Pulitzer-Prize winning author speaks about energy, global politics

Abby Smith By Abby Smith
on April 14, 2014 at 4:21 PM, updated April 15, 2014 at 2:14 PM
jtCkOGtcp783NBvvze_LMWQ52hxkTnOL2h2siTm_3K4.jpegDaniel Yergin

"So many of the big questions around the world, and you realize that energy figures in them, whether it's Ukraine, whether it's the future of the Middle East, whether it's US-Chinese relations in the Pacific," said energy expert Daniel Yergin in an interview with The Brown and White. "Energy's a big component. On any given day, you read the front page of the news, and you realize that energy's part of the story."

Yergin, who will give a lecture on campus tomorrow, is the Vice Chairman of IHS, one of the world's largest information companies. A respected authority on energy, politics and economics, he is also a Pulitzer-Prize-winning author for his book "The Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil Money and Power."

Among his other achievements, in 1997 Yergin received the United States Energy Award for "lifelong achievements in energy and the promotion of international understanding." He is active on the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board and is the chair of the U.S. Department of Energy's Task Force on Strategic Energy Research and Development.

In an interview with The Brown and White, Yergin addressed the fracking debate, the future of the U.S. energy plan and why energy matters in the big picture.

Yergin described the over 60-year-old technology of fracking as one that is used to increase the flow of oil or gas in very dense rocks. In the last several decades, over a million wells have been fracked in the United States, he said.

"I think it's revolutionized the energy position of the United States, and it now supplies 44 percent of our natural gas," Yergin said. "It's had a dramatic positive impact."

Yergin described an interview he did recently with Ben Bernanke, the outgoing head and former chairman of the Federal Reserve. In the interview, Bernanke said the development of shale gas and tight oil is the most positive development in the U.S. economy since 2008.

"It's created a couple million jobs," Yergin said. "It's now attracting a lot of industrial development in the United States, from Europe and even some from Asia."

In fact, Yergin sees the increase in United States' natural gas production due to fracking as a factor that will alter international relations. Not only will the United States begin to import a lot less oil, but it is also becoming an exporter of natural gas, he said.

"When President (Barack) Obama was in Europe just recently, there was much discussion about the role of U.S. gas as an energy supply for Europeans, as part of a way of diversifying away from Russia," Yergin said. "In a way, that has not been the case for some number of years. The US is going to gain new insolence in world affairs, owing to its changed energy position."

Yergin said the shifting energy role of the United States will be a key point addressed in his lecture tomorrow. He plans to use the crisis in Ukraine as an example that "highlights global concerns about energy and demonstrates the new dimensions of the United States as an energy supplier.

"The Cold War may be over, but the consequences of the Cold War are still with us," he said. "No one knows really what the Kremlin intends to do. It's questioning the basic political system in Europe since the end of the Cold War."

Despite the impact fracking has had on the US global position and the domestic economy, there remains a debate about the environmental concerns of the technology. Yergin, however, who served on the commission requested by President Obama to investigate shale gas, believes theses environmental questions can be managed.

"I think it has to be properly regulated and properly managed," he said. "It's not a static technology, so a lot of effort is going into addressing specific issues around production. The technology is much more advanced than it was five years ago."

In addition, Yergin suggested that fracking may be helping the state of the environment.

"Not exclusively, because there are other factors at work, but it's striking to see the US carbon dioxide fuel emissions are back to the level of the mid-1990s, even though our economy has grown by 60 percent," he said. "One of the main reasons is because natural gas has been replacing coal and electric generation."

Even with the boom of the fracking industry and the availability of shale gas, Yergin believes the United States should continue to pursue renewable energy options. He said a lot of progress has been made in terms of bringing down the cost of wind and solar energy. In addition, people will be reluctant to build nuclear energy because of its high cost, he said, so utilities will look to a combination of natural gas and renewables when building new generating capacity in the future.

Most important, Yergin stressed, is a diversified energy portfolio. The safest way to go is to use a combination of different types of energy, and renewables will be an important part of that, he said.

When speaking to what he wants students to take away from his lecture tomorrow, Yergin said he hopes Lehigh students realize how important energy developers are for the United States economy but also for their own world. He also hopes to stress how vital innovation is in terms of energy development.

"It doesn't stand still," Yergin said. "The subjects I'm talking about matter to students, whether they're economics, political science, history or engineering students. These things touch so many of the majors at Lehigh."

Story by Brown and White news writer Abby Smith, '15.