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Interior official calls on industry to help raise America’s energy IQ Rebecca Watson tells Commonwealth North that ANWR discussion ‘hampered by this low national energy IQ,’ says right now we’re hearing just one side of the debate Kristen Nelson PNA Editor-in-Chief
Rebecca Watson of the Department of the Interior cited a recent report on America's low energy IQ as a problem in national discussions over domestic energy production — from natural gas development in western states to exploring the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
Watson, who is assistant secretary for land and minerals management, oversees both the Bureau of Land Management and the Minerals Management Service. Both agencies are involved in oil and gas activities in Alaska and Watson listed current activities in a Commonwealth North address Feb. 24:
• In January BLM released a draft environmental impact statement for the northwest portion of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. This is an area, Watson said, “that USGS has estimated could contain between 6 and 13 billion barrels of oil.”
• MMS issued a proposed notice of lease sale in the Beaufort Sea Feb. 20, some 9.7 million acres. “And what's interesting about this is this is the first time that we have offered royalty relief in Alaska for offshore oil and gas development. And we've received positive feedback from industry on this,” she said. BLM recognized the difficulties of operating in the Beaufort Sea environment, Watson said, “and saw that as a way to help stimulate exploration in Alaska.”
• Alaska BLM announced about a month ago that they “are considering amending NPR-A northeast activity plan on two issue areas,” the area available for lease and mitigation terms. “BLM believes that the NPR-A northeast has at least 3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, and currently about 2 billion of that 3 billion are off limits as a result of the restrictive NPR-A activity plan,” Watson said. The agency is also reviewing mitigation terms, she said, considering whether to make them consistent with what is being looked at for the northwest NPR-A planning area.
• And, she said, BLM has begun scoping on the Alpine satellite fields, which will provide the first production from NPR-A.
Low energy IQ thwarting discussion On the issue of the nation's energy IQ, Watson cited a recent report by the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation, “America's low energy IQ: A risk to our energy future.”
Watson said the study “found that important public discussions about energy are thwarted by America's poor energy IQ. And in a truly scary finding, it found that most Americans think they actually know more than they really do.”
The nation's low energy IQ is hampering “any discussion of the role of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or ANWR in contributing to our domestic energy supply,” she said.
“People don't know where their energy comes from. They don't know the tradeoffs. And they don't know how to really judge the arguments that we're hearing often in the public sector.”
Special interests want to reduce the country's dependence on hydrocarbons, she said, but “then take their position to another level by opposing all domestic production.”
It's not just opposition to ANWR, she said: there is opposition “to production in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and in other parts of the public lands,” including oil and gas development in Utah.
“In Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico,” Watson said, “major efforts are under way to slow or stop the development of natural gas.”
These efforts increase “our dependence on foreign suppliers by driving many American companies offshore,” she said.
Changes ignored The opposition to oil and gas development ignores changes from both government and industry in how America's natural resources are developed and used, Watson said.
“The environmental movement has been in our country for over 30 years. … People have changed the way they operate. Business has become much more energy efficient,” she said: growth in energy use has been much smaller than economic growth.
But the American public is uninformed about “significant improvements in oil recovery,” many pioneered in Alaska: the reduction in footprint size of North Slope developments, the success of three-dimensional seismic data in reducing the number of wells required for discoveries and such production changes as multi-lateral wells and directional drilling, all of which “reduce the infrastructure necessary to discover and produce oil.”
Watson said she believes there will be more technological improvements in how the industry works.
“As we continue to develop the oil resources of NPR-A, I see the continued development of technologies that can be used successfully in ANWR to further reduce the environmental consequences of our search for oil there.”
She noted that opposition to domestic oil production in ANWR seems particularly strong in California where there are 17 million registered cars and 9 million registered light trucks, and were the population — in 2001 — drove nearly 311 million miles, the equivalent of “three round trips to the planet Mars.”
But, she said, “the president has not backed away from his belief that it is in the best interest of the American public to develop the oil resources of ANWR.” And the administration believes “economic use (of public lands) is not only compatible with conservation, but that conservation is really dependent on a healthy vibrant economy,” Watson said. How to raise the energy IQ Asked what can be done to raise the nation's low energy IQ, Watson said industry needs to get involved in an educational effort, “a message I've delivered to industry groups whenever I speak to them.”
Industry doesn't want to play a role in educating the public, she said, “because they perceive themselves as being perceived as the bad guy so they think whatever they say is discounted” and chooses to spend its advertising dollars to distinguish itself from competitors.
“But I think we're in a situation now where we have arrived at such a low energy IQ and such an animosity to domestic production that if we don't change that debate we're not going to have a domestic energy industry in this country. And that would not be good for our economy, it would not be good for our national security.”
Watson compared the situation to a court case where you hear only one side.
“But there's always another side to a debate,” she said. “And right now we're hearing just one side.”
She said she believes “industry has to provide another side to that debate and provide some information to the public.” It isn't the role of government, Watson said, to promote energy: “we in the government have a role to play but our role is a multi-use role… we're here to promote a lot of different activities.”
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