Natural Gas a Big Advantage for America, but not a “Panacea”

Dr. Ernest Moniz, U.S. Secretary of Energy, gave the keynote speech at the recent  2013 EIA Energy Conference of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Washington, DC.

More than eight hundred energy professionals attended the opening session, where the question on everyone's mind was “when will the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy license the first LNG export applications?” However, Moniz did his best to avoid it, instead speaking about the importance of green energy development and growth in the U.S.

Adam Sieminski, the administrator of the EIA, invited two keynote speakers to address the opening of the annual meeting; Dr. Ernest Moniz, United States Secretary of Energy and Thomas Fanning, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Southern Company.

“The global price of oil continues to influence our economy, and our allies’ energy security is also an issue for us,” said Dr. Ernest Moniz at the beginning of his speech. Moniz then mentioned the objective of reducing oil dependency, thereby diminishing oil’s strategic value as a transportation fuel. Secretary Moniz also made reference to President Barack Obama’s strategy of promoting a stronger push for energy efficiency for zero carbon fuels, a plan which the President later made reference to at a Georgetown University speech several days later.

In the frame of the energy efficiency objective, the Secretary of Energy pointed out the support of the U.S. government for new technologies to render the effective use of energy with as high performance vehicles, and electric technologies.

The zero carbon objectives are backed by green energy technologies, such as solar and wind, but also including nuclear energy.  While during the last year four plants were announced for closure in the U.S., the Secretary underlined American straightforwardness in nuclear energy with the ongoing construction of a number of new nuclear power plants, alongside technical support being provided to help small reactors change how power is deployed.

However, once the time came to questions, unsurprisingly only two out of twenty-four questions were on the subject of the Secretary's speech—i.e., renewable energy, electric cars, and pro-nuclear issues. The other twenty-two questions were about U.S. shale gas.  Apparently, the Secretary's speech did not meet audience expectations.

The EIA's Sieminski, the meeting's chairman, summarized questions thus: “When will the Department of Energy license the first LNG export applications?” Secretary Moniz answered “Expeditiously.” The floor laughed, and Thomas Fanning, CEO of Southern Company, took the stage.

Fanning’s speech was based on the idea that energy provides new opportunity to the U.S.  Unlike the Secretary, he began his speech with the top subject: natural gas.  His remarks centered on the fact that, while U.S. energy policy is still based on scarcity, he believes America could be a net energy exporter by 2020. There is a need to promote energy innovations as a national priority, with renewable and nuclear sources, but also via natural gas. The U.S. is the world’s largest natural gas consumer and investing in natural gas in export perspectives can reverse all dynamics. However he said, that while “natural gas is an important solution, it's not a panacea.”

While he affirmed his endorsement for natural gas exports, he also reminded the audience of the environmental impact of fracking, which still shapes legitimate concerns. He then continued on to the second part of his speech, which focused on renewables’ game-changing role in the energy market, as Secretary Moniz had said. Fanning said that, all in all, while natural gas and other forms of renewable energy are dynamic, one cannot forget the role of coal and nuclear energy. He even reminded the audience of how emissionlessness nuclear energy is, and noted it could become a reliable energy source for America.

When Thomas Fanning concluded his speech saying, “energy innovation: this is not a Republican or Democratic issue, but an American issue,” conference attendees were touched by the patriotic sentiment, but still not satisfied with their question of “When will the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy license the first LNG export applications?”

Olgu Okumuş is an affiliated lecturer in energy diplomacy at Sciences Po, Paris and director of strategy development at LEO Advisors. She is also a PhD candidate at Sciences Po, Paris, where her research focuses on Turkey’s oil and gas transit policy.

She can be reached at olgu.okumus@leoadvisors.com