Energy in Africa Promotes U.S. Economic and Security Interests

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This testimony was delivered before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy on November 1, 2017.

Thank you Chairman Young, Ranking Member Merkley, and other members of the Subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to highlight how the United States can better utilize energy policy to pursue our objectives in sub-Saharan Africa, a region of growing economic and national security importance. I proudly served in the State Department under Secretary Condoleezza Rice and continue to work closely on U.S. energy and development policies as a Senior Fellow at the nonpartisan Center for Global Development and at Rice University’s Baker Institute.

I have three points today and will conclude with three brief recommendations. My three main points are:

1. Helping our allies build modern energy systems directly serves U.S. economic, national security, diplomatic, and development interests.
2. Power Africa, using U.S. tools and expertise to unlock private investment in the power sector, has made a very promising start. But Power Africa must be sustained—and could be even better at little to no additional cost.
3. Small-scale distributed power is going to reach many poor people, but to grow their economies, create jobs, and meet escalating demand, African countries will still require large-scale power plants and a modern grid. In energy, big can be beautiful too.