Oil Exec: Coherent Energy Policy Needed

NEW ORLEANS – Lack of a coherent U.S. energy policy threatens to feed into a sense of “energy insecurity” in this country, the president of Shell Oil Company said Tuesday. John Hofmeister told local business leaders it doesn’t have to be that way.

“We have seen our country pass, in my opinion, the tipping point of energy supply keeping up with energy demand in ways that secure our future,” he said. As a result, he said, prices have been volatile and high – good for economic growth but, “the bad news is, we need ever more energy from the natural resource base of this country, which is prohibited from development by public policy – public policy, which inevitably feeds energy insecurity if we don’t do something about it.”


Shell endorses a plan that in the short-term would see more oil and gas development and exploration; in the midterm, support that and the further development of alternative energy; and in the long-term, add into the mix new technologies that would spur new energy supplies and manage greenhouse gases, he said. He did not say how long a period he envisioned for each, though he said Shell is currently involved in alternative energy projects, including such things as wind and hydrogen fuel.

The United States relies heavily on foreign oil to meet its nearly 1 billion gallons-a-day demand, Hofmeister said, and he suggested that could be eased with an easing of development restrictions offshore and on unspecified public lands. For example, he said 15 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf – an area he said is believed to hold vast stores of untapped oil and gas reserves – is open to exploration and production off of the Gulf Coast.

AP