China, the FSU, and the Politics of Energy
by Garth Renne and Jennifer Considine

As we are frequently reminded by the media -- and too often, by horrific traumas such as hurricane Katrina -- the realms of politics and energy are inextricably intertwined. Geopolitical developments realign international energy flows, and changing market realities often motivate major policy decisions. The link is due, in part, to the operation of impersonal market forces. Economic growth leads to increased energy consumption, so that energy trade flows (and all the political attention they entail) follow the vicissitudes of broad macroeconomic trends.

Katrina's Impact on World Energy Markets
by Stephen Jones

On Monday August 29 Hurricane Katrina slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast making landfall just east of New Orleans, Louisiana as a strong Category Four hurricane. Most news reports indicate that Katrina is likely to be one of the most devastating natural disasters ever to strike the United States. The path of Katrina as it approached landfall was through the heart of the U.S. Gulf Coast offshore oil and gas production and transportation infrastructure that supplies about one quarter of domestic oil production and about one fifth of the nations' natural gas production. To add to its impact on ...