“Drill, baby, drill” was the message at the Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s energy and infrastructure forum Wednesday at Green Valley Country Club in Lower Heidelberg Township. The forum was the first in the Chamber’s 2012-13 Grassroots Issues Series, events that feature speakers providing insight into issues of concern to the business community. The forum discussed the state of America’s energy security and how energy policies can fuel the economic recovery. Karen A. Harbert, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, delivered the keynote. Dan Adamo, business development director for UGI Utilities Inc., and Lillian Harris, manager governmental and regulatory affairs at UGI Corp., provided additional perspectives. Harbert: The Chamber perspective In order to remain competitive in a global environment, Harbert said, the United States must look to the energy demands of the future. “By the middle of the century, the changes in the world will be monumental,” Harbert said. “The demand for energy will increase by 85 percent by the year 2050.” Harbert said the new energy reality will require the United States to make $38 trillion of new investments by 2035 to meet the rising demands. “Those in the energy industry need to look at what other countries are doing to remain competitive,” she said. “For every engineer the United States graduates, China graduates nine and Europe graduates four.” Part of the problem also lies with the government for imposing far too restrictive regulations on harvesting natural energy sources, she said. Harbert said the federal government shut down all new exploration for oil and natural gas reserves off the east and west coasts of the country as well as areas in Alaska that previously had been open. The federal action came in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, an accident that killed 11 workers and leaked 5 million barrels of oil into the gulf. With those areas off-limits, Harbert said, North American shale has to play an important part as an energy source and in growing the economy. “The extraction of natural gas from the shale can create 200,000 jobs in Ohio, 115,000 jobs in Pennsylvania and 100,000 jobs in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi” by 2020, Harbert said. “There is a huge opportunity here. We also have rich reserves in the middle of the country, but we need to gain access to lands to develop the technology. The revenues are right here under our feet.” Harbert said that in order to fuel the economy, policies on oil and natural gas must change. She said that with policy changes, by 2030 the U.S. could generate 1.4 million new jobs, $800 billion in additional government revenue and 10 million barrels worth of added daily oil and natural gas production. Coal is another resource that Harbert said should play a role in our future energy needs. She said the United States has at least 250 years left of coal reserves. “The dirty secret with coal is that this business is doing fine, but what we find is that we are exporting this resource to Europe,” she said. Harbert summed up what she’s said should be the key points in U.S. energy strategy: maximize efficiency; increase domestic oil and gas; recognize the role for nuclear and coal; develop new transportation fuels; create sustainable policies on renewable energy; modernize our infrastructure; and invest in our technology solutions and our intellectual foundation for innovation. “At the end of the day, what is at risk is America’s national security,” she said. UGI: The industry perspective With oil prices remaining high, Adamo said, natural gas is a desirable resource because prices are at historic lows and it is an American and Pennsylvania fuel. Adamo said that in 2012, UGI added 11,316 households that converted to natural gas from other sources. That’s a record for the company. “The supply is available,” he said. “We just need to get that supply to all of the local markets.” Harris gave an update on the Commonwealth Pipeline, which is being built to bring Marcellus shale gas to southern Pennsylvania. “The pipeline is a great opportunity in our state,” Harris said. “It will cross and interconnect with several existing interstate natural gas pipelines.” The 120 miles of 30-inch pipe is expected to be in service in 2015. Harris said the main benefit the pipeline will bring to the community is the creation of new jobs in project development, design, engineering, construction and operation.