An All of the Above Approach to Energy?
Nicolas Loris /
The 2009 Offshore Technology Conference kicked off yesterday with a star-studded panel offering perspectives from all sides to discuss meeting America’s energy challenges in both the near and the long term. The panel included statements and question and answers from Roger Ballentine (Senior Fellow, Progressive Policy Institute), Jack Gerard (President, American Petroleum Institute), Bill Graves (President, American Trucking Association), Jason Grumet (Executive Director, National Council on Energy Policy), David Holt (President, Consumer Energy Alliance), Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Jim May (President, Air Transport Association) and Marvin Odum (President, Shell Oil Company).
Although there was some disagreement, the general consensus was that when it comes to working together to reach an agreeable solution, all sides are talking past each other. The unpredictable nature of how energy policy will be structured in the future is limiting businesses’ commitment to investment as any number of congressional laws could seriously distort the market. Despite the current economic recession usurping the headlines for the last several months, $4-a-gallon gasoline still lingers in the back of peoples’ minds.