After retiring from a top job at one of the world's biggest oil companies, John Hofmeister didn't ride off into the sunset.
The former president of Shell Oil Co. -- the Houston-based U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell -- instead has spent six years cultivating an audience on Capitol Hill and across the country for his rhetorical call to arms against what he calls a four-decade failure by the federal government to set in place a working U.S. energy plan.
At the center of his proposal: An independent agency that would manage energy and environmental protection just as the Federal Reserve Bank manages the money supply.
"I'm very concerned that we have at our disposal now an incredible wealth of resources that we're going at in a haphazard way," Hofmeister said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle ahead of his talk Tuesday during the Offshore Technology Conference at NRG Center.
"We have no plan, no leadership, and there is so much animosity toward developing the traditional fuel that enables the economy to function and grow," he said. "It's up against all the aspirations of an energy system that people dream about, that people wish for. Little bits and pieces of a renewable alternative energy system are taking place, but nothing's holistic, nothing's comprehensive."
Hofmeister says "a clash of civilizations" and petty squabbles reaching back to the early 1970s have stunted the nation's energy industry at the expense of economic growth, innovation and national progress in the 21st century. In 2008, he formed the nonprofit Citizens for Affordable Energy to spread his pro-hydrocarbon message to lawmakers, corporate powerbrokers and the public square.
In the interview, Hofmeister discussed his ideas for how the nation might manage its resources efficiently and why he believes politicians should stop getting in the way of the energy industry. Edited excerpts:
Q: What's the thrust of your message?
A: We're holding back the potential growth of the U.S. economy, holding back employment and human capital development because we have a clutch of elected and appointed officials who just don't get it when it comes to this era of the 21st century. I understand why people don't like hydrocarbons. They're dirty. They're nasty. They're fossilized biomass from geological eons ago. They're waste matter.
But they contain energy. They provide the best value for the money. Technology enables us to clean it up while we continue to explore, research and develop the potential of alternatives. Quite frankly, the efficiency of alternative energy, whether it's wind or solar or biofuels, leaves a lot to be desired. And so let's work on what we've got.
Q: Why do we need a national energy plan?
A: We have enough fuel, enough energy resources to be completely independent as a continent, if you count Mexico, Canada and the U.S. We can take care of ourselves very nicely and we can do it more affordably, more efficiently and effectively -- but not on the path we're on. We don't have to risk our national security, we don't have to have a mediocre economy, and we could have robust 6 percent to 7 percent gross domestic product growth by transforming our 20th century energy system into a holistic 21st century system, taking advantage of all new technologies to develop capabilities for cleaner fuels.
Q: Why do you believe the federal government has failed to enact an energy plan for so long?
A: For people who are not experts in the field, energy is difficult to get your head around. It's a combination of science and technology, it's a combination of geology and earth science, and it is a combination of environmental needs and resources. So when you get into the nuts and bolts of the industry, it's complex and difficult to comprehend. So when people who are not experts try to wrestle with all of this, they really need to lean on those who know and get good advice from across the spectrum in the industry. There are some elected officials reluctant to meet with oil and gas people, because they're reluctant to be seen with them for some reason.
Q: So what do you propose?
A: I have zero confidence in the players in Washington today. Seven presidents have made promises on energy that they failed to keep and 21 successive congresses have committed to the American people to fix our energy future, and none has. So let's do what's good for the nation by creating a statutorily approved, independent regulatory agency to manage energy and environmental protection. Get it out of politics. Woodrow Wilson and a previous Congress approved an independent regulatory agency called the Federal Reserve that manages the money supply, interest rates, and how to intervene in the economy if it's necessary. We should create a similar agency to set goals over time on energy supplies, infrastructure, environmental protection and energy efficiency through technology.
Q: You've said that market forces in the industry have "lost their way." What do you mean?
A: Every bit of what the energy industry does is licensed or regulated by government authority, either locally, at the state level or at the federal level. If the government's going to regulate everything and have to grant permission for whatever is proposed -- and I'm not opposed to that, I think it's for the safety of the American people -- but then let them lead on what it takes to supply the nation instead of always being a disabling factor in the process of bringing energy to the American people.
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