As the November election nears in the United States, energy remains on the list of hot topics on the national\u2014and global\u2014political agenda. Questions abound: Why are today\u2019s oil prices so high? What about alternative fuel sources? How should energy policies evolve?<\/p>\n
[flv:http:\/\/business.fiu.edu\/newsletters\/BusinessNetworks\/2008\/10\/videos\/glab.flv 500 334]<\/p>\n
All are tough issues\u2014with no easy answers. To provide perspective on the ongoing energy debate, Edward Glab<\/strong>, co-director of Florida International University\u2019s Energy Business Forum, offers some insights into what really is happening with energy today.<\/p>\n The laws of supply and demand govern oil prices.<\/em><\/p>\n He notes that the law of supply and demand in the global marketplace determines the price of oil\u2014just as it does for steel, cement, copper, corn, or any other commodity.<\/p>\n \u201cRapid economic growth around the world\u2014particularly in India and China\u2014is driving up energy demands, with oil prices rising accordingly,\u201d Glab said. \u201cHistorically, energy and economic growth move in lockstep\u2014and that\u2019s what is happening now.\u201d<\/p>\n Glab sees a confluence of factors that prevent the oil and gas industry from producing what needs to be taken out of the ground to meet rising demand. He points out that political and legislative obstacles in the United States as well as in Mexico, Venezuela, and Russia are limiting the development of new oil and gas resources and, in some cases, making it difficult for foreign investors to fund oil and gas exploration.<\/p>\n Alternative fuels should be part of the solution.<\/em><\/p>\n Developing a portfolio of different energy sources provides the optimal way to solve the current energy crisis, in his view.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to invest in a variety of alternative energy sources\u2014solar, wind, nuclear, biofuels, hydrogen, and hydrocarbons\u2014to enable us to move forward and continue to enjoy the same lifestyle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Glab hopes to see research and development in other areas, too, such as the creation of a more efficient internal combustion engine. He also believes that there is \u201croom for improvement\u201d for the energy policies in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, the U.S. energy policy too often reflects vested interests,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need an energy policy that is based more on science. We should focus on alternative forms of energy while opening drilling areas now off limits to the oil and gas sector.\u201d<\/p>\n According to him, \u201cUltimately, there is no panacea, no single energy resource that can meet growing global demand. We need to think long and hard about what we can do in many areas to decrease our dependence on hydrocarbons\u2014and we need to support the long-term investments needed to develop new, diversified energy sources.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the November election nears in the United States, energy remains on the list of hot topics on the national\u2014and global\u2014political agenda. Questions abound: Why are today\u2019s oil prices so high? What about alternative fuel sources? How should energy policies evolve? [flv:http:\/\/business.fiu.edu\/newsletters\/BusinessNetworks\/2008\/10\/videos\/glab.flv 500 334] All are tough issues\u2014with no easy answers. To provide perspective on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[721,777,779],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}