Kurt Zenz House | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Where the presidential candidates stand on energy policy

Kurt Zenz House — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:23:55 -0700

Energy policy has played a schizophrenic, yet central, role in this year's presidential campaign. All of the candidates--from the primaries through the general election--have made the requisite pledge to free the United States from imported oil; yet simultaneously, they have bemoaned high gasoline prices. Those two positions are difficult to reconcile because the cheapest oil is produced abroad and its price is essentially controlled by a cartel. Therefore, at a given level of demand, oil prices will decline if foreign nations increased production.

Oil: To drill or not to drill

Kurt Zenz House — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:47:12 -0700

We've all had the experience of talking with someone who has discovered "The Solution"--nearly always an overly simplistic idea that can only be advocated in the absence of accurate information. Regardless of subject matter, these acolytes insist that if the rest of us understood what they understand, then together, we could implement the obvious panacea. When implementation requires public policy, the believers become furious at policy makers whose intransigence --they believe--is dooming the country or even the world.

In praise and fear of France's energy policy

Kurt Zenz House — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:06:23 -0700

I'm writing this column from the South of France, where for the past five days I've been a member of a Harvard delegation that toured several nuclear facilities operated by AREVA, the French state-owned nuclear company. AREVA is a product of the French government's decision in the 1970s to chart a coherent and consistent national energy policy centered on nuclear power.

Breaking the tyranny of oil

Kurt Zenz House — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:30:00 -0700

Contrary to popular belief, high gasoline prices are good, and they are good precisely because high oil prices are very bad. I'll admit that doesn't sound right, but allow me to explain. I'll start with oil. Saudi Arabia, the country able to produce oil at the lowest cost, decided in 1986 to gain market share by increasing production. That caused the price of oil to collapse, and despite a momentary increase during the first Gulf War, oil prices remained low for the next 15 years.