Washington announces creation of new Bureau of Energy Resources
Washington has announced the creation of a new bureau that will address foreign policy, security and economic issues related to oil and gas over the next 25 years. The State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources, created directly as a result of the work that Secretary Clinton mandated on the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review that began in 2009, is intended to strengthen our capacity to coordinate energy diplomacy issues.
The creation of the bureau is an acknowledgement of just how connected our energy policy is to our foreign policy, but the 25 year timeline is interesting to note. Many of the alternative energy sources currently being developed– fusion and space-based solar power are the two that come to mind—hope to deliver relative energy independence within 30 to 40 years. The bureau’s 25 year timeline puts added pressure on the developers of new energy, but in order for the technologies and eventual commercialization of those technologies to emerge, there needs to be greater political support all around.
