The US energy sector today is faced with a host of challenges and opportunities as it navigates the globalization of the industry, national and international fuel availability and policy and regulatory decisions at home and abroad. A number of transformative "game changers" are fundamentally altering our approach to energy production and use:
- EPA promotes power plant emission reductions, but has its ability to establish broad-ranging climate change programs tested.
- Recent reforms in Mexico allow for the privatization of the energy industry first time in almost 80 years.
- Extreme weather is the new normal, pushing a focus on adaptation and restoration as well as mitigation.
- Capacity energy markets, long the norm in the US, are becoming more popular in the EU.
- DOE process potentially expedited to export LNG to countries without a free trade agreement with the US.
- Aerial drones are set to be the next big advancement in the energy industry.
Any surviving illusion that the US energy industry can remain static without dramatic adaptation to new and unexpected circumstances has been displaced by the rapid changes in the industry worldwide. How we approach energy production and use will be determine by our response to the challenges and opportunities these changes provide.
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