Energy Secretary Rick Perry opened the World Gas Conference in Washington on Tuesday by condemning “stubborn opposition” to fossil fuels and hyping natural gas as the key to the future energy mix because it produces half the amount of carbon emissions as coal.
“There is still stubborn opposition to natural gas and other fossil fuels,” Perry said in a opening speech in between splashy opening performances by the Blue Devils Marching Band and the Harlem Globetrotters. “The opposition exists even as fuels become cleaner and natural gas increases its share of use. These opponents flatly reject the all of the above strategy that is helping us achieve energy security.”
Perry referenced an emerging trend he often cites of developing nations needing more energy, and how American can deliver “cleaner” fossil fuels. The U.S. is now the world’s largest combined producer of crude oil and natural gas because of the shale boom, a transformation that Perry called an “astonishing energy miracle.”
He said that by 2040, fossil fuels will comprise 75 percent of the world’s energy use.
“The answer is not to exclude oil and gas and coal from world’s energy mix,” Perry said. “It’s too include, for the sake of national security, for the sake of environmental progress, for the sake of our fellow human beings. We must honor the right of every nation to use every available fuel at their disposal. I wish I can tell you the entire developed world is on board with our vision. They are not.”
Perry did not address tensions of Trump administration policies that may harm the natural gas industry, only briefly vowing that “we don’t discriminate against any of our fuels.”
The Energy Department has refuted claims that its pursuit of market subsidies for coal and nuclear plants is in opposition to natural gas, which is replacing much of the coal power in the U.S. Natural gas is the most economically competitive source of power in the U.S., making it difficult for nuclear and coal plants to compete and forcing them to close. Cheaper renewables are beating coal and nuclear in competitive power markets, too.
President Trump is also rattling industry by pursuing protectionist trade policies that could impose barriers to exporting oil and natural gas, and raise costs for U.S. producers of pipelines.
Perry, instead, promoted his administration’s deregulatory agenda, and praised energy companies for improving reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through innovation.
“Rather than punishing fuels that produce emissions through regulation, we seek to reduce emissions through innovation,” he said. “Innovation has helped us drastically reduce fuel emissions. Our goal is to continue to reduce emissions going forward.”
