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THE FUTURE OF ENERGY IN AFRICA

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, 

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

Serial No. 113–228

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

PAUL COOK, California 

GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

KAREN BASS, California 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

AMI BERA, California 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

Mr. Jonathan Elkind, Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of International Affairs, U.S. Department of Energy ....................................................................... 6

The Honorable Eric G. Postel, Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau for 

Africa, U.S. Agency for International Development .......................................... 16

Robert F. Ichord, Jr., Ph.D., Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Energy 

Resources, U.S. Department of State ................................................................. 24

Mr. Walker A. Williams, president and chief executive officer, Leadership 

Africa USA ............................................................................................................ 54

Ms. Dianne R. Sutherland, owner and publisher, Petroleum Africa Magazine . 67

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

Mr. Jonathan Elkind: Prepared statement ............................................................ 9

The Honorable Eric G. Postel: Prepared statement .............................................. 18

Robert F. Ichord, Jr., Ph.D.: Prepared statement ................................................. 27

Mr. Walker A. Williams: Prepared statement ....................................................... 57

Ms. Dianne R. Sutherland: Prepared statement ................................................... 69

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 80

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 81

Written responses from the Honorable Eric G. Postel to questions submitted 

for the record by the Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative 

in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee 

on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations ................................................................................................................... 82

Written response from the Department of Energy to request for information 

from the Honorable Karen Bass, a Representative in Congress from the 

State of California ................................................................................................ 91

The Honorable Christopher H. Smith: Statement for the record from Ms. 

Dana Hyde of the Millennium Challenge Corporation ..................................... 92

(1)

THE FUTURE OF ENERGY IN AFRICA 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2014

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 12:59 p.m., in room 

2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith 

(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. SMITH. Good afternoon. The subcommittee is called to order. 

First of all, let me begin by apologizing for the lateness of convening this hearing. We did have votes on the floor and members 

are making their way back and I appreciate the patience of our 

witnesses and guests. 

In the 21st century, energy has become vital to modern societies. 

We all know that. We no longer have to shop for food each day because refrigerators keep food cold and preserve longer, whether in 

our homes, in restaurants or during the process of trade. 

Cell phones, computers, televisions, and other electronics require 

electrical power to allow us to lead more productive lives in the 

modern world. As we have seen, even in the Ebola crisis, in an epidemic, it is necessary that medicines and plasma be kept cold so 

that they don’t lose their potency. 

Thus, it is both unfortunate and absolutely unnecessary that 

more than 1⁄2 billion Africans, especially in rural areas, live without 

electricity. Perhaps the great irony is that Africa has more than 

enough energy capacity to join the rest of the world in utilizing 

modern technologies that require energy supplies. Approximately 

30 percent of global oil and gas discoveries of the past 5 years 

alone have been in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, currently, only 290 

million out of 914 million Africans have access to electricity. And 

the total number lacking such access continues to rise. Bioenergy—

mainly, fuel, wood, and charcoal—is still a major source of fuel. Hydropower accounts for about 20 percent of total power supply in the 

region, but less than 10 percent of its estimated potential has been 

utilized. 

This hearing today will examine the current and prospective impact of U.S. Government programs, such as Power Africa and Electrify Africa, as well private international energy projects. I thank 

our very distinguished witnesses, who I will introduce momentarily, for their leadership in making the dream of the electrification of Africa increasingly a reality. 

2

Last year, Chairman Royce, backed by Ranking Members Eliot 

Engel and Karen Bass and I, introduced H.R. 2548, the Electrify 

Africa Act. This legislation seeks to build the African power sector 

from increased production to more effective provision of energy. 

H.R. 2548 passed the House this past May but has not had action 

yet in the Senate. 

Days after the act was introduced, the administration—I am very 

happy to say—announced its Power Africa initiative and has committed up to $7.81 billion in various types of U.S. technical and 

credit assistance and other aid to build the capacity of the African 

power sector. 

It seems that every few months, there is yet another discovery 

of petroleum or natural gas in Africa. Nevertheless, African countries remain net importers of energy. And a distribution of power 

from the many new sources of energy in Africa remain unfulfilled. 

This constrains trade and economic progress, social development, 

and overall quality of life for the people of Africa. Even now, one 

country, South Africa, accounts for two-thirds of Africa’s electricity 

generation. All of Africa produces less than 10 percent of the energy produced in the United States. 

Meanwhile, people across the continent are forced to meet their 

energy needs by gathering or purchasing charcoal or coal, often 

putting women in dangerous situations too far from home. Even 

when such fuels are safely brought back home, their use produces 

indoor pollution that all too often contributes to sickness and even 

death. The current situation cannot continue much longer. 

