The “inconvenient truths” of global energy

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing on the challenges to meeting future energy needs and to developing the technologies for meeting increased global energy demand. Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said that the United States is at a crossroads and now has an opportunity to develop the technologies to break the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. He explained that the final message of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) report, the goal of reaching a fifty percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, is attainable by 2050.

Ranking Member Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) said that the U.S. is facing two big problems at the same time: increased carbon dioxide emissions and a growing energy dependence. Domenici explained the difficulty to agree on what options Congress should pursue in order to achieve the goal of a more energy efficient nation. He said that there are many “inconvenient truths” that the U.S. must contend with today, including the effort required to reduce domestic carbon dioxide emissions, which if not done correctly will be very costly. Also, Domenici said that no matter how successful the country is in limiting its carbon dioxide emissions, oil will remain an essential part of the “domestic energy mix.”

Neil Hirst, the Director for Energy Technology and Research and Development at IEA, gave a very detailed report on new scenarios and strategies for a more sustainable energy future. Hirst explained that a global goal should be to have carbon dioxide levels in 2050 remain equal to what they are today in 2008. This would require a huge carbon dioxide reduction; the amount of carbon dioxide reduced would have to be greater than current carbon dioxide emissions. Hirst said that the U.S. is facing an urgent challenge which needs a global solution. He also said that a global technology revolution is needed to transform how the world uses its energy.

Raymond Orbach, the Director of the Energy Department’s Office of Science, said that the U.S. needs to focus on the way nature provides fuel “so that we can follow suit.” He explained the country’s growing capability to direct and control matter down to molecular, atomic, and quantum levels. This increasing ability to control the fundamental, nanoscale building blocks of both biological and non-biological matter “holds out a promise” of eventually transforming the way the world will generate, store, transmit, and use energy.