Showing posts with label Tim Boersma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tim Boersma. Show all posts

Tuesday, 26 July 2016

Natural gas in the United States in 2016: Problem child and poster child (Tim Boersma, Brookings)

What do Americans think about U.S. natural gas?

The answer depends on who you ask. Presidential candidates, Washington think tank analysts, and ordinary citizens all give widely different answers to that question. In the United States, natural gas is sure to play an important role in the energy mix for the foreseeable future and has yielded several major economic, environmental, and health benefits in the short- and medium-term. Despite this, the image of natural gas has deteriorated in recent years, particularly within the environmental community.

In a new policy brief, "Natural gas in the United States in 2016: Problem child and poster child," Tim Boersma discusses the various sentiments surrounding the debate over natural gas, analyzing the data supporting or refuting these varied points of view. Additionally, Boersma discusses the role that natural gas can play as a bridge fuel to a low-carbon economy, outlining a policy and research agenda for the utilization of natural gas going forward.

http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2016/07/natural-gas-united-states-2016-boersma

Tuesday, 3 May 2016

Why Europe’s energy policy has been a strategic success story (Tim Boersma, Michael E. O'Hanlon, Brookings)

For Europe, it has been a rough year, or perhaps more accurately a rough decade. The terrorist attacks in London, Madrid, and elsewhere have taken a toll, as did the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. But things really got tough beginning with the Great Recession—and its prolonged duration for Europe, including grave economic crises in much of the southern part of the continent. That was followed by Vladimir Putin’s aggression against Ukraine, as well as the intensification of the Syrian, Libyan, and Yemeni conflicts with their tragic human consequences, including massive displacement of people and the greatest flow of refugees since World War II. The recent attacks in Paris and Brussels have added to the gloom and fear. This recent history, together with the advent of nationalistic and inward-looking policies in virtually all European Union member states, makes it easy to get despondent—and worry that the entire European project is failing.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2016/05/02-european-energy-policy-boersma-ohanlon

Friday, 8 April 2016

The Dutch rejection of an EU-Ukraine deal isn’t about Ukraine (Tim Boersma, Brookings)

On Wednesday, Dutch voters rejected—via a consultative referendum—the association agreement of the EU with Ukraine. It is a treaty between the EU, its member states, Euratom, and Ukraine that establishes a political and economic association between the parties. Only about 32 percent of eligible voters showed up, just clearing the 30 percent threshold required to make the referendum valid. Of those, 61 percent voted against the agreement. Twenty-seven EU member states have already ratified the agreement, and its economic sections came into force throughout the EU in January. But the citizens of the country that holds the rotating chair of the European Union said “nee.”

Continue reading here ...

Wednesday, 16 March 2016

What’s next for Europe’s natural gas market? (Tim Boersma, Brookings)

On February 16 the European Commission published its long awaited “winter package,” a series of legislative documents partly outlining the foundation of the often debated Energy Union. For those who have lost track, at the heart of the Energy Union lie concerns about single-source dependence on natural gas from Russia.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2016/03/15-europe-natural-gas-markets-boersma

Friday, 19 February 2016

With Russia overextended elsewhere, Arctic cooperation gets a new chance (Pavel K. Baev, Tim Boersma, Brookings)

Can the United States and Russia actually cooperate in the Arctic? It might seem like wishful thinking, given that Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev asserted that there is in fact a “New Cold War” between the two countries in a speech at the Munich Security Conference. Many people—at that conference and elsewhere—see the idea as far-fetched. Sure, Russia is launching air strikes in what has become an all-out proxy war in Syria, continues to be aggressive against Ukraine, and has increased its military build-up in the High North. To many observers, the notion of cooperating with Russia in the Arctic was a non-starter as recently as the mid-2015. There have been, however, significant changes in Russia’s behavior in the last several months—so, maybe it is possible to bracket the Arctic out of the evolving confrontation.

These and other matters were the subject of discussion at a recent conference at the Harriman Institute of Columbia University in New York, in which we had the pleasure to partake last week.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2016/02/18-us-russia-arctic-cooperation-baev-boersma