Obama’s Re-election Can Positively Impact India’s Energy Sector

By Author: Sagar Pawar
Total Articles: 37
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Finally the results are out! Mr. Barak Hussein Obama and his family would continue to be the occupants of the White House. How India’s energy sector would be impacted could be speculatively analyzed in terms of indirect influences and direct impacts. If we look at the various factors which are likely to have indirect influence the most obvious is continuation of Obama government’s environmentally conscious policies. This will provide much needed gestation for renewable. Hopefully, this will lead to incentives, wider research, successful pilots and technological breakthroughs; ultimately making them economically sustainable and scalable. Energy systems engineering experts have been able to chart out the various possible effects on the energy sector.

The Obama administration was committed to encourage the manufacture and use of wind turbines. Energy technology engineering in renewable can help to produce efficient turbines for production of renewable energy. Production Tax Credit (PTC) has been one of the major supports for the manufacturing centers of wind turbines, Ohio, Iowa, Michigan and Detroit. Support is also ...
... there for green building technologies, especially in HVAC areas for reduction of carbon emissions thus meeting the climate change agenda. With a total spend of $48 billion US led the world in clean energy in 2011. This would act as a strong catalyst for emerging and energy hungry economies like India to continue to bet on renewable sources of energy.

In terms of strategic collaboration on energy, Obama’s policy has always indicated exceptional attention to India and the surrounding region. ‘The U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy’ (PACE) was signed in 2009 to work together in ‘research & clean energy deployment for accelerated transition’ to low-carbon and energy secure economies. Professionals with a MBA International Business would understand that this partnership will be a great step towards India’s vision of a greener future.

A direct impact of the president’s re-election can be gauged from the following facts and statements. In a press note after the Former External Affair minister Mr. SM Krishna’s visit, the US Department of State press release mentioned “the United States will continue to support India’s efforts, as it seeks to increase natural gas as a share of its energy mix. Through the State Department’s ‘Unconventional Gas Technical Engagement Program’, the United States also agreed to share its experience and best practices in establishing the necessary environmental protection and regulatory framework as India prepares for its first shale gas bid round, scheduled for 2013”. Petroleum engineering and its allied energy fields will face a powerful impact from the U.S.-India partnership.

India’s ever increasing Natural gas demand, supply gap and the uncertain outcome of RIL’s KG D6 gas, has inevitably made LNG futuristically the only option to follow in near term. Hydrates can be another area for energy collaboration. Preliminary study shows that India has approximately 80,000 sq. Km of potential hydrate deposits in deep-water area of India like Andaman-Nicobar, Krishna-Godavari, Konkan and Kutch offshore. A focus on trade driven by geopolitics will benefit India in terms of more success stories like GE and BHEL collaboration for power stations in India. Energy security is vital for both democracies of India and US; geopolitically helping India emerge stronger in the area of energy would be in the interest of US in balancing this region for addressing its own security concern.