8 - Current Status of the Biodiesel Industry

How well are industrialized nations doing in terms of their energy security? Without a standardized set of metrics, it is difficult to determine the extent to which countries are properly responding to the emerging energy security challenges related to climate change: a growing dependency on fossil fuels, population growth, and economic development. In response, this article first surveys the academic literature on energy security and concludes that it is composed of availability, affordability, efficiency, and environmental stewardship. It then analyzes the relative energy security performance, based on these four dimensions, of the United States and 21 other member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from 1970 to 2007. Four countries are examined in greater detail: one of the strongest (Denmark), one of the most improved in terms of energy security (Japan), one with weak and stagnant energy security (United States), and one with deteriorating energy security (Spain). The article concludes by offering implications for public policy.

REVIEWS 789 two leaderships neo-authoritarianand neo-mercantilist- seems a consistent and significantfeature. There is a lot of empirical and analytical merit in this text, therefore, and students and scholars will gain from studying its arguments,but it does not yet provide the holy grail a theory of RussianChinese relations. Centre for Contenmporay ChinaStudies DAVID KERR University ofDurham Karagiannis,Emmanuel. Energy andSecuraiin theCaucasus. RoutledgeCurzon, London and New York, 2002. Xiv + 233 pp. Appendices. Notes. Bibliography . Index. ?70.??. Two-FIFTHSof the EU's natural gas imports originate from Russia. Former German ChancellorSchroederis now a paid advisorto Gazprom, a spectacular example of 'capture'by the Russian oil industryin the recruitmentof key politicalallies.In Ukraine, a painfullesson in the rulesof the marketeconomy has had to be learned. The previously subsidizedprice charged for Russian gas was suddenly hiked to levels determined by market-led criteria. The huffing and puffing of European leaders about this attempted 'energy blackmail ' by Russia in order to influence electoral outcomes in Ukraine cannot hide the fact that the price increaseswere much in line with the strictureson free-market principles that the Russians had previously endured from the international financial community. For European leaders, the disastrous political outcome of the election is less important than the knock-on 'energy supply shock'. This has provoked the firstfumbling steps towardsa common European energy policy. The words 'energy security' and 'reliability'have suddenly entered the lexicon of European policy imperatives.Few today can doubt that the geo-politics of hydrocarbon supply dominates national, regional and global agendas. Today, the price of the international'marker'for oil, Brent Crude, exceeds $70 a barrel. When George W. Bush proclaimed that, henceforth, the US would intensifyinvestment in developing non-hydrocarbonenergy sourcesin order to break the dependency of the US economy on unstable supplies of Middle Easternoil, his wordswere greetedwith a belly-roarof approvalfrom the Republican faithful,but hardlyas new convertsto a greenervision of the future. With Iraq sliding into sectarian chaos, the 'folly' of Middle East oildependency and the attempt to achieve 'energy security'by 'regime change' has now returned to haunt the US administration.But such concerns and attendant imprudent military adventures are not unique to the US. Where there is oil, there is blood, a truismthat few today would contest. This book, written before the US-led invasion of Iraq, adds an important piece to this bloody jigsaw puzzle. It addressesthe 'pipeline politics' of the strategicallykey Caucasusregion, an area contiguouswith both Iraqand Iran, in which 'the great game' of oil politics has been played with peculiar and at times brutal intensity. Here, strugglesfor greater ethnic and political selfdetermination have been fuelled by conflicts over transit revenues and 790 SEER, 84, 4, 2006 competing pipeline routingswhich bring Caspian oil from Azerbaijanto the West. Karagiannis's book charts the impact of oil politics on struggles in Chechnya, Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and Turkish Kurdistan. These rather nasty internecine disputes and the often authoritarianlocal dynastic regimeswhich provide their context, however, alwaysneed to be seen against the biggerpicture. Pipelinepoliticsimpliesthat the routesthat bring oil to the West are also the determinantsof wider regional political influence in which pro-Westernor anti-Russianforces strugglefor dominance where previously there was the secure hegemony of the Soviet Union. Now increasinglyvital in the shiftingand uncertain reconfigurationof the post-Soviet empire, the politics of oil representthe concluding but unfinished chapter in the saga of the Cold War. Turkey, Russia and the United States are thus all enthusiasticplayers in the great game and the client states are Azerbaijan,Armenia and Georgia. To give but one example, Turkishrestrictions on tanker trafficthrough the Bosphorus had less to do with ecological concerns than with a desire to limit any increases in Russian transportation of Azerbaijan oil delivered via the 'northern' pipeline from its sea port of Novorossiysk.At the same time, this was usefulfor Turkeyin securinga third pipeline route to the West through its own territory,directlylinkingBakuvia Tbilisi to the TurkishMediterraneanoil port of Ceyhan. The sponsorsof this recently inauguratedbut much criticizedventure are an alliance of Western multi-national oil companies with a somewhat disreputable group of local players seeking a piece of the action. Crucially, it is control over the flow and routing of this Azerbaijan oil which decreasesWesternreliance on...

