Karen Harbert
America is witnessing an unimaginable energy revolution that could rewrite our nation's economic future. Looking at our current national energy policy, however, you'd never know it.
U.S. technology and entrepreneurship have proven that America has the largest energy resources in the world, positioning us as a global energy powerhouse, surpassing Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran. And states like Pennsylvania have seized a leadership role in transforming our energy landscape.
After decades of declining output and high prices, we're now producing more oil than we're importing for the first time in 20 years. Despite a struggling economy, Pennsylvania saw double-digit job growth in 2010 and 2011 brought about by shale oil and gas unleashed by hydraulic fracturing.
Yet at the federal level, things appear much different and expose an energy policy that is timid and broken. Indeed, the revival of America's energy economy has occurred in spite of our energy policy — not because of it.
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So what needs to be done to ensure our energy revolution doesn't lose steam? In January, the Institute for 21st Century Energy, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, unveiled a comprehensive platform for a bold American energy policy.
America has the energy resources, technology, capital, workforce and entrepreneurial spirit, all of which can usher in and sustain a new era of energy abundance — if we let it. The private sector is ready, and so is Pennsylvania, to turn America into a global energy powerhouse. And with a more commonsense energy policy, that's just what we'll do.
Read the full article at Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.