Kurt Zenz House | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

A thought for Copenhagen and beyond

Kurt Zenz House — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:08:06 -0800

Much has been written in anticipation of the current meeting of diplomats and international climate change experts in Copenhagen. Indeed, these men and women deserve our gratitude because forging and implementing an international agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions is one of the most intractable problems that humanity has ever faced.

The curious oil and natural gas price differential

Kurt Zenz House — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:17:45 -0700

Something strange is happening in the natural gas and oil markets. The average real price of natural gas during the last 20 years has been about $3.80 per gigajoule, and the average real price of oil in that same period has been about $5.90 per gigajoule. During this time, the long-term ratio between the real price of oil and the real price of natural gas has constantly varied between 1 and 2 with the long-term average hovering at 1.6. Since January, however, that ratio has jumped to more than 4 to 1, which is unprecedented and has implications for long-term energy policy.

Putting the cost of going green in context

Kurt Zenz House — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:05:06 -0700

Editor's note: The following column was coauthored by Benjamin Urquhart, a research associate at Harvard University's Center for the Environment, and Mark Winkler, a PhD student at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Saudi Arabia's big bet on innovation and education

Kurt Zenz House — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:54:18 -0700

I am writing this article from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where I have had a most interesting and hopeful week.

Using energy sources wisely

Kurt Zenz House — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:34:41 -0800

For nostalgia purposes, I recommend reading President Jimmy Carter's 1977 speech on energy policy. It's spot-on, and Carter's subsequent energy policies managed--among other things--to decrease U.S. oil imports by 50 percent between 1977 and 1982.

One of several ways he did this was by removing oil from the country's electricity production. Since petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel work so well as transportation fuels, Carter believed that oil should be exclusively for them.

The limits of energy storage technology

Kurt Zenz House — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:27:32 -0800

Editor's note: The following column was co-authored by Alex Johnson, a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University.

OPEC and the Prisoner's Dilemma

Kurt Zenz House — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:11:17 -0800

Imagine that you and your accomplice have been arrested for a crime that you did commit. The cops lock you in separate interrogation rooms for hours. While nervously awaiting the interrogator, you fixate on your accomplice in the other room, realizing that he might try to strike a deal to save his own skin. You think to yourself, "What is he saying? Is he sticking to the prearranged story? What should I do?"

Where the presidential candidates stand on energy policy

Kurt Zenz House — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:23:55 -0700

Energy policy has played a schizophrenic, yet central, role in this year's presidential campaign. All of the candidates--from the primaries through the general election--have made the requisite pledge to free the United States from imported oil; yet simultaneously, they have bemoaned high gasoline prices. Those two positions are difficult to reconcile because the cheapest oil is produced abroad and its price is essentially controlled by a cartel. Therefore, at a given level of demand, oil prices will decline if foreign nations increased production.

Oil: To drill or not to drill

Kurt Zenz House — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:47:12 -0700

We've all had the experience of talking with someone who has discovered "The Solution"--nearly always an overly simplistic idea that can only be advocated in the absence of accurate information. Regardless of subject matter, these acolytes insist that if the rest of us understood what they understand, then together, we could implement the obvious panacea. When implementation requires public policy, the believers become furious at policy makers whose intransigence --they believe--is dooming the country or even the world.

In praise and fear of France's energy policy

Kurt Zenz House — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:06:23 -0700

I'm writing this column from the South of France, where for the past five days I've been a member of a Harvard delegation that toured several nuclear facilities operated by AREVA, the French state-owned nuclear company. AREVA is a product of the French government's decision in the 1970s to chart a coherent and consistent national energy policy centered on nuclear power.

Breaking the tyranny of oil

Kurt Zenz House — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:30:00 -0700

Contrary to popular belief, high gasoline prices are good, and they are good precisely because high oil prices are very bad. I'll admit that doesn't sound right, but allow me to explain. I'll start with oil. Saudi Arabia, the country able to produce oil at the lowest cost, decided in 1986 to gain market share by increasing production. That caused the price of oil to collapse, and despite a momentary increase during the first Gulf War, oil prices remained low for the next 15 years.