Lisa Margonelli: All Publications, Events and Press

Gut Reactions

Articles — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:08:00 -0400

For more than a hundred million years, termites have lived in obscurity, noticed only by the occasional hungry anteater or, more recently, by dismayed homeowners. Other social insects, such as bees and ants, are celebrated for their industriousness and engineering feats, but popular culture has not gotten around to cheering on termites for theirs -- even though they build mounds as tall as 20 feet, which may be oriented north-south as accurately as if plotted with a compass, in order to maximize heat from the sun. The extraordinary powers evolution has bestowed on termites -- some protect the mound by spraying chemicals from nozzles on their heads at intruders,… more

Lisa Margonelli in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch | 'Hot Air and Energy'

Communications — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:55:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Lisa Margonelli isn't impressed. "The current dialogue is profoundly depressing and fake," she told me. "I think both candidates need to be more honest about our options."

Margonelli is a California-based fellow at the high-powered New America Foundation policy think tank in Washington and the author of the fascinating and immensely entertaining best-seller Oil on the Brain.

Published last year and issued recently in paperback with an essay updating some of her observations, Oil on the Brain is the result of three years of field reporting and research that took Margonelli across America and to China, Iran, Nigeria, Chad and Venezuela. She even wormed her way into the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Dotted with respectful and sometimes affectionate profiles of improbably colorful characters, the book documents how oil is discovered and recovered; how it's refined, wholesaled and retailed; how it's priced and sold worldwide as a commodity and as a financial instrument; how it's wound through the social fabric of America and the lives of individuals; and how it shapes politics, diplomacy, democracy, autocracy, psychology, sociology and economics...

... The energy debate has been disappointing, she said, noting the "theatrical approach to high gas prices" that involves talking about what amount to more subsidies and taxes to pay for more driving. We need to be talking about driving less, she said. LINk to Article

Tapped Out

Ron Tang — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:51:00 -0400

To paraphrase an old axiom: You don’t buy water, you only rent it. So why did Americans spend nearly $11 billion on bottled water in 2006, when we could have guzzled tap water at up to about one ten-thousandth the cost? The facile answer is marketing, marketing and more marketing, but Elizabeth Royte goes much deeper into the drink in “Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It,” streaming trends cultural, economic, political and hydrological into an engaging investigation of an unexpectedly murky substance. Partway through her undoctrinaire book, Royte, a lifelong fan of tap water, refills… more

Waste Not

Ron Tang — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:24:00 -0400

Forty years ago, the steel mills and factories south of Chicago were known for their sooty smokestacks, plumes of steam, and throngs of workers. Clean-air laws have since gotten rid of the smoke, and labor-productivity initiatives have eliminated most of the workers. What remains is the steam, billowing up into the sky day after day, just as it did a generation ago.

The U.S. economy wastes 55 percent of the energy it consumes, and while American companies have ruthlessly wrung out other forms of inefficiency, that figure hasn’t changed much in recent decades. The amount lost by electric utilities alone could… more

Core Arguments

Ron Tang — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:24:00 -0400

A generation after Three Mile Island's near-disaster in 1979, nuclear power remains politically radioactive. Though energy consumption has increased dramatically -- Americans upped their per capita household electrical use by a third between 1980 and 2001 -- no new nuclear plants have been built since 1996. We've let the Mighty Atom sit in the penalty box rather than settle whether we're Pro-Nuke or No-Nuke once and for all.

In her provocative yet flawed and often frustrating book, "Power to Save the World," Gwyneth Cravens does us all the service of taking a fresh look at nuclear power and asking whether the… more

5 Myths about Earth-Friendly Energy

Ron Tang — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Last year, Americans spent more greenbacks on oil than any other nation -- about $517 billion, according to the Energy Information Administration. But we've failed to lead in developing green energy, and that's going to cost us even more.

Historically, we've treated renewable energy and energy efficiency as virtuous, feel-good projects rather than shrewd investments in the industries of the future. It shows: We now trail China and Germany in renewable-power production and lag behind Japan and most of Europe in energy productivity. Worse, we may be missing out on the green gold rush of the century: The market for green… more

Start-Up U

Articles — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 05:59:00 -0400

Venture capitalists are not known to haunt Sproul Plaza, with its drummers and dreamers, but last spring Silicon Valley’s financiers showed up in force. On March 21 they filed across the flagstones and into the Student Union auditorium to hear such scintillating discussions as “Carbon Regulation and the Impact on Innovation,” and “Energy Storage: Hydrogen, Batteries, and Beyond.” The draw was not the topics, but rather the 400 people sitting in the folding chairs. They encompassed the entire energy universe of California -- researchers in architecture, chemistry, biology, engineering, and economics from Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; influential state… more

California Event: White Certificates

Communications — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
09/19/2007 - 10:00am

As California searches for market-based incentives for energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions, white certificates -- tradable certificates representing one megawatt of verified electrical savings --are emerging as a promising policy option.

