Not long ago Washington policymakers spent a great deal of time bemoaning our ever-increasing dependence on foreign (especially, alas, Middle Eastern) oil. Rarely has such pessimistic groupthink proven so misguided. North America is blessed with a number of comparative advantages when it comes to producing energy at a low cost, and Canada’s increased oil production, innovation in alternative energy research, Mexico’s historic energy reforms, and the shale revolution across the region have only accentuated North America’s potential to become the world’s dominant energy superpower.

Future Tense and the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute invite you to join them in Washington, D.C., at noon on Tuesday, July 26, for a conversation on what it will take for North America to fulfill its energy potential. People tend to obsess over the monthly gyrations of oil prices and the latest regulatory battle over shale or pipeline-building, but we want to look forward to 2050. What concerted steps should Canada, Mexico, and the United States take to ensure that North America will become the world’s leading energy power for generations? And how can this region lead the world not only in output and economic growth, but also in setting new standards of environmental responsibility and sustainability?

Follow the conversation online using #NAenergy and by following @FutureTenseNow. For more information and to RSVP, visit the New America website, where the event will also be streamed live.

Participants:

Hector Moreira
Director of energy model for Mexico Initiative at Arizona State University
Commissioner, Mexican National Commission of Hydrocarbons
Former under secretary of energy of Mexico

Laura Dawson
Director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center
Former senior adviser on economic affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa

Sharon Burke
Senior adviser for international security and resource security at New America
Former assistant secretary of defense for operational energy