Volume 7, Issue 1
Environment @Harvard H a r v a rd U n i ve r s i t y C e n t e r f o r t h e E nv i r o n m e n t www.environment.harvard.edu
Sizing Up a New Energy Era Oil price freefall soothes consumers, worries environmentalists
JIM WILSON / NEW YORK TIMES / REDUX
By Alvin Powell
O
il’s dramatic price decline has rocked oil-producing nations, prompted consumer glee at the pump, and captivated the attention of economists and environmentalists alike, who view what may be the beginning of a new era of cheap energy with both fascination and foreboding. Fascination comes at the brute force oil exerts in global economic and geopolitical arenas. Foreboding comes because cheap oil, perhaps not surpris-
ingly, is bad news for climate change and for the environment broadly, putting a thumb on the economic scales that drive consumer purchase decisions and tipping them away from cleaner, though still more expensive, alternatives. The foreboding comes also from a sense of déjà vu. Thirty-five years ago, the oil shocks of the 1970s boosted development of cleaner alternatives, which were subsequently killed when
A ground flare burns gas from the Bakken shale oil field in North Dakota. Oil companies burn gas—enough to power Chicago AND Washington—because it’s cheaper than selling it.
oil prices fell over the next decade. Cheap oil means more miles driven and more gas-guzzlers on the road. It means fewer electric cars and hybrids and makes next-generation biofuels tougher to bring to market. Even in
Harvard University Center for the Environment 1