rising, Nigeria is in need of creative American diplomacy.

Morgan Bazilian, Patrick Nussbaumer, Giorgio Gualberti, Erik Haites, Michael A. Levi, Judy Siegel, Daniel M. Kammen, and Joergen Fenhann provide an analysis of energy poverty and the "funding gap" that impedes universal household access to electricity.

Elizabeth Economy argues that China's energy challenges show no signs of abating while Chinese leaders are working feverishly, if imperfectly, to meet them.

Morgan Bazilian, Patrick Nussbaumer, Erik Haites, Michael A. Levi, Mark Howells, and Kandeh K. Yumkella analyze the costs of providing near universal access to energy.

Jeffrey Mankoff and Leland R. Miller discuss opportunities for the United States to help maintain security and stability in Central Asia.

David Victor reviews Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded.

In this YaleGlobal piece, Amity Shlaes and Gaurav Tiwari examine entrepreneurship and oil wealth in various countries and how these factors relate to a country’s policy towards the U.S.  They find that there is indeed a significant positive relationship between the pro-US votes and the level of enterprise in a country, and that countries with oil tend to be less entrepreneurial as well as less friendly to the US. It seems clear that the US would benefit not only from helping countries strengthen education, the rule of law and free trade, but also from supporting the entrepreneurial culture of any country where the US has an interest.

The global energy map is being redrawn at an accelerated pace. All signs point to the United States becoming part of an increasingly hemispheric energy trade, both for oil as well as for biofuels like ethanol. The Middle East will still loom large in U.S. energy policy given its crucial role in the world oil market, but U.S. energy officials and companies are forging deeper ties with their counterparts elsewhere in the Americas.

Read full answer

Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA), explains the findings in the IEA's flagship publication, World Energy Outlook 2012. The report presents authoritative projections of energy trends through 2035 and insights into what they mean for energy security, environmental sustainability, and economic development.

Rex W. Tillerson, chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corporation, discusses North America's natural gas and oil resources, technological innovations, and their effect on the global energy market.

This meeting is part of the Corporate Program's CEO Speaker Series, which provides a forum for leading global CEOs to share their priorities and insights before a high-level audience of CFR members. The series aims to educate the CFR membership on the private sector's important role in the policy debate by engaging the global business community's top leadership.

Blake Clayton discusses oil speculation and the U.S. energy market.

Blake Clayton, CFR's fellow for energy and national security, leads a conversation on global energy resources and policy.

Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, discusses U.S., European, and Chinese oil imports, as well as the consistent annual growth in global temperatures.

The devastation wreaked by Japan's worst-ever earthquake and the accompanying tsunami continues to widen. Japan expert Sheila Smith and nuclear expert Michael Levi discuss the energy, political and economic implications of this crisis on Japan and energy markets.

Listen to T. Boone Pickens outline the future of U.S. energy policy and his campaign to promote the “Pickens Plan,” which calls for increased use of domestic energy products such as wind and natural gas to lower U.S. dependence on foreign oil by more than fifty percent over the next ten years.