Case Study 1 - Energy:   Policy Behavior, Price & Shortages.

This is the 2001 National Energy Policy Group Report to president George W. Bush.  It is very lengthy although detailed.  It explains many of the current problems regarding energy and it's supply.  For our purposes, it will be sufficient to read the overview and Chapter 7, which details the transportation infrastructure that supplies varies forms of energy.  http://www.energy.gov/engine/doe/files/dynamic/1952003121758_national_energy_policy.pdf

A general overview of the 1973 energy crisis and all of the ensuing policies.  This article explains how OPEC was involved and gives a good general overview of the 1973 crisis.  http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/1/19/1973_oil_crisis.htm

This article mentions some of the policies enacted by the Ford Administration in response to the 1973 energy crisis.  http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/document/factbook/energy.htm

This article gives a broad overview of some major energy policies of the past few decades.  http://www.energybulletin.net/1181.html

This highly biased article from The American Enterprise discusses the topic of governmental control of oil prices.  http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleID.18714/article_detail.asp

Shortages during World War II led the Roosevelt Administration to ration gas consumption by automobiles.  http://www.prewarbuick.com/id389.htm

California Energy Crisis

This CNN web site briefly shows the reactionary process to creating policy.  California chose to deregulate electricity in 1996, energy shortages occured, and now new policies must be enacted to respond to the situation.  It is a very brief article giving background information. It is also interesting to notice how everyone always places the blame on someone else.  Nobody will accept responsibility for the shortage.   http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/power.crisis/backgrounder.html

This is a brief CNN question and answer about the california energy crisis.  It seems rather biased, blaming the crisis on a "cartel of companies," although it never names which companies are involved.  http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/power.crisis/qanda.html

Another CNN site restating the previous two articles.  http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/views/y/2001/01/feldman.power.jan3/

It appears as though two new non-profit organizations are now involved in the power process.  One is called the Independent System Operator, the other is called the California Power Exchange. The curious thing is that although not a government entity, the non-profits still seem like just another arm of the government.  Although the government has deregulated the electricity market, the California government still has their hand in the process.  The failure of the new deregulated system has only demanded new policies and procedures.  This CNN article describes the government policy of purchasing power for the utility companies.  http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/02/01/power.woes.03/index.html

Thrown into the mix are also a myriad of special interest groups.  This one, the Reason Public Policy Institute, makes an argument supporting the deregulation, although it makes no mention of solutions for the current problems in California.  Where a lot of people want the government to regain control of the utility companies and regulate prices, this organization soundly argues to continue allowing consumer choice, even if it takes a long time to fix the current problems.      http://www.rppi.org/giveconsumerschoice.shtml

2005 Energy Policies

President George W. Bush gave a speech before signing the 2005 Energy Policy Act. This is the text of the speech.  The page also has a video of the speech. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050808-6.html

The 2005 Energy Act is a massive bill passed regulating energy policies.  The following link is a summary of the bill just passed by the House of Representatives.  I don't necessarily  encourage you to read the entire article.... but a skim through it is interesting just to see the hundreds of policies regarding energy use.  In short, any form of energy is somehow regulated by policies. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HR00006:@@@L&summ2=m&

A crucial topic regarding energy has to do with how it is transported from one point to another.  Energy becomes more or less efficient and cost effective depending on how it can be transferred from one location to another.  Electrical wires transfer Electricity from generators of various kinds to individual users.  Pipelines transfer oil, natural gas, and water from one location to another.  Trucks, trains, and barges can also be used to transfer energy sources.  Each has benefits and drawbacks.  This report from the Allegro Energy Group makes a powerful argument in favor of using pipelines to transport oil as opposed to trucks or barges.  http://www.ce.umn.edu/~levinson/ce5212/Case1/PipelineMemo.pdf