• petroleum refineries and oil import businesses
• natural gas processing plants & LNG facilities
• large-scale coal generation plants

Professor Ken Medlock will present highlights and key findings of The Baker Institute’s research examining the U.S. energy market consequences of potential greenhouse gas emissions regulations. Scenarios examined include the adoption of a national carbon management initiative as well as a continuation of the current trend towards a piecemeal, sub-national, state by state, policy.

The Baker Institute research has focused on determining how greenhouse gas emissions regulations in the U.S. will, if enacted, impact energy markets, including trends for demand, pricing and supply.

Professor Medlock will summarize his colleagues’ and his key findings about

• Equilibrium price of carbon in a carbon-constrained world & its affect on energy markets
• Impact on natural gas and LNG markets
• Impact on electric power cost and availability (coal vs. gas)
• The effects of future carbon abatement policies in the US and internationally
• The so-called "carbon leakage" phenomenon (migration of energy-intensive businesses from the U.S.) and the consequent challenges for U.S. trade policy
• The effect of different costs of carbon avoidance technologies on U.S. energy market prices, supply and demand
• The geopolitics of emerging U.S. carbon management policies and impacts on diversification of U.S. natural gas import supplies, U.S. trade policy, and U.S. foreign policy
• Cap and trade vs. straight carbon tax
• Winners and losers in a carbon constrained world

What it all means to us average Americans (what will it cost us and will we be mildly unconvinced or will our life-styles be profoundly altered) by this intervention in the energy marketplace?