Singapore is currently very vulnerable in terms of its energy security situations due to our over dependency on fossil fuel. Our energy supply should be further diversified to include other fuel sources, so as to minimize our vulnerability to shocks in the oil market. However, the question now as to whether nuclear energy remains as a fallback option should be raised and the risks of Singapore going nuclear should be calculated.

Grounds compelling Singapore to diversify its energy supply lie largely on the geopolitical risk of oil markets. A small island like Singapore is a price-taker for oil imports, meaning that if oil prices go up, we have neither the massive stockpiles, the production capacity, nor the geopolitical influence to change the price. Although it is true that we possess some price-setting ability due to our oil refining industry, it is not major enough to give us sufficient leverage to be an overall price-setter in the oil market.

Looking in retrospect, I consider 2006 as a rather eventful year in both the local and international politics. Here is some recap of what happened in the year 2006:

Local political events included examples like the much speculated PROGRESS package given during the pre-election period as workfare bonus, Mr James Gomez’s “innocent mistake” saga, the General Elections where PAP reigned victory again, mismanagement in some welfare organizations, much debated foreign talent policy, the “elitist” issue that surfaced from Ms Wee Shu Min’s blog incident, parliamentary debate on the widening rich-poor gap problem, better wealth distribution to the needy Singaporeans through a proposed GST hike to 7% and recurring problems in the Malaysia-Singapore ties.