Stanford University

Energy Working Group: Modeling the World Steam Coal Market: To What Extent Does China Exercise Monopsony Power?

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This EWG talk will highlight PESD's first analysis using our new coal model by demonstrating how it can be used to analyze the effects of China's import behavior on world thermal coal consumption. We will explore China's capability as a consumer to exercise market power in the domestic Chinese markets, and to what extent this behavior affects the price, consumption, and production of steam coal globally. Two scenarios will be presented: 1) we assume Chinese consumers with import capability behave competitively and 2) we assume they exercise market power.

The use of coal as a fuel has increased tremendously over the past decade, with most of the growth coming from rapidly expanding economies like those in China and India. As coal continues to be the fuel of choice for electricity generation around the world, PESD is excited to be developing a model to further understand the global steam coal market.  In the future, we anticipate the model will help answer questions regarding climate and trade policies, market structure, and technology improvements.

Michael Joined PESD in July of 2010 as a research assistant after graduating from Stanford University with a BA in Economics.

Encina Hall
Stanford University

Michael Miller

616 Serra St.
Encina Hall East
Stanford, CA 94305

(650) 721-1456 (650) 724-1717
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Research Assistant
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Michael joined PESD in July of 2010 after graduating from Stanford with a BA in Economics. He works with the Program Director, Frank A. Wolak, as a Quantitative Research Assistant. At Stanford he discovered his interest in Economics as a tool for encouraging more responsible use of energy and resources. He looks forward to working at PESD where he will continue to explore these interests.

His research interests include studying the effects of price-based climate policies, and to what extent they accelerate the production and adoption of low-carbon energy technologies.

Michael Miller Speaker
Seminars

Morse speaks at State Department seminar on global development and climate change

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Speaking to key decision makers from the Department of Energy and the Department of State, Morse analyzed how to address the fact that coal is now both the leading fuel of choice in the developing world (passing oil in 2006) and the leading cause of climate change. 

Morse offered two strategic frameworks for US policy to reduce emissions from coal-fired power: substitution and decoupling. 

Under the substitution strategy, Morse compared the relative costs and carbon mitigation potential of a portfolio of alternative baseload power generation technologies that could be deployed in the developing world, taking into account political and resource constraints in key countries such as China and India. 

Under the decoupling strategy, Morse analyzed the options for carbon capture and storage compared to the mitigation potential of increasing the combustion efficiency of the existing coal fleet.  Drawing on PESD analysis of coal, power, and gas markets in the developing world, PESD put forward pragmatic strategies to US Government officials that could reduce carbon emissions at scale, without waiting on the emergence of a global carbon market.

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7th Nomura Asia Equity Forum

PESD research fellow Jeremy Carl will be guest speaking at the 7th Nomura Asia Equity Forum on climate policy in China and India and its effects on the global energy market.

Program highlights

  • Main plenary sessions with Keynote, guest & government speakers, panel discussion and corporate presentations
  • Country Focus: China, India, ASEAN, Japan, Europe
  • Sector Focus: Financials, Property, Infrastructure, Alternative Energy & Climate Change, Healthcare, Oil & Gas and more
  • Featuring over 160 Asian and Japanese leading corporates in 1on1 / small group meetings with senior management
  • Access to leading industry analysts, strategists and economists from Nomura
  • Social events to network and enhance mindshare

Marina Bay Sands Resort & Casino, Singapore

Jeremy Carl

616 Serra St.
Encina Hall E415
Stanford, CA 94305

(650) 723-2136 (650) 724-1717
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Jeremy Carl is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution whose work focuses on energy and environmental policy, with particular emphasis on energy security, climate policy, and global fossil fuel markets. In addition, he writes extensively on US-India relations and Indian politics.

Before coming to Stanford, he was a  research fellow in resource and development economics at the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), India’s leading energy and environmental policy organization.

He is the editor of Conversations about Energy: How the Experts See America’s Energy Choices, and his work has appeared in numerous publications including the Journal of Energy Security, Energy Security Challenges for the 21st Century, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development, and Papers on International Environmental Negotiation.

In addition to his work on energy, the environment, and India, Jeremy has written about a variety of other issues related to U.S. politics and public policy; Jeremy’s work has been featured in and cited by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Newsweek, South China Morning Post, Indian Express, and many other leading newspapers and magazines. He has advised and assisted numerous groups including the World Bank, the United Nations, and the staff of the U.S. Congress.

Jeremy received a BA with distinction from Yale University. He holds an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and did doctoral work at Stanford University, where he was a Packard Foundation Stanford Graduate Fellow.

