Moving the energy dialogue forward

The president introduced a worthy goal in his speech: reducing oil imports by one-third over the next decade. Achieving that requires a concerted effort and putting our most promising energy resources to work – today. As we try to move away from foreign oil, let’s give due consideration to domestically abundant natural gas.
 
We have twice as much natural gas in the U.S. than Saudi Arabia has oil. We have more than a century’s worth of natural gas supplies, thanks to technology advances, which America leads in developing, that allow us to tap previously hard-to-reach shale gas. Those reserves can help ease our oil dependence. And natural gas produces significantly less carbon dioxide than coal and fuel oil, making it a critical choice as we move to reduce our carbon footprint.  As the president said, the potential for natural gas is enormous.
  
While our country has been without a national energy plan for decades, lack of policy hasn’t stalled progress. In fact, the tremendous wealth of available natural gas reserves garnering recent attention is the result of meaningful scientific and technological gains in accessing unconventional supplies. Our industry isn’t alone: alternatives like solar and wind are starting to move forward as well, and we’ve seen significant progress in the commercial development of efficient, low-emission transportation options.
 
We must do all  we can to realize the full potential of natural gas and other fuels that put us on the path toward a clean, sustainable, secure energy future. That means encouraging ingenuity at companies across the country – ingenuity that results in dramatic energy efficiency gains such as technology that captures and sequesters carbon releases, cost-effective conversion of older power generation stations to cleaner-burning natural gas, and the design and deployment of natural gas-fueled vehicles.

We do that by allowing markets to work, encouraging the most prudent energy choices and discouraging those that are unproductive. And we do that by ensuring a level playing field with equitable rules – within or outside a stable energy policy framework. Progress can’t wait for policy to catch up. We shouldn’t accelerate our energy thinking and action when prices rise, and then allow them to stall when prices moderate and peace returns to troubled regions.
 
We need to be smart consumers as we weigh our energy choices. Development of all sources – from oil to wind to coal – carries a societal and environmental price tag. We need to be informed, engaged and willing to read the fine-print that accompanies our energy options. And we need to be pragmatic in our decision making: What can we achieve in the near term? What’s available long term? What are the responsible choices that promote energy security and economic stability?
 
Natural gas achieves all of the above. Let’s put this North American fuel to work in creating a cleaner, more secure energy future.
 
Greg Ebel is the president and CEO of Spectra Energy Corp.