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Session 15 Energy Independence
If policymakers weren’t dealing with the financial crisis, energy would be the number-one issue. With the decline in oil prices, where is the momentum to move forward on energy independence and climate change initiatives? This session will evaluate recent developments geared toward increasing efficiency and decreasing reliance on energy imports.
Presentations
Sara Banaszak slideshow
Guy Caruso slideshow
David Dismukes slideshow
Speakers
Laurel Graefe
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Laurel Graefe is a Senior Economic Research Analyst in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Ms. Graefe’s responsibilities include analyzing economic developments in the national economy and their possible implications for U.S. monetary policy. She has given numerous professional presentations and published articles on energy issues and international economic conditions. Ms.Graefe is the lead analyst for energy and commodity market developments and is also responsible for supporting general assessment of global macroeconomic conditions for FRB Atlanta’s president and directors.
Ms. Graefe is originally from Floyd County, Virginia, and holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Agnes Scott College.
Sara Banaszak
Senior Economist, API
Sara Banaszak is a senior economist at the American Petroleum Institute (API) where she draws on her oil and natural gas policy expertise as an API spokesperson and policy analyst.
Sara’s knowledge of industry markets and related policy issues ranges across the upstream, downstream, international, domestic, and natural gas arenas. She has a strong background in liquefied natural gas (LNG), including global trade, pricing and contracts, and the North American market.
Since joining API in 2005, Sara has focused on natural gas issues, including the need for additional LNG terminals to facilitate natural gas imports. She has also worked on upstream issues, including access to domestic oil and natural gas resources and how the U.S. compares with other countries in its management and development of oil and gas resources. Her work on downstream issues has included research on the growing use of ethanol.
During 2005, Sara has played a major role in presenting industry information and views to the print and broadcast news media, providing hundreds of print media interviews, meeting with newspaper editorial boards, and making scores of radio appearances. She has addressed such topics as gasoline prices, industry earnings, and the industry’s response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Prior to joining API, Sara directed PFC Energy’s North American Gas Policy Service (GPS) and advised clients on international and North American natural gas strategies. Her consulting ranged from working with multinational and national companies on oil and gas marketing and importing options to helping multilateral organizations explore how to accelerate natural gas investments.
Sara has also worked at the U.S. Department of Energy as a manager responsible for international oil and gas programs and domestic gas issues in the international context, including natural gas-related analysis and policy-making activities. In the Office of Fossil Energy, she acted as a government representative on the National Petroleum Council’s 2003 natural gas study. In 2001, she received Department recognition for her accomplishments with the U.S.-China Oil and Gas Industry Forum, a high-level public-private partnership. In an earlier posting with the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Sara worked on international energy modeling, and, before that, conducted research at the East-West Center.
Sara has been a speaker, chair, and organizing committee member for major North American and international conferences, including Gastech. Her writing on energy issues appears in government and industry publications, and both industry press and the news media have interviewed Sara frequently. She is a member of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE), an executive board member of its Washington, D.C. chapter, and a referee for The Energy Journal.
Sara holds a Masters degree in applied economics from the University of Hawaii and a Bachelors degree cum laude in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a native of St. Louis, Missouri.
Guy F. Caruso
former EIA Administrator
Guy F. Caruso Mr. Caruso is Senior Advisor to the Energy and National Security program at CSIS.
From 2002 until September 2008 Caruso was the Administrator of the Energy Information Administration (EIA), a statistical agency within the United States Department of Energy (DOE) that provides policy-independent data, forecasts and analyses regarding energy. Mr. Caruso has acquired over 30 years of energy experience, with particular emphasis on topics relating to energy markets, policy and security. Mr. Caruso first joined DOE as a Senior Energy Economist in the Office of International Affairs and soon became the Director of the Office of Market Analysis. Other leadership roles held by Mr. Caruso during his tenure at DOE include: Director, Office of Oil and Natural Gas Policy, Office of Domestic and International Energy Policy and Director, Office of Energy Emergency Policy Evaluation.
Prior to joining DOE, Mr. Caruso worked at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as an International Energy Economist in the Office of Economic Research. Mr. Caruso also previously served as the Executive Director of the Strategic Energy Initiative Project, under the Energy and National Security Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) . CSIS is a private, nonpartisan organization dedicated to providing world leaders with strategic insights on, and policy solutions, to current and emerging global issues.
Moreover, before joining EIA, Mr. Caruso was also the Director of the National Energy Strategy (NES) project for the United States Energy Association (USEA). During this time, Mr. Caruso spearheaded the USEA publication "Toward a National Energy Strategy," which was released in February 2001 and a follow-up study entitled, "National Energy Strategy Post 9/11" which was released in July 2002. Mr. Caruso has worked at the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), first as the Head of the Oil Industry Division where he was responsible for analyzing world oil supply/demand and developments in the oil industry; and later, as Director of the Office of non-members Countries where he directed studies of energy-related developments.
Mr. Caruso holds a B.S. in Business Administration and an M.S. in Economics from the University of Connecticut. He also earned a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard University.
David Dismukes
Louisiana State University
David E. Dismukes is the associate director and a professor at the Center for Energy Studies, Louisiana State University. His research interests are related to the analysis of economic, statistical, and public policy issues in energy and regulated industries. Over the past 20 years, he has worked in consulting, academia, and government service. Professor Dismukes has given close to 100 energy-related presentations to civic, professional, and trade organizations over the past decade. His opinions on energy industry trends and issues have been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today, as well as a host of other regional and local newspapers and trade newsletters.
Professor Dismukes has been on the LSU faculty for over a decade and since that time has led a number of the Center's research efforts on topics associated with most all aspects of the energy industry including offshore and onshore oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) activities; the restructuring of natural gas and electric power markets; market structure issues in various energy industries; economic and policy issues related to renewable energy generation and market design, and the economic impacts of energy industry infrastructure development along the Gulf Coast.
Professor Dismukes has prepared over 120 publications including books, book chapters, articles, reports, and academic society conference papers. His academic and trade publications on energy and regulated industries have appeared in such journals as Resource and Energy Economics, Southern Economic Journal, Utilities Policy, Energy Journal, Studies in Economic and Finance, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Natural Resources Forum, Journal of Legal, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues, Public Resources Law Digest, Electricity Journal, Oil, Gas, and Energy Quarterly, Natural Gas Journal, Natural Gas Outlook, Public Utilities Fortnightly, Financial Times-Energy, and theAmerican Oil and Gas Reporter.
His conference papers have been published in proceedings sponsored by the Society of Mechanical Engineers (SME), the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the International Energy Foundation (IEF), the International Association of Energy Economics (IAEE), the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), the Southwest Academy of Management, and the Academy of Legal, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues. He has contributed a number of chapters in books on energy and regulatory issues and is the co-author of a textbook on electric power restructuring and competition for CRC Press titled Power Systems Operations and Electricity Markets.
Professor Dismukes received his M.S. and Ph.D. in economics from the Florida State University. He is a member of numerous professional associations including the American Economic Association, American Statistical Association, Econometric Society, Southern Economic Association, Western Economic Association, and the International Association of Energy Economics.
He is also an adjunct Ppofessor in Department of Economics in the E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration at LSU and is a full member of the Graduate Research Faculty at LSU.