Government guarantees can help persuade private investors to finance valuable new infrastructure. But because their costs are hard to estimate and usually do not show up in the government's accounts, governments can be tempted to grant too many guarantees. Drawing on a diverse range of disciplines, including finance, history, economics, and psychology, 'Government Guarantees' aims to help governments give guarantees only when they are justified. It reviews the history of government guarantees and identifies the cognitive and political obstacles to good decisions about guarantees. It then develops a framework for judging when governments should bear risk in an infrastructure project (seeking to make precise the oft-invoked principle that risks should be allocated to those best placed to manage them); explains how guarantees can be valued; and discusses how aspects of public-sector management can be modified to improve the likely quality of government decisions about guarantees. Although intended mainly for governments and those who advise them, the book may be of interest to others concerned about the problems of allocating and valuing exposure to risk. Similarly, although its focus is physical infrastructure, it may be relevant to people working on public-private partnerships in education, health, and other social services.

While consumer utility subsidies are widespread in both the water and electricity sectors, their effectiveness in reaching and distributing resources to the poor is the subject of much debate. Water, Electricity, and the Poor brings together empirical evidence on subsidy performance across a wide range of countries. It documents the prevalence of consumer subsidies, provides a typology of the many variants found in the developing world, and presents a number of indicators useful in assessing the degree to which such subsidies benefit the poor, focusing on three key concepts: beneficiary incidence, benefit incidence, and materiality. The findings on subsidy performance will be useful to policy makers, utility regulators, and sector practitioners who are contemplating introducing, eliminating, or modifying utility subsidies, and to those who view consumer utility subsidies as a social protection instrument.

You have never seen a book like this before! The information, data and presentation scheme make this book unique! The book describes the utmost importance of thorough planning and preparations to streamline the execution of your project, in order to avoid the spectacular cost and schedule overruns often encountered on today's mega-projects in the oil and gas industry. It explains, in practical terms, which strategic principles, tools, techniques, structure and organization you need to have in place to assure yourself that your project will meet the cost and schedule targets. The book focuses on the all-important Commissioning phase, the stage of the game where all the poor planning and preparations manifest themselves as costly delays. The book should be mandatory on all project managers' desks, and in all management students' curriculums.

In his pathbreaking "Resource Wars," world security expert Michael Klare alerted us to the role of resources in conflicts in the post-cold-war world. Now, in "Blood and Oil," he concentrates on a single precious commodity, petroleum, while issuing a warning to the United States--its most powerful, and most dependent, global consumer.
Since September 11 and the commencement of the "war on terror," the world's attention has been focused on the relationship between U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the oceans of crude oil that lie beneath the region's soil. Klare traces oil's impact on international affairs since World War II, revealing its influence on the Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Carter doctrines. He shows how America's own wells are drying up as our demand increases; by 2010 the United States will need to import 60 percent of its oil. And since most of this supply will have to come from chronically unstable, often violently anti-American zones--the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea, Latin America, and Africa--our dependency is bound to lead to recurrent military involvement.
With clarity and urgency, "Blood and Oil" delineates the United States' predicament and cautions that it is time to change our energy policies, before we spend the next decades paying for oil with blood.

"By far the most helpful, entertaining, up-to-date and accessible treatment of the energy-economy-environment problematique available." --John P. Holdren, "Scientific American"A fiercely independent and irresistibly entertaining look at the economic, political and technological forces that are reshaping the world's management of energy resources, Power to the People has been hailed as "as good a manifesto for the new energy world as you will find." (Fred Pearce, New Scientist). The Economist's Environment and Energy correspondent, Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran sees great opportunity in the energy realm today, and he documents an energy revolution already under way. From the corporate boardroom of a Texas oil titan who denies the reality of global warming, to a think tank nestled in the Rocky Mountains where a visionary named Amory Lovins is developing hydrogen fuel-cell technology that could make the internal combustion engine obsolete, Vaitheeswaran gamely pursues the people who hold the keys to our future. Avoiding the traditional divide that pits free markets against the wisdom of conservation and the need for clean energy, "Power to the People" debunks myths without debunking hope.

