Transatlantic Cooperation For Sustainable Energy Security

Recent upheaval in the global energy system – dramatic increases in demand led largely by developing countries, significant decreases in supply as a result of local or regional conflicts, and the growing nexus between the burning of hydrocarbons and climate change – has unsettled long-held notions of energy security. For many years, transatlantic cooperation helped undergird the system’s stability, but Europe and North America have drifted apart in several key ways, potentially undermining the search for energy sufficiency, surety, and sustainability. Will the transatlantic partners continue on separate paths in the face of dramatic change in the global energy system, or does the breadth and depth of the challenges they confront compel them to work more closely together? In this edited volume, experts from across Europe and North America – including advisors to the executive and legislative branches of both the EU and the United States, to senior military commanders, and to major international organizations and companies – examine the most salient facets of the transatlantic energy relationship and discern whether that relationship is characterized by growing convergence or divergence. This book was based on a special issue of the Journal of Transatlantic Studies.

The quest for sufficient energy resources will play an important strategic role in the rise and fall of nations as well as become a source of potential global disputes over the coming decades. Against this backdrop, "Transatlantic Energy Futures" analyzes how Europe and the United States will grapple with these looming energy questions: - What are the factors driving energy policy decisions in Washington, Brussels, European capitals, and U.S. states? - What will define their energy mixes in the future? - What are the similarities and differences, convergences and divergences in various energy sectors in Europe and America? - Are there synergies to tap in closer cooperation on energy issues? What should be done to facilitate transatlantic cooperation in the field of energy from a political and economic perspective? - Is a transatlantic energy alliance desirable? Is it even possible? What should be the goals, scope, shape, and influence of such an alliance?

Using a wide range of case studies that embrace climate change, product standards, chemical regulations, renewable energy policies, food safety and genetically-modified organisms, this fascinating volume examines areas of conflict and cooperation in the relationship between the European Union and North America.

In recent years, variations in petroleum prices, gas supply cutoffs and concerns about climate change have combined to place energy security back on the international political agenda. The topic is relevant to transatlantic relations because the developed economies of North America and Europe are significant consumers of energy, a large portion of which comes from outside the region. How they choose to manage energy is not only a technical, but a political question. The fact that a larger percentage of energy used in this region comes from outside of it adds foreign policy complexity. This project focused on European and American energy vulnerabilities and the implications for international affairs, with a particular emphasis on the nexus between energy issues and human rights policy. This project focused on the area of human rights because of the traditional role Europe and the U.S. have played as supporters of international human rights measures. If they were less active on these issues for fear of angering energy suppliers, then that would have a deleterious effect on overall human rights policies. The project asks, what are the energy vulnerabilities of the United States and Europe? How do these vulnerabilities affect their willingness to advance human rights issues in energy producing countries? Might a change in energy consumption patterns not only be good for the environment, but also have the added benefit of permitting the U.S. and Europe to be more active on human rights issues? Chapters consider how energy dependencies affect political relations including European relations with Russian, U.S. relations with the Middle East, and China's relations with Africa as well as options for changing energy use. The Johns Hopkins University Center for Transatlantic Relations (CTR), based at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and the Environmental Policy Research Center at the Freie Universitt Berlin's Department of Political and Social Sciences convened a conference in Washington, D.C., on February 11-12, 2008, to examine these questions. Presenters and other experts developed their ideas into chapters for an edited volume. On the eve of new and revitalized deliberations on energy and climate change, this volume provides insights into the legacy of long-standing debates and how change in energy usage might affect international human rights issues. The book addresses these themes with Book jacket.

Moving beyond most conventional thinking about energy security in Europe which revolves around stability of supplies and the reliability of suppliers, this book presents the history of European policy-making regarding energy resources, including recent controversies about shale gas and fracking. Using the United States as a benchmark, the author tests the hypothesis that EU energy security is at risk primarily because of a lack of market integration and cooperation between member states. This lack of integration still prohibits natural gas to flow freely throughout the continent, which makes parts of Europe vulnerable in case of supply disruptions. The book demonstrates that the EU gas market has been developing at different speeds, leaving the Northwest of the continent reasonably well integrated, with sufficient trade and liquidity and different supplies, whereas other parts are less developed. In these parts of Europe there is a structural lack of investments in infrastructure, interconnectors, reverse flow options and storage facilities. Thus, even though substantial progress has been made in parts of the EU, single source dependency often prevails, leaving the relevant member states vulnerable to market power abuse. Detailed comparisons are made of the situations in the Netherlands and Poland, and of energy policy in the USA. The book dismantles some of the existing assumptions about the concept of energy security, and touches upon the level of rhetoric that features in most energy security and policy debates in Europe.