Posts Tagged by James Woolsey
Lateral Power, Distributed Generation, and the Third Industrial Revolution
| January 25, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels |
Frequent commenter Glenn Doty points out that statistically, violence reduces oil production, and believes that the reason behind the invasion of Iraq was not about the access to oil per se, but for CONTROL of PROFIT from the oil. He writes:
That distinction is important, because if you shift the primary fuel dependence to require access to lithium, the motivation to control the profit from lithium will become just as strong as the current motivation to control the profit from oil… That means if we elect another warmonger, we might just find a reason to invade Chile for control of their salt flats… or something similar.
I agree that centralized control of a single commodity (say, oil) breeds autocracy and oppression. This, of course, is Thomas L. Friedman’s concept: “Fill ‘er up with dictators.” It’s also what James Woolsey (four presidential appointments, including director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency) told me when I spoke with him in preparation for my first book. Read More
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Renewable Energy’s Connection to Peace and Freedom
| December 21, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
During the holiday season, we talk a great deal about peace: world peace, the Prince of Peace, and so forth — all good things. But isn’t it a shame that, in large measure, we trot these concepts out at Christmas, only to go back to beating the holy hell out of one another during the balance of the year?
For a moment, ponder the connection between world peace and renewable energy. At first, this may sound like a concept from the 1960s. But in truth, our dependence on oil empowers tyranny all around the world Read More
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Electric Vehicles: Confronting the Tough Realities
| November 30, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Glenn Doty is an extremely senior scientist who studies the macro-world of energy, and doesn’t like what he sees regarding electric transportation. He writes:
While I have tremendous respect for you and the work that you are doing, I have very little respect for the people who compiled that study that you referenced.
The simple truth is that you cannot claim “grid mix” for a new marginal increase in grid demand. If you plug in a new toy (EV), they can’t do a rain dance to get additional energy from the hydropower dam… nor will they amp up the local nuclear reactor to provide more power… The only possible source for the energy going into NEW demand will be what is currently SPARE capacity – that’s natural gas and coal. Read More
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Reason to Consider Renewable Energy: The US Dependence on Foreign Oil Empowers Our Enemies
| May 15, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
In a recent post I mentioned that one of the central problems with our dependence on oil (of which we have very little domestically) is that our borrowing $1 billion per day to buy it from foreign governments empowers our enemies. In response, frequent commenter MarcoPolo writes:
Craig, I’m curious, what are those ‘enemy’ regimes you speak of?
I mean Chavez is a bit of a buffoon, and has no love for the US, but an active enemy? I am unaware that North Korea is oil rich. And since the US imports no oil from Iran, that leaves the four biggest US oil imports from Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Nigeria.
Yes, well I can see your point with Canada!
Allies, Craig, the US imports from allies!
In response, I would just say what (ex-CIA Director) James Woolsey told me when I spoke with him last year:
Craig, read Larry Diamond’s book if you haven’t already. If you look at the 22 countries that count on two-thirds or more of their national income from oil — it’s fair to say all 22 of those countries are autocratic kingdoms or dictatorships.
And I haven’t compared that list with Freedom House’s list of the forty, basically – those that Freedom House calls “Not Free.” There are about 120 democracies in the world, I mean not perfect, but nonetheless regular elections and another 20 countries like Bahrain that are reasonably well and decently governed, even though not democratically so. And then you’ve got 40 really bad guys. And I’m pretty sure that list of 22 in Larry Diamond’s book is virtually all from the list of 40 bad guys — or “Not Free,” in Freedom House’s terms.
So it’s really a pretty decisive set of statistics, I think, and then if you look at other numbers, set out in places like Mort Halprin’s book The Democracy Advantage, it’s pretty clear that basically democracies don’t fight each other. They occasionally get really pissed off, but they mainly choose up sides and argue about trade sanctions and stuff. It’s not impossible but it’s really hard, even going back into the 19th century, but certainly since 1945, finding democracies fighting each other. They just don’t.