"I'd say you were a carnival barker, except that wouldn't be fair tocarnival barkers. A carnie will at least tell you up front that he's running a shell game. You, Mr. Lay, were running what purported to be the seventh largest corporation in America."-Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL) to Enron CEO Kenneth Lay, Senate Commerce Science & Transportation's Subcommittee, Hearing on Enron, 2/12/02
The speed of Enron's rise and fall is truly astonishing and perhaps the single most important story of corporate failure in the twenty-first century. In Enron investigative journalist Loren Fox promises readers nothing short of the most compelling and insightful investigation into Enron's meteoric ascent-regarded by Wall Street and the media as the epitome of innovation-and its spectacular fall from grace. In a lively and authoritative manner, Fox discusses how the biggest corporate bankruptcy in American business history happened, why for so long no one (except for an enlightened few) saw it coming, and what its impact will be on financial markets, the U.S. economy, U.S. energy policy, and the public for years to come. With access to many company insiders, Fox's intriguing account of this corporate debacle also provides an overview of the corporate culture and business model that led to Enron's high-flying success and disastrous failure. The story of Enron is one that will reverberate in global financial and energy markets as well as in criminal and civil courts for years to come. Rife with all the elements of a classic thriller-scandal, dishonest accounting, personal greed, questionable campaign contributions, suicide-Enron captures the essence of a company that went too far too fast.

After the shocking collapse of Enron in fall, 2001 came an equally shocking series of disclosures about how America's seventh-largest company had destroyed itself. There were unethical deals, offshore accounts, and accounting irregularities. There were Wall Street analysts who seemed to have been asleep on the job. There were the lies top executives told so that they could line their own pockets while workers and shareholders lost billions. But after all these disclosures, the question remains: Why? Why did a thriving, innovative company with rock-solid cash flow and reliable earnings suddenly flame out in a maelstrom of corruption, fraud and skulduggery? The answer, Texas business journalist Robert Bryce reveals in this incisive and entertaining book, is that bad business practices begin with human beings. Pipe Dreams traces Enron's astounding transformation from a small regional gas pipeline company into an energy Goliath...and then tracks step-by-step, business decision by business decision, extra-marital affair by extra-marital affair, how, when and why the culture of Enron began to go rotten, and who was responsible. The story of Enron's fall isn't just a story about accounting procedures it's a story about people. Bryce tells that story with all the personality, passion, humour, and inside dope you'd hope for, and the result is an un-putdownable read in the tradition of Barbarians at the Gate and The Predators' Ball.

In the energy sector of Canadian economic and political life, power has a double meaning. It is quintessentially about the generation of power and physical energy. However, it is also about political power, the energy of the economy, and thus the overall governance of Canada. Power Switch offers a critical examination of the changing nature of energy regulatory governance, with a particular focus on Canada in the larger contexts of the George W. Bush administration's aggressive energy policies and within North American energy markets. Focusing on the key institutions and complex regimes of regulation, Bruce Doern and Monica Gattinger look at specific regulatory bodies such as the National Energy Board, the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, and the Ontario Energy Board. They also examine the complex systems of rule making that develop as traditional energy regulation interacts and often collides with environmental and climate change regulation, such as the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Power Switch is one of the first accounts in many years of Canada's overall energy regulatory system.

