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
Mark Cooper
Biography provided by participant
Mark Cooper is a Senior Research Fellow for Economic Analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment; his current project is Energy Assessment. Dr. Cooper holds a PhD from Yale University and is a former Yale University and Fulbright Fellow. He has provided expert testimony in over 250 cases for public interest clients including Attorneys General, People�s Counsels, and citizen interveners before state and federal agencies, courts, and legislators in almost four dozen jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada. Dr. Cooper has published numerous books and articles on energy, telecommunications and high technology industries. His energy related publications include: "A Consumer Analysis of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Standards: The Cornerstone of Consumer-Friendly Energy/environmental Policy (Consumer Federation of America)May 2009); "The Failure of Federal Authorities to Protect American Energy Consumers from Market Power and Other Abusive Practices," Loyola consumer Law Review, 19:4 (2007); "Recognizing the Limits of Markets, Rediscovering Public Interest in Utilities," in Robert E. Willett (ed), Electric and Natural Gas Business: Understanding It! (2003 and Beyond) (Houston: Financial Communications: 2003); "Economics of Power: Heading for the Exits, Deregulated Electricity Markets Not Working Well," Natural Gas, 19:5, December 2002; "Protecting the Public Interest in the Transition to Competition in New York Industries," The Electric Utility Industry in Transition (Public Utilities Reports, Inc. & the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, 1994); "The Seven Percent Solution: Energy Prices, Energy Policy and the Economic Collapse of the 1970s," in Energy Concerns and American Families in the 1980s (Washington, D.C.: The American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, 1983); "Policy Packaging for Energy Conservation: Creating and Assessing Policy Packages," in Jeffrey Harris and Jack Hollander (Eds.), Improving Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Progress and Problems (American Council for An Energy Efficient Economy, 1982). Energy and Equity: Rising Energy Prices and the Living Standard of Lower Income Americans (Westview Press, 1982).
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