Chapter 3 - Technological interventions in microbial biofuel: innovative technologies and current perspectives

In response to the dominance of hybrid and multinational products in the U.S. textile and apparel marketplace, and the increasing consumer demand for product origin information, the study examined the relationship among multi-level COO displays, consumer purchase preferences, and perceived price. The results of 76 responses through a 2 × 2 randomized block, repeated measures research, using the United States and China as country of parts (COP) and country of manufacturing (COM), showed that the two-level COO impacted consumers’ purchase preferences and perceived prices, based on their perceived value of sustainability. However, consumers' purchase preferences significantly decreased as a result of unusually high perceived prices. These findings have important implications for textile and apparel businesses and policy makers as adding COP along with COM to declare the product’s COO would increase consumer purchase preferences and perceived values, if applied along with careful pricing strategies.

Exploring propositions about perceptions of energy security: An international survey

Recent advances in liquid biofuel production from algal feedstocks

Facing Global Environmental Change

Concerns about domestic energy security and global climate change mitigation have led the European Union, the United States, and others to introduce policies to enhance the use of biofuels in the transport sector fuel mix. While countries throughout the global South are positioning themselves to capture the economic benefits of this fuel transition, their capacity to do so is highly variable. This paper reviews the early evolution of the biofuel sector in Zambia to explore the extent to which the country is positioned to leverage future benefits of the emerging industry while forestalling negative social and environmental costs. In doing so, it sheds light on an under‐researched dimension of the ongoing debate over large‐scale land acquisitions and foreign investment: the role of legal and institutional frameworks in host countries in shaping outcomes. The analysis draws on the following: policy documents; stakeholder interviews with government departments, investors, and civil society stakeholders; and published and reported data on investments. Findings suggest that while existing and incipient policies and legislation provide an important foundation for attracting investors and achieving diverse sector aims, a number of gaps remain that are likely to hinder efforts to leverage meaningful benefits while minimizing negative impacts.

Energy security is examined as a key component of national stability shaped by the interplay of geographic, political, and economic factors. Particular attention is given to its manifestations in the countries of the Global South, where structural vulnerabilities intersect with the growing demands of the global energy transition. Using Nigeria - one of Africa’s largest hydrocarbon producers - as a case study, the analysis highlights a paradoxical situation: despite possessing substantial oil, natural gas, hydroelectric and solar energy reserves, the country continues to experience insu cient domestic energy supply and widespread energy poverty. This contradiction is indicative of deep-rooted institutional and infrastructural imbalances that prevent resourceexporting states from deriving sustainable developmental bene ts from their natural wealth. Existing research on energy security tends to focus on discrete dimensions, such as supply stability, a ordability, or technological modernization. However, such approaches often overlook the complex interaction of political, legal, infrastructural, and socio-economic factors that shape domestic energy access in resource-exporting economies. As a result, a signi cant research gap has emerged: insu cient attention has been paid to how countries such as Nigeria can enhance domestic energy availability while maintaining their strategic role in the global transformation of energy markets. The study places particular emphasis on inconsistencies in energy infrastructure, chronic shortages of long-term investment, and regulatory constraints hindering sustainable sectoral development. An integrated analytical framework is proposed, combining an assessment of the geopolitical dimensions of energy exports with an evaluation of domestic infrastructural capacity and a comparative analysis of other emerging resource-oriented economies. Methodologically, the research employs a mixed approach integrating quantitative and qualitative methods, including the analysis of primary and secondary data. This enables a more profound exploration of the causal linkages among resource abundance, institutional characteristics, and levels of public energy access. The ndings provide a foundation for identifying Nigeria’s strategic opportunities in fostering a just, sustainable, and inclusive energy transition - an objective of critical importance for the broader development trajectory of the African continent.

