US energy boom benefits allies, DOE official says

The recent domestic oil and natural gas production surge has brought increased energy security not just for the United States, but also for its allies and trading partners, Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman said.

{mosads}“In our own case, the all-of-the-above strategy, with incredible, prodigious outcomes for oil and gas in recent years that we have witnessed, have really quite transformed our own energy security,” Poneman said Thursday at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “And by the way, to the benefit of countries around the world.”

The benefits to allies have come both from importing energy and fuels from the U.S. and from being allied with a more secure country, Poneman said.

“We have seen that, in terms of the United States, our security has been very much enhanced by the diversification of our supplies. It brings us not only security benefits and the reduced vulnerability that our own production has permitted, but … it has brought serious security benefits to our allies and trading partners as well,” he said.

Poneman largely credited other countries’ benefits to the U.S. using energy as a strategic tool to support them. This is in contrast to countries that have used energy maliciously, such as Iraq did when it invaded Kuwait to control its oil in the 1990s, he said.

“We have a holistic, integrated view of energy security, which is something that I think is relevant to countries’ morale around the world,” Poneman said. “It is great cause for optimism that not just our individual security, but our collective security is enhanced.”