Energy Executives More Optimistic About U.S. Independence

• Susan Phillips
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  Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

A survey of energy executives by the financial services company CIT Group shows growing optimism for the nation becoming independent of foreign energy sources. Of the 107 people polled, 27 percent say it’s either feasible or very feasible. Forty-six percent said it’s not feasible.
Those surveyed say the factors that would contribute to independence include conservation, expansion of nuclear power, arctic oil fields and increasing the amount of clean energy in the mix.
But they also pointed to increased conflict overseas as raising the cost of oil, which would make domestic sources of energy, including natural gas, more competitive. Those same executives pointed to drilling regulations, and environmental concerns, as two factors inhibiting energy independence.
Shale gas,  including the Marcellus Shale, was cited by many as a “crucial addition” to the nation’s energy mix.

Such new discoveries, along with the multibillion- barrel oil deposits in the Williston Basin of the Dakotas and Montana, have executives heartened about the state of the industry. Fully half of the respondents characterized these recent discoveries as a “crucial addition” to the U.S. energy mix, while fully 25% agreed with the statement: “They are a game changer: They will secure our energy future for the foreseeable future.” Just 6% believed the importance of the Williston, Marcellus and Eagle Ford resources is overblown

The poll was conducted by CTI in conjunction with Forbes Insights. To read more of the survey, you can download the full report by clicking here.

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