CEO says U.S. is years away from crafting an energy policy

Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers told Reuters’ Roberta Rampton this week that he doesn’t “see us really doing anything meaningful on energy and environmental policy in this Congress, for a variety of reasons." The main reason that Rogers gave was a lack of focus on the part of the American public. “We've got a very short attention span in the United States. It wasn't so many years ago that the gas price was over $4, and we made all these statements that we were going to wean ourselves from oil. We really didn't do anything. And here we are again with the price over $4," he said.

Rogers has been an outspoken supporter of failed efforts to put a price on carbon over the last few years, and he now believes any similar efforts are years away. In fact, in recent months, Rodgers has been advocating that companies simply ignore the government and take voluntary action when it comes to reducing harmful emissions. “We can’t call a timeout. In our business we have got to keep moving. We are not like the government. We have to make things happen. We have to deliver and that’s our focus,” said Rogers at a World Climate Summit event in Cancun last December.

While Rodgers may be frustrated at the inaction on Capitol Hill, it appears he may have plenty of allies who actually work there. During an otherwise contentions hearing about oil subsidies on Thursday, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said it was a “failure” that the United States continues to not have an energy policy. Snowe’s comments were one of the rare statements made during the hearing that enjoyed support from members of both the Democratic and Republican parties.