• Panacea or Pipe Dream? Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives

  March 13, 2007 - Special one day symposium

  The United States must lessen the intensity of its dependence on fossil fuels or face rising challenges to its influence in global affairs on everything from security to climate change. With that as a premise, a recent symposium hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, titled “Panacea or Pipe Dream? Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives,” surveyed the options available to policymakers and professionals in the energy field. Participants in the symposium’s four sessions—including energy experts with top private and public sector experience and moderated by the Council’s Sebastian Mallaby—all faulted what they said were sluggish federal policies on research, electricity grid regulation, and management of the current oil-dominated energy policy.

  Summary Report of Symposium: Downloadable PDF

  
  

   

  • Meetings  
  • Further Readings  

   

  Meetings

  A Foreign Policy Mandate? Thirty Years of Oil and Gas (Session 1)

  Symposium

  
  March 13, 2007

  Related Projects: Panacea or Pipe Dream? Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives, Nexus of Science, Technology, and Foreign Policy

  Speakers:	David L. Goldwyn, President, Goldwyn International Strategies
  	J. Robinson West, Chairman, PFC Energy
  Presider:	Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, Deputy Director of Studies, and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations

  Transcript: Panacea or Pipe Dream? Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives: Session I: A Foreign Policy Mandate: Thirty Years of Oil And Gas
  Audio: Panacea or Pipe Dream? Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives: Session 1: A Foreign Policy Mandate? Thirty Years of Oil and Gas (Audio)

  This meeting is on the record.

   

  The Range of the Possible: Energy Alternatives in the Market (Session 2)

  Symposium

  
  March 13, 2007

  Related Projects: Panacea or Pipe Dream? Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives, Nexus of Science, Technology, and Foreign Policy

  Speakers:	John E. Bryson, Chairman and CEO, Edison International; cofounder, Natural Resources Defense Council
  	Vijay Vaitheeswaran, Correspondent, The Economist; Author of "POWER TO THE PEOPLE"
  Presider:	Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, Deputy Director of Studies, and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations

  Transcript: Panacea or Pipe Dream? Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives: Session II: Energy Alternatives in the Market
  Audio: Panacea or Pipe Dream? Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives: Session 2: The Range of the Possible: Energy Alternatives in the Market (Audio)

  This meeting is on the record.

   

  What Next? Government Action and the Policy Puzzle (Session 3)

  Symposium

  
  March 13, 2007

  Related Projects: Panacea or Pipe Dream? Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives, Nexus of Science, Technology, and Foreign Policy

  Speakers:	Brian Bilbray, Member, U.S. House of Representatives (R-CA)
  	James E. Rogers, Chairman, President and CEO, Duke Energy
  	Timothy E. Wirth, President, United Nations Foundation
  Presider:	Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, Deputy Director of Studies, and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations

  Transcript: Panacea or Pipe Dream? Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives: Session III: Government Action and the Policy Puzzle
  Audio: Panacea or Pipe Dream? Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives: Session 3: What Next? Government Action and the Policy Puzzle (Audio)

  This meeting is on the record.

   

  Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives: Keynote Address (Session 4)

  Symposium

  
  March 13, 2007

  Related Projects: Panacea or Pipe Dream? Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives, Nexus of Science, Technology, and Foreign Policy

  Speaker:	James E. Rogers, Chairman, President and CEO, Duke Energy
  Presider:	Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, Deputy Director of Studies, and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations

  Transcript: Panacea or Pipe Dream? Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives: The United States' Future Need for Power and Energy
  Audio: Panacea or Pipe Dream? Energy Policy and the Search for Alternatives: Session 4: A Conversation with James E. Rogers (Audio)

  This meeting is on the record.

  to top

   

  Further Readings

  Council Task Force Report: National Security Consquences of U.S. Oil Dependency

  Daily News Analysis: Making Ethanol Policy Practical

  Council Report: Climate Change: Debating America's Policy Options

  Meeting with Exxon Mobile CEO, Rex Tillerson: Audio and Video

  to top

• CFR Forum

  Expert Conversations on World Events

  Now Blogging:

  Peter Beinart on a Liberal Foreign Policy Under the Obama Administration.

  New CFR Books

  

  In The Closing of the American Border, Edward Alden goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the Bush administration’s struggle to balance security and openness in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

  

  In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.

  

  America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.

  Complete list of CFR Books.

  New Council Special Reports

  
  

  Congo: Securing Peace, Sustaining Progress

  This report lays out a thoughtful agenda for U.S. policy toward the Democratic Republic of Congo, arguing that what happens there should matter to the United States--for humanitarian reasons as well as economic and strategic ones.

  Deterring State Sponsorship of Nuclear Terrorism

  In this report, CFR Senior Fellow Michael A. Levi analyzes the potential use of deterrence in preventing terrorist groups from acquiring nuclear weapons and recommends a new approach to U.S. declaratory policy, as well as ways to improve U.S. capabilities to determine the sources of terrorist attacks.

  Complete list of Council Special Reports.

  David Rockefeller Studies Program Contacts

  For more information on the David Rockefeller Studies Program, contact:

  Gary Samore
  Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
  +1.212.434.9627
  gsamore@cfr.org

  Sebastian Mallaby
  Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, Deputy Director of Studies, and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics
  smallaby@cfr.org

  Janine Hill
  Deputy Director of Studies Administration
  +1.212.434.9753
  jhill@cfr.org

   

•  

Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.