Why oil prices will remain high in the coming years:

First is the emergence of a growing middle class around the world which is driving energy demand. There are more than 6 billion people on earth. Everyone in this room is among the so called “Golden Billion,” enjoying a standard of living that many can only dream of.

At the other end of the scale are 2 billion people who have essentially nothing - no electricity, no safe water, living on less than $2/day. In the middle are billions who aspire to our standard of living. The good news is that each year many are beginning to achieve it. But the consequences of this trend are increasing demands for food, goods, services and commodities of all kinds.

Second, geopolitical dynamics continue to put upward pressure on prices. I don’t just mean conflict in the Middle East, although that certainly plays a role.

The situation is far more complicated.

We are seeing a resurgence of “resource nationalism” - the impulse by governments to tightly control domestic resources and exclude foreign investment. As prices increase, these geopolitical dynamics intensify.

Third, new supplies of oil resources are challenging to find and extract. Since we started using oil, most of the easy-to-reach, inexpensive supplies have been used. What’s left is harder to find … more difficult to drill … and more expensive to produce.

And fourth, we have deliberately constrained our own supply by placing limitations on domestic exploration and drilling. In the past 20 years, America’s production has fallen by nearly 4 million barrels of oil a day - this is the equivalent of taking a major oil producing country’s supply off the world market.

And over the same period, U.S. demand grew by more than 4 million barrels per day. Less supply, in a time of rising demand, means higher prices.

Some important facts. First the kind of energy used by the U.S.:

Almost 40 percent is oil … about 23 percent each from natural gas and coal … 8 percent is generated from nuclear.

Renewables make up 7 percent … of that hydro power contributes about half.

Less than one half of one percent comes from wind; solar is even smaller than that.

We import about two-thirds of our oil, and 15 percent of our natural gas. All of the rest of our energy - coal, nuclear, renewables - is produced here at home.

Let me dispel one myth. The U.S. is not an energy weakling. Our country is an energy powerhouse.

America is the number 1 producer of nuclear power and ethanol….

We’ re the number 2 producer of coal, natural gas and wind power …

And we’re the number 3 producer of oil…

When looking at the energy system from a global perspective … the picture is very similar. Like America, 85 percent of the global economy is powered by oil, natural gas and coal. And by 2030, experts predict we will need 50 percent more.

Where to go from here:

Renewable energy is very real. We need it. It will be an essential part of the future I envision. But it’s not realistic to suppose that it can replace conventional energy in a timeframe that some suggest.

Our energy system has required massive investment over many decades. To supply the daily needs of 300 million people here in the U.S. with new energy sources requires time and money - lots of both! And it’s unrealistic to think major parts of it can be replaced in just a decade.

Even with the rapid growth of renewables, experts estimate that over 80 percent of global energy consumed in 2030 will still come from oil, natural gas and coal.

These conventional energy sources will remain indispensible to meeting demand for decades to come, even as we pursue greater contributions from renewable energy.

The flipside to misplaced hope in alternatives is the notion that we can simply drill our way out of the problem.

We can’t. There aren’t enough domestic reserves … and what there are will take time to develop. But more access will help!

We need to get beyond simplistic solutions - slogans, really - and focus on our primary objective - energy security. The reality is that there are no silver bullets, no quick and easy answers…

There are solutions. And those solutions are not “either/ or,” …

It’s not a choice between “more drilling or more efficiency.”

It’s not a choice between coal or wind.

It’s not a choice between nuclear or solar.

We need it all!

We need greater efficiency and more renewables… we need nuclear and clean coal … we need wind and oil and natural gas.

What the U.S. - and the West as a whole - needs is a major energy project. It will cost all of us an incredible sum… but it will be worth it. It’s time for a major project.

What’s said is that this issue has disappeared from the radar in the United States right now; the candidates for president are not talking about energy anymore - they talked about it a lot during the summer, but they have stopped doing so in recent weeks. It is time for both to pick the subject up again and to come with an energy-vision.