WASHINGTON — With gas prices projected to hit lows not seen since 2009, speakers at the 2015 U.S. Energy Policy Outlook emphasized the disruptive nature of low prices on the global market.
“There will be much difficulty until the market settles,” said Edward Morse, Head of Global Commodities Research at Citigroup. “The year will be challenging because of the unintended consequences of low prices on things we don’t even think about.”
The Energy Information Administration pegs current gas prices at $2.21 per gallon on average, down $1.12 from January 2014. The projection for gasoline prices per gallon averages to $2.94 for the remainder of 2015.
Following a panel discussion at the Wilson Center, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz emphasized the importance of new technologies this year in White House energy policy goals. Moniz said his agency will release $125 million in open solicitation grants for emerging technology that is “clean and advances the low emissions agenda.”
The cabinet officer discussed what he called the high success rate of companies using federal clean energy technology loans. Attacks based on the failure of solar panel manufacturer Solyndra are outdated, Moniz said. The California firm defaulted on a $535 million guaranteed loan from the Energy Department in 2011.
“For a while it was Solyndra, Solyndra, Solyndra,” Moniz said. ”It turns out that for the $30 billion in loans [overall], there’s been a 2 percent default rate, two-thirds of which was Solyndra.”
On the international stage, America has an important role in dealing with the geopolitical implications of low oil prices, Moniz said. “We are tempted to have a complacent view of energy because of our own production, but we have greater interest because of our allies and friends.”
David Goldwyn, president of Goldwyn Global Strategies, said the U.S. should solidify its “production base so that when we come out of this low price cycle, we have the ability to sustain and not go back to foreign dependency,” Goldwyn said.
The Obama administration will have to be involved, Goldwyn added.
“You have to have White House leadership on energy and climate,” Goldwyn said. “On both issues, they can’t be silent.”
One policy with noticeable White House involvement is the implementation of the Quadrennial Energy Review, created from President Barack Obama’s 2013 Climate Action Plan. In 2015, the Energy Department hopes to advance investments in energy transmission, storage and distribution infrastructure.
“There were half a trillion dollars in consumer energy savings in 2014 by these new efficiency standards,” Secretary Moniz said of the success of the QER.
