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Home / Washington Business - September/October 2005 / President's Message: The Lessons of Hurricane Katrina |
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President's Message: The Lessons of Hurricane Katrina |
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Written On: September/October 2005 |
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Written By: by Don C. Brunell, AWB President |
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There is no way to soften Hurricane Katrina’s impact. The devastation is unlike anything our nation has seen since the Civil War.
One of the most important lessons learned from Katrina is that government needs to identify ways to move people out of harm’s way faster and respond more quickly with massive relief.
Another key outcome should be to better position our energy production. Currently, more than half of our oil and natural gas come from fields bordering on or under the Gulf of Mexico.
Katrina disabled a quarter of our nation’s oil refining capacity and disrupted 40 percent of our natural gas supplies. Imagine if this Category 5 hurricane had bounced off the Mississippi and Louisiana coastlines, as it did in southern Florida, and also slammed into Texas. Texas, with its 26 refineries, is the nation’s largest natural gas and petroleum products supplier with the largest network of pipelines and shipping facilities.
Spread Out and Diversify
Clearly, we need to spread out and diversify our energy production so when a major hurricane, earthquake or tsunami hits, other parts of America can pick up the slack.
Fortunately, that process has already begun.
For example, last year, energy companies spent $10.7 billion in the Greater Rocky Mountain area of Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico looking for oil and gas. The region is thought to contain between 165 and 260 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and could be our country’s “Persian Gulf” of gas. In 2003, a field containing as much as 1 billion barrels of oil was found in south-central Utah.
In addition, the new national energy policy just signed into law by President George W. Bush can help wean us from foreign suppliers. It provides incentives for research, development and production of wind, geothermal, solar and clean coal. That is good news for the West because Washington and Oregon have burgeoning wind farms and Montana and Wyoming have huge reserves of low-sulfur, cleaner-burning coal.
The law also makes it easier to upgrade and re-license hydropower facilities. Hopefully, that means the dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers can be retrofitted with new turbines that are less harmful to migrating salmon and generate more electricity.
In addition, the policy supports new nuclear technologies. The mere fact that Congress is willing to revisit nuclear energy is a step in the right direction. Every day, nuclear plants operate safely in the Tri-Cities and around the world. They have for decades, and new technology means nuclear energy will only get safer and more cost-efficient.
Increasing Domestic Oil Production
But more needs to be done. Congress must open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. ANWR is probably the most misunderstood and misrepresented issue to come along in memory. It is 19 million acres in size and less than 30,000 acres would be explored, leaving 99.85 percent of ANWR untouched.
The infrastructure already exists to move ANWR crude oil to refineries. The crude oil pipeline and transfer facilities have operated for 30 years. In 2004, Congress cleared the way for a $20 billion pipeline to move the North Slope’s 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas south to the lower 48. It just needs to be built.
Finally, many people dismissed the President’s call to build refineries on abandoned military bases to add much-needed refinery capacity. But now, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the idea merits serious consideration. These bases are secure facilities with the necessary infrastructure, they’re strategically positioned across the nation, and the proceeds could be used to clean up toxic waste sites remaining on some of the bases.
Hurricane Katrina taught us that putting the bulk of our eggs in one basket is not wise. Nor is it prudent to simply ignore our growing energy needs — the next time we need helicopters to rescue stranded people or airlift supplies, we may have to scramble for fuel as well.
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