Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 10/2008

Energy: The New Normal?

October 2006

Aspen Institute

Abstract

High energy prices, coupled with intensified fighting in the Middle East and broader acceptance of the need to act on global climate change, have suggested to many in the past year that the world of energy has changed. Others believe that world is still cyclical, and that what appears to be a new paradigm may just be the top of another cycle. The Program on Energy and Environment's 30th annual Energy Policy Forum considered which is more likely, exploring the question from various perspectives: policy drivers such as energy supply and demand, climate change, and geopolitics; the R&D and financing challenges of new technologies; demand reduction possibilities; and how various fuels are likely to fare as utilities make decisions on new generation capacity.