A June 16 report from the Government Accountability Office examined the operation of the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, established in 1990. As of May, it had a balance of $1.6 billion.
A June 15 study from the Environmental Working Group finds that ethanol has been grossly oversold in terms of both energy independence and efficiency. It says that taxpayers paid some $17 billion in subsidies for ethanol between 2005 and 2009 in order to achieve a 1.1 mile per gallon improvement in fleet-wide fuel economy and a reduction in oil imports equivalent to six-tenths of a mile per gallon. The study calls these results “unimpressive.”
On June 1, the Department of State issued its 2010 U.S. Climate Action Report detailing the federal government’s activities in the area of climate change, CO2 emissions, energy use and related issues.
A June study by the Breakthrough Institute, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, and the Brookings Institution offered recommendations for improving innovations in clean energy. These include developing university education programs on energy studies, increases in government budgets for energy research and other initiatives.
A May 25 Department of Energy report projects a 49% increase in world energy use by 2035, the vast bulk in non-OECD countries, which are expected to increase their energy use by 84% versus only 14% in OECD countries. It projects a rise in the real price of oil (2008 dollars) from $79/barrel in 2010 to $108/barrel in 2020 and $133/barrel in 2035.
● On June 2, energy expert Steve Kopits commented on this report, noting the downward trend in DOE oil production forecasts since 2007.
A May 14 study from the Agriculture Department looks at the prospects for biofuel production. With a large new production facility coming online this year, biofuel production capacity will rise to 88 million gallons—close to the target of 100 million gallons per year of production that the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act established as an annual goal.
A Congressional Research Service study published on April 30 looked at the history and policy related to oil spills.
An April 15 CRS report noted that Americans pay very considerably lower gasoline taxes than those in other developed countries. Higher gasoline taxes would “encourage consumers and manufacturers to move toward more fuel-efficient vehicles, or to switch to alternative fuels, thus reducing oil consumption and imports, reducing air pollution, and possibly encouraging greater use of mass transit.”
In April, the Department of Commerce released a report on carbon dioxide emissions by industry. It shows that CO2 emissions have risen more slowly than GDP, indicating that the economy’s CO2 intensity has declined. The manufacturing sector reduced its emissions from 30% of total emissions in 1998 to 25% in 2006. But the transportation and household sectors both showed increases over that period.
Also in April, the Department of Commerce released a study on measuring the green economy. It found that in 2007, products and services related to fostering energy efficiency and reducing pollution accounted for 1% to 2% of the private business economy and between 1.8 million and 2.4 million jobs.
Bruce Bartlett is an American historian and columnist who focuses on the intersection between politics and economics. He has written for Forbes Magazine and Creators Syndicate, and his work is informed by many years in government, including as a senior policy analyst in the Reagan White House. He is the author of seven books including the New York Times best-seller, Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (Doubleday, 2006)
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