Globalization, privatization, and liberalization of energy markets are dramatically changing the nature of services to the energy sector. But the providers of the services underpinning the production, transport, and distribution of energy are likewise changing the nature of services to the energy sector. Firms are increasingly supplying energy services through crossborder trade, the establishment of a local presence in foreign countries, and the temporary entry of skilled personnel and equipment. Global trade negotiations have not encompassed all ramifications of this sector, which is vital to the world economy. Peter C. Evans examines current efforts to deepen trade commitments regarding energy services. The author reviews benefits of and barriers to liberalization of the energy market, analyzes the deficiencies of the current trade regime and the implications of extending GATS rules to the energy sector, considers the most meaningful additional commitments in the energy trade sector, explores issues yet to be negotiated, and forecasts prospects for a comprehensive GATS agreement on energy services.

The discovery of the Black Giant in 1930 was the largest oil strike in the U.S. at that time, and its gushers changed the face of the oil industry. Oilmen, promoters, oil patch workers, and the nation's unemployed streamed into the tiny hamlets of East Texas for their share, but they faced wars between "big oil" and independent oilmen, bootleg or "hot oil," martial law, and legalized price-fixing. Yet the Black Giant turned out to be the salvation of the drought-stricken farmers, helped in the fight against Germany and Japan, and made lots of folks "Texas rich." The characters, times, and oil industry skulduggery are recalled and explained in dozens of sidebars full of humorous facts and trivia. The author, law professor at Washington College of Law, The American University, practiced oil and gas law for over 35 years and focused on oil and gas matters during the Arab oil embargo for the U.S. Department of the Interior.

This work assesses the status of the public utility deregulation movement in the USA. It focuses on the continuation of releasing competitive forces in the revolutionary deregulation of a large portion of the public utilities industries since 1980.

The Guide to Commercial-Scale Ethanol Production and Financing was produced by the Solar Energy Research Institute on behalf of the U. S. Department of Energy. It is aimed at facilitating the production and adoption of alcohol fuels on a wide scale throughout the United States. The guide was conceived and developed as a special aid to entrepreneurs who have interest in the business of alcohol fuel production on a commercial scale.

Energy efficiency and energy conservation are often thought to be the same. They are not, according to Herbert Inhaber. Only when less total energy is consumed by all users will energy actually be saved. Energy efficiency schemes do not accomplish this goal of conservation: when one person or nation conserves energy, there is just more of it for others to use elsewhere. This is the first book to answer, comprehensively and objectively, the question: Do government energy conservation programs hinder or help the nation? Says Inhaber, the fact that billions of dollars have been spent on energy conservation programs, without giving a searching look at what has been accomplished, is a national scandal. Clear, concise, and with numerous useful graphs and tables, this book is an important first step toward making us all aware of what energy conservation actually is-and is not-and how it can and should be implemented. This work includes chapters on how conservation is applied in the electric utility world, whether waste truly exists, the economic aspect of conservation, its relation to Marxism, and past examples of conservation failures. Inhaber reviews many of the points that were first made by Stanley Jevons, the father of modern quantitative economics, who stated more than 130 years ago that increased efficiency often produces greater overall energy use, not less. Inhaber concludes that a remedy claimed to cure all ills will cure none. The faith placed in conservation as a solution to a mountain of problems is, in large part, misplaced. The words 'energy conservation' have captivated people of almost all political and philosophical persuasions. My book should cause many people to rethink their blind faith.

A comprehensive look at the challenges and issues facing energy providers as they enter the era of open competition.

For many years, coal formed the backbone of Japan's economic development, but the dangers and costs of mining became increasingly expensive for the industry and government. Global changes in coal production and exchange finally prompted Japan's decision in 1986 to shut down nearly all domestic coal mines in favour of coal imports. Japan's policy for industry restructuring had been applauded as one of the most comprehensive in addressing the needs of the industry, the workers and the community. At micro-level, however, the people in the community most affected by the policy decision have been excluded from the process. This text reveals the stratified effects, as well as compensation, for the different groups in Yubari City, Hokkaido. Although the policy settlement package goes to the coal miners, community redevelopment ignores their needs, prompting them to leave the city and benefiting instead land owners and public employees. Revealed as well are the ways in which Japan's cultural values, particularly the vertical social structure as it affects decision making, status, occupations and company organization and the importance of maintaining the family system, figure in the policy process and its consequences.

