A new global energy panel led in part by former President Bill Clinton’s energy chief suggests that the shale oil revolution has primed the U.S. to win the renewable energy race.
“The US is well positioned in the clean energy race: US companies hold strong positions in new technologies, including robotics, artificial intelligence, and electric vehicles,” the International Renewable Energy Agency’s Global Commission on the Geopolitics of Energy Transformation said Friday in its first report.
The new commission, partly funded by the U.S. government, was established last January, after decades in the works, with the goal of producing a report on the impact of renewable energy on global influence and geopolitics.
Bill Richardson, who served as Clinton’s energy secretary from 1998 to 2000, is the only representative from the U.S. on the geopolitics commission.
Renewables could benefit from the greater energy self-sufficiency that oil and natural gas afford the U.S., according to the report.
The U.S. is now the largest fossil fuel producer. Not only will that status make it less vulnerable to the OPEC oil cartel’s actions, the commission concludes, it will also grow its substantial technology sector in a way that will benefit the global renewable energy transition.
The report concludes that countries less vulnerable to global energy price shocks from increased dependence on imports can focus on growing their renewable energy industries. Countries with their own energy resources, the report notes, tend to have stronger economies that can support a variety of industries, including an expanding renewable energy industry.
Richardson has been critical of Trump’s tariff policies, but he has also been optimistic about the administration working out a trade deal with China.
He told CNBC last week that he would like to see a trade deal reached with China that includes buying more U.S. energy products in exchange for tariff relief.
Those energy products would include shale oil and more coal and natural gas, a mix not far from that envisioned in the current administration’s energy dominance agenda.
The U.S. became a net exporter of natural gas in 2017 and is projected to become a net oil exporter early in the next decade, according to the report.
The new report says China is in a more vulnerable position when it comes to energy, because of its dependence on imports, along with Japan and Europe.
Richardson’s presence on the U.N.’s year-old commission accords with his background in an energy state.
Richardson was the former governor of New Mexico, which holds 4 percent of all U.S. crude oil reserves, and is consistently the U.S.’ number six oil producer, according to the Energy Department.
The state produces 4 percent of the nation’s natural gas production and is among the top 10 gas producing states. It also contains almost 3 percent of the U.S. coal reserves and produces 2 percent of the nation’s coal.
The report also says that U.S. shale is making the OPEC oil cartel and Russia less important to the global oil market.
“OPEC might reinvent itself in some guise; nevertheless, in a world that has a growing range of energy alternatives, it is likely to decline in importance,” the report reads.
In fact, the same day the report was released, Saudi Arabia, the largest OPEC producer, announced it was launching a major renewable energy initiative as part of an effort to transition away from oil.
“Countries that have historically enjoyed geopolitical influence because they supply fossil fuels are likely to see a decline in their global reach and influence unless they can reinvent their economy for a new energy era,” the report explains.
Both the report and the Saudi announcement were released at the ninth meeting of the International Renewable Energy Agency general assembly last week in Abu Dhabi. It was not clear at press time if the Trump administration was present at the meeting, which lasts through Sunday.
