Energy & Environment: Markey Wants Answers on Rare Earths
• Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., "is pressing the Obama administration for information about alleged Chinese restrictions on the export of rare earth minerals used in defense and energy technologies, warning of threats to U.S. interests," The Hill reports.
• "Three months after BP capped its runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico, the state of Louisiana is still building a chain of sand berms off its coast to block and capture oil even as federal officials and many scientists argue that the effort will prove pointless," the New York Times reports.
• An Idaho couple has "sued the state to stop the shipments by Imperial Oil and ConocoPhillips" to an oil sands site in Canada, "arguing that the" truck loads delivered there "would threaten the integrity of Idaho's historic portion of U.S. 12, as well as the safety of communities that depend on it as the main road in and out of the area," the Times also reports. "National environmental groups and climate change activists are supporting their efforts, seeing a broader opportunity to stall development of Canada's oil sands, which they denounce as a dirty source of energy. "
• "Combating climate change has long taken a back seat to coal production in West Virginia, but in the hard-fought House race in this state's 1st district, global warming hasn't even made it onto the bus," The Hill reports. "In interviews on Thursday, both the Democratic and Republican nominees for Congress voiced skepticism of the science behind global warming, and the Republican, David McKinley, flatly called concerns about climate change 'an attack on coal.'"
Contributor
John P. Banks
Biography provided by participant
Mr. Banks is Nonresident Fellow in the Energy Security Initiative at the Brookings Institution, where he provides scholarly leadership and conducts research on domestic and international energy issues. He has been working recently on projects dealing with nuclear power in the Middle East, renewable energy, transportation electrification, distributed power systems, and energy in the Arctic. Mr. Banks worked as a management consultant for over 20 years advising governments, companies, and regulators throughout the world on energy policy, security, and governance issues. He has worked for a number of firms including Nexant, Inc. the successor company to Bechtel Technology & Consulting, and most recently as a Senior Manager at BearingPoint (now Deloitte) in New York.
Mr. Banks serves as an Adjunct Professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and at Georgetown University in the Masters of Science in Foreign Service program. As chief analyst and co-author, he has contributed to dozens of energy reports, published numerous articles, and has provided expert testimony. He is a co-editor and author of a recently published book examining the role of the nuclear industry in proliferation prevention. Mr. Banks has worked in twenty-four countries outside the US. He holds an MS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
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