Since the government's most recent attempt at an energy policy didn't do much for the upstream E&P industry, Chuck Stanley has a plan of his own. "U.S. energy policy seems to be searching for a silver bullet, and it's really struggling for what it should be," the executive vice president of Salt Lake City-based Questar Corp., a gas utility that owns Questar E&P, said at a recent IPAA/Tipro program in Houston. "The past was conventional, the future is unconventional and the transition will have profound implications." Stanley's energy policy consists of four pillars, the first being fuel diversity. "In the future, America will need all the energy the markets can deliver. We don't have the luxury of blacklisting any fuel source. We need it all." Second is access, a familiar hot-button for everyone in the E&P industry, especially in the Rockies and certain offshore areas. Some of the nation's highest-potential areas remain off-limits, he said. "We can't afford a policy that leaves vast amounts of gas undeveloped. We're engaged in an all-or-nothing battle for access to public land because much of our future gas supply must come from public land." Permitting of individual wells is not an efficient way to deal with unconventional wells, Stanley added, comparing it with the permitting of coal mining. "Would the government need to permit every single shovel of coal the coal companies take out of a mine? "Regulating unconventional gas development requires a paradigm shift. It used to be that drilling a well was an event and we didn't mind waiting. But now we need project-specific approval." The third pillar is a compromise between the environment and quality of life. "It is the industry's job to convince a skeptical public that we can develop our natural resources without harming the environment. A compromise doesn't require there be winners and losers." Letting the markets work is the fourth pillar. "Conservation, innovation and change are driven by economics, not acts of government. People pay attention to what hits them in the pocketbook. Given time, we'll evolve in our consumption methods and we as an industry will evolve in terms of our ability to get the gas to the markets."
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