Search Results

Taking the Fight National

James Robert Allison

in Sovereignty For Survival: American Energy Development and Indian Self-Determination

After successfully defending the Northern Cheyenne and Crow Reservations from non-Indian mining, American Indians launched a national campaign to prepare similarly situated energy tribes for the ... More

After successfully defending the Northern Cheyenne and Crow Reservations from non-Indian mining, American Indians launched a national campaign to prepare similarly situated energy tribes for the coming onslaught in energy demand. This chapter details those efforts that began with Northern Cheyenne and Crow leaders helping to organize a regional coalition of tribes to fight federally planned development on the Northern Plains. From this defensive alliance, energy tribes then turned to exploring options to mine their own minerals. They worked with federal agencies charged with expanding domestic energy production in the wake of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo and consulted energy experts familiar with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Ultimately, tribes nationwide formed the Council of Energy Resource Tribes to provide a unified Indian voice to federal energy policymakers, lobby for federal aid in developing tribal resources, and share information about energy development. After much confusion as to CERT’s primary purpose – including whether it was a cartel-like “Native American OPEC” – the organization evolved into a professional consulting firm that both worked with individual tribes to pursue specific mining projects and lobbied the federal government for beneficial grants and policies.Less

Epilogue: New Era, Similar Results

James Robert Allison

in Sovereignty For Survival: American Energy Development and Indian Self-Determination

Sadly, just as energy tribes secured recognition of their sovereign rights to control resource development, the market for Indian energy collapsed. This Epilogue explains the changes in international ... More

Sadly, just as energy tribes secured recognition of their sovereign rights to control resource development, the market for Indian energy collapsed. This Epilogue explains the changes in international energy markets that produced a glut of cheap foreign oil in mid-1980s, making investment in tribal-led energy projects uneconomical. It also updates readers on the fitful attempts by the Northern Cheyenne, Crow, and Navajo to establish mineral revenues amid fluctuating energy markets, and details the intense intra-tribal debates over resource development that continue to divide these communities. Despite these setbacks, however, the book concludes on a hopeful note, describing subsequent changes to federal law that continue to expand tribal control over reservation resources. The last anecdote offers CERT Chairman Peter MacDonald’s 1982 farewell address as an opportunity to summarize the energy tribes’ momentous efforts. These groups mobilized a defense of the homeland, developed the institutional capacity to regulate energy development, and secured legal authority over reservation resources. Only the successful execution of that authority to alleviate suffocating poverty remains.Less

Alliance Management at British Petroleum Exploration

Thomas Kern and Leslie P. Willcocks

in The Relationship Advantage: Information Technologies, Sourcing, and Management

This chapter discusses a case study of British Petroleum Exploration's (BPX) IT outsourcing arrangements. Outsourcing at BPX presented a novel way of using multiple suppliers to deliver best-in-class ... More

This chapter discusses a case study of British Petroleum Exploration's (BPX) IT outsourcing arrangements. Outsourcing at BPX presented a novel way of using multiple suppliers to deliver best-in-class services for all areas contracted out. The use of multiple suppliers in part was driven by BP's desire to keep control, yet at the same time seek benefits from their expertise and capabilities. BP's objectives of maintaining high global service and technology standards, while reducing the overall IT costs beyond what the internal IT group could possibly have achieved was accomplished. Vendors, on the other hand, benefited from the risk-reward arrangements, the new business projects and BPX's expansion globally, and of course from BP's prestige as a ‘blue chip’ company and leading-edge technology user.Less

French Logistical Doctrine and Organization

Charles R. Shrader

in A War of Logistics: Parachutes and Porters in Indochina, 1945-1954

In Chapter 4, the author discusses French doctrine and organization for logistics and the modifications necessary in Indochina to shift from a territorial based system to one capable of supporting ... More

In Chapter 4, the author discusses French doctrine and organization for logistics and the modifications necessary in Indochina to shift from a territorial based system to one capable of supporting mobile forces in the field. The organization, personnel, and challenges faced by the various logistical branches (Intendance, Ordnance, and Petroleum Services) are also discussed, as are the storage and distribution of rations, clothing and equipment, weapons, vehicles, ammunition, and petroleum products, as well as maintenance.Less

Why Climate-Change Skeptics Are Wrong

Kristin Shrader-Frechette

in What Will Work: Fighting Climate Change with Renewable Energy, Not Nuclear Power

Chapter 1 begins by stressing the severity of climate change (CC) and showing how, contrary to popular belief, atomic energy is not a viable solution to ... More

