Secretary Salazar: Administration’s Strategy Seeks Responsible Energy Development on All Fronts

Article continues below...

November 9, 2009 -- BISMARCK, N.D. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar told energy executives today that the President’s comprehensive energy strategy seeks to responsibly develop all fronts and that North Dakota offers significant conventional and renewable resources that can help to reduce America’s dependence on foreign energy while creating new jobs.

“We need a new energy plan for America – one that takes advantage of our conventional resources – including oil, gas, and coal – and renewable resources, such as solar, wind, biofuels and geothermal,” Salazar said in keynote remarks at the Great Plains Energy Expo. “We are committed to developing our nation’s conventional resources -- in the right way and in the right places -- while also developing the renewable energy technologies that will shape this century.”

Salazar said the United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal and that the nation will continue to rely on this critical domestic energy resource for years to come. “But U.S. companies should be leading the world, developing and exporting to countries like China and India advanced coal technologies that promote carbon capture and sequestration,” Salazar said. “Interior wants to be a full partner in this job creating effort and will look to scale up carbon capture and sequestration on the public lands that we manage with large-scale demonstration projects.”

Salazar noted that Interior’s Bureau of Land Management has held 29 onshore oil and gas lease sales and its Minerals Management Service has conducted two offshore auctions this year. Together these sales offered more than 55 million acres for oil and natural gas development and generated more than $931 million in revenues. To advance carbon sequestration initiatives, Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey is launching a nationwide assessment of the geological storage capacity for carbon dioxide in oil and gas reservoirs and saline formations.

“We must harness the energy and resources we need in ways that will allow us, generation after generation, to experience America’s great outdoors as we do today,” Salazar cautioned. “But there is also a reality that we have to recognize. America’s oil and gas supplies are limited. So we must diversify.”

Salazar said that of the solar and wind projects currently proposed, more than 5,300 megawatts of new capacity could be ready for construction by the end of 2010. That is enough to power almost 1.6 million homes. And project construction will create more than 48,000 jobs.

North Dakota has some of the greatest renewable energy potential in the nation and is poised to become a national leader in developing wind, Salazar said.

“Developed in the right way and in the right places, the Great Plains’ states vast wind energy potential– along with solar, geothermal, and other renewables - can power our economy with affordable energy, create thousands of new jobs, and reduce harmful pollution associated with the burning of fossil fuels.”

The full text of the Secretary’s remarks follow:

Remarks Prepared for Secretary Salazar
Keynote Presentation, Great Plains Energy Expo
Bismarck, North Dakota, 1:30 p.m. Nov. 10, 2009

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this important conference.

I want to commend my good friend and former Senate colleague Senator Byron Dorgan for co-hosting this Energy

Expo which brings together varied energy interest in North Dakota and the nation to share ideas and initiatives about the energy challenges and opportunities facing us.

Without a doubt, energy is one of the most significant domestic issues of our time and we need to tackle it head-on together. Conferences such as this are a vital part of that collaborative process.

Every year, we export hundreds of billions of dollars to buy the oil we need to power our country. While doing that, we are falling behind the world in the energy technologies that will shape this century. And the rising costs of our failed energy policy have been unchecked for too long.

We are on a course we cannot sustain. Our energy policy is a liability to our economic security, our national security, and our environmental security.

We need a new energy plan for America – one that takes advantage of our conventional resources – including oil, gas, and coal – and renewable resources, such as solar, wind, biofuels and geothermal.

So this conference is the right idea at the right time as well as the right place -- to bolster energy production and use in the Upper Great Plains and help to reduce America’s dependence on foreign energy.

And President Obama has made the development of a national energy strategy a keystone of his administration’s initiatives. His “New Energy for America” plan recognizes that the clean energy revolution will be birthed in places, such as North Dakota. The plan sets a goal of generating 10 percent of the nation’s electricity from renewable energy sources by the year 2012 and 25 percent by the year 2025.

America’s renewable energy potential is huge and its capacity for creating jobs is equally significant.

By one estimate, if we fully pursue our potential for wind energy on land and offshore, wind can generate as much as 20 percent of our electricity by 2030 and create a quarter-million jobs in the process.

