Baker Institute panel discusses U.S. energy security

Baker Institute panel discusses U.S. energy security
Speakers call for diversification of supply, investment in new technologies

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News Staff

Devising a strategy to provide the United States with a secure supply of energy has become considerably more complicated in recent years, according to a panel of experts who spoke at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy May 14.

“Many things are beyond our control,” said panelist Terry Hallmark, referring to the many geopolitical risks threatening energy supply. Hallmark is director of political risk and policy assessment at IHS, an energy consulting and publishing firm.

Speakers at the forum, titled “Searching for Energy Security,” agreed that one approach is to diversify the sources and types of energy used in the United States.

American energy demand is immense. Amy Myers Jaffe, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies at the Baker Institute, pointed out that the U.S. still uses about 25 percent of the world’s oil production, or 21 million barrels a day.

“We’re using a tremendous amount more energy than the populations of other countries,” she said.

Richard Sears, vice president for exploration and deepwater technical evaluation with Royal Dutch Shell, was the only panelist representing a company that produces energy. He cautioned that the age of “easy oil” is past, and future efforts to find new energy sources will be challenging. Nevertheless, Sears said, consumers want energy that is “cheap, convenient and clean.”

A failure to understand the complexity of energy use adds to the difficulties on energy security, said Gal Luft, executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.

Luft said energy can be divided into two main groups: electricity/power and transportation. Ninety-seven percent of the transportation sector is fueled by petroleum, according to Luft, while electricity/power is generated by nuclear, solar, wind, natural gas and other sources.

“The problem is the solutions to the petroleum problem are not always the solution to the electricity problem, and vice versa,” he said.

The panelists also agreed that domestic politics blocked effective solutions to enhancing U.S. energy solutions.  In reference to the presidential candidates pursuing votes in the ethanol-producing heartland, Luft advocated taking the first caucuses of 2008 out of Iowa. On a more serious note, he called for fuel flexibility to be made standard on all new vehicles, a massive expansion of investment in battery technology, and a commitment to building strategic energy reserves.

Sears puts his faith in technology.

“It doesn’t solve all problems immediately, but technology over time solves problems,” said Sears. “The not-quite-right hybrids today are laying the groundwork for the probably-much-better hybrids tomorrow.”

Hallmark recommended diversification to alleviate America’s reliance on imported energy. “Change as much as you can the fuel sources you’re dependent upon,” he urged. He also backed a multilateral task force to handle potential geographic chokepoints and improved diplomacy to deal with crises.

The forum was cosponsored by the Baker Institute and the American Jewish Committee’s Houston Chapter.

Learn more by watching an webcast of this event.