By Dan,
posted on Thursday, August 04, 2011.
Baker Institute Report Highlights National Security
Implications of the Shale Revolution
Late last month, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
at Rice University came out with a stunning new report which
solidifies that we're in a "game changing" era for natural gas
exploration. The report's findings highlight the broad
effects that new shale discoveries are having on our nation's
energy security, but also note the added security and stability
that increased American natural gas reserves will bring around the
world, lessening the many thorny entanglements that our dependence
on foreign energy sources brings.
The report, entitled "Shale Gas and U.S. National Security,"
funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, outlines numerous
benefits that shale gas will have on a global scale, from
eliminating demand for imports of foreign liquefied natural gas
(LNG) to the U.S., to reducing the need for a natural gas "OPEC,"
and weakening the energy stranglehold held by certain
countries. The authors, Kenneth B. Medlock III, Ph. D., Amy
Myers Jaffe, and Peter R. Hartley, Ph.D., also found that increased
domestic production of natural gas can help curb America's
dependence on Middle East oil.
In the press release announcing the report , Jaffe
noted that the "geopolitical repercussions of expanding U.S. shale
gas production are going to be enormous." In the same
statement, Medlock clearly and strongly refutes recent doubts about
the future impact of these new domestic and abundant gas supplies,
stating that "the idea that shale gas is a flash-in-the-pan is
simply incorrect."
Following the study's release, a
Houston Chronicle editorial noted the
vital importance of this "landmark study," outlining in no
uncertain terms what shale gas means for America:
"As the Baker report notes, the
benefits also include the significant economic ones of price
stability, job creation and a significant impact on this country's
dangerously negative balance of payments."
"This report is as important as
any national security document in recent memory, touching as it
does on energy policy, economic policy and national security, and
offering clear solutions to what have long seemed to be intractable
diplomatic and political problems. It deserves wide circulation
among Washington's top policy-makers - not least the president of
the United States."
To echo the Chronicle editorial, this new era of
natural gas is not only critical to our economy-improving our
outlook for homegrown jobs, tax revenue, and American
manufacturing-but it also helps protect our
global interests, limiting future conflicts over energy resources
which will only add to our budget woes.
In the end, the Baker Institute report's phrase "game changing"
when talking about the shale revolution may not be strong enough.
"World changing" probably fits even better.