In Memoriam: Larry Goldstein (1942-2024)
December 20, 2024
Before the Trump administration’s 2018 actions, Iran shipped petroleum to multiple destinations including Syria, Korea, India, Turkey, Japan, and others; during this period China purchased 30% to 50% of Iran’s exports. Through sanction evasion, China has since become the dominant buyer of Iran’s petroleum with purchases that range from 75% to 95% of Iran’s total exports during 2023 and 2024
Before the Trump administration’s 2018 actions, Iran shipped petroleum to multiple destinations including Syria, Korea, India, Turkey, Japan, and others; during this period China purchased 30% to 50% of Iran’s exports. Through sanction evasion, China has since become the dominant buyer of Iran’s petroleum with purchases that range from 75% to 95% of Iran’s total exports during 2023 and 2024.
A story in today’s Wall Street Journal (September 14, 2022) points out that the while U.S. consumers are getting a reprieve from high gasoline prices, a large jump in electricity and natural-gas costs are increasing their energy bills as winter approaches. The index for electricity in August climbed 15.8% over the same month a year ago, the biggest such 12-month increase since 1981. The story goes on to point out that electricity price increases have been driven by rising prices for natural gas, which powers about 37% of U.S. electricity production and that heating and cooking costs have increased 33% over the last 12 months.
A recent article published in Commonwealth Magazine by EPRINC Trustee Larry Goldstein and former Congressman Joe Kennedy highlight the dire circumstances faced by many low-income Americans as we head into winter. A main source of assistance for low-income families is the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP. The program is now facing a 50 percent funding cut at a time skyrocketing energy cost. Rising energy costs also highlight’s the importance of sustaining adequate production of legacy fuels until low-cost and low-carbon alternatives are freely available to consumers.
…Lucian Pugliaresi
On Wednesday, June 22, 2022, the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy held a hearing titled, “Legislative Hearing to Strengthen Energy Infrastructure, Efficiency, and Financing.” Under consideration were several pieces of legislation including the “Securing America’s Critical Minerals Supply Act” (H.R. 1599), the “Energy Accountability Act” (H.R. 5292), the “Guaranteeing Resilient Installations for Defense Act” or the “GRID Act” (H.R. 8053), and the “Tribal Energy Investment Act of 2022” (H.R. 8068). Along with the legislation, Subcommittee Members pursued broader themes focusing on the recent increases in transportation fuel prices. EPRINC President Lucian Pugliaresi was invited to testify along with five other experts from trade associations, universities, and think tanks.
EPRINC Trustee, OIES Research Associate, CEBRI International Board Member Ivan R. Sandrea Silva and EPRINC President Lucian Pugliaresi have authored a paper entitled “The Low Carbon Energy Transition: A window of opportunity for a new phase of economic development in Africa and Latin America?” This paper is directly related to a presentation given by Ivan at the CEBRI online conference called “Sustainability and the New Energy Economy in a Multipolar World.” A pull quote from the paper is below:
“In the African and Latin American regions, climate change concerns and the energy transition have received a lot of negative and positive attention and is building significant support especially among the growing youth. But the energy transition is also causing recurring dislocations for both global and regional leaders, the industry, investors, and policymakers. The environment itself is also being affected, and ironically, the level of confidence for the net zero path is dropping as rising energy prices hit the region’s economies. This is because the energy transition “movement’ in the Western world is occurring in a very disorganized and uncoordinated manner, and that is where we see both a major problem unfolding and an opportunity for the leading economies and leaders.”
China has emerged as a key player in the global natural gas market in the past decade, surpassing Japan as the top natural gas importer and the largest LNG importer in 2018 and 2021, respectively. China’s role in determining Asian natural gas trends—especially, gas pricing and LNG trade—is increasingly important as the country looks to replace greater volumes of coal with natural gas to implement its programs to reduce local air pollution. As part of EPRINC’s China Series, this publication evaluates market and policy trends in China and projects the country’s natural gas and LNG demand through 2030.
As the Senate Judiciary Committee is taking up a vote on NOPEC, EPRINC is re-releasing this 2019 article published in Real Clear Energy on NOPEC legislation.
EPRINC’s Max Pyziur was quoted extensively in the Miami Herald’s article “What Does Biden’s Ban on Russian Oil Imports Mean for People in the U.S.? What to Know“. The article was published on March 8, 2022.
