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

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

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

Meetings

Symposium ⁄ Washington

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

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
March 13, 2007 12:30-1:00 p.m. - Lunch
1:00-2:00 p.m. - Meeting

This meeting is on the record.

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Symposium ⁄ Washington

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

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
March 13, 2007 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. - Meeting

This meeting is on the record.

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Symposium ⁄ Washington

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

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
March 13, 2007 10:00-11:15 a.m. - Meeting

This meeting is on the record.

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Symposium ⁄ Washington

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

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
March 13, 2007 8:30-9:45 a.m. - Meeting

This meeting is on the record.

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