Chapter 1 begins by stressing the severity of climate change (CC) and showing how, contrary to popular belief, atomic energy is not a viable solution to CC. Many scientists and most market proponents agree that renewable energy and energy efficiencies are better options. The chapter also shows that government subsidies for oil and nuclear power are the result of flawed science, poor ethics, short-term thinking, and special-interest influence. The chapter has 7 sections, the first of which surveys four major components of the energy crisis. These are oil addiction, non-CC-related deaths from fossil-fuel pollution, nuclear-weapons proliferation, and catastrophic CC. The second section summarizes some of the powerful evidence for global CC. The third section uses historical, ahistorical, Rawlsian, and utilitarian ethical principles to show how developed nations, especially the US, are most responsible for human-caused CC. The fourth section shows why climate-change skeptics, such as “deniers” who doubt CC is real, and “delayers” who say that it should not yet be addressed, have no valid objections. Instead, they all err scientifically and ethically. The fifth section illustrates that all modern scientific methods—and scientific consensus since at least 1995—confirm the reality of global CC. Essentially all expert-scientific analyses published in refereed, scientific-professional journals confirm the reality of global CC. The sixth section of the chapter shows how fossil-fuel special interests have contributed to the continued CC debate largely by paying non-experts to deny or challenge CC. The seventh section of the chapter provides an outline of each chapter in the book, noting that this book makes use of both scientific and ethical analyses to show why nuclear proponents’ arguments err, why CC deniers are wrong, and how scientific-methodological understanding can advance sound energy policy—including conservation, renewable energy, and energy efficiencies.Less

Evolving Economic issues in the Maturing Ukcs

Alex Kemp

in Oil and Gas Law: Current Practice & Emerging Trends

This Chapter an overview of the economic implications of the UKCS’s status as a mature oil and gas province. It reviews the economic dimension of a number of issues that are treated in more detail ... More

This Chapter an overview of the economic implications of the UKCS’s status as a mature oil and gas province. It reviews the economic dimension of a number of issues that are treated in more detail from the legal perspective by other contributors to this book. It thus considers the way in which the UK Government has adapted the licensing regime to encourage new entrants as well as the exploration and development of frontier areas. It also considers the way in which uncertainty surrounding decommissioning liabilities has an impact on investment decisions as regards both new and existing developments and notes the deleterious effect which the Government’s ultra-cautious approach may have on the national interest. On the fiscal side, the Chapter notes and welcomes the Government’s recent attempt to encourage high-cost development through the provision of field allowances against Supplementary Charge and notes the inherent instability in the UK’s system of taxing oil and gas revenues, and the barrier to investment which that represents.Less

The Ukcs Fiscal Regime

Emre Üşenmez

in Oil and Gas Law: Current Practice & Emerging Trends

This Chapter considers the fiscal regime applying to operations on the UK Continental Shelf, with a particular focus on those elements of taxation that are specific to the oil and gas industry. The ... More

This Chapter considers the fiscal regime applying to operations on the UK Continental Shelf, with a particular focus on those elements of taxation that are specific to the oil and gas industry. The discussions include the Petroleum Revenue Tax, Ring Fence Corporation Tax and the Supplementary Charge. The Chapter subsequently speculates on the future direction of upstream taxation: given the extent of fiscal instability that has characterised the history of the UKCS as a hydrocarbon province and given the economic position of the country at present and for the foreseeable future, how will the Government strike the balance between regarding the industry as a cash cow to be milked when times are tough and the need to encourage continuing investment in the mature province to ensure maximum recovery?Less

“Going Out” and China’s Search For Energy Security

William J. Norris

in Chinese Economic Statecraft: Commercial Actors, Grand Strategy, and State Control

This chapter examines the challenge of state control with regard to the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). It considers how the state utilizes economic statecraft in the context of efforts ... More

This chapter examines the challenge of state control with regard to the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). It considers how the state utilizes economic statecraft in the context of efforts to secure oil through the creation and subsequent “going out” of the Chinese national oil corporations, which were among the earliest Chinese commercial actors to venture abroad. The chapter begins with a historical background on China's petroleum industry and its relationship to the Chinese state before turning to a discussion of the CNPC's early efforts to venture abroad. In particular, it discusses the CNPC's activities in Sudan and the strategic difficulties caused by the state's “going out” policy. It also explains how Chinese authorities sought to re-establish control over the international activities of its commercial actors in the extractive resources sector through balance of relative resources and unity of the state.Less

Resistance and Reconstruction: Emergence of a Domestic Community

Grace Yen Shen

in Unearthing the Nation: Modern Geology and Nationalism in Republican China

Chapter 5 examines how Chinese geologists dealt with the Japanese occupation of China’s coastal regions during the War of Resistance. The chapter describes the great inland migration of Chinese ... More