So you’ve got oil locking some states that depend so heavily on it into autocracy and dictatorship and worse. And those are the folks who also fund the terrorists, who invade neighboring countries, etc. So there’s a large national security point here.
I guess what I’m saying is that a thriving oil market empowers the enemies of democracy, whether they are active and avowed enemies of the US or not.
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[The Vector] James Woolsey on Renewable Energy and National Security – Part Two
| January 4, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
This is a continuation of The Vector’s coverage of James Woolsey’s position in the imperative to move to renewable energy based on national security concerns.
You’ve got both the terrorism and enhancing of the bad guys — What Tom Friedman calls “Fill ‘er up with dictators,” and all the issues associated with that.
First of all, oil, like gold before it, has the effect that Paul Collier at Oxford, and Tom Friedman cite sometimes called the “oil curse.” Generally it’s just that an autocratic state, when it depends for a huge share of its income on a commodity that has a lot of economic rent attached to it, that rent accrues to the central power of the state essentially. Read More
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[The Vector] James Woolsey on Renewable Energy and National Security
| January 2, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
James Woolsey was Director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency from February 5, 1993 until January 10, 1995, and stands among the most vocal and credible proponents of renewables, making arguments touching on national security, global climate change, and economics. Featured in Thomas Friedman‘s Discovery Channel documentary Addicted to Oil, and in the 2006 documentary film “Who Killed the Electric Car?“ he makes a series of powerful statements on the imperative for the US to move away from fossil fuels. Here are few of the highlights of his position. Read More
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Renewable Energy and Current Events
| November 2, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Here’s a blog post I put up on Renewable Energy World, addressing a question a friend posed: What part of your recent book (Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies) aligns most closely with the major news stories of the day? I mentally shuffled through the table of contents and answered that it’s probably the chapter on national security, my interview with James Woolsey, ex-Director of the United States CIA. Here are summaries of a few key points that Mr. Woolsey raised: Read More
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About James Woolsey, Contributor to “Renewable Energy Facts and Fantasies”
| August 1, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
James Woolsey, the contributor to the chapter on Energy and National Security, has received a total of four presidential appointments – under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Most notably, he was Director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency from February 5, 1993 until January 10, 1995.
Mr. Woolsey is among the most vocal and, in my view, most credible proponents of renewables, making arguments touching on national security, global climate change, and economics. He is featured in Thomas Friedman’s Discovery Channel documentary Addicted to Oil, and in the 2006 documentary film “Who Killed the Electric Car?” which addresses solutions to oil dependency through the development of electric transportation. I was elated when his assistant responded positively to my request for an interview.
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James Woolsey: "End Oil Addiction Now"
| April 15, 2010 | Posted by Kathy-Heshelow under Fossil Fuels |
James Woolsey wrote an interesting opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal this morning. Mr. Woolsey is a former director of the CIA, has served in four administrations, is a foreign policy expert and Rhodes Scholar. He is also dedicated to renewable energy and energy security – in short, moving away from dependence on fossil fuels. Woolsey is a venture partner with VantagePoint, chairs the Strategic Advisory Group of Paladin Capital Group and is Counsel at Goodwin Proctor specializing in alternative energy and security. There are numerous posts on this blog on Woolsey – so readers have no shortage of material on the man.
In the opinion piece, “How to End America’s Addition to Oil,” Woolsey plants the seed of urgency by reminding us that oil is now solidly above $80 per barrel, moving consistently higher over the last five quarters. “If oil reaches $125 a barrel again…then approximately half the wealth in the world…will be controlled by OPEC nations,” he says. He has been sounding the alarm for years, as have others, about the issues of oil dependence.
Read More
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Oilman Psychology
| December 26, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
I conducted my interview with ex-CIA director James Woolsey a few days ago, for the “national security” chapter of my book on renewables. I just posted a blog on RenewableEnergyWorld — getting into the subject of oilman psychology and cowboy philosophy — for anyone wishing to learn more about it.
