Technology transforms energy outlook
The U.S. energy picture has changed significantly in recent years, with vast, new natural gas supplies coming to market, revived solar and wind power industries, and new extraction techniques opening supplies of Canadian oil sands, an energy expert said Wednesday. Daniel Yergin, a former professor at Harvard Business School and Harvard Business School and author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on the oil industry, credited technology for changing the domestic energy landscape. Recent innovations have made the United States less dependent on Middle Eastern oil, shifted the flow of energy to this country from one that was predominantly east and west to one that is increasingly north and south, and given the nation a bit more latitude on how it approaches international energy matters. Though the world faces enormous energy hurdles in the coming decades as developing countries modernize, Yergin’s view is one of “reasoned optimism” because of an increased pace of...