COLLEGE STATION, Feb. 3, 2011—The Texas A&M University System is fine-tuning its game plan for playing a leading role in helping solve global energy challenges, with expert input provided by a host of authorities from both the private and public sectors.
Texas A&M’s lineup of researchers in a variety of fields—ranging from its high-ranked petroleum engineering department to an oceanographer who gained widespread attention for his environmental findings from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico—huddled with key representatives from such entities as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Public Utility Commission, Texas Railroad Commission, the Argonne National Laboratory and ExxonMobil.
It all played out at the 2011 Energy Forum conducted by the Energy Engineering Institute. It operates within The Texas A&M University System and is built around a team comprised of Texas A&M University and the Texas Engineering Experiment Station.
Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin kicked off the two-day forum by calling it an “extraordinary seminal meeting” with far-reaching implications for research and development affecting various areas of the energy industry and resulting in economic and other benefits for Texas, the nation and beyond.
The theme for this year’s forum, sponsored by ConocoPhillips, was “Energy Security and Sustainability—Global Challenges.” Stephen Holditch, head of Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M and the newly appointed director of the Energy Engineering Institute, coordinated the two-day program and helped set its tone.
“There is no question that securing our energy supply is among the highest priority challenges facing the world today,” Holditch stressed. “The only way to ensure the most effective and efficient solutions is to insist upon interdisciplinary collaboration across the energy spectrum. Texas A&M is known around the world for its energy research and is the ideal setting for bringing together some of energy’s leading minds to discuss the real challenges we’re facing.”
The 300 conference participants were blind-sided with an up-close and personal experience about dependability and reliance on energy—energy in the form of electricity and lighting. Just as the concluding luncheon for the forum was set to begin, College Station fell victim to the statewide “rolling blackout” prompted by the unusually cold weather and resulting high demand for energy. The result was an unintended candle-light luncheon.
Speaking with the help of a hastily rigged small lectern light, the luncheon speaker, Texas Railroad Commission Chair Elizabeth Ames Jones, recounted the history of oil in the Lone Star State and praised its ‘vibrant and healthy energy industry.”
She called the Railroad Commission “purely and truly Texas’ ‘energy agency’,” noting that it has regulatory responsibilities for energy resources from “the ground and below.” She underscored the state’s role in energy production for the nation—leading it in oil and gas and even ranking as the fifth-largest producer of coal.
“I have a plan for our country—I call it the “Texas Plan”—and it’s to continue to rely on fossil fuels.” She made it clear that the backbone of the plan is natural gas. She said the state has reserves of 827 trillion cubic feet of gas—equivalent to all the proven resources of Iran.
In issuing her challenge to find and produce more oil and gas, she recounted several storied names of famed producers and asked: “Who will be the next George Mitchell?”—citing the Texas A&M graduate and benefactor who has long been recognized as one of the nation’s most successful oilmen.
Ironically, the lights came back almost immediately after Jones concluded her remarks.
Before the lights went out, B. Don Russell, Regents Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M, gave a “rolling blackout” overview, not knowing at the time that he and others were about to witness the relative inconvenience that was spreading across the state as part of a planned process to share in the lack of sufficient energy to cover all desired uses.
Russell cited the huge jump in supply-and-demand cost caused by the current short-term shortage of energy. “What was $250 megawatt per hour yesterday is $3,000 megawatt today,” he observed, noting the challenge of keeping power pressure up as people turn up their thermostats to combat the cold. He said the problem is compounded by the fact that power plants typically take units off line to conduct maintenance in the winter to prepare for high demands during the summer.
Bryan Shaw, chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, told the forum participants about the challenges of creating, applying and enforcing regulations that have major environmental and economic implications. He cited as a prime example the energy-related regulation of “greenhouse” gases in Texas as interpreted by the state agency he heads and by the federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Another area of contention with the EPA has revolved around gas production in the Barnett Shale near populated areas in North Texas.
Shaw, who is on leave from his position as an agricultural engineering professor at Texas A&M, recalled some “face-offs” with EPA. “Sometimes it’s a matter of trying to force the EPA to follow its own regulations,” he observed.
He observed that regulatory agencies have to guard against “unintended consequences and inherent inefficiencies” and ill-advised actions “can create more problems than solutions.” Those unintended consequences can result in loss of jobs as well as having other negative economic impacts, he explained, adding that agencies such as his must guard against appearing to favor one faction over another.
“The challenge is to find a balance between environmental protection and economic development.” Shaw emphasized. He contrasted California with Texas and clearly indicated he thought Texas had fared far better.
Peter Schuerman, director of licensing and intellectual property for The Texas A&M University System, gave an overview of energy-related projects in which his office is involved on behalf of the institution: bioenergy, wind energy, energy efficiency and safety engineering.
The office he heads assists in processes involving patents and licensing, with some leading to spin-off companies that have economic benefits for the state and nation, he noted.
Schuerman cited several governmental agencies and private-sector firms with which his office is partnering on behalf of the researchers and the universities and agencies within the system, among them the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Department of Agriculture, along with several state agencies and public and private corporations.
“We (the A&M System) are not going to directly commercialize; that’s why partnerships are so important,” he said. Instead, he said he and others in the system look for commercializing opportunities.
He cited the difference in cultures between academia and industry. He explained that academia focuses “on ideas, discoveries and innovation” while industry focuses on products and services. “They interface in technology with the application of innovation.” Schuerman concluded.
Contact: Lane Stephenson, News & Information Services, at (979) 845-4662.
Tags: energy, Energy Forum, TEES
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