Chapter 5 examines how Chinese geologists dealt with the Japanese occupation of China’s coastal regions during the War of Resistance. The chapter describes the great inland migration of Chinese scientific institutions and the problems of wartime scarcity. Under these conditions, Chinese geology expanded to include new members without the same intellectual pedigrees as the pre-war community, and existing institutions had to develop new mechanisms for initiating them into an active research community. The move to the Interior also opened up previously inaccessible frontier territories to Chinese geological investigation, and the urgency of China’s fuel shortage brought the Geological Survey to these outlying areas in search of petroleum. On one hand, the wartime experience galvanized the community and gave it the confidence to privilege the physical evidence of the earth over naysaying foreign authorities. However, the isolation of war also narrowed Chinese focus, and Chinese geology showed signs of becoming strictly the geology of China by Chinese, rather than an open program of scientific exchange.Less

Key Players and Conflicting Goals in the Development Trajectory

Tammy L. Lewis

in Ecuador's Environmental Revolutions: Ecoimperialists, Ecodependents, and Ecoresisters

Chapter one opens with a contemporary dilemma in Ecuador: with the help of the “international community” will the nation complete the Yasuní-ITT Initiative, which would keep its “oil in the soil” to ... More

Chapter one opens with a contemporary dilemma in Ecuador: with the help of the “international community” will the nation complete the Yasuní-ITT Initiative, which would keep its “oil in the soil” to protect its biodiversity, indigenous tribes, and limit greenhouse gasses, or will it drill for petroleum and use the proceeds to further the social and economic development of its people? Through this example, the rest of the chapter develops the central concern of the book: how can states and civil society work within the constraints of the global economic structure to develop sustainably? Three possible futures for development are laid out: sustainable development, extractive development, and alternatives to development. The theoretical underpinning of the book, the treadmill of production theory, is explained with regard to the key players in the narrative: the state, nongovernmental organizations, social movement activists, and transnational organizations. The chapter concludes with an overview of the argument and the book.Less

The Ecuadorian Context

Tammy L. Lewis

in Ecuador's Environmental Revolutions: Ecoimperialists, Ecodependents, and Ecoresisters

This chapter provides an overview of Ecuador socioeconomically, politically, geographically, and environmentally within the global context from the 1970s through 2015. It emphasizes Ecuador’s ... More

This chapter provides an overview of Ecuador socioeconomically, politically, geographically, and environmentally within the global context from the 1970s through 2015. It emphasizes Ecuador’s similarities and differences with regard to other Latin American countries. The discussion examines Ecuador’s unique biodiversity and petroleum in some depth, as they are two of its natural resources that link the country to the international financial community via aid relationships and exports, respectively. This chapter also lays out some key events in Ecuador’s history that are used to delineate four periods for a comparative analysis. The periods include the origins of the environmental movement (1978-1987), the neoliberal boom (1987-2000), neoliberal bust (2000-2006) and the citizens’ revolution (2006-2015). In the following chapters, the relationship among transnational funding for the environment, the Ecuadorian environmental movement, the state, and environmental and development policies are examined.Less

Unravelling of Keating’s plans (1976–99)

Amanda Slevin

in Gas, Oil and the Irish State: Understanding the Dynamics and Conflicts of Hydrocarbon Management

Keating's terms were introduced at a time when interest in North West Europe's hydrocarbon potential was at its peak due to large discoveries in the North Sea. Consequently, some politicians, oil ... More

Keating's terms were introduced at a time when interest in North West Europe's hydrocarbon potential was at its peak due to large discoveries in the North Sea. Consequently, some politicians, oil industry representatives and trade unions anticipated an economic boom in Ireland courtesy of oil and gas exploitation. This chapter discusses hydrocarbon activities onshore and offshore Ireland in the period from 1976 to 1999, connecting these with shifts in the Irish state's model of hydrocarbon management and oil companies' investment strategies. Progressing beyond empirical happenings, this chapter examines the growth in popularity of neoliberal ideology and its influence on Ireland's approach to its gas and oil. Attention to restrictions imposed on state companies like the Irish National Petroleum Corporation, and the encapsulation of a free-market perspective in the 1992 licensing terms, illustrates the impact of prevailing ideologies and global trade on the Irish model of hydrocarbon management. This chapter also considers the oscillating power of interest groups such as the oil industry lobby and the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union and contemplates their interactions with different political parties and the state bureaucracy.Less

Norway and Ireland: too different to compare?

