Innovation and gas will lead the way to a bright energy future but the renewables balance should be right

Former US Energy Secretary Rick Perry declared technology and innovation as the key to our future while citing natural gas as vital to the world’s energy mix. The Governor of Texas also said his oil-rich state had also experienced a taste of what it can be like to rely too much on renewables.

Delivering a keynote speech and interview for Leadership and Strategy Programme session Securing our global energy future, he confirmed himself a strong believer in wind energy, but not too much of it.

Perry pitched the US as a huge innovation proponent while also blessed with generous resources. “In the US we had a cascade of technology breakthroughs driven by innovation,” he said. “America is producing abundant affordable energy from a wider range of sources than we thought possible before, and we’re using this energy more cleanly, more efficiently than ever.

“These advances have powerful implications across the world and, if acted upon, can produce prosperity, and address the climate goals.” He painted a stark contrast to the 1970s when the world was “living under a false pretence” that the days of energy abundance were over, and the US began pursuing “a fundamentally flawed energy policy”.

We had no shortage of energy. What we had was a shortage of imagination, and loss of confidence in our ability to innovate.

Perry said: “We had no shortage of energy. What we had was a shortage of imagination, and loss of confidence in our ability to innovate.” He spoke with pride at how US national laboratories helped make the technology possible, “achieving breakthroughs that are unleashing energy resources like we’ve never seen before”.

Perry continued: “The results have been spectacular, from fossil fuels to renewables, supply rose, cost fell, efficiencies increased, and diversity blossomed. “And something else happened…our environment was not becoming worse. By nearly any measure, it became better, even as our economy expanded and energy development reached new highs from 2005 to 2017. We led the world in reducing carbon emissions, cutting them by 14% over that period.” Perry said the lesson was clear, that we “don’t have to choose between growing our economy and caring for our environment”.

I am a fan of renewables, but it has to be a limited amount, because if you do not have the baseload…baseload only comes through fossil fuels, and nuclear.

The politician told the Plenary audience: “By embracing innovation over regulation, we can benefit both. “My charge to you and others in the energy space is to keep pushing innovation. I believe in our ability to innovate, to solve the challenges of tomorrow, all working together to deliver the energy that the world needs today.” While some of Perry’s comments will have raised environmentalist eyebrows, he championed LNG and natural gas replacing inefficient coal-burning power plants.“If your idea is we need to leave all the fossil fuels in the ground and we’re gonna go live happily ever after in a beautiful, wonderful…that’s not reality. “If you want to see the people of Vietnam living a better life…you take that gas, and you deliver it to China, to India, to places around the world where they’re using old coal burning plants and replace it - you will do wonders for this climate.”

Meanwhile, Perry called for a limit on renewables in the energy mix, even though he heavily promoted wind energy in Texas in the early 2000s. “I am a fan of renewables, but it has to be a limited amount, because if you do not have the baseload…baseload only comes through fossil fuels, and nuclear.

“The lights almost went out in my home state in February 2021 because we relied too much on those renewables, and had it not been for natural gas plants and nuclear plants…we came very close to having catastrophic failure of the grid.” By the end of the year, Perry said 46% of energy in Texas will be from renewables. “That’s too much, because the sun’s not always going to shine and the wind not always going to blow.”

The Governor also applied his logic to the two billion developing nations people without daily electricity access. “I’m not embarrassed about being a pro-fossil fuel individual - to be anything otherwise you’re saying to people, ‘you’re never going to live a better life’. “If we deliver clean burning natural gas to those communities…the future could be incredibly bright.”