News Detail

Media Advisory: Energy Policy for National Security

Release Date: Nov 01, 2007

TEPPER SCHOOL EXPERT: $100 PER BARREL OIL IN SIGHT

Leading Carnegie Mellon energy economist believes tax incentives needed to reduce consumption

WHO: Lester Lave, Professor of Economics at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon and Co-Director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center.

WHAT: Comments/perspective on surging energy prices in the wake of government reports of an unexpected drop in crude oil inventories.
 
According to Professor Lave, $100 per barrel oil is a fast approaching reality, given global demand, tight supplies and market uncertainty.  “Reducing consumption is the key to lowering costs,” says Lave, “and tax incentives may be required to do so.”

Lave says lower consumption reduces oil imports, shifts hundreds of billions of dollars from oil producers back to U.S. consumers and reduce risks to U.S. national security. The model also applies to other industrialized, oil-importing nations, Lave says.
 
WHY: Professor Lave is a leading authority on energy economics and has consulted for a wide range of companies and organizations, including many of the major U.S. power-generating utilities, the FTC, EPA, Xerox, Rand Corporation, Mead, General Motors, Cummins, Witco, and the U.S. Departments of Justice, Transportation, Labor and Defense. Professor Lave is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science, and of the Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board since 1986.

AVAILABILITY: Anytime, via phone or on-camera/live interview

CONTACT:    Geof Becker or Scott Addison
  (412) 268-3486 / (212) 220-4444
  gbecker@andrew.cmu.edu  / scott.addison@gabbe.com