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Granholm squares with tough crowd, addresses LNG pause during Houston conference
March 18, 2024
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/ceraweek-granholm-speech-lng-pause-19205749.php

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm faced an unfriendly crowd at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston Monday, roughly two months after the Biden administration ruffled industry feathers by pausing permitting for liquefied natural gas export projects.

The reception was in stark contrast to the standing ovation Granholm received during last year’s event after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which promised $66.5 billion in energy industry investments in Texas alone.

Granholm reminded the thousands of energy industry insiders gathered for the conference about the incentives that won the administration favor last year. The Biden administration has so far helped spur more than $200 billion in clean energy investments in the U.S., she said.

“Many of you are taking advantage of those irresistible tax credits. Good!” she said. “I hope more of you see that it serves your bottom line to diversify and invest in this market.”

This year's Granholm keynote address follows the administration’s January announcement that it would pause permitting for LNG export projects in response to climate concerns — a move referred to onstage as the “elephant in the room” and a decision that is unpopular within the energy industry.

Asked about the pause, Granholm said it allows the administration time to review impacts from liquefied natural gas projects and is “like other studies we've done in the past.”

“I predict that as we sit here next year, she says with confidence — you and I — this will be well in the rearview mirror,” she said.

Granholm said the Department of Energy is working on a new initiative to ensure communities disadvantaged by emissions from traditional energy facilities benefit from clean energy projects that receive DOE funding.

The department is planning to award more than $8 billion for carbon reduction and clean energy projects in Texas and Louisiana, she said.

Granholm also encouraged the crowd of oil and gas company executives to consider branching into geothermal energy — a method of drilling for heat-based energy beneath the Earth’s surface that mimics the practice of extracting oil and gas. Hydrogen, too, is gaining traction and evolving into an industry that includes a Houston hydrogen hub supported by more than $1 billion in DOE funding, while it was once “something that just energy nerds got excited about.”

Granholm pointed to the need for urgency to advance clean energy and the need for industry and government work together to build a new energy future.

“I know there are some, maybe in this room, who would prefer to wait and see or to maybe push the burden of tackling climate change on to others,” Granholm said. “But let's be clear. Consumers are calling for change. Communities are calling for change. Investors are calling for change. We in this room have the power to manage this transition responsibly. And with urgency.”