Recent terrorist attacks in the United States have increased concerns about potential national security consequences from energy supply disruptions. The purpose of this Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) is to develop a high-level dynamic simulation model that would allow policy makers to explore the national security consequences of major US. energy supply disruptions, and to do so in a way that would integrate energy, economic and environmental components. The model allows exploration of potential combinations of demand-driven energy supplies that meet chosen policy objectives, including: Mitigating economic losses, measured in national economic output and employment levels, due to terrorist activity or forced outages of the type seen in California; Control of greenhouse gas levels and growth rates; and Moderating US. energy import requirements. This work has built upon the Sandia US. Energy and greenhouse Gas Model (USEGM) by integrating a macroeconomic input-output framework into the model, adding the capability to assess the potential economic impact of energy supply disruptions and the associated national security issues. The economic impacts of disruptions are measured in terms of lost US. output (e.g., GDP, sectoral output) and lost employment, and are assessed either at a broad sectoral level (3 sectors) or at a disaggregated level (52 sectors). In this version of the model, physical energy disruptions result in quantitative energy shortfalls, and energy prices are not permitted to rise to clear the markets.

Growing trade of bioenergy in the EU: Public acceptability, policy harmonization, European standards and certification needs

We propose a new framework for energy policy on a national and global scale for exploring further advances of CO2-EOR that promotes a "triple-e" approach:energy security,environmental quality, andeconomic viability. Increasing the use of CO2-EOR can reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, create jobs, and help generate electricity to meet domestic demand. Understanding CO2-EOR and the opportunities and challenges it brings is therefore essential for both policymakers and consumers. Introduction There are always two sides to a story, and carbon dioxide (CO2) is no exception. On one side, CO2 is presented as a greenhouse gas (GHG), and preventing its release drives the policy of some government agencies. On the other side, CO2 is an essential nutrient necessary for plant growth and, more recently, has been recognized in the energy sector as a valuable commodity to enhance recovery in utilization operations, such as CO2 enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR), enhanced gas recovery (CO2-EGR), and enhanced coal bed methane recovery (CO2-ECBMR). CO2-EOR is a mature technology and currently generates around 300,000 barrels of oil each day in the United States. It is a contributing factor to the recent boom in U.S. oil, which has resulted in lower gasoline prices. However, CO2-EOR's potential for energy security is largely untapped. Exploring new opportunities and technological improvements for increased CO2 storage in EOR operations can significantly increase the volume of its generated oil and improve applicability of technology as a revenue generator for CO2 capture and a large-scale CO2 storage option. Energy security calls for comprehensive use of all of our nation's energy sources, including fossil fuels. But fossil fuels, especially coal, have become controversial because of their high level of CO2 emissions. Many power plants have replaced coal with natural gas to mitigate CO2 emissions. The United States and the world have also pushed for renewable energy as an effort to control CO2 emissions under the overall banner of slowing down global warming.

This chapter examines growing concerns over global energy security due to rising demand for fossil fuels by industrialized economies coupled with increasing uncertainties over future energy reserves. It considers the implications of increasing energy insecurity amongst the world’s major powers for international security by focusing on the politics of oil. After providing an overview of the problem of energy security, the chapter discusses the connection between energy security and International Relations theories such as liberalism, realism, and historical materialism. It then explores the link between energy security and human insecurity, and how the search for energy security by states in the global North affects the human security of communities in the oil-rich global South. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the role played by the United States in underpinning global energy security in the post-war era, and the impact that this has had for oil-rich regions.

Epidemic of Childhood Obesity: Implications for Kidney Disease

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