The Keystone XL oil pipeline odyssey has become the latest lightning rod for all manner of competing political agendas in and out of Washington, DC.  The politicians and pundits have once again managed to render the issue unintelligible to the general public by making the Canada-USA crude oil pipeline a featured player in the many storylines competing for attention on the media stage, from “Jobs, jobs, jobs” to “Save the planet.”  The underlying issues and agendas for the energy, oil and gas industry get lost in the dense fog of obfuscating rhetoric.  So what is really going on here? 

Pace Global Energy Management and Consulting Services provides its perspective on the Keystone XL pipeline events and news "Starving the Beast — Keystone XL and the Politics of Global Warming".

Forbes Magazine recently published an interview with Pace Global CEO Tim Sutherland on the topic of Education and the True Cost of Energy. As the author of the article James Marshall Crotty explains, he sought an expert who had long been in the energy business, and who could talk in a straightforward manner about energy regulation issues, carbon mitigation & alternative energy infrastructures, and the feasibility of available energy options.

In the interview, Tim addresses many of the issues surrounding the public’s education on energy topics, understanding the risks and long-term energy infrastructure development costs that are involved, as well as the nature of global markets for various energy sources. A prevailing theme is that our own energy and economic future can in fact be influenced with proper management of large, recent natural gas discoveries, such as the Bakken Formation.  Proper management moves the local economic effect from a purely services-oriented context to one that supports manufacturing and R&D jobs – though this must be supported by additional emphasis and excitement for science, engineering, and quantitative skills in our schools (i.e. the STEM skills).

Additional conversation moves toward the balance of risks that must be taken by energy stakeholders in finding the middle ground between capital investment strategies (i.e. exploring, building, sustaining energy infrastructure) and the pervasive uncertainties in energy regulatory compliance. This includes being sure the marketplace is developed appropriately to receive and support renewables, and add them to a prudent energy portfolio, before the newest technologies are actually implemented.

Read much more at Forbes Magazine’s website about Education and the True Cost of Energy.