In this one-day seminar, nationally known experts will discuss the benefits and complications of white certificates as well as the ways in which white certificate programs affect incentives for energy efficiency. Following the presentations, Bill Prindle of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy will lead a robust discussion on the future of white certificates and California.

This event is hosted by Commissioner Rosenfeld’s office at the California Energy Commission and it is a joint presentation of the CEC, American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, and the New America Foundation.

If you have questions, call or email Claudie Kiti Bustamante at (916) 448-5189 or Bustamante@newamerica.net.

To watch a live webcast of this event, please visit the California Energy Commission website.

Wild is the Wind

Articles — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 07:29:00 -0400

The better science gets at describing climate change with computer models and probabilities, the harder it is for the rest of us to understand. Recently I’ve resorted to an admittedly lazy mixture of superstition and branding: every big hurricane, every freak April snowstorm, every early-blooming tulip is mentally tagged: "Brought to you by global warming." But of course, this is more "mediarology" than meteorology, to borrow a term from one of the scientists Chris Mooney interviews in his new book, Storm Warning: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming.

After Hurricane Katrina thrashed his mother’s New Orleans house, Mooney began… more

Myths About That $3.18 Per Gallon

Articles — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 10:52:00 -0400

Whew, gas prices are high. Higher than they’ve ever been. During the week of May 21, the Lundberg Survey, a biweekly gas price tracking service, put the average cost of a gallon of unleaded at $3.18. Adjusted for inflation, that topped the 1981 price spike that had held the record for 26 years. Prices have slipped a bit since then, but many predict they’ll stay up near the stratosphere all summer. Wondering why? The answers may not be what you think. Here are five common myths about why we’re paying so much at the pump.

1. Those evil oil companies… more

The Beauty of the Oil Market

Articles — Sun, 20 May 2007 07:25:00 -0400

It's busy season for gas station attendants -- with prices for a gallon of regular unleaded bopping around $3.11 nationally, they need to change their signs at least once a day. Many drivers hate these price changes, and I see their point: Not only are rising gas prices a financial burden; they also function as a sort of emotional baseball score -- an index of American economic health. When prices are high, anxiety rises.

But for me, watching rising and falling gas prices is more fun than watching baseball. Prices are a visible indicator… more

The Petro Mirage

Communications — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
05/16/2007 - 3:00pm

Over the past decade, improving the development and governance in oil-producing countries has become an international project encompassing everything from the NGO-lead Publish What You Pay campaign, to transparency and anti-corruption initiatives, "future generations" accounts for oil royalties, the World Bank's model project in Chad, and even Hugo Chavez's attempt at refocussing Venezuela's national oil company on local development projects. While a consensus has evolved around the problems that oil poses for development, the solutions are still a work in progress.

While researching her book Oil On the Brain: Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline, Lisa Margonelli investigated the confluence of economic, political, and environmental issues that impede development in countries including Venezuela, Chad, Iran and Nigeria. An Irvine Fellow at the New America Foundation, Margonelli kicked off a discussion on the relationship between petrostate leaders and the psychological aspects of living in an oil state, the relationship between corruption and government institutions including tax collections, the "new" nationalism in oil states, and the emerging relationship between violence and oil prices. The discussion also addressed the status of the Chad project as a "model," and whether Venezuela's new initiatives are encouraging development or merely creating a new system of patronage.

Video of this event is available at right, while an MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below.

A Dangerous Move

Articles — Sun, 13 May 2007 12:40:00 -0400

If you want to move four million gallons of gasoline from a refinery in New Jersey to gas stations in Baltimore, you'll need a 400-foot-long double-hulled barge and a 5000-horsepower tugboat to push it. Then to pilot the load, you'll need a crew of people willing to be away from their families for two weeks at a time while working six-hour shifts around the clock. And you'll need about a billion dollars worth of liability coverage.

One morning this past April, I stood high up in the pilot house of the tug Java Sea as chief mate Jon Thomas… more

Cutting Risk of Tanker Accidents Starts with Conservation Habits

Articles — Sun, 06 May 2007 14:00:00 -0400

Since last weekend’s horrific explosion and freeway collapse caused by a gasoline tanker, most of the blame has fallen on the driver, but it’s important to remember that the gasoline, which was headed toward a station on Hegenberger Road, had all of our names on it. The accident is a reminder that those of us who use gasoline -- virtually everyone -- play small parts in an enormous and largely invisible trade in toxic, flammable fuels.

