DIPL 4506 Energy Policies of the 21st Century

Energy resources, their geographical distribution, production and consumption are fundamental to our day to day way of life. Global energy use continues to expand, straining resources and increasing pollution. Countries are resolving to provide extra electricity from clean renewable sources by 2020. However, fossil fuels are still the main suppliers of energy needed to enhance development. There has been in the past fifty years, and will be in the first decades of 21st century, intense politico-economic relations between the producing and consuming regions/countries of the world to secure the flow of oil (and natural gas) across the globe. The course explores energy options, analyzing the economic, political, environmental and technical constraints upon them, in light of major current imperatives. It also looks at the U.S. foreign policy based on energy resources