Natural Disasters and Energy Policy A Summary of the Forum on Natural Diasters and Energy Policy, June 12, 2001, Washington, DC (2002) / Chapter Skim
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This may be explained by factors other than climate changes, most notably, an increased potential for economic damage due to population growth and high value real estate development in high risk, coastal locations. Accordingly, Pielke and colleagues performed two sensitivity analyses of projected losses from hurricanes due to climate changes versus societal changes; their study used projections from the 1995 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
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NATURAL DISASTERS CONSTRAINTS AND IMPACTS ON ENERGY FACILITIES: EARTHQUAKE RISK MANAGEMENT CASE STUDIES PRESENTATION BY LLOYD S CLUFF, PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC, SAN FRANCISCO Cluff cited several case studies where the performance of energy facilities was compromised during earthquakes, and he called for a national energy policy that incorporates the potential for disruption to power systems due to natural disasters.
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and resulted in a flurry of California seismic safety policy activity based on the State Seismic Safety Commission's plan to reduce earthquake losses. Cluff noted that the implementation of strategic long-term risk management policies improves the safety and reliability of energy systems.
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· Hydro-Quebec immediately put a resolution strategy with four phases into place. The first phase consisted of getting 50% of the community back into their homes; the second phase increased the requirement to 100% of the community; the third phase entailed completion of the permanent reconstruction; and the fourth phase resided in developing additional measures to strengthen the system to handle better future storms of this magnitude.
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Additional factors included demand exceeding supply, old and failing systems, and failure to make changes necessary to meet the power demands. The California power supply is threatened by planned power outages, unplanned failures of the power grids, and extended outages.
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DISASTERS CONSIDERATIONS IN ENERGY POLICY PRESENTED BY RICHARD T SYLVES, UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE Sylves related Presidential Disaster Declarations and their history to matters of energy policy and disaster policy.
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Presidents are especially likely to issue approvals if the event is of national concern, if state and local officials maintain that they are unable to meet the challenges posed by the event without federal help, or if the federal government is presumed to have necessary money and resources to help save lives and protect property before, during, and after an event. Natural disasters are public events that can produce massive losses, thus they draw massive news media attention.
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Sylves remarked that electricity and natural gas utility deregulation over the past 10-20 years has fragmented these power systems so much that federal and state governments will be hard-pressed to effectively aid in reconstituting these systems after major natural disasters. Sylves believes that energy policy may aid disaster mitigation if it promotes system redundancy, advances local or regional distributed power production, maintains and modernizes infrastructure, continues low-income home weatherization programs (as advocated in the report)
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The caucus was launched in Summer 2000 at a forum on Capitol Hill, during which members of the hazards community testified before the caucus co-chairs on challenges and issues that Congress should address to make the country more resilient to natural hazards. One challenge the caucus faces is demonstrating that natural disasters need not necessarily translate into human suffering and cost.
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In light of the current move toward deregulation of utility companies, Hannegan raised the following questions relevant to natural hazards in the context of energy policy: · What would a Gulf of Mexico hurricane mean for oil and gas production in the Gulf? · What would an earthquake in California mean for the already high gas and electrical energy prices?
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CONCLUDING REMARKS Ralph Bernstein, Lloyd Cluff, and Stuart Nishenko joined Folger and Hannegan in the panel discussion. Each gave brief comments on the forum discussion.
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She also noted that FEMA is using the structure of the federal response plan to work with the state of California to see what FEMA, other federal agencies, and the state can do to anticipate short-term problems caused by the energy costs. Lloyd Cluff discussed three main ideas heard at the forum.
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