Energy executives and U.S. government officials on Tuesday clashed at an international energy conference over efforts by President Joe Biden’s administration to globally advance clean fuels and geopolitical aims.
Top energy executives took to the stage at the GasTech conference in Houston to blast the U.S., saying it lacked a clear policy for achieving its aims or supplying needed power for economic developments such as the rise of artificial intelligence.
“It would appear we do not have a cohesive, collective decision on how policy should be rolled out and also the sustainability of that policy for sustainable energy development,” said Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO of Baker Hughes.
“AI’s advance will depend not only on the design labs of Silicon Valley, but also on the gas fields of the Permian basin,” Chevron CEO Michael Wirth said at the annual conference.
ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance also said the U.S. has been slow to approve needed energy export projects or address needed permitting improvements.
“We absolutely need permitting reform, and we need more infrastructure,” he said.
But Brad Crabtree, an assistant secretary for fossil energy and carbon management at the U.S. Department of Energy, told the audience that the administration’s Infrastructure Bill has made billions of dollars available for new energy projects.
The DOE is moving to accelerate project reviews to get funding distributed for hydrogen, carbon storage and other clean energy efforts before the change of administrations in January, he said.
“I’m thrilled by the scope and pace of what we’re doing” to reduce carbon emissions, said Crabtree. He added he is “very concerned” about challenges to permitting for hydrogen and carbon storage projects.
The U.S. is collaborating broadly with other nations and energy groups to achieve clean-energy goals and counter rivals, said U.S. State Department official Geoffrey Pyatt.
A second thrust of U.S. energy policy is to “make sure that Russia pays a price on the extraordinary violence that it is inflicting on citizens,” pointing to efforts to build an coalition on sanctions.
Peter Clarke, an Exxon senior vice president, said developing nations should not be expected to adopt the same clean-energy strategies as advanced economies.
“There is not a one-size-fits-all for Asia,” Clarke said. “We need to be careful with taking policies in developed nations, and expecting developing countries to jump to that.”
(Reporting by Georgina McCartney, Marianna Parraga, Sabrina Valle and Curtis Williams; writing by Gary McWilliams; Editing by David Gregorio)