The world is becoming a smaller place, but America’s role in the energy sector is growing, was the assessment of many speakers and attendees at Deloitte’s 2014 Energy Conference held in the spring in Washington, D.C.

The theme of the conference was “A global industry … competing locally.”

“Talent is being sourced globally, which is creating an integrated energy environment,” John McCue, U.S. energy and resources leader at Deloitte, said.

John Minge, chairman and president of BP America, said that the energy industry had a tremendous task in helping to improve the lives of people, especially those in developing nations, over the next quarter century.

“Why do we explore for oil and gas? To make money, of course, but what really drives us is to power the world and improve lives. For example, something as simple as adding air conditioning units to facilities helps extends life expectancies and helps children better their educations. Studies have found that children pay more attention to lessons and learn quicker in air conditioned classrooms compared to being in classrooms that are very hot,” he said.

Over the course of the next 25 years, BP is forecasting that energy demand will increase by 40% with 90% of this increase coming from the developing world. Throughout this growth period, he said that rather than look at critics as strict adversaries, BP believes they will help the company to focus on issues that are important to the general population. As the American shale revolution progresses and creates many new positives for the country, the need for new regulations will continue to increase, he said.

These regulations and criticism aren’t only related to the production of hydrocarbons, but also include financial and political regulations. Not having the right policies in place to fully capitalize on the abundance of new crude, gas and liquids being produced can hinder the country’s economic recovery, Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, said.

“Do we have the policies to match the opportunities? The government doesn’t move as fast as the industry. Our leaders need to come to grips with the realization that the U.S. is broke and we need to find ways to create new jobs, generate capital and attract new capital to this country,” she said.

Over the next decade, the country will need to create 20 million jobs to return to pre-recession levels, according to research the Institute for 21st Century Energy did with IHS CERA. “Our research found that the shale gale had helped to create 2.1 million new jobs in this country by 2012. If allowed to continue through and help improve the pulse of the U.S. economy, by 2025 this will increase to 3.9 million new jobs. That’s a significant down payment on the 20 million jobs we need to create,” she said.

According to Harbert, for too long the energy industry has been seen as a problem by some legislators and regulators. This needs to change given that this sector of the economy can, and is, helping to rebuild the economy, not only through producers and operators, but also in the manufacturing sector.

“We’ve gotten policy wrong in this country in the past and we can’t afford to get our energy policy wrong,” she said, while noting it was especially important to speed up the permitting for our export terminals in order to maintain the lead we have on the rest of the world when it comes to developing shale. The U.S. has a significant lead on the rest of the world, but it risks losing potential markets for gas and liquids if permitting continues to be delayed.

As per the event’s title, these policies are not just on the federal level. Jeff Logan, the executive deputy secretary at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said that without the right policy in place that production out of the Appalachian Basin could move to other states. “Natural gas is a commodity and without the right policies in Pennsylvania, it could go elsewhere,” he said while speaking from the audience during an open forum at the conference.

He noted that one of the issues within the state was bridging the gulf in opinion on energy policy between the two “states” of Philadelphia and the rest of Pennsylvania. The biggest problem in getting Philadelphia onboard with the shale revolution has been a question of showing them the benefit to the city from this development. Logan noted that as the city’s citizenship bears witness to rail, truck and barge transport of production and its positive economic impact, Philadelphia is “starting to get it.”

One bridge that will be necessary to cross is the need to change the discourse on the country’s new oil and gas supplies helping to achieve energy independence while emphasizing the need for exports. As Harbert noted, a large portion of the U.S. citizenship are distrustful of the oil and gas industry. Whether this feeling is fair or not is irrelevant. What’s relevant is the need to assure the bulk of the citizens that exports aren’t just a way for the “greedy oil barons” to line their pockets with profits that aren’t benefiting the country.

Gary Hunt, general manager, Deloitte Marketpoint, led a discussion where audience members said that there is a need for further public education on energy markets and how there is a global market for crude oil and gasoline, and increasingly, LNG. Currently the U.S. participates via free trade in the global gasoline market and it will soon be a major global LNG trader. However, the country still bans crude exports despite the fact that its end product—gasoline—is approved for export.

“If [oil opponents] don’t want to export crude, build the Keystone XL or use rail to ship crude, how is the industry supposed to clear the market?” Hunt asked while noting that hydrocarbon exports are necessary in order to encourage production and continue to meet future demand.

It may be obvious to many industry participants that not allowing crude exports at a time when the U.S. is producing tremendous amounts of crude is handicapping the oil industry since there isn’t enough domestic refining capacity for the type of crude being produced domestically. It may also be common knowledge that global gasoline prices are tied together and are not regionally focused. However, neither of these truisms is known to the general populace. The oil and gas industry did a great job at explaining the benefits of newfound reserves, but allowed the discussion on fracking to be controlled by opponents who highlighted and over exaggerated the negatives. The industry cannot afford to allow opponents to misconstrue how its markets work and alter the evidence that suggest more U.S. crude being produced and exported can be a positive by limiting the impacts of oil produced by hostile cartels.

This discussion ended on the point that Pennsylvania doesn’t just benefit from production out of the Appalachian Basin. Indeed, Philadelphia takes approximately one-fourth of Bakken production in its refineries and terminals via rail. As with Marcellus and Utica production, there is no guarantee of the final destination for these volumes. But one thing is certain: Even if they stay in their production region, their sale will have a global impact.