AAPG GEO-DC Blog

Investing in energy efficiency is like picking up $20 bills off the ground, according to U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

In an op-ed published today by the World Economic Forum and IHS CERA the Secretary outlines how energy efficiency investments are the cheapest way to reduce carbon emissions over the next several decades, citing studies by McKinsey and the National Academies.

Skeptics, however, contend that if the savings were real then the market would realize them, making the necessary investments to achieve this return.

“[T]here aren’t 20-dollar bills lying around waiting to be picked up,” they argue.

In response, the Department of Energy conducted an analysis indicating that the measures considered (building retrofits, appliance standards, etc.) did in fact yield savings, but …

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu spoke at CERAweek today in Houston, and according to Christopher Helman of Forbes said, “we will live in a carbon-constrained world.”

And that is why the government is investing $154 million in a Texas-based clean coal project of  NRG Energy that includes post-combustion carbon capture and sequestration.  The federal investment will be matched by NRG Energy.

Chu reiterated his belief that global warming is real, and stated that natural gas would be a necessary bridge fuel that would permit the expansion of intermittent renewable energy from wind and solar.

But Chu conceded that it would be decades before the country is weaned off imported oil.  However, Helman …

The Economist online published a chart this week that shows how the petroleum industry is advancing into deeper waters to find and develop oil and natural gas resources.

The industry has come a long way, as the article states, since “1947 [when] Kerr-McGee built the world’s first offshore oil well that was completely out of sight of land…”  And if you’ve ever had a chance to visit an operations center, or perhaps set foot on one of these engineering marvels, it’s obvious this industry engages in “rocket science” on a daily basis.

The March 2010 Washington Watch column is now available online with an overview of the proposals in President Obama’s FY2011 budget that affect oil, natural gas, and the geosciences.