The Baker Institute’s Amy Myers Jaffe, Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies and director of the Energy Forum, was featured over the weekend as a contributor in the New York Times’ Room for Debate article, “We found oil! Is that good?”
Along with three other contributors, Jaffe offers her opinion on whether new oil and gas discoveries will help or hurt the push to develop renewable energy sources. She writes:
“It is hard to see…how it could be construed as a negative consequence that the United States has developed innovative technologies to extract natural gas and oil more cheaply from our gigantic nonconventional domestic resource base to tide us over until breakthroughs allow us to transition to cleaner energy sources.”
Will this discovery take the urgency out of the U.S. push for renewable energy sources? Or will the U.S. inevitably continue its dependency on oil, making this discovery key in weaning the country off Middle Eastern suppliers?
Share your thoughts below.