People focus on the price they focus on balance of payments. Yergin: The combination of the economic downturn and major breakthroughs that have occurred in the North American energy supply have come together to emphasize the job creation potential of energy, which is something that had not been focused on much. It’s not only the price that you pay as a consumer, it’s not only the price you pay as a motorist, but it’s that cost of energy that flows into everything else in our society.įree : Talk about the job-creating potential of energy. But what that question really points to is how important energy prices are to the economy.

Even more fundamental is ensuring that there is gasoline at the pump and that there is electricity. Yergin: For consumers, it understandably always comes down to their electric bill and the price of gasoline at the pump. And what The Quest tries to do is to give people a framework, a context, for seeing how all the energy pieces fit together, and do so in a narrative context with a lot of great characters.įree : I asked one of my colleagues, “If you were going to talk to one of the foremost experts on energy, what would you want to ask him?” And they said, “I would want to know when my electric bill is going to go down and by how much.” It’s our quest for energy that is affordable, reliable, environmentally sound, and abundant. So the critical questions are, Will we have the energy? Where will it come from? And what will the mix be? That’s what The Questis all about. We have a $65 trillion world economy today, and it could be $130 trillion in a couple decades. Yergin: It starts with the fundamental point of how energy underpins our whole economy and how it is central for economic growth globally. Yergin recently sat down with Free Enterprise to discuss The Quest, the transition of the energy industry, environmental matters, and geopolitics.įree : So what is The Quest all about?

Dan yergin the prize