Energy and Environment - Politics
Energy use and supply is of fundamental importance to society and, with the possible exception of agriculture and forestry, has made the greatest impact on the environment of any human activity - a result of the large scale and pervasive nature of energy related activities. Although energy and environment concerns were originally local in character - for example, problems associated with extraction, transport or noxious emissions - they have now widened to cover regional and global issues such as acid rain and the greenhouse effect. Such problems have now become major political issues and the subject of international debate and regulation. It is for this reason that there is a need for a journal dedicated to energy and environment issues.
Energy and Environment is an interdisciplinary journal aimed at natural scientists, technologists and the international social science and policy communities covering the direct and indirect environmental impacts of energy acquisition, transport, production and use. A particular objective is to cover the social, economic and political dimensions of such issues at local, national and international level. The technological and scientific aspects of energy and environment questions including energy conservation, and the interaction of energy forms and systems with the physical environment, are covered, including the relationship of such questions to wider economic and socio-political issues. Papers covering energy related aspects of wider environmental questions are included, such as the use of fuel wood and continuing impacts of de-forestation.
A major aim of Energy and Environment is to act as a forum for constructive and professional debate between scientists and technologists, social scientists and economists from academia, government and the energy industries on energy and environment issues in both a national and international context. It is also the aim to include the informed and environmentally concerned public and their organisations in the debate. Particular attention is given to ways of resolving conflict in the energy and environment field.
Since Aristotle's classification of political systems, power has been one of the most central and debated themes of the social sciences. Yet, despite its centrality, there has been little consensus on what constitutes the essence of power. It is part of the raison d'etre of the Journal of Political Power to capitalize on the consequent debates surrounding power.
ReplyDeleteIn political science, there have been continual debates from Dahl to Lukes and, recently, between followers of Foucauldian perspectives and more modernist view points. These have centred on the contrast between power in terms of agency and the way in which social consciousness create conditions of possibility for action or differential capacities. If we move into a cognate discipline, such as International Relations, we find that the area is divided between those who consider power purely in terms of material resources and those who argue that it is defined by ideas and perceptions - so-called realists'and idealists' A similar division is found in political-sociology, where some focus upon power in terms of legitimacy and authority while other, more 'hard-headed' theorists view it Machivallian terms of war and deceit.
In political philosophy, the key division lies between those who consider power as defined by its exercise, its effects, intentions, and potentialities. In rational choice theory power is divided between those who view it positionally, almost as a kind of luck, and those who see it as episodic.
In anthropology, in contrast to all the above, power is theorized in terms of rituals and ceremony.
In sociology, there is a clear division between those influenced by Marxism, who define power in terms of class or economy, and the followers of the tradition of Weber, who consider power as linked to authority and domination.
In feminist literature, the debate is dominated by the intricacies of the division between social constructivist accounts of gender and those who emphasize violence and material resources.
Running through all these debates is the fundamental contrast between those who view power negatively, as domination, and those who think of it positively, as an essential ingredient of autonomy and empowerment. In short, some of the key debates within the social sciences are centred on the theme of power and it is intended that this journal should reflect this.
Aside from theoretical debates, the Journal of Political Power is a primary outlet for those doing empirical work on relations of power and powerlessness. For instance, the Journal welcomes empirical analysis of the process whereby globalization, ethnicity, nationalism, war and gender are central to the constitution of power, whether conceptualised as domination or empowerment.
Job Creation
ReplyDeleteAmerica's oil and natural gas industry supports 9.2 million men and women across the United States in a wide range of highly skilled, well-paying professions. In fact, oil and natural gas industry exploration and production wages are more than double the national average. An analysis of API's public data, independent research and corporate annual reports finds that the industry distributed $176 billion in wages paid to U.S. employees, plus benefits and payments to oil and natural gas leaseholders.
Oil and natural gas companies invest in cutting-edge technology and offer fulfilling careers to the next generation of American engineers, geophysicists, chemists, earth scientists, geologists, climate experts and
Highlights
•America's oil and natural gas industry currently supports nearly 9.2 million American jobs.
•Expanding access to America’s oil and natural gas resources can create 1.4 million jobs by 2030.
Bakken Boom: Oil boom luring Montanans to Williston, North Dakota for work
ReplyDeletePosted: Nov 3, 2011 8:51 AM by Judy Slate
Updated: Nov 3, 2011 11:28 AM
This is the first part of a four-part series on the oil boom in Williston, North Dakota where many people from the Bozeman area are traveling to find work and sometimes reinventing themselves to fill a niche in this fast-growing area.
