Time for Europe to Frack or Fall Behind -- Siemens CEO
Europe needs to consider introducing shale oil and natural gas extraction into its own territory or risk getting left behind by manufacturers, said the head of a major German-based technology firm.
Joe Kaeser, president and CEO of Siemens AG, characterized European energy policy during remarks he delivered here yesterday as a "basket case" that's been too heavily invested in renewable energy sources while ignoring the huge potential that domestic shale gas production could provide for European manufacturing and industry.
That's just a taste of the sharply critical views Kaeser offered of the European Union's energy markets and European governments' influence over them. He said adopting subsidies and policies to favor solar photovoltaic technology in cloudy Germany was merely "subsidizing about 400,000 jobs in China" and "makes as much sense as growing pineapples in Alaska."
Kaeser further said that the E.U.'s push in favor of expensive renewable energy technologies over cheap and abundant gas stores has only served to increase its imports of coal to compensate for higher gas prices, thus raising the continent's CO2 emissions.
Europe's choices were achieving the opposite of what the climate-change-minded governments in Brussels had originally set out to accomplish, he said.
In contrast, Kaeser pointed to the United States, where he said Siemens has invested about $25 billion over the past decade. He said a few short years ago manufacturers needing natural gas were leaving the U.S. because gas prices were too high. Shale gas has since changed the situation considerably.
"Today they would be crazy, flat-out crazy, not to be here in this country," Kaeser said. The Siemens CEO offered his opinion of E.U. energy policy during the annual IHS CERAWeek energy conference underway this week.
Industrial competitiveness in Europe and the threat that U.S. energy developments present to it have become major concerns within Europe's business community. There's speculation that the calculation for shale development in Europe could change, should the public begin witnessing factories there relocating to the U.S. to take advantage of cheaper energy or feedstock supplies in the case of plastics and petrochemicals.
That's a development the European public should be worried about, Kaeser suggested.
"We go where there are opportunities," he said.
Nathanial Gronewold, E&E reporter
Republished from EnergyWire with permission. EnergyWire covers the politics and business of unconventional energy. Click here for a free trial
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