Energy policy under austerity localism: what role for local authorities?

In the UK, local authorities (LAs) have been placed at the forefront of domestic energy-reduction strategies as the responsible actors for coordinating policy in this sector. Yet, there has been little research regarding the role of LAs in this policy agenda, and their abilities to bring together stakeholders in the successful design and implementation of strategies to reduce energy demands. The paper aims to fill this gap by highlighting the relevance and importance of the energy policy sphere to local government studies, building on the idea of resilient LAs within the context of tensions between the localism agenda and the actual implementation of energy efficiency polices. This is achieved through multiple rounds of semi-structured interviews with LA officers. Our findings reveal that LAs, operating under a localism agenda, lack the freedoms and resources from central government to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders, resorting to short-term policies.     

我国新能源开发利用过程中的金融与政策支持

面对经济社会的持续发展,人类面临了前所未有的能源压力,这在中国表现得尤为突出,对此,除了"节流(降低能耗)",就是"开源",进行新能源的开发利用.然而,新能源开发利用过程中离不开相应的金融与政策支持.必须进一步深化金融体制、财税体制改革,充分"开拓"金融政策、产业政策、价格政策和财税政策的潜力,充分发挥其政策的调节和引导作用,在不断提高(单位)能效的基础上,改善现有能源结构,提高新能源开发利用的效率.     

What price access to the open seas? The geopolitics of oil and gas transmission from the Trans-Caspian republics

In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union was the world's largest hydrocarbon producer. The landmass over which these resources are distributed is vast and the reserves mostly landlocked. To convey these hydrocarbons to refineries and to market, the Soviets constructed the largest integrated pipeline networks in the world. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, new competing national interests have produced tensions over these energy resources and transmission corridors, with economically detrimental and often irrational consequences. In Central Asia, the post-Soviet Republics of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan produce significant amounts of hydrocarbons and export their oil and gas to or through Russian Federation territory. Russian government policy aims to continue exercising political control over these resources and to maximize Moscow's share of profits from their export. This paper examines oil and gas transmission issues in Central Asia, against a backdrop of emerging new relationships between the Russian Federation and the three post-Soviet republics, the resurgent strategic competition between Russia and the United States, China's developing power base in the region and Iran's potentially key geographic position for channelling Caspian energy supplies towards the Persian Gulf.     

火化机节能技术研究

随着全社会环保节能意识的不断增强,许多热工设备都相应采用了各种最新的工业技术进行节能改造,以此来降低能耗,减少污染,获得更大的经济效益。本文基于对有效实现火化机节能技术的探讨,试图为火化机生产企业提供一种火化机节能改造的方法。     

建立“热网微机监控系统”提高供热管理水平

介绍了大连开发区供热有限公司"热网微机监控系统"的建立及其应用.     

Energy cooperation problems in Northeast Asia: Unfolding the reality

It is a truism that Northeast Asian states could benefit very much if they were to cooperate in the energy security realm. However, to many, especially economists, their behaviour to this common sense solution has been bewildering: there has been simply no progress towards this end and it still remains a puzzle, even to many energy specialists. This article attempts to answer a simple question: Why do the Northeast Asian states, namely China, Japan, Korea, and Russia, not cooperate? For its analysis, the author of the article relies on content analysis of recently released official governmental long-term energy policy and strategy documents of these states, and notes that cooperation for energy security reasons at the regional level is conspicuously absent, which possibly implies a lack of desire and willingness to do so amongst themselves. The article, however, deliberately omits from its study Korea, simply because no such long-term energy policy exists today. It attributes the major cause to the strong propensity by energy specialists to interchangeably use the concepts of ‘energy cooperation’ and ‘energy security’ in their analysis.     

Protecting people's livelihoods,restarting nuclear reactors: ‘risk recalibration’ in Prime Minister Noda's 8 June 2012 national address

Given popular concerns about nuclear accidents in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, the Japanese state shut down the last of its fifty-four reactors for inspections on 5 May 2012, the first time the country had been without nuclear energy since May 1970. However, on 8 June 2012, in a nationwide address, Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko justified a resumption of nuclear power generation at the Oi nuclear plant in Oimachi, Fukui Prefecture. This article examines Noda's speech as an example of ‘risk recalibration’. The first section outlines the underlying theoretical assumptions, while the second section provides the context behind the speech. This involved the input of political, economic and social actors as they vied for policy influence. The third section then analyses the risk rationality used in the speech itself. The argument is that while the speech is an important example of risk rationality operating through discourse as a medium of power, the overall ‘recalibration’ runs contrary to what recent studies have shown in other areas. In short, it is held that the speech follows a more traditional paternalistic logic of centralized risk management rather than a neoliberal logic of ‘individual responsibility’.     

Preparation of a Ytterbium‐tagged Gunshot Residue Standard for Quality Control in the Forensic Analysis of GSR

Preparation of a ytterbium‐tagged gunshot residue (GSR) reference standard for scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopic (SEM‐EDS) microanalysis is reported. Two different chemical markers, ytterbium and neodymium, were evaluated by spiking the primers of 38 Special ammunition cartridges (no propellant, no projectile) and discharging them onto 12.7 mm diameter aluminum SEM pin stubs. Following SEM‐EDS microanalysis, the majority of tri‐component particles containing lead, barium, and antimony (PbBaSb) were successfully tagged with the chemical marker. Results demonstrate a primer spiked with 0.75% weight percent of ytterbium nitrate affords PbBaSb particles characteristic of GSR with a ytterbium inclusion efficiency of between 77% and 100%. Reproducibility of the method was verified, and durability of the ytterbium‐tagged tri‐component particles under repeated SEM‐EDS analysis was also tested. The ytterbium‐tagged PbBaSb particles impart synthetic traceability to a GSR reference standard and are suitable for analysis alongside case work samples, as a positive control for quality assurance purposes.     

利用扫描电镜/能谱仪和X-射线衍射仪鉴别假“冰毒”

冰毒为纯白或淡黄色结晶体,为利益所驱,很多制贩毒者利用其它外观相似的晶体充当替代品或者掺杂剂,在常规检测时,用气/质联用仪无法检验其成分。本文利用扫描电镜/能谱仪和X-射线衍射仪对外观酷似"冰毒"的晶状物成分进行检测,先利用扫描电镜/能谱仪测定未知物主要元素,再利用X-射线衍射仪测定其晶体结构和成分。两者有效结合成功地鉴别假"冰毒"物质的成分。     

Crimea and the quest for energy and military hegemony in the Black Sea region: governance gap in a contested geostrategic zone

Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its destabilization of Eastern Ukraine have radically altered the European security order, with the Black Sea region becoming an acutely contested geostrategic zone. Russia’s strategic interests in the Black Sea region, especially in terms of energy and military presence, collide with those of Ukraine, Turkey, the European Union and the United States, among others, and expose the governance gap left by the existing conventions and institutions in dealing with the region. It is argued that Russia’s move to annex Crimea was a strategic decision made irrespective of the destructive effect on the post-Cold War order. Furthermore, until a new normal has been accepted by the main players, there is no hope of revising the existing conventions and institutions pertaining to the basin.