Even with 13 percent of the world’s population, Africa represents 

only 4 percent of the world’s energy demand. But this situation, 

thankfully, is changing. According to the report this year by the 

International Energy Agency, the IEA, since 2000, sub-Saharan Africa has seen rapid growth and a rise in energy use by some 45 

percent. So that is a good trend. 

We often speak of the rise of the African economies, but for that 

rise to be truly realized, the rates of power generation and supply 

must match the growing demand for power. Those cell phones that 

are transforming all forms of commerce in Africa must be charged. 

The consumer goods the growing African middle class is purchasing 

needs electricity. Africans are increasingly unwilling to accept the 

blackouts and power surges that have made life so difficult for so 

long. 

Africans who have traveled or live somewhere else know this 

doesn’t have to be their lot in life. In fact, even those that don’t 

travel may have seen on TV or heard about that power is available 

elsewhere and ought to be available to them just like everyone else. 

During the colonial period in Africa, countries were limited in 

their industrialization, but that period has now long passed. It 

must no longer be used as a reason why African countries are behind in the process of industrialization or power generation. 

Today, this lag in power generation is more due to inadequate or 

unrealistic regulation, lack of finance for significant power generation projects, underinvestment in power generation, even when financing is available, the disconnection of rural populations from 

national and regional power grids, high cost for energy, and other 

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quire additional international collaboration, public-private partnerships, and the will of governments and their citizens. We will not 

get to the point we believe it is necessary overnight, but we will 

get there if we take serious measures now and work robustly to 

bring this about. 

With regular electricity, young students will be able to study 

under electrical light but, also, use computers to advance their 

studies. Homemakers will be able to keep food fresher with refrigerators and can stretch household income further. And, of course, 

hospitals—I personally have been in, as well as Greg Simpkins, our 

staff director for the subcommittee, we have been in so many hospitals where, if it wasn’t for a generator, that hospital wouldn’t 

even have a refrigerator that can keep supplies cold as they must 

remain so, particularly plasma and certain medicines. 

Our two panels today will examine international and national 

programs to achieve regular, sufficient electrical power in Africa 

and private projects to add to the supply of energy on the continent. The future of energy in Africa is brighter than it has been 

in the past. But, again, diligent efforts need to be taken; we need 

to seize the day. 

So I want to now yield to my good friend and colleague, Mr. 

Cicilline, for any comments he might have. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And thank you for your leadership. When you say the prospect 

of energy in Africa is brighter, it is in large part because of your 

relentless leadership on this issue. So I want to thank you and 

Ranking Member Bass for your work and for convening this hearing and thank our witnesses for being here today. 

It is very obvious that the lack of power available throughout the 

continent has many negative consequences. It constrains economic 

growth. It undermines human resource development. It hinders 

quality of life, progress, and particularly limits the quality of social 

services and public safety. 

So the impact, both on the economic prosperity of the continent 

as well as on its ability to meet many of the urgent challenges, is 

severely compromised by the lack of energy. And this hearing will 

give us an opportunity to really assess the both prospective and 

current impacts of Power Africa and Electrify Africa. And I am 

looking forward to the testimony of our witnesses and thank you 

for being here. 

And, with that, I thank you and now defer to the ranking member. 

Mr. SMITH. To Mr. Stockman for any opening comments he might 

have. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. Mr. Chairman, I have to tell you, I—on several 

accounts—or occasions, I was in the Republic of Congo, and unfortunately, there I contracted an unwanted visitor in my body and 

had to go to the hospital. And that is when I found out the need 

for refrigeration and the need for antibiotics. And it actually started my journey into trying to ship antibiotics and other medicines 

to Africa, was my own personal experience of having none and the 

importance of energy and the importance of having—and, ironically, here is a country, the Republic of Congo, who is, you know, 

producing quite a bit of oil, yet they didn’t have enough oil at that 

4

time—I think someone donated lights to them now. When I went 

back, they actually had streetlights. But they didn’t have enough 

energy to generate electricity. 

And the thing that really astounded me, as we were driving 

down the streets, they filled little Coke bottles full of gasoline and 

kerosene. You have been over there. You have seen it. And you just 

marvel at, here is a country that is of great wealth, natural wealth, 

and yet its own people are very poor and restrictive in terms of 

what they can get. And it is mind-boggling. 

I know, being from Texas, I have 87 refineries in my district. We 

produce half of all the gasoline in the United States. And I was 

marveling at the lack of infrastructure for the ability to harvest 

their own oil for their own needs. 

And so, to me, I have always been interested in what a country 

in Africa has versus what it needs and the confusing outcomes of 

when you don’t have that infrastructure and you don’t have that 

ability to refine and it is unfortunate. I know there is a great deal 

of what people would call corruption but, on the other hand, the 

lack of knowledge and how to take their natural resources and 

make sure it benefits their own people. And it is kind of sad to see 

that difference. You have great wealth and great poverty, and yet 

little electricity. 