In February 1968, the rumors became reality: An ARCO drilling rig has struck oil -- lots of oil -- on Alaska's remote North Slope. Jack Roderick's story of oil and politics in Alaska reads like a novel as he tells of the risky, expensive, and mostly frustrating search for oil across the Northland. Oil companies watch one another jealously. Small independents and the new state struggle to share in the action dominated by huge multi-national oil companies. Gov. Bill Egan, the shy grocer from Valdez, stands up to the industry, seeking the largest possible share of oil revenues for Alaskans.

Designed to bring an understanding of the technological problems regarding our present society to students with no science background. Covers energy use in human history, its diverse sources, safety aspects, storage conservation and environmental problems. This edition includes the many changes which have taken place in issues involving energy and the environment during the past decade. A variety of current statistical information, numerous new problems and recommended outside reading material has been added.

Dieses Essential ist ein Aufruf an alle, die sich fur den globalen Umweltschutz einsetzen wollen. Die Klimakrise ist seit Jahrzehnten landerubergreifend und nimmt auf allen Kontinenten stark zu. Es ist Zeit, dass ein geopolitischer exekutiver Weltrat fur Umweltschutz (WRFU) und ein legislatives Weltparlament fur Umweltschutz (WPFU) die internationale Verantwortung ubernehmen. Das weltweite Ziel heisst: Klimagerechtigkeit mit Null Treibhausgas-Emissionen und hundert Prozent recyclebaren Ressourcen.

In an attempt to maintain self-sufficiency, both Canadian and American federal authorities have imposed a number of restrictions on the inter-country flows of natural gas in North America -- tariffs, export and import permits, and quotas. The purpose of this study is to estimate how much less final consumers would pay for natural gas if free trade were allowed. A linear programming model is used to estimate a hypothetical flow pattern when no restrictions are placed on trans-border flows of gas. In comparing this free trade solution to a simulation of the actual flow pattern under trade restrictions, the costs to final consumers can be estimated. In addition, the regional gains and losses to producers can be measured. A chapter is devoted to investigating both the balance of payments effects of free trade adn the impact of the Canadian tariff on natural gas which existed from 1924 to 1967. A technique is devised to estimate the tariff necessary to prevent entry into the domestic market by foreign suppliers. The book should be of great interest to teachers of programming, economists, people in government, and individuals concerned about the effects of a continental energy policy.

Petroleum discovery challenges policy makers to translate resources into equitable, sustainable, and long-term national growth. Balancing Petroleum Policy provides policy makers and other stakeholders with needed basic sector-related knowledge. It introduces the petroleum value chain, how to envision key petroleum development objectives, legislative and contractual framework design, administration and management of petroleum fiscal regimes, transparency and governance, environmental and social safeguards, and economic diversification through industrial linkages. The book focuses on developing countries and those in civil conflict. The book examines three policy-central questions: ownership, management, and revenue sharing of petroleum resources. Context-specific in its approach, the book offers valuable perspectives on how to prevent violent conflicts related to such resources

Oil may be anywhere, but it doesn't belong to just anybody. In most countries it belongs to the government, but in the United States it belongs to the owner of the surface of the land under which it lies or to the speculator who may have purchased the land's "mineral rights." As a lease man for a major oil company, Merlin F. Sailor's business was to secure for his company the right to conduct geophysical operations on, and drill for and produce, the oil and natural gas suspected to lie under the surface of the land. In this book he relates how he went about his work, which was alternately fun and frustrating. In the course of his work he met all kinds of people, some of whom wanted nothing to do with him or the oil industry. Although he claims that this book is intended to interest and amuse rather than instruct, it explains a great deal about oil along the way. Sailor could and did tell a good story in this truly human document, and as a bonus, much of what he tells has genuine historical and literary value in the record of industrial America in the twentieth century. Merlin F. Sailor (1906-1965) began his long association with the oil business in 1945, "after an uninteresting twelve years spent practicing law in Iowa, where there was no known oil or gas, and an extremely interesting three and onehalf years in the U.S. Navy during World War II, where oil was always available but sometimes hard to get."

