The Civitas Outlook Energy Symposium

Energy policy in America has become, over the past few decades, one of the most fraught debates in American politics. The progressives immersed the issue in a soup of universalist sentiment that equated fossil fuel use with war on the planet and our childrens’ futures. We needed to “decarbonize” the economy and rebuild it with “clean energy.” Policies to that effect have been implemented in America by Democratic presidential administrations and were a part of an overall approach to governing that stretched from the Department of the Treasury to the Department of Energy, with a stop at the Securities and Exchange Commission. This Whole of Government Approach is intended to curtail and end the fossil fuel industry. But will the American people endure the high prices and sacrifices these policies require to achieve some purportedly pollution-free economy, thwarting the perils of climate change?

Conservatives have focused on practical aspects of energy policy: prices, supply and demand, diversifying and broadening America’s energy base, production efficiency, and economic growth. It could point to tremendous success in fracking technology and to America’s growing capacity for cleaner energy production, even though the country still requires more energy. Along the way, America has become both more productive and more energy-independent.

The new variable is AI, and its inescapable need for vast new sums of energy. How will America meet this challenge, central not only to economic vitality but also national security? How will America meet its energy needs? To answer these questions and more, Civitas Outlook has assembled four thinkers with diverse perspectives on how America’s energy policy should proceed, given our strengths and challenges.

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