Energy independence: Public support is needed to meet future energy needs

Bill Whitsitt, executive vice president for public affairs at Devon Energy Corp., said technology advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling opened areas of the country that haven't had much experience with oil and gas drilling. That has led to increased scrutiny of industry practices for drilling, water use, noise and emissions.

“We have to understand that there are real, legitimate concerns that are raised and we cannot appear to be dismissive,” Whitsitt said Sept. 25 at the Southern States Energy Board annual meeting in Oklahoma City. “We have to be responsive and make sure we are addressing every one of those concerns. Otherwise we risk losing that social license to operate, losing the ability to get permits because the fear factor is too great.”

Whitsitt said the term “fracking” is increasingly being used by those outside the energy industry as a shorthand way to describe all oil and gas development, not just the specific process of perforating wells and injecting fluid for breaking apart shale to release oil or natural gas.

Tom Price, senior vice president of corporate development and government relations at Chesapeake Energy Corp., said discussions over energy development and the environment have taken on the divisive tenor of partisan politics.

“In many ways, the polarization we see in the political arena is not a whole lot different than what we see in the energy and environmental arena,” Price said last week at the Governor's Energy Conference in Oklahoma City. “In most cases, we're talking past each other.”

Much of the backlash over fracking has come from the expansion of oil and gas development in the last decade, said Mark Brownstein, chief counsel of the Environmental Defense Fund's energy program.

“Even in communities where drilling has historically gone on, it is much more intense than it used to be: Many more trucks, many more rigs, many more workers, many of whom come from outside the community,” Brownstein said at the Governor's Energy Conference. “All of these things serve to create a perception on the part of the community that they are perhaps under siege, and that is an anxiety.”

Robert Jones, senior vice president with Keystone pipeline operator TransCanada Corp., said incidents from refinery fires to spills and well blowouts affect public perception about operators across the energy sector.

“I do agree we need to improve, because the public expects us to improve,” Jones said at the Southern States Energy Board meeting. “The challenge we have is we need to get the story out that we are improving. The safest way to do things is the right way to do it, and typically it's the right economic reason to do something. Nobody builds a pipeline to fail.”