Town Hall Energy Discussion Held

Friday, June 1, 2007
Topics: Environment
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If a corporation with currently posted assets of nearly $180 billion specifically asked your opinion about their operations, would you offer it? 150 of your neighbors responded to that call from an oil company two evenings ago, and what didn't come up as often as you might have expected was the current cost of gasoline. What did happen was a solid debate about the future of energy use in the United States. ideastream's Rick Jackson was in the audience.

The event was billed as a town hall meeting to talk about energy - a give-and-take between producers, facilitators, and customers. Topics for discussion were to be chosen by the audience participants, with no advance warning for panelists, and the promise that nothing; nothing, was off limits.

Environmentalists, educators, researchers, farmers, even consumers turned out - all worried about how we find, use, pay for, and develop the energy; that will drive America. Kevin Shorie is a teacher at Ohio Technical College.

Kevin Shorie: I basically came to get an idea of what our future is going to hold and what we should be teaching our students in this program.

Sponsored by the University of Akron and energy giant ConocoPhillips, this was the 11th of 29 such town halls Conoco is holding throughout the country in 2007. Conoco Executive Vice President for Refining and Marketing, Jim Gallogly, says one theme has been consistent.

Jim Gallogly: People think for one that oil companies don’t care about the environment.

But otherwise, Gallogly says, each session has been as different as the region of the country hosting it - which thus far has included sites from Mississippi to Minnesota, and from the West Coast, to West Virginia.

Joining him at Downtown Akron’s Crowne Plaza, where a nearby gas station was selling a gallon of self serve regular for $3.19, were members of the Ohio Fuel Cells Coalition and the Ohio Environmental Council - the manager of Alternative Products for ConocoPhillips - and the Director of Energy Services for the Ohio Farm Bureau - Dale Arnold.

Dale Arnold: I work with farmers every day to take a look at wind, solar, biomass, fuel cells, biofuels; on the farm to see different ways, different options, and different opportunities to help them control their energy costs.

Arnold fielded several questions regarding what Ohio farmers can do - and are already doing, to reduce their energy usage and their energy costs.

One area farmer who grows soybeans on some of his 4,000 acres even challenged Conoco for its’ taking advantage of a fairly new tax credit; designed by Congress to assist those who move toward advances in biodiesel fuels.

Farmer: My fear is this - all the time and energy it has took for us to get that dollar incentive and get to this point - if you guys don’t come up with a real good act to prove to Congress that you spent that $175 million wisely - we’re both going lose the tax completely, and we’re all going to lose.

Gallogly countered that the oil giants attempt to be conscientious about spending tax dollars - but that the efforts to save money, fuel and the future for each of us - is a costly venture, in need of all the assistance Washington can offer.

Jim Gallogly: The reason the governments’ giving us the tax credit is because they want all of us to go out and try new things.

Renewable energy was a dominant theme of the 90+ minute meeting; but there were also questions on topics ranging from electric cars, to emission reductions, global warming, and even contention about whether the term ‘clean coal technologies’ is environmentally accurate.

Dale Arnold told the gathering worrying about what hasn’t worked is not where our focus should be, and instead we should attentive to what we can do to protect the future.

Dale Arnold: We also need to take a look at Brownfield reclamation, utilization of methane and coal slag - we also need to take a look at distributed generation - being able to mix on-site generation with utility scale generation. There are a number of techniques and opportunities there that can help us control our energy costs. That has to be taken a look at seriously.

Finally, there was talk about why gasoline is at record prices - and why Ohio in particular is now leading the nation in cost per gallon. Blame various problems that have closed two Midwest refineries, says the Conoco V.P. - one near Toledo, the other near St. Louis. But Gallogly says he does expect the price to come down, and fairly soon.

Jim Gallogly: The prices are too high, and we don’t want you to get used to the price.

Rick Jackson, 90.3.