The risks seem counterintuitive because gasoline has become an integral part of Americans’ safety strategies. Wanting to feel secure while driving, we’ve bought bigger,… more

California Event: Oil on the Brain

Communications — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 02:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
04/05/2007 - 12:00pm

Americans consume 10,000 gallons of gasoline a second: three gallons per person per day. New America Irvine Fellow Lisa Margonelli spent three years tracing the path that petroleum takes from oil fields far away to the gas tanks of California drivers. In her book Oil On the Brain she examines the history, chemistry, economics, politics and culture of oil to look at where our relationship to petroleum is taking us.

At this Sacramento event, Margonelli described her travels and discuss ed opportunities to change the status quo, particularly in California. High gas prices may be a chance for policy makers to offer radical new energy policies. She talked about one opportunity to make efficiency gains tradable, so that companies can work towards energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction while stimulating technology and creating jobs.

An MP3 audio recording of this event can be downloaded below. For more information on Oil on the Brain, please click here.

The Washington Post Reviews 'Oil on the Brain' by Lisa Margonelli

Communications — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 13:53:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Before reading Lisa Margonelli's Oil on the Brain, I never would have called the process of energy production "fascinating." But this thoroughly engrossing and entertaining book travels to the heart of Texas and across continents to show exactly how the gas in our tanks gets there -- as well as its financial, social and environmental costs. Margonelli's dogged reporting, which includes pulling an all-nighter at a drilling rig and writing a "spicy" introduction letter to an Iranian government official to get access to his country's oil operations, exposes aspects of the oil industry that are not visible at your local pump.

Much of what Margonelli chronicles is grim, especially when she investigates how oil production has distorted petro-states such as Venezuela, Chad and Nigeria. Many Americans are now familiar with how Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has used his country's oil wealth to assert its independence from the United States, but they may not realize how many of Venezuela's poor still live in slums as they wait for some of Chavez's largesse to trickle down...

Oil on the Brain is at its best when the author manages to connect with the men and women she writes about, moving the energy debate beyond stereotypes. One of the most touching moments comes when Margonelli discovers that she and a fourth-generation oilman, C.D. Roper, both took care of sheep when they were younger. "C.D. and I are both unreformed sheep-loving nerds," she writes. "His pet lamb was named Rainbow, and sometime around midnight he begins to cry at the thought of the cruel uncle who killed Rainbow and ate him." Roper emerges as one of the book's most compelling characters, a man who has managed to make money in a tough, risky business and would consider quitting if he didn't get such an adrenaline rush from hitting pay dirt...

For the complete article, please visit The Washington Post website.

The New York Times Reviews 'Oil on the Brain' by Lisa Margonelli

Communications — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 14:33:00 -0400

New America in the News:

There’s a lot of stuff we consume while barely pausing to consider where it comes from; it is easy, these days, to be insulated from production. Inquisitive writers profitably explore the knowledge gap: recent work about the life stories of handguns, French fries and Panama hats comes to mind. Tracy Kidder chronicled the creation of a computer in “The Soul of a New Machine,” and last year Michael Pollan traced the sources of our dinners in “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” This year comes something new about those obscure practicalities of how does it get here: “Oil on the Brain,” by Lisa Margonelli.

It’s a great subject because oil is at once so familiar (the average American uses about three gallons of gasoline a day) and so obscure — how many of us have any idea where, exactly, our gas comes from, or how it was transformed from crude with a name like “light sweet” to the flammable cocktail we pump into our tanks? What other product is so much a part of our personal lives and so implicated in our foreign policy? As China and India spawn vast middle classes that want to drive cars, and as Hugo Chávez of Venezuela thumbs his nose at his largest customer, the United States, global oil supplies seem more precarious, and their provision more contentious, than ever before.

Margonelli, a fellow at the New America Foundation (and recently a guest columnist for The New York Times on the Web), says she got taken with the subject while in Prudhoe Bay, researching a story on new methods for the cleanup of oil spills. She watched a chemist ignite spilled crude with a baggie of napalm, and heard him expound on oil fields’ “ever-changing stew of complex compounds, endlessly unpredictable and absorbing. He began musing about the components of crude, from the light gassy hydrocarbons to the heavy gooey ones: All of them have distinct personalities.” And she was hooked.

The specialized knowledge of those who deal with oil is mainly what Margonelli sets out to channel in these pages. She traces the chain backward, from a San Francisco gas station near her home to the trucks of a jobber, or oil wholesaler, to a refinery south of Los Angeles, and then to a drilling rig in East Texas. Margonelli intrepidly loiters around the gas station at all hours, climbs aboard a tanker truck making oil deliveries and lucks into an emergency during her visit to the refinery, observing carefully and asking lots of questions when sirens sound and production halts. Her approach is quirky but comprehensive, informal but rigorous: Margonelli has a facility with numbers and an easy way with questions of policy, and the narrative passages here, lightly first-person and often funny, help make accessible the facts of our dependence on oil. Visits to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve near the Gulf of Mexico and the New York Mercantile Exchange round out the American half of the book...