Imagine traveling hundreds of miles to find work. That's the reality for many people here in the Gallatin Valley, going all the way to North Dakota.
It all comes down to oil. Williston, North Dakota and the surrounding areas are experiencing a huge oil boom, thanks to the Bakken oil patch. All that oil means jobs, jobs many people can't find closer to home.
"We basically separate the small particles out of the drilling fluid," said Mike Ruthford who is working in North Dakota.
Ruthford is a long way from his roots. He used to be in construction, working jobs all over western Montana, including Big Sky. Now is has a new business - CCS.
"Working in Western Montana jobs got slow," he said.
So he headed to Williston, North Dakota where he spends much of his time on a trailer.
"I check the tanks make sure they stay at a constant level," he said.
For Mike and thousands like him, work in the oil field is lucrative.
"I work two weeks on, one week off and I make double what I was making in construction," he said.
Oil in Williston is nothing new. What is new is the technology called fracking, allowing them to take the oil out of the shale.
The Williston area has 200 oil rigs in operation, a record number.
"Never seen anything like it," human resources director at CCS Chris Traeger said.
Traeger has been working in Williston for more than 25 years.
"I get about 500 calls a week and anywhere between 150 and 200 job applications that come in every week," she said.
Many of those are from Montana.
"They understand the cold climate, issues with working outside," she said.
But the jobs in the Williston area are not just oil jobs.
"Anywhere you look, people are building, moving dirt, putting in pipe," said Larry Powers who is working in North Dakota.
There are "help wanted" signs everywhere.
"It's hard - the hardest part is being away from your friends and family for 2 weeks at a time," Ruthford said.
"I usually go home every three to four weeks10 weeks," said Glen who works in North Dakota.
Glen leaves his wife and two children behind to go work in Williston.
"Oh it's tough, but you do what you have to do," he said.
You hear that a lot - "do what you have to do" - leaving home in search of steady, good paying jobs.
"We have a lot of oil to pull from the ground, experts say it a 25 year run, at least," Traeger said.
It's a run that is guaranteed to keep Montanans like Ruthford willing to leave home employed.
"The oil field goes 24 hours 365," he said.
In the second segment you will meet some Bozeman entrepreneurs hoping to find success in the oil boom.
Solving the energy crisis is going to take a lot of social action combined with government support. Rising energy costs are finally starting to force global leaders to research alternatives and provide the funding to make changes. Issues like global warming are becoming mainstream reality and causing worldwide concerns about pollution and consumption.
ReplyDeleteHopefully our civilization will agree to put in the effort needed to save our planet. The articles on this page discuss the politics of renewable energy and change.
ZED Energy Summary for Politicians and Legislators
ReplyDeleteSolar energy is an important refreshing element of the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 government-subsidized legislation to promote Zero Energy Homes, as a step toward resolving the new millennium American Energy Crisis. The wise solar energy tax credits instituted by Jimmy Carter in 1978 (and destroyed by Ronald Reagan in April 1981) were improved and reinstated in the 2005 Energy Policy Act. Thank you very much, but we still need a lot more from YOU, including subsidies that last beyond 2007, until this important job is well on it’s way to a healthy solid foundation. Look how long America subsidized petroleum (for a century). How long will it take to break the very bad habits that the government’s petroleum subsidies created, by encouraging our very bad energy wasting behaviors?
Much of the new alternative energy legislation being introduced in the 2007 U.S. Congress offers interesting potential. We hope it is not "too little too late", and that the devastating decades of partisan energy politics, and energy industry political corruption, can be overcome SOON.
The 2007 budget included only $148 million dollars in solar energy research funding. George Bush’s 2008 budget proposal repeated this small number, which is actually a funding cut when we consider the negative impact of inflation. Despite this unenlightened token funding level, solar energy equipment sales increased 45% in each of the last two years. Consider the following basic mathematics.
Inefficient American buildings waste more energy, and add more atmospheric pollution than either our inefficient American transportation or dirty industrial processes. Solar energy has the potential to solve these problems, AND eliminate the need for any oil-related wars. George Bush asked for $120 BILLION PER YEAR for the next two years for the oil-related ghastly war in Iraq. Bush’s 2008 budget request for solar energy R&D is AT LEAST ONE THOUSAND TIMES LESS THAN WHAT IS COST JUSTIFIED. If we eliminate our bad addiction in oil imported from countries that want to do us great harm, it can directly save of Trillions of dollars of near-term future debt for our innocent grandchildren. DO OUR POLITICAL REPRESENTATIVES EVEN CARE? Extremely-corrupt oil-based energy politics-as-usual is a national catastrophe.