Front Page  opinion  roybal

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Sarah's Winks Aren't Energy Policy

By David Roybal
For the Journal
          Amid considerable fanfare fueled by his own money, legendary Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens has turned to television and other mass media to propose that our nation sharply increase its use of natural gas. He asserts that natural gas should serve as a "bridge" to a new energy future that is less reliant on oil bought from nations that don't like us very much.
        It's a proposal that Bill Richardson made nearly a decade ago while serving as U.S. energy secretary to wean not only the United States but other American nations off oil consumption.
        Any turn toward increased reliance on natural gas would capture attention in New Mexico. Our natural gas reserves are the third largest in the nation and account for nearly one-third of all state government funding this year, according to a report by university professors Jay Lillywhite and C. Meghan Starbuck in Las Cruces.
        Still without anything that even resembles a respectable energy policy, the United States flails in a sea of rhetoric about independence from foreign oil.
        New Mexicans other than Richardson long have been in the thick of debates about how best to secure our nation's energy future.
        Our two U.S. senators, Republican Pete Domenici and Democrat Jeff Bingaman, are both senior members of Congress and have alternated as chairmen of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Together, they authored comprehensive legislation in 2005 that was intended at least to lay a foundation for energy independence.
        Given the predicament our nation is still in, I don't know if the top-level involvement of New Mexicans in the energy debate speaks well or ill of them. Either way, I wouldn't hesitate to promote either one to stand toe to toe with Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in a forum that addresses the international complexities and political minefields that dot the road to energy independence.
        Palin, the self-described hockey mom who was elected Alaska governor two years ago, serves while construction of a large new natural gas pipeline is under way in her state, one that undeniably will add to our nation's energy footing. With that as the cornerstone of her experience, she remarkably pronounces that she would position herself in the White House as our nation's ranking authority on energy should she and John McCain win election to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. next month.
        It's tantamount to Richardson presenting himself as an expert on intergalactic travel because of the spaceport that entrepreneurs are building in southern New Mexico during his watch in the Roundhouse. Still, if Palin has winked anywhere while volunteering herself for the role as energy guru, it wasn't because she was joking.
        It was at a 1999 summit in Cancun organized by the International Energy Agency that Richardson projected use of natural gas would increase by 80 percent in North America and more than 150 percent worldwide in the ensuing 30 years. Pointing to the room for growth in natural gas consumption, he said that 55 percent of oil was traded internationally in 1998 compared to only 20 percent of natural gas.
        "In the United States, the (Bill) Clinton administration sees natural gas as both a transition fuel and an opportunity fuel for the entire world," he told ranking oil ministers of the globe. Speaking for the Clinton administration, Richardson proposed steps intended to make it easier for natural gas to be found, produced, transported across international borders and then used by energy-hungry populations.
        He spoke of cooperation already evident then in Bolivia and Brazil; Argentina and Chile; Peru; Columbia; and Mexico.
        Natural gas consumption in the United States is projected to increase from 22.5 trillion cubic feet in 2002 to 26.2 Tcf in 2010 and 31.4 Tcf by 2025, according to the federal government's Energy Information Administration. The agency says domestic natural gas production will increase more slowly than consumption with the difference to be made up by imports.
        Nearly all the increase in imports from 2002 to 2010 is expected to come from liquefied natural gas. But as if to highlight this country's fixation on oil, the first U.S. LNG terminal in more than 20 years, needed for so-called regasification of imported LNG, was opened in 2007 on the Gulf Coast, says the Energy Information Administration.
        Richardson a decade ago envisioned securing greater energy security through regional interdependence. Increased use of natural gas, he said, would help countries diversify both the sources and suppliers of energy. There would be less reliance on one supplier, or one region of the world, for energy resources.
        Richardson stepped in as energy secretary in 1998 with little experience in the area so, arguably, he might serve as an inspiration to Palin. One way or another, we have to get away from simply nibbling at the edges of energy security. Sadly, though, I doubt that a wink and a prayer from Sarah will turn our fortunes.
        David Roybal was a speechwriter for Bill Richardson during his stint as energy secretary. Roybal can be reached at 505-351-4053.