But to harness the potential of the clean energy economy – and to lead the world in energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies – we need a new approach to energy in America.

That means we must pass comprehensive clean energy legislation.

We will not fully unleash the potential of the clean energy economy unless Congress puts an upper limit on the emissions of heat-trapping gases that are damaging our environment.

Doing so will level the playing field for new technologies by allowing the market to put a price on carbon, and will trigger massive investment in renewable energy projects across the country.

Passing comprehensive clean energy legislation will signal that our country is ready to lead the world in the technologies, green jobs, and economy of the future.

But building a new energy plan for America will also require us to make better use of our lands and resources here at home.

We must harness the energy and resources we need in ways that will allow us, generation after generation, to experience America’s great outdoors as we do today.

We must establish the type of relationship with our lands that many farmers and ranchers share with the world around them.

Growing up on our ranch in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, my parents taught me and my seven brothers and sisters that our livelihood depended on us serving as stewards of the water, soil, and wildlife around us.

We had to preserve the health of our lands, so that we could ranch and farm, generation after generation.

That’s the type of long view we must take as we develop America’s energy supplies and protect our landscapes and open spaces.

And that’s the responsibility we have at the Department of the Interior, as the stewards of America’s resources.

We oversee one-fifth of the nation’s landmass and 1.7 billion acres on the Outer Continental Shelf.

Our responsibilities range from the Arctic to the Everglades. From Yosemite to the Gulf of Mexico.

We supply water for drinking, agriculture, and industry across much of the country.

We uphold trust responsibilities to Native American tribes.

We teach young people to experience the outdoors – to fish, hunt, and hike.

We do the science that helps our country wisely use and protect nature’s bounty.

And we help provide the energy that heats our homes and powers our commerce.

Under President Obama’s leadership, the Interior Department is committed to helping our country build a comprehensive energy strategy. That means we are developing our nation’s oil, gas and coal resources - in the right way and in the right places.

Some critics would have you believe otherwise. They want you to believe the Obama Administration is “anti-this,” or “anti-that.” The truth is: we are developing on all fronts, but responsibly.

The United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal. We will continue to rely on this critical domestic energy resource for years to come.

But U.S. companies should be leading the world, developing and exporting to countries like China and India advanced coal technologies that promote carbon capture and sequestration.

Interior wants to be a full partner in this job creating effort and will look to scale up carbon capture and sequestration on the public lands that we manage with large-scale demonstration projects.

Our Bureau of Land Management has held 29 onshore oil and gas lease sales and our Minerals Management Service has conducted two offshore auctions. Together these sales offered more than 55 million acres for oil and natural gas development and generated more than $931 million in revenues.

Interior agencies also help evaluate energy resources around our nation. Here in North Dakota, for example, our U.S.

Geological Survey’s assessments of oil and gas potential included the Williston Basin and the Bakken Formation, and estimated that the Bakken contains a mean of 3.65 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil.

Interior helped to establish an oil and gas leasing “One-Stop Shop” on the Fort Berthold Reservation that will help to speed the responsible permitting and development of some of these hydrocarbon resources.

Next year, the USGS will begin a national assessment of the geologic storage capacity for carbon dioxide in oil and gas reservoirs and saline formations. This effort will provide the foundational information needed to expand the technologies of carbon capture projects, such as those at Dakota Gasification Company near Beulah, N.D. and to understand impacts of such expansion.

But there is also a reality that we have to recognize. America’s oil and gas supplies are limited. So we must diversify.
That’s why we at the Department of the Interior are changing how we do business.
Not only are we proceeding with oil, gas, and coal but also – for the first time ever – we are allowing environmentally responsible renewable energy projects on public lands that can help power President Obama’s vision for our clean energy future.

The wind potential off the Atlantic coast alone is greater than our national electricity demand. And more wind potential is blowing across the Plains, solar potential is shining over the Southwest, and geothermal possibilities are bubbling up across the country.

In these first months of the Obama Administration we have been busy finding ways to develop this potential in an environmentally responsible manner.

We have created the first-ever framework for offshore renewable energy development.

