Oil dependency and market failure

Chancellor Alastair Darling offered us these brave words

““If we we don’t reduce our dependence on oil ... we will continue to expose ourselves to the uncertainty of the oil market…..It is important that we reduce our dependency far more quickly than perhaps people thought was necessary.”

It is a shame that the government has wasted over eleven years in producing a credible and coherent energy policy. I was chatting to a guy on the train down to London this morning. He had over twenty-five years experience in the energy industry, much of the latter part of his career was within the nuclear sector working as a senior engineer. He made a rather pertinent point that, once we realise that moving decisively to nuclear is inevitable, we will run into major shortages of the skilled personnel needed to construct the new nuclear power stations. Most of those required have long since retired from the industry and we will be dependent on nuclear engineers from the USA and far east Asia.

Anatole Kaletsky was on good form in the Times today writing about three market failures in the oil industry

1/ The huge gap between the marginal cost of producing oil and the marginal cost of supplying oil substitutes
2/ Monopoly power in the oil business - controlling the supply of oil - “there is nothing efficient about the level of prices set by the market”
3/ The ramping up of oil prices by institutional investors and the incentives to invest in oil exploration rather than much needed investment in non-oil new technologies

The rest of Anatole’s article can be found here

Investment in Energy Infrastructure [23 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Cyclical and Structural Economic Issues Facing the UK [23 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Evaluation on Supply-Side Policies [21 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Current Account of the Balance of Payments [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Migration and the UK Economy [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Positive and Negative Multiplier Effects [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Importance of Productivity [20 May 2012]
Q&A: What do we need to know about output gaps? [20 May 2012]
Revision notes on unemployment [20 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of Cocoa Prices [12 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of a Minimum Wage [12 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision Notes on Supply-side Policies [10 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Model answer for revision data question [9 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Growth and Development Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Trade and Balance of Payments Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Unemployment Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Cycle Glossary [5 May 2012]
Macro Revision - Key Statistics on the UK Economy [4 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Using the Cost-Benefit Principle [30 Apr 2012]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [29 Apr 2012]
Tullow Oil and African Development [25 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Heathow’s Capacity and Connectivity Crunch [22 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Externalities - Deepwater Horizon 2 Years On [21 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Skills Shortages Hold Back Recovery [12 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The UK Balance of Payments in 2011 [4 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision on Interest Rates and the Exchange Rate [3 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: The Collapsing Price of Carbon [3 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Producer Subsidies [2 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Producer Cartels [31 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision on Capital Investment [30 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Inequality - The Rise of Fuel Poverty [15 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Policies to Drive Economic Recovery [9 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Sovereign Wealth Funds [4 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Might Oil Prices Bring another Recession? [4 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Dash for Gas in Mozambique [17 Feb 2012]
A return to Glass-Steagall to prevent another crash? A lesson from economic history. [17 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Is the UK Economy Turning a Corner? [15 Feb 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: King on the UK Economy [15 Feb 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Winning the War on Deforestation [5 Feb 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Focus on India - Comparative Advantage [27 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Trade and Growth [27 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Focus on India - Supply Side Issues [25 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Can the UK Computer Games Industry Grow [24 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Russia Joins the WTO [22 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Videos on Productivity [17 Jan 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: World’s Largest Solar Plant Opens [15 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Frontier Markets - the New BRICS? [15 Jan 2012]
Beyond the Bike - The Importance of Remittances [15 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Time to Re-Boot the British Economy [14 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Economics of Fiscal Deficit Reduction [12 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Competitive Advantage in Trade (Some Videos) [12 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Factors Driving Business Investment [10 Jan 2012]
Economics at the Movies - Freakonomics [9 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Natural Disasters and their Economic Impact [7 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Externalities from Metal Theft [2 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Biomass Subsidies and Timber Prices [30 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: The UK Housing Market in 2011 [26 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Brazil Overtakes UK in Economic Size [26 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Sub Normal Profits - BP Leaves the Solar Industry [21 Dec 2011]
Economics of Deforestation [20 Dec 2011]
Prezi on Information Failures [20 Dec 2011]
Economic Corruption - Global Rankings for 2011 [19 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Long Term Unemployment - A Human Story [15 Dec 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Does UK Manufacturing have a Future? [30 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Will a Youth Jobs Subsidy Work? [30 Nov 2011]
Where is the UK Economy? National Output [22 Nov 2011]
LSE lecture: Darwin economy [13 Nov 2011]
AS Macro: The State of British Business [13 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Video Clips on Unemployment [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Impulses to Change Management Models [5 Nov 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Costs and Benefits of a Super Sewer for London [1 Nov 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Google Maps to Charge for Usage [31 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: UK Executive Pay - All in it Together? [29 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Is the Sun Dipping on Solar Subsidies? [27 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Importance of Investment [19 Oct 2011]
Can the “invisible hand” solve Africa’s poverty? [13 Oct 2011]
Skidelsky in Madrid [12 Oct 2011]
Why Is Macroeconomics Such A Mess? [11 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Copper prices and a copper crime wave [10 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Producing Coffee - Kenya in Pictures [4 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: The Supply and Demand Rap! [28 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Drink Driving and Government Intervention [26 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Market Supply [26 Sep 2011]
50% tax rates - Chuck it George [7 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Savings and Banking to enhance Development [16 Aug 2011]
Monetary Policy Roundtable [25 Jul 2011]
Zondle Game: 10 Question Quiz about OPEC [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Reducing Unemployment after a Recession [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopsony - Dairy Losses Drive Farmers from the Fields [10 Jul 2011]
Glastonbury, rain, mud, abandoned tents and negative externalities. [4 Jul 2011]
UK firms wake up to Brazilian opportunities [21 Jun 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Are carbon taxes ineffective? [20 Jun 2011]
Six Global Trends Shaping Business Strategy [15 Jun 2011]
Chinese inward investment in the London property market [12 Jun 2011]
Poor Economics - Esther Duflo at the LSE [3 Jun 2011]
Is Cost Benefit Analysis of our natural environment ‘a slippery slope’? [3 Jun 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Supply-Side Policies [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Trend Growth [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Recession [23 May 2011]

ECONOMICS TEACHER RESOURCE NEWSLETTER

Join over 6,000 other Economics Teachers in the UK and around the world who receive the tutor2u regular Economics Resource Email Newsletter. Get special offers, first news of latest resources, teaching ideas, conferences and workshops + loads of great ideas for teaching economics from our blog authors.