For the complete review please visit The New York Times website.

'Oil on the Brain' Reviewed by National Post

Communications — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 16:41:00 -0500

New America in the News:

For weeks, drivers in central Canada have been worrying about their next fill-up, lining up at the pumps to pay skyrocketing prices for fuel when they can find it. For the first time in years we have seen stations run dry and rationing in those with supplies. Although the shortage was temporary and caused by a freakish combination of events -- problems at two refineries coupled with a train workers' strike -- it nonetheless should serve as a long overdue wake-up call: We can't go on like this.

All this provides new pertinence to Oil on the Brain, Lisa Margonelli's timely examination of how the stuff we use to fuel our cars gets from producer to consumer, and the price we pay, in every sense of the word.

Her jumping-off point is the place where most people encounter gasoline -- the service station. Then she works backward through the refinery to the drill site and the offshore platform. There are visits to the New York Mercantile Exchange and producing countries Venezuela, Chad, Iran and Nigeria. A chapter on China looks to the future as millions of people vie for the right to own four wheels, not just two.

Like a novel that starts in the present and progresses backward and forward, it's a device that seems counterintuitive, but it works.

Ms. Margonelli, a former columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle, now a fellow at the New America Foundation, knows how to spin a tale and has an eye for the surprising detail. In addition, she can take reams of arcane information and transform it into informative prose that keep readers turning the pages...

For the complete review, please visit the National Post website.

Atlanta Journal Constitution Favorably Reviews "Oil on the Brain"

Communications — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 20:47:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Oil on the Brain: Adventures From the Pump to the Pipeline.
By Lisa Margonelli. Doubleday. $26. 325 pages.

Verdict: A fascinating drive.

Like many journalists, Lisa Margonelli knows a little bit about a lot of topics. Like many freelance writers, she moves from one unrelated topic to another, depending on what strikes her fancy and on what an editor will buy.

On Oct. 28, 2002, Margonelli took a fancy to writing about oil. The result is a book in which she shows she knows a lot about one topic. Those who read to the end of the simultaneously breezy and serious book will know a lot, too...

Margonelli, who lives in Oakland, Calif., decided she would travel the globe "to hear stories from the people who oversee oil's long journey to our cars." She wanted to understand oil in a deeper manner than the fluctuating price of its derivative, gasoline, at the service station pump...

The structure of Margonelli's narrative is unexpected, even daring, as she works backward along the demand-supply chain. She starts the book at the service station pump, because it's the most familiar manifestation to the largest number of readers. Then she tackles the distribution, refining and drilling, in that order...

"Nothing was as I expected," she writes of a gas station, a seemingly familiar and uncomplicated site. "The one thing I thought I had a handle on --- the price of gasoline, which is updated frequently and displayed prominently on large signs --- turned out to be a chimera, albeit a fascinating one that reveals much about the behavior of American gasoline consumers and our role in the world."

While oil never leaves center stage, Margonelli does a masterful job of humanizing its passage from underground to pump handle...

For the complete review, please visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution website.

Press-Register Applauds Lisa Margonelli's Book "Oil on the Brain"

Communications — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 16:24:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Stock's par, stock's up, Then on the wane; Every body's troubled with Oil on the brain.
-- From a song, "Oil on the Brain," 1864

Most Americans have pretty strong opinions about high gasoline prices, oil companies and foreign oil. Indeed, one needn't spend very much time at a service station to hear loud and profane suggestions about how to solve matters (a hangman's noose or nuclear weapons are often part of the scenario). Yet it's a pretty safe bet that unless the ranters are somehow involved in the petroleum industry or have devoted considerable hours to its study, they really don't know what they're talking about. They're operating on perception, and the perception's uninformed. Sadly, politicians and industry spokesmen haven't done much to dispel the confusion.

For those interested in penetrating the thicket of rhetoric and misinformation surrounding the subject, there's no better guide than "Oil on the Brain: Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline" (Doubleday, $26) by Lisa Margonelli. In what is easily one of the most compelling examples of reportage I've read in many a year, Margonelli, a journalist and Irvine Fellow at the New America Foundation, backtracks the story of gasoline from its arrival at the pump to the tanker truck to the refinery to the oilfield, and to the New York oil markets. Add her detours to little-visited places like Chad, Iran and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (somewhere on the Gulf Coast, the exact location classified) as well as historical digressions -- all delivered in a slightly bemused and punchy style -- and the result is an indispensable book that every American ought to read...

For the complete review, please visit the The Press-Register website.