Martin Himler emigrated from Hungary to America in 1907, and he arrived in New York City with no money and no plan other than to find work. From these impoverished beginnings, Himler persevered to become a self-made new American. As a coal mining entrepreneur, he established the Himler Coal Company-a bold experiment in a worker-owned mine-founded the small town of Himlerville, Kentucky-a town almost completely populated by Hungarian immigrants-and founded and edited a weekly newspaper, the Magyar Banyaszlap (Hungarian Miners' Journal). During WWII, Himler was called by the United States government to work for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Colonel Himler arrested more than 300 Nazi war criminals and interrogated 40 himself. Himler's autobiography tells in Himler's own words his life story as it evolves into the American dream, wherein hard work results in success. Himler captivates readers from his earliest memories of his childhood in Hungary to his experiences with the OSS. Following Himler's death, the manuscript of the autobiography was passed down among Himler family members and then donated to the Martin County Historical and Genealogical Society, Inez, Kentucky, in 2007. Editor Cathy Cassady Corbin's annotations enhance Himler's words, while the introduction by scholar Doug Cantrell provides historical context for Himler's migration to Appalachia. Finally, Charles Fenyvesi's foreword analyzes Himler's courageous OSS work.

Dieses Buch stellt die Entwicklung der Energiewirtschaft in Ostdeutschland wahrend der Zeit nach dem 2. Weltkrieg ab 1945 (Sowjetische Besatzungszone und nach 1949 Deutsche Demokratische Republik) zusammen. Anhand der in dieser Zeit entstandenen Gesetze und Verordnungen, die mit der Absicht zur Entwicklung der Energiewirtschaft verabschiedet wurden, werden die sich daraus ergebenden Resultate untersucht. Dabei sind auch die Auswirkungen auf die Bevoelkerung allgemein sowohl im Beruf als auch im privaten Bereich sichtbar, die vor allem durch Verbote der Nutzung von elektrischer Energie und Gas, aber auch durch Umweltwirkungen - bedingt durch die extreme Nutzung der Rohbraunkohle als Primarenergietrager - entstanden. Deutlich wird auch der Versuch, durch Ordnungsprozesse in der Verwendung der Energie sowie durch den Einsatz von Kontrollorganen (Energieinspektoren) die standig vorhandenen Versorgungslucken zu verringern.

Wie sozial gerecht ist Wohnraum? Sollen Mieter, die in nicht gut gedammten Wohnungen leben, dafur zahlen, dass sie aufgrund dessen mehr Energie verbrauchen und hoehere Energiekosten haben? Mussen externalisierte Kosten der Energiegewinnung und -verteilung nicht zukunftig internalisiert werden? Der ganzheitliche Umweltgerechtigkeitsansatz impliziert auch Gesundheitsgerechtigkeit. Das heisst, sowohl sozialraumliche Gegebenheiten als auch sozioekonomische Belange sind im Zusammenhang mit der Energieeffizienz von Wohngebauden und der Energieversorgung einzubeziehen. Die Problematiken, die sich daraus ergeben, sind nicht mit den aktuell ublichen Transferleistungen fur Einkommensschwache zu loesen. Erforderlich sind stadtplanerische Instrumente gepaart mit politischem Willen, wie energieeffiziente Sanierung von Wohnbauten und Stadtquartieren, Vermeidung von Raumreduktion und den damit verbundenen siedlungshygienischen und stadtklimatischen Beeinflussungen der Gesundheit der Bewohner. Notwendig ist auch das Einbinden von wegeoekonomischen Mobilitatskonzepten in den Bestand der Verkehrswege.