ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

Energy TechnologiesSEE ALSODARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)Electromagnetic Weapons, Biochemical EffectsLawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)Energy RegulatoryCommission, UnitedStates FederalThe U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)is an independent regulatory agency within the Departmentof Energy (DOE) responsible for regulating energyutilities nationwide. As such, it has a significant oversightrole in America’s critical infrastructure. In the aftermath ofthe September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, FERC has workedto help ensure protection of information concerning energyutilities.FERC is responsible for regulating, in interstate commerce,the transmission of oil by pipeline, the transmissionand sale of natural gas for resale, and the transmissionand wholesale sales of electricity. It also licenses andinspects private, municipal, and state hydroelectric projects,approves site choices, and plans for abandonment,of interstate pipeline facilities; and oversees environmentalissues as these relate to natural gas, oil, electricity, andhydroelectric power projects. Additionally, FERC administersthe accounting and financial reporting regulations,and the conduct of jurisdictional utility companies.At the time the Department of Energy OrganizationAct established DOE on October 1, 1977, the nationalutilities oversight organization was known as the FederalPower Commission (FPC). The FPC was later disbandedand FERC established in its place. FERC’s membershipcomes from five presidential appointees, no more thanthree of whom may belong to the same political party. Itsmembers, whose appointments are made with the adviceand consent of the Senate, serve terms of five years.Although there is a chairperson designated by the president,all members have equal voting power.In the atmosphere of heightened security consciousnessthat emerged after the September, 2001 terroristattacks, FERC has worked with entities in the private andpublic sectors to ensure greater protection of interstateutilities. In September 2002, FERC proposed new ruleslimiting public access to information on power plants,pipelines, and other aspects of critical infrastructure as itrelates to energy. Information that had been easily availableon its Web site would thenceforth be granted purelyon a need-to-know basis.Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security❚ FURTHER READING:PERIODICALS:“FERC Streamlining to Reflect Industry.” Oil & Gas Journal.96, no. 26 (June 29, 1998): 33.Gips, Michael A. “They Secure the Body Electric.” SecurityManagement 46, no. 11 (November 2002): 77–81.Matthews, William. “Energy Agency Says Web Info PosesThreat.” Federal Computer Week 16, no. 34 (September23, 2002): 46.ELECTRONIC:Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. (February 23, 2003).SEE ALSOCritical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO), UnitedStatesDOE (United States Department of Energy)❚ LARRY GILMANEnergy TechnologiesEnergy technologies are techniques for moving energyfrom a source to a point of use, for transforming it from anoriginal source-form to an end-use form, or both. They areoften lumped into two groups, conventional and alternative.Conventional energy technologies derive energy fromfuels, either fossil (coal, oil, natural gas) or nuclear (uranium,plutonium). These technologies first turn the energylatent in fuel into heat, then transform some percentageof that heat into another, more useful form of energy(or apply the heat directly, as to warming a building,smelting ore, or the like). Approximately 90% of presentdayenergy use is provided by conventional sources.Alternative energy technologies, in contrast, harvestenergy from renewable, natural flows rather than fromfuels. Technologies that collect energy from sunlight, wind,wave action, or plants are considered alternative energytechnologies. (An exception to the alternative/conventionalclassification scheme is hydroelectric power, thegeneration of electricity from water flowing downhill.Hydroelectric power, although it harvests an energy fluxfrom the environment rather than burning a fuel, is usuallyconsidered conventional because it has been utilized onan industrial scale for so long.)Many energy technologies, conventional and alternative,produce electricity. Electricity is a uniquely usefulform of energy, not a source of energy. Thus, the beliefthat an electric-powered device such as an electric car is“clean” is only correct when the electricity that it uses isproduced cleanly. Most electricity is produced by coalburningpower plants or nuclear power plants; the former401