U.S. Secretary Jewell Sets Out Priorities for Prosperous Energy Future

In remarks at the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell laid out the Department’s priorities for strengthening the nation’s economy with a balanced, prosperous energy future over the next two years.

Read the highlights of the speech:

Our economy has emerged from recession with a stronger, more stable foundation.

It is no coincidence that our economic recovery has been accompanied by the biggest energy transformation of our lifetimes. The energy revolution we experienced in the past six years helped spur the recovery, but it has also been accelerated by the policies our country has put in place.

Since 2008, American oil production has surged from five million to nine million barrels per day, and our dependence on foreign oil has fallen to its lowest level in more than 30 years. The amount of solar energy has increased ten-fold, and wind energy has tripled since 2008, helped by more than $340 billion of private sector investment and a tax policy that helped move those investments off the sidelines.

These shifts in U.S. energy markets aren’t marginal or temporary: they are tectonic shifts.

The tectonic shifts are forcing governments at every level to face questions of the same magnitude: Can we adapt in this fast-changing environment? How do we modernize our energy programs to anticipate the new energy future? Are we doing what is needed for the U.S. to lead the world on energy?

When it comes to good government, we are also working to provide predictability to industry by identifying, on a landscape level, where it makes sense for companies to focus their resources.

To that end, we’re taking a targeted leasing approach in offshore frontier areas. 

To be clear, predictability also means identifying places that are too special to drill. I’m talking about places with rich cultural resources, or key wildlife habitat, or awesome outdoor recreation opportunities. That all matters – to our economy and to our future.

We’re using this comprehensive, landscape-level approach for renewable energy, too.

Onshore, we’ve mapped out nearly 20 zones across the West where solar potential is high and other conflicts are low. Because of this early planning work, companies will see faster permitting times. 

Offshore, we’re identifying wind energy areas that will allow our nation to capture the huge potential of wind along the Atlantic – without compromising fishing, recreation, national security, the environment or viewsheds.

We’ve already held four successful auctions where industry has competitively bid to develop offshore wind farms. We now have over 800,000 acres offshore under commercial leases and are looking forward to seeing steel in the water in the coming years.

America is both blessed with diverse natural resources and – importantly – the human capital to develop new and better ways to harness them.

Just as the United States is a leader in unconventional oil extraction and is now the world’s top producer of natural gas, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t also be the top producer of solar power and wind power.

Source: U.S. Department of Interior; Image: DOI (archive)