Amanda Slevin

in Gas, Oil and the Irish State: Understanding the Dynamics and Conflicts of Hydrocarbon Management

Opening with a presentation of arguments against a comparison of the Norwegian and Irish approaches to hydrocarbon management, this chapter uncovers some of the discourses underpinning industry, ... More

Opening with a presentation of arguments against a comparison of the Norwegian and Irish approaches to hydrocarbon management, this chapter uncovers some of the discourses underpinning industry, political and state bureaucracy perspectives on the two models. It also reveals weaknesses in these standpoints and stresses the value of comparing both countries' approaches as a mechanism for developing a critique of the Irish model. The resultant appraisal begins with an overview of socio-economic and historical similarities between the two countries, progressing to a summation of the political, social, economic and ideological influences which have moulded the Norwegian model. While popular opinion often holds the Norwegian model as a perfect approach, this chapter also outlines the darker side of Norway's petroleum history. The author presents some partial explanations for divergences between Ireland and Norway, such as Ireland's distinct developmental path, power struggles between interest groups, establishing key questions which are answered in the following chapter. Using the conceptual and empirical political, economic, social, and ideological parameters identified through the review of Norway's model, the following chapter interrogate the factors shaping the Irish state's model of hydrocarbon management. Lessons from this case study are also reviewed in chapter eleven which outlines recommendations to improve the Irish model.Less

Understanding the Irish state’s approach

Amanda Slevin

in Gas, Oil and the Irish State: Understanding the Dynamics and Conflicts of Hydrocarbon Management

Nearly every country in the world has asserted ownership over the hydrocarbons within its territory (Easo, 2009) and Ireland is no different. Ireland's approach to resource management, however, is ... More

Nearly every country in the world has asserted ownership over the hydrocarbons within its territory (Easo, 2009) and Ireland is no different. Ireland's approach to resource management, however, is dissimilar to many other countries with outcomes that include the transfer of ownership and control of state resources to private interests and one of the lowest rates of government take in the world. The Irish model has also resulted in a prolonged conflict which has engulfed the lives of many people for over a decade. In line with Karl (1997), Dunning (2009), and Di John (2010) who emphasise the value of examining interactions between political institutions and the economy to understand how states manage their resources, and responding to questions raised in the preceding chapter, this chapter follows a critical political economy path to explain how and why the Irish state manages its hydrocarbons in the manner adopted. The nine key factors identified as shaping the Irish approach illustrate how the state's approach has been shaped by diverse and conflicting dynamics and moulded by micro, meso and macro level forces which intersect with specific ideological, political, economic and social influences to create a model of state resource management unique in comparison with other countries.Less

Access To Infrastructure

Uisdean Vass

in Oil and Gas Law: Current Practice & Emerging Trends

As the UKCS matures, the likelihood is that new discoveries (outside frontier areas, at least) will be relatively small. Their prospects for development will depend upon their ability to be linked up ... More

As the UKCS matures, the likelihood is that new discoveries (outside frontier areas, at least) will be relatively small. Their prospects for development will depend upon their ability to be linked up with the existingoil and gas transportation infrastructure.Where (as will almost invariably be the case) this infrastructure is in the ownership of others, securing access to that infrastructure can be a difficult process. The Secretary of State has a statutory power to compel the owner to permit access to its infrastructure and to determine the commercial terms on which such access takes place; however this power has been very rarely used in practice. This chapter describes and analyses the complex framework of legislation, Ministerial Guidance and Industry Codes of Best Practice which govern this situation, and discusses the reasons why applicants have hitherto been so reluctant to exercise their right to refer access disputes to the Secretary of State.Less

The Provision of Specialist Cargo Facilities

Adrian Jarvis

in In Troubled Times: The Port of Liverpool, 1905-1938

This chapter explores the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board in relation to specialist cargo. The previous policy of providing equipment that served multiple trades, and asking specialist traders to ... More

This chapter explores the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board in relation to specialist cargo. The previous policy of providing equipment that served multiple trades, and asking specialist traders to provide for themselves, gradually became redundant as trade and technology expanded. It is particularly concerned with both the corn trade and the petroleum trade in Liverpool, and the specialist machinery they required.Less

Transacting with Private Carriage: The Gas Pipeline Regulations of 1938

in The Political Economy of Pipelines: A Century of Comparative Institutional Development

This chapter describes how the cumulative victories by groups of gas distributors resulted in the series of conditions that made possible the defining, safeguarding, and trading of property rights. ... More

This chapter describes how the cumulative victories by groups of gas distributors resulted in the series of conditions that made possible the defining, safeguarding, and trading of property rights. Gas pipeline transport transformed over the course of sixty-five years into an industry that shows true Coasian bargaining in transport entitlements and supports the world's only vigorously competitive and openly transparent gas market with an equally vigorous futures market. The Natural Gas Act of 1938 was an unusual piece of legislation that came about in response to pressure from the states and gas-consuming city coalitions. Phillips Petroleum attempted to argue that only pipeline regulation was the subject of the Natural Gas Act. The end of conflict between shippers and pipeline owners signaled a transformation of the regulator's prime job. In 2000, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) resolved the last outstanding issues, and the competitive pipeline transport market took off.Less