Energy Secretary: renewables key to future energy needs
BY JOHN-LAURENT TRONCHE
March 15, 2010
The U.S. Secretary of Energy wasted no time outlining his arguments for climate change legislation at a Houston energy conference, even as the governor of the state in which he was speaking is pushing back against the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent moves to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
The Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Steven Chu, stressed that U.S. residents will live in a carbon-constrained environment in the near future, and while other countries, such as India and China, recognize this fact and are investing hundreds of millions in renewable energy resources, the U.S. has been slow to act.
“We still have the opportunity to lead in this new industrial revolution to secure our prosperity in the coming years and the coming decades,” Chu said during a speech in downtown Houston during the 29th IHS CERA Week conference, “but time is running out, and the train is leaving the station.”
His speech March 9 coincided with the U.S. Department of Energy’s up to $154 million investment in NRG Energy for a carbon capture and storage project in Thompsons, Texas, about an hour southwest of Houston. The Clean Coal Power Initiative, a public-private partnership, selected NRG to construct a 60-megawatt carbon capture demonstration facility with the aim at moving advanced coal technologies from ideas on paper to commercial deployment. New Jersey-based NRG will match the federal government with its own $154 million.
Chu said investment in new technologies, renewable or otherwise, is about more than just climate change – it would ensure enough energy to go around, wean the United States off foreign oil and help the country compete in technology on an international level; however, climate change drives many policy decisions.
“The amount of CO2 increase in the atmosphere is due to us. It’s not just a coincidence that started in the Industrial Revolution,” he said. “We have fingerprints all over it.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a climate change denier, has ordered the state to take legal action against the EPA for the latter’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Perry has painted the EPA’s efforts as a target against Texas agriculture and energy producers.
“Over the long haul, the costs of oil and other forms of energy will rise in the coming decades, and the risks of climate change are becoming increasingly apparent,” Chu said, “and eventually, whether it’s three years from now, five years from now or 10 years from now, we will live in a carbon-constrained world.”
Renewable energy resources have been a key focus of the Obama administration through its appointment of Chu; however, the latter acknowledged that traditional hydrocarbons would remain a primary source of energy.
“It’s going to take many decades to transition away from foreign oil. Why? Because oil is an ideal fuel for transportation,” Chu said. Speaking in a prerecorded message, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed fossil fuels will be needed going forward, while both her and Chu’s statements echoed those by the president and CEO of the world’s largest oil-producing company, who spoke earlier in the day.
For the foreseeable future, “hydrocarbons will remain the major fuel source. Even 20 years from now, fossil fuels will continue to satisfy around 80 percent of total energy consumption,” said Khalid Al-Falih, a Texas A&M University graduate who assumed the chief executive role at Saudi Aramco last year. He added, “None of us will see in our lifetimes fossil fuels meeting less than 70 percent of total demand.”
Falih also warned of green bubbles, in which the potential of renewable energy resources is overestimated and underdelivered.
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