Post-Convention Energy Insights
I was going through my slightly aged clips and came across a few that I think are still worth passing on. This presidential race has my full attention both for what is at stake and for the sheer theater. There are many days, unfortunately, that it appears to be a race to the gutter! On the policy front, it was disappointing to see the Democrats move toward Senator Sanders by eliminating the “all of the above” energy strategy. All of the above has provided a pathway for Republicans and Democrats to walk together toward achieving energy independence for the U.S. Certainly most republicans favored coal and gas and most democrats favored renewables, but it was still common ground. That pathway just got narrower.
The previous week, Republicans in Cleveland embraced not only drilling, but drilling on public lands as this article from Breitbart reported. The story reprinted the new language in the GOP platform which states, “Since energy is both an economic and national security issue, we support the enactment of policies to increase domestic energy production, including on public lands, and to counter market manipulation by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties (OPEC) and other nationally-owned oil companies, and reduce America’s vulnerability to energy price volatility.”
At the same time as all of the political activity, we were reminded here in Ohio about how impactful shale has been on our economy. The Columbus Dispatch had an article about how our electricity generation is gravitating toward cleaner burning natural gas – “six plants are under construction or in the planning stages across the state, including one near Circleville. The projects show how shale gas is transforming the electricity market in a state long associated with coal and coal-fired electricity.”
Finally, the Daily Caller reported on an American Petroleum Institute event (Jack Gerard speech) touting new Energy Information Agency statistics, revealing that Ohio is producing 1,000 percent more natural gas than 10 years ago – astounding!!
The official election season has not even started (we need to wait until after the Olympics and Labor Day), but the news cycle has been robust.