BNN | Business News Network

During the National Energy Summit and International Dialogue, a panel of top energy company CEOs were asked about their opinions of the future of energy distributions. These leaders were asked Steven F. Leer (Arch Coal Inc.), Kevin Parker (Deutchse Management Bank, and Mayo Shattuck (Constellation Energy). The panel was moderated by Nisid Hajari of Newsweek. Here are some of the thoughts of these energy experts.

Mayo Shattuck: I’d agree with your premise that we need everything in order to meet the demands that we have from all sources in the US. We need to develop generation competencies in all areas. Particularly in the nuclear side. Renewables are important part of this mix in order to meet the air emission and climate challenges we have ahead. The vast majority of renewable are of an intermittent quality. We need other types of energy when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.

Stephen Leer: Energy is a global scale business. I would add that conservation and energy efficiency is the important part and cheapest form of additional energy supplies. Pricing has a way to choose the most efficient sources for that moment in time. To have a balanced mix…I’m not sure there is such of thing. The markets will determine the balanced mix of energy. Coal is the fastest growing fossil fuel in the world. The challenge of coal is carbon capture resequestered technology. If we don’t developed this technology, it won’t be possible to stabilize CO2 emissions.

Kevin Parker: There isn’t an optimal mix of energy. But the markets will force the energy producers to make low carbon emission. We’re going to crack the threshold that will lead to climate change. The pricing of carbon will become an increasingly important. There will be higher carbon prices in the future. We’re going to need all energy sources, but low-carbon producers will be the winner.

The three CEOs talked about the system of cap and trade to control the price of carbon. The price of carbon will go up. Mayo Shattuck is an advocate of cap and trade system. He talked about a price-caller so certain parts of the United States can gradually adapt to new carbon pricing. Mayo Shattuck feels this is the efficient way to reduce carbon.

Hajari: The mix in the US energy supply: it’s been the same for the last 30 years. There’s no single silver bullet, so as we move toward a diversified portfolio, how can we encourage investments? And is there an ideal mix?

Steven Leer: When you look at global growth, energy requirements are stunning. We will struggle to meet those requirements, and we’ll need every energy source we can develop.

Kevin Parker: Energy producers will be forced to make all of their energy low-carbon. Markets and investors will force it that way.

Steven Leer: If other countries don’t embrace this in a meaningful time frame, it affects their competitiveness. In the US, we’ve seen manufacturing bases relocate when policies don’t support them — we need to make sure that our regulations make companies want to stay and develop here.

Kevin Parker: Because boundaries don’t exist for capital flow, companies are going to go where they have a competitive advantage and stay there. We ignore it at our peril. Example: Germany’s regulatory framework works well to encourage companies — it’s a mix of incentives and taxes to grow efficiency. And it’s evolved as the country has learned how best to improve growth.

Steven Leer: there are a lot of small-scale projects already going on, and we need to work on scaling them. As an example, the carbon capture and sequestration project we mentioned here yesterday.

Kevin Parker: Regulatory uncertainty is dangerous for developing renewable technology.

Question: Nuclear power: what’s the greatest hurdle?

Mayo Shattuck: Policy goal: increase nuclear’s role in the American power structure.

Steven Leer: Tech advances at a different rate than consumption does. It’s a challenge to stay where we are — moving ahead of the game will take even more.