Citizens for Affordable Energy

John Hofmeister

Former Shell gas man John Hofmeister has a new gig, and it’s not trying to sell you gasoline at $5 a gallon. Besides touring the country on a speaking tour, Hofmeister has created a non-profit organization called Citizens for Affordable Energy. (http://www.citizensforaffordableenergy.org)

While it may seem ironic, that a man who has worked for General Electric and an executive for Shell Oil would find affordable energy important, Hofmeister has been trying to get a grassroots effort started to force the politicians in Washington to make serious energy decisions. During the fast rise of the price of gasoline in the not so distant past, Hofmeister was the head of Shell Oil. This raises the question, why does a man who was a part of the gas price hike want affordable energy?

The answer is a bit more complicated than one might originally think. While oil and gas is certainly an important part of daily life, Hofmeister is more concerned about the general state of the U.S. ability to produce energy. According to Hofmeister, “Energy time is not the same as political time. Energy time happens in periods of tens of years, while political time happens in a matter of at most 6 years.” This quite clearly creates a problem, one that has not been checked, or solved. If the ability to produce and create new energy exists on a time frame that relies on research, and production that takes decades to produce, there is a problem rising that has not yet hit Washington but soon will in a huge way. Politicians are for the most part unwilling to think in terms of decades, as they need to consider their re-election campaigns. For the most part, the country runs on a 2 year political system, as that is the amount of time a member of the house is granted until they need to be re-elected. With this 2 year perspective, it is hard to see ten years down the road for the changes that need to be made today that will help ensure the future. It is for this reason that Hofmeister thinks that an “energy abyss” may happen in the United States, where blackouts and brownouts are an everyday occurrence.

Citizens for Affordable Energy has been founded to ensure that citizens of the United States are sold affordable energy, plain and simple. Due to a tarnished history involving energy crises and scares, there is a desire for cheap and affordable power. Recently the renewable energy conversation has begun to have an effect on the way that people think about power. In terms of amounts of renewable energy that feeds the grid, the numbers are very small. Nearly all the power in the United States still comes from brown-energy burning power plants. These include coal, gas and nuclear. With the threat of global warming, and the moral need for greener energy, many of plants and the refineries that feed them are being shut down. The question now is, will green energy be enough to power all of America when the brown-energy stops?