We have cleared out bureaucratic red tape between Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Interior that was creating unnecessary confusion for potential offshore renewable projects.

We have awarded the first-ever exploratory leases for renewable wind energy production on the Outer Continental Shelf offshore New Jersey and Delaware.

We are creating Renewable Energy Coordination Offices in western states to help swiftly complete reviews for solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass projects on public lands.

We have set aside 1,000 square miles of public lands in twenty-four “Solar Energy Study Areas” that the Department of the Interior is evaluating for environmentally appropriate solar energy development across the West.

And we have invested $41 million through the President’s economic recovery plan to facilitate a rapid and responsible move to large-scale production of renewables on public lands.

We believe that of the solar projects and wind projects currently proposed, more than 5,300 megawatts of new capacity could be ready for construction by the end of 2010. That is enough to power almost 1.6 million homes. And project construction will create more than 48,000 jobs.

North Dakota has some of the greatest renewable energy potential in the nation and is poised to become a national leader in developing wind.

Developed in the right way and in the right places, the Great Plains’ states vast wind energy potential– along with solar, geothermal, and other renewables - can power our economy with affordable energy, create thousands of new jobs, and reduce harmful pollution associated with the burning of fossil fuels.

Tribal lands in states like North Dakota have some of the highest renewable and conventional resource potential in the country, yet many tribes have been left out of the nation’s energy infrastructure.

Here in North Dakota, Interior is working with tribes – on a nation to nation basis – to identify opportunities to develop renewable energy and site transmission projects where they could most benefit tribal communities.

The Spirit Lake Nation, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation are pursuing the development of renewable energy resources on their reservations.

Meteorological towers are being used to gather wind data at several other sites within Indian country in North Dakota.

Single wind turbines are currently being used to supplement the energy needs of the Turtle Mountain Community College and the Spirit Lake Casino. A study has been funded to examine the feasibility of developing the wind energy potential on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation.

In addition, under the President’s economic recovery plan, the Interior Department invested $1.2 million for the construction of ten new geothermal powered homes on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Each of these homes will have geo-thermal energy installed to assist with the heating and cooling of the interior.

Geothermal energy is also currently in use at the Turtle Mountain Community College in Belcourt, North Dakota.

To get clean power to market, we are upgrading America’s transmission grid for the 21st century. We are clearing out red tape at the federal level, identifying transmission corridors that can move power from where it’s produced to where it’s consumed, and fast-tracking approximately 750 miles of new transmission projects that can get under way the end of 2010.

Under President Obama’s leadership, we have entered a new energy frontier.

And in this new energy frontier we are moving beyond some of the old ways of thinking about our public lands. President Theodore Roosevelt once said: “It is not what we have that will make us a great nation; it is the way in which we use it.”

That is still true today.

We don’t have to choose between our energy future and the protection of the environment. We can and are doing both, but we need your help.

As President Obama said in his meeting with the Business Council at the White House earlier this year, our growth and prosperity as a nation depends upon what government and business do together.

We at the Interior Department can develop the rules for clean energy development on public lands.

We can help identify appropriate places for appropriate conventional and renewable production.

And, most importantly, we can enforce the rules, make decisions based on sound science and the public interest, and follow the law and the highest ethics standards.

The rest, though, is up to you and the people who work for you.

You are the ones who are powering America’s economic recovery.

You are the ones who, through your business practices, will help us reduce carbon pollution, while leading the world in clean energy technologies.

And you are the ones who, through the imagination, talents, and expertise of your workforce, will help us build a new foundation for growth and prosperity in America.

In closing, I want to note that this afternoon’s workshop sessions will explore in greater detail some of the topics I have only been able to touch on today, such as

Critical water-use issues facing North Dakota energy industries and steps being taken to conserve water and guard against harmful impacts on water supplies;

Developing transmission and pipeline infrastructure capacity to transport North Dakota’s energy to consumers around the nation; and

Financial market issues and sources of capital for both large and small-scale energy project development.

I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to join you today and look forward to our continuing dialogue on these vitally important issues for North Dakota and the Nation.

Thank you.

Source: Interior Dept.