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The role of energy policy in growing the U.S. economy
At the Aspen Ideas Festival 2011.
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The energy policy roundtable at Belly Up.
Broadcasting live from the Aspen Ideas Festival, Kai Ryssdal sits down for a roundtable with three leaders in the energy industry: Marvin Odum, CEO of Shell; James Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy; and Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sun Run. On the agenda: the major topics currently facing the industry, including questions of energy independence, solar power and exploratory drilling. Also, what the future of U.S. energy policy holds, and how much our resources help or hurt the overall economy.
On energy independence:
Marvin Odum: I'm not against energy independence, I just think we need to be realistic about it.
On how to get renewables in to the energy equation:
James Rogers: I think the important thing is, there is a lot of different models...We need to keep all these options on the table because technological developments are occurring in all of them. Price of solar, as I mentioned, is coming down. Prices of wind is changing. New battery technology is coming. A next generation of nuclear plants is on the horizon. More advanced coal plants is on the horizon. Gas plants that are even more efficient than the ones today. So I'm, in a sense, technology-agnostic as long as I can achieve the objectives of affordable, reliable, clean, 24/7, 365 days a year.
Lynn Jurich: I think one quick thing that we can do in this country is to eliminate a lot of the red tape associated with renewable development. When you look at installing a solar system in Germany, it's 40 percent cheaper than in the U.S.
To listen to the entire discussion, click "Listen to this story" at the top of the page.
I heard on Marketplace the other morning, "environments say fracking is dangerous" but the truth is that scientist understand it as well. We can find scientists working for big oil like BP, Chevron or Shell, who will say, "it's sort of dangerous, but it doesn't matter because it's so useful" but even big oil workers are not stupid/highly-paid enough to deny the danger outright. http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=france-bans-fracking-...
-clearly, we're aren't pursuing green energy enough because big oil & gas companies are the wealthiest companies on Earth, ever, & the people getting paid so much like that
I'd be more impressed if Kai Ryssdal challenged people like Shell's Marvin Odum about how drilling natural gas in the U.S. constitutes gaining "energy independence" for America. Try not to fob this marketing speak off on an otherwise intelligent audience--natural gas is a commodity that gets sold on the world market, and as such, is now being explored by multinational conglomerates (like Shell), and will help Europe et al un-tether from unreliable/unscrupulous suppliers like those they rely upon in Russia. Horizontal gas hydrofracturing, the latest "technology" for exploring nat gas here in the U.S. has had detrimental effects on air, drinking water, and other quality of life issues in PA, TX, AR, CO, UT, and other states already. It's not enough to debate different energy types without talking about their downsides. The absence of this kind of debate within the context of this "Ideas Festival" makes broadcasting from it kind of pointless. I expect more from Marketplace.
