Gov. Perry calls for innovation, competition in energy industry
Energy experts converge at Rice to discuss the future

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

Texas Gov. Rick Perry visited Rice University Wednesday to discuss the need for innovation and competition in the energy industry to help relieve U.S. dependence on foreign energy, protect the environment and create jobs. He was speaking on day two of the Emerging Energy Technology Conference held at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business.

	JEFF FITLOW
	Texas Gov. Rick Perry said the technologies being discussed at this week’s Emerging Energy Technology Conference at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business will help pave the way for a safer and more sustainable energy future.

The governor also discussed the new Gulf Project, a coalition of energy and environmental scientists from research universities and the private sector, policy experts and state officials he organized to work to develop better technology and procedures that would prevent a recurrence of the drilling explosion and oil spill now affecting the Gulf of Mexico. Rice is part of the consortium.

“Rice University is a Texas treasure and an important part of our stature as leader in energy, technology, entrepreneurship and innovation,” Perry said. “Just as Texas led the way in the energy production of the last century, we’re going to lead the way in energy safety. Those answers are going to be found in this state. They’re going to be found in laboratories, professors and students in universities like Rice.

“This university being a leader in the energy industry, in entrepreneurship, in innovation, gives the rest of our institutions not only a great challenge — I’m a big believer in competition — but as Rice becomes even a grander name around the globe, it gives the challenge to the rest of our institutions of higher learning to attain those heights as well.”

JEFF FITLOW
Rice President David Leebron, right,  introduced the governor and highlighted Rice’s commitment to being a part of the solution to the energy needs of Houston, the state of Texas, the country and the world.

The conference was hosted by the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and the National Corrosion Center.  Panelists discussed a broad range of technologies that can change how energy is produced and consumed, including by tapping some unconventional natural gas supplies in the U.S. The conference also highlighted recent advances in chemistry, well monitoring, computer software, seismic technology, hydraulic fracturing, CO2 injection and corrosion detection, treatment and prevention.

Rice President David Leebron introduced the governor and highlighted Rice’s commitment to being a part of the solution to the energy needs of Houston, the state of Texas, the country and the world.

“Rice is proud to be located in the world’s energy capital,” Leebron said. “If we are to remain the energy capital of the world, we must be willing to invest in that research and into developing new technologies.”

He cited work by Rice faculty that ranges from the nanotechnology research springing from the discovery of buckminsterfullerene here 25 years ago to the collaborative research involving its top scientists and engineers, many of whom spoke at the conference.

“Meeting our energy challenges today and for future generations will not be easy; it will be hard,” Leebron said. “But we collectively have the expertise, will and resources to rise to the occasion, much of it right here in Houston and the state of Texas.”

Perry echoed those sentiments.

“Texans can do it, just as we always have,” he said. “It takes hard work, innovation, common sense. But we will find the answers, and we will continue to produce the energy for the rest of this country.”

He said Texas’ energy industry supplies 20 percent of the nation’s oil production, a quarter of the nation’s natural gas production, a quarter of the nation’s refining capacity and nearly 60 percent of the nation’s chemical manufacturing.

“And I’m proud to say Texas is now the wind-energy-producing capital of America,” he said. “In short, America runs on Texas’ energy. And Texas needs our energy jobs to feed our families and fund our educational systems.”

Texas’ energy industry employs 200,000 to 300,000 Texans, with $35 billion in total wages. Perry noted that the effects of the offshore drilling moratorium now in effect will negatively impact the Gulf of Mexico region by resulting in the loss of as many as 46,200 jobs and wage losses of up to $330 million a month.

”We are entering an uncertain time in Texas energy and much of that uncertainty is man-made in Washington, D.C.,” he said. ”There was a time when the biggest threat to our energy industry was foreign competition, but I sincerely believe that the biggest challenge facing you all today is a federal government that ends up doing more harm than good when it tries to help.”

However, Perry said the emerging technologies being discussed at the conference will help pave the way for a safer and more sustainable energy future. “I think our best days are ahead of us, and that’s because of universities like Rice,” he said.