In the 1990s, when U.S. first began importing more foreign oil than it produced domestically, there was a renewed urgency in discussions about how the nation could prepare for life after fossil fuels. Decades later, the question has yet to be fully answered. But a new student-led initiative at The University of Texas at Austin provides a platform for industry experts to share their ideas about energy strategies for the next 20 years.

The inaugural University of Texas Energy Forum, held Feb. 3-4, drew more than 300 students, policymakers, industry leaders and researchers to discuss global energy challenges and the innovations needed to help solve them. The forum, which continued despite the wintry weather conditions that caused the university to close Feb. 4, was organized by graduate students from the McCombs School and their peers in the university’s engineering, architecture, public policy, geosciences and law programs.

Cockrell School of Engineering Professor Michael Webber delivered the kickoff keynote address on the first day of the UT Energy Forum. Photo by Melissa Mixon."We realize that the energy landscape is changing," Josh Stillman told the Austin American-Statesman in a Jan. 29 story previewing the event. Stillman, MBA '11, is head of the steering committee for the forum. "UT is doing a lot of that research, and while its reputation is still in the oil and gas realm, (the forum) shows a major balance in the research done at UT," he said.

The forum featured eight panels addressing topics including alternative energy, transportation, federal policy and the future of America’s reliance on fossil fuels. Keynote speakers included Ethernet pioneer Robert Metcalfe, who was recently named a professor of innovation at the Cockrell School of Engineering, and Arun Majumdar, director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E).

Majumdar said solving the energy challenge is the “biggest business opportunity” of our time—one that requires innovation to be aligned with policy, education, science and research. “Unfortunately today, these vectors are pointed in different directions and we need to align them to get our nation back on track,” he said.

He also said the biggest challenges to supplying the world with clean and affordable energy are finding low-cost capital to fund new technologies at the pilot-scale level and grappling with the world’s growing population.

Dr. Scott Tinker, director of the university’s Bureau of Economic Geology, speaks during a panel titled, “Energy Resources in 20 Years.” Photo by Melissa Mixon.In a session called “Energy Resources for the Next 20 Years,” panelists made their own cautious predictions about the future of energy consumption and production.

“We’re very bad at predicting the future,” said Tad Patzek, professor and chair of the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering. “But 20 years from now, we as humans will realize that it is the environment that protects us. We will realize that human economy is embedded into the economy of the earth.”

Scott Tinker, director of the university’s Bureau of Economic Geology, said the federal government is taking steps to invest in new fuel sources, but it is too focused on getting away from importing energy from outside the country. What matters more, he argues, is energy security.

“One thing the federal government needs to get off of, at least for the next several decades, is the concept of energy independence,” Tinker said. “That’s not the same thing as energy security—energy that is available, affordable, reliable and clean—you can do that without being independent. I don’t worry so much about importing energy. We import and export lots of stuff. We’ve been doing it for centuries.”

University President William Powers Jr. spoke at the event, commending panelists and participants for taking a long-term perspective.

“This is people working together on what has to be one of the great challenges and issues for the 21st century. That is, how are we going to deal with our energy needs, and our need to conserve our resources with sustainable energy use, and have the kind of environment that is also sustainable?” Powers said. “If we don’t think now and plan now, there will be an environmental crisis and an energy abyss in the future.”

Panel Highlights

Juan Garza, president of Advanced Technology Initiatives, NRG Energy

“We’re not going to reduce the amount of electricity we use. We’re not. We’re hooked on it. Our society is designed to work on consumption.”

“For the [energy] producers of the world, there is no money in conservation. If we can find a way for them to make money … then we can probably turn it around. But for the time being, the people that want to produce energy want to sell more.”

Carey King, research associate, Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at The University of Texas at Austin

“In the future, there will be a focus on energy services instead of energy delivered. In the next 20 years, perhaps we will change to think about what we get for purchasing energy, not exactly how much energy we get.”

“I would say that some utilities will change their business models. ... That doesn’t necessarily mean that people will pay less money for energy. They’d pay the same amount for energy, because the company still has to make their returns back on whatever their infrastructure investments are.”

Scott Tinker, director, Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas at Austin

“The government tends to want to fix things, so it ends up picking winners. … Governments aren’t very good at picking winners. Nobody is. … If some fuel stands up and says, ‘I can do those things,’ it should be able to do that and be invested in and supported. But what happens is that we get excited about our own winners and we fight over them, and everything breaks down in the hallowed halls of Congress.”

Texas State Rep. Mark Strama, House District 50

“There are two ways to create a market in which renewable energy can thrive. One is for the price of all electricity to be higher, so that renewable energy becomes competitive on its own in the market. The other, and actually cheaper, way is, while electric rates are low, to put a modest surcharge on those rates to create a fund to subsidize demand for renewable energy.”