A quote from the article:
“We are in a situation of war. This isn’t just an isolated event in Eastern Europe. This is something that affects the world,” Pyziur said. “It’s going to impact living standards. It’s going to impact national security, it’s going to impact food security, it’s going to impact energy security – all these things.”
Today on February 25, 2022, LNG Allies was joined by the Energy Policy Research Foundation, American Exploration and Production Council, and the Energy Equipment & Infrastructure Alliance in a letter addressed to the Biden Administration expressing increasing concerns on U.S. and European Energy Security. A brief summary of the suggestions in the letter is below:
https://lngallies.com/energysecurity/
On February 25 2022 at 8:30am–11:00am (Tokyo Time – JST) / February 24 6:30pm–9:00pm (Washington Time – EST), IEEJ and EPRINC cohosted a webinar, “LNG: Addressing the Near-Term Energy Crisis and Long-Term Environmental Challenges.”
The post-pandemic world has now moved to a global energy crisis, price shocks, supply shortages, and a geopolitical standoff in Europe. The IEEJ/EPRINC workshop explored LNG’s role in policy strategies to both address the crisis and examined its longer-term role in the energy transition to a lower-carbon future. It will also included a discussion on the potential role of ammonia in the transition.
Speakers included Chairman and CEO of the Institute of Energy Economics Japan (IEEJ), Tatsuya Terazawa; President of EPRINC, Lucian Pugliaresi; former U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette; LNG Allies President Fred Hutchison; Tellurian President and CEO Octávio Simões, EVP at Diamond Gas International Japan Branch Tetsuya Nishigaki; the Japan Gas Association General Manager Yuji Kumai, JERA General Manager Kenji Takahashi, and others as well as U.S. and Japanese industry leaders, experts from think tanks, the Institute for Energy Economics Japan and the Energy Policy Research Foundation for a discussion on role of LNG addressing the worldwide energy crisis and long-term environmental challenges.
The agenda from the event can be found here, and the presentations are located here. The link to view the recording of the webinar is here.
On Wednesday, February 16 2022, EPRINC President Lucian Pugliaresi testified before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works at a hearing called “The Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard Program: Challenges and Opportunities.” Lou was joined by Cory-Ann Wind from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Emily Skor from Growth Energy, and LeAnn Johnson Koch from Perkins Cole, LLP. Lou’s testimony was later extensively quoted by Politico’s E&E News (link is behind a paywall), and one of the highlights of these quotes was:
“The principal drawbacks and risk factors of the program are not the use of biofuels as blendstock for gasoline and diesel fuel, but the statutory mandate which requires ever-larger blending volumes without regard to market conditions, costs or technical constraints,” Pugliaresi said. “Price risks to consumers from higher transportation fuel costs rise substantially as mandates push biofuel blending above 10 percent of the gasoline pool.”
The link to the full video of the event and each testimony is here, and Lou’s testimony can be found here.
On Thursday, January 20, 2022, at 12:00 pm EDT, the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources hosted a remote oversight hearing titled, “What More Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Leasing Means for Achieving U.S. Climate Targets.” EPRINC President Lucian Pugliaresi was one of the witnesses called to testify at this hearing, and in addition to his testimony he was asked many questions by committee members. His testimony as well as the accompanying slides are found here, and a full video of the hearing is here. The EMR website has full information about the hearing at this link.
In addition to his testimony, Lou was asked several questions for the record by Republican Members after the hearing was over. His response to those questions can be found here.
EPRINC has cohosted a webinar with the Global Gas Centre (GGC). The workshop was held on February 2, 2022 at 9:00 to 11:30 AM (Washington time) / 3:00 to 5:30 PM (Geneva time).
Recent power failures in the U.S. have raised public concerns about the stability and resilience of North American electricity grids. Spiking energy prices in Europe and ongoing constraints in natural gas supplies are pointing to a sustained crisis on the European Continent. While no single event can be identified as the primary cause of this turmoil, energy policies have played an important role and hold lessons for policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Speakers included former U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette; former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Neil Chatterjee; Arno Büx from Fluxys, European Natural Gas System Operator; Thomas Popik, Chairman and President, Foundation for Resilient Societies;
as well as U.S. and European industry leaders, experts from think tanks, the Global Gas Center and the Energy Policy Research Foundation. The discussion covered growing pressures on energy markets in the U.S. and Europe and what lessons policy makers should take from these developments.
A video recording of the workshop can be found here. Presentations from the event are here, and the event agenda is here. A report and overview of the workshop is here.
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