Research Fellow
Jeremy Carl Speaker
Workshops

16th Annual Coaltrans Asia

Richard Morse led a presentation on China's long term coal import/export balance at the 16th Annual Coaltrans Asia 3-day conference in Indonesia.  A few topics he addressed were:

  • Is the world's largest coal producer on the verge of becoming a net-importer?
  • Import price spreads
  • How and why China's government may intervene in the coal markets
  • Domestic market reform and investment

Coaltrans Conferences organises large-scale international coal conferences which attract delegates from all over the world. It also runs focused regional events, exhibitions, field trips and training courses. It has a reputation for employing the highest organisational standards. In 2010, Coaltrans is running events in Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Singapore, South Africa, The Netherlands, The UK, The US, and Vietnam.

Download pdf

Bali International Convention Centre, Indonesia

Richard K. Morse Speaker
Conferences

Energy Working Group Talk: The Role of the Private Sector in the Diffusion of Improved Cookstoves

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Visiting Assistant Professor Gireesh Shrimali from the Indian School of Business will be presenting work currently in progress at PESD: An examination of the role of the private sector in the diffusion of improved cookstoves through a comparative case study of private-sector commercial operations.  In particular, he will present relevant background, the methodology used in our research, and some preliminary results.

More than 2.4 billion people worldwide rely on traditional biomass for cooking, leading to negative health effects, lost productivity, and environmental harm. Improved cookstoves burn fuel more efficiently, requiring less fuel and resulting in decreased emissions.  Yet after more than twenty five years of effort, mainly by governments and NGOs, there has been little progress in disseminating such stoves more widely. Such programs have generally been less successful than anticipated due to issues of sustainability of subsidies, stove design, marketing and adoption of new stove products and scale of effort.  Increasingly, for-profit models run by the private sector are seen as potential solutions to these problems.  However, the participation of the private sector raises its own set of questions regarding how viable business enterprises can be created to serve lower income consumers.

Stanford University

Gireesh Shrimali Assistant Professor Speaker Energy & Sustainable Development, Centre for Emerging Markets Solutions, Indian School of Business
Seminars

PESD releases new Working Paper titled "Adapting to Shifting Government Priorities: An Assessment of the Performance and Strategy of India's ONGC

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The state-owned company Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) is India's largest company devoted to exploration and production (E&P). This paper attempts to unpack the dynamic of the government-ONGC relationship. Focusing specifically on how government ownership and control has influenced ONGC's performance and strategy, this paper makes four main arguments.

First, ONGC exists, just as with national oil companies in many other countries, because of a legacy of suspicion about outsiders.  It performed well when it was tasked with things that were not that difficult and when it had help for the more difficult ventures, such as frontier E&P and development.

Second, ONGC has run into trouble as it matured, and the roots of its troubles are mainly in its interactions with the GoI and secondarily in its management.

Third, a slew of reforms instituted since the mid 1990s have fundamentally changed the landscape of the E&P sector in India and the dynamic of government-ONGC relationship. Targeted at improving corporate governance, enhancing competition in E&P, and eliminating price controls, those reforms have had a mixed impact on ONGC's performance and strategy. They also highlight the difficulties the government has had in encouraging higher efficiencies in ONGC and the oil and gas sector.

Fourth, given the deep interconnects of the oil and gas sector with India's political economy, fixing the oil and gas sector essentially entails fixing the larger political economy within which the sector is embedded.

 

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India and Climate Change

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UCLA School of Law
Los Angeles, California

Varun Rai

616 Serra St.
Encina Hall E419
Stanford, CA 94305

(650) 724-1714 (650) 724-1717
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Research Fellow
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Varun's research focuses on technologies and policies for carbon capture and storage (CCS), technological innovation and diffusion, and the technology and energy policy of India. He leads the carbon capture and storage (CCS) research at PESD.
 
He received his Ph.D. and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford with specialization in energy systems and technologies. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.

Varun Rai Panelist
Workshops

Adapting to Shifting Government Priorities: An Assessment of the Performance and Strategy of India's ONGC

Paragraphs

The state-owned company Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) is India's largest company devoted to exploration and production (E&P). This paper attempts to unpack the dynamic of the government-ONGC relationship. Focusing specifically on how government ownership and control has influenced ONGC's performance and strategy, this paper makes four main arguments.

First, ONGC exists, just as with national oil companies in many other countries, because of a legacy of suspicion about outsiders.  It performed well when it was tasked with things that were not that difficult and when it had help for the more difficult ventures, such as frontier E&P and development.

Second, ONGC has run into trouble as it matured, and the roots of its troubles are mainly in its interactions with the GoI and secondarily in its management.

Third, a slew of reforms instituted since the mid 1990s have fundamentally changed the landscape of the E&P sector in India and the dynamic of government-ONGC relationship. Targeted at improving corporate governance, enhancing competition in E&P, and eliminating price controls, those reforms have had a mixed impact on ONGC's performance and strategy. They also highlight the difficulties the government has had in encouraging higher efficiencies in ONGC and the oil and gas sector.

Fourth, given the deep interconnects of the oil and gas sector with India's political economy, fixing the oil and gas sector essentially entails fixing the larger political economy within which the sector is embedded.

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Program on Energy and Sustainable Development Working Paper #91
Authors
Varun Rai
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