I remember the year I went back there again, and they had, I 

think the French donated these lights or solar-power lights, so that 

when you drive down the road now, at least, you have streetlights, 

and they are individually, ironically, powered by the sun. But the 

time before they had that, I was driving down there, and the only 

lights that were in existence in the capital were the lights from the 

car. And you could see all these people walking in the streets, and 

the only lights that they had really were from our car lights, which 

was a little bit alarming. 

And I think this is why this hearing is very important. And I 

think this is why we need to, in the United States, facilitate helping them take their energy, instead of exporting it, but to use it 

in their own countries. 

And with that, Mr. Chairman, I will yield back the balance of my 

time. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, to my friend from Texas. 

I would like to yield to the distinguished ranking member of our 

committee, Ms. Bass. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, as always, especially for your leadership in calling this particular hearing. 

You and I have worked for a long time on this issue and are clear 

in understanding that one of the most important needs on the continent is building the infrastructure so that the type of trade that 

you and I would love to see happen can take place. 

So I want to thank our distinguished witnesses, including the 

senior U.S. Government officials from the State Department, 

USAID, and DOE, as well as energy experts and advocates from 

civil society. I look forward to hearing your perspectives on the opportunities and challenges of energy resource development in Africa, including an assessment of the economic national security and 

human development aspects related to the energy sector. 

5

To help address the challenge, we all know that President 

Obama launched Power Africa last year, which is aimed at doubling access to electricity on the continent. The first iteration of 

Power Africa sought to provide more than 10,000 megawatts of 

new, cleaner electricity and increase access to at least 20 million 

more households and businesses. 

Additionally, during the historic U.S.-Africa leaders’ summit in 

August of this year, electrification in Africa was a central point of 

discussion with African heads of state. In the midst of these talks, 

President Obama announced a further commitment of $300 million 

to the Power Africa initiative. And this new commitment would increase the initial pledge of 10,000 megawatts to 30,000 megawatts. 

And the hope is, is that this creates an opportunity to reach up to 

60 million households and businesses. 

So, based on these early successes, it is critical that we continue 

to invest in initiatives that bring increased electricity to the African continent. That is why I was proud to join both chairmen, 

Royce and Smith, as well as Ranking Member Engel to introduce 

the Electrify Africa Act. And we are hopeful that that will move 

forward in the Senate. And so I look forward to today’s testimonies 

and I am interested in what more Congress can do to be of help. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Ms. Bass. 

I would like to now introduce our three distinguished experts, all 

of whom have made major contributions in the past and present, 

who can authoritatively speak to this subject. So we thank you on 

behalf of the subcommittee for being here. 

Beginning first with Mr. Jonathan Elkind, who currently serves 

as Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of International Affairs, 

having previously served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary 

for the Office of Policy and International Affairs from 2009 to 2013. 

Prior to joining the Energy Department, he worked as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, focusing on energy security and 

other foreign policy issues. He also founded and headed a consulting company, served on the staff of the U.S. National Security 

Council, and in a variety of other government positions working for 

the Vice President of the United States, at the U.S. Department of 

Energy, and at the Council on Environmental Quality. 

We will then hear from Mr. Eric Postel who began as USAID’s 

Assistant Administrator for the Bureau of Economic Growth, Education and Environment in March 2011. In October 2014, he was 

asked by Dr. Shah, the USAID Administrator, to serve as the Assistant to the Administrator for Africa. Mr. Postel brings to the position more than 25 years of private sector experience, working in 

emerging markets, especially those in Africa. He has also founded 

an investment banking and consulting firm focused on emerging 

markets, served as a commissioner of the U.S. Helping to Enhance 

the Livelihood of People Around the Globe Commission and worked 

for Citibank Tokyo. 

And then we will hear from Dr. Robert Ichord, who serves as 

Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Energy Resources. He 

is responsible for promoting the transformation of energy systems 

to achieve greater efficiency and cleaner performance through the 

use of market forces and innovative financing approaches and leads 

the Bureau’s efforts to reform electricity and power systems and 

6

develop more efficient and reliable national and regional electricity 

markets. Dr. Ichord has a long history of U.S. Government service 

in the energy field, having worked for the Energy Research and Development Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy, and USAID. 

So thank you for being here today, and I would like to begin with 

Mr. Elkind. 

STATEMENT OF MR. JONATHAN ELKIND, ACTING ASSISTANT 

SECRETARY, OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Mr. ELKIND. Good afternoon Chairman Smith, Ranking Member 

Bass, and members of the subcommittee. 

I am very pleased to be here to testify on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy on the future of energy in Africa. The Department of Energy’s Office of International Affairs focuses on some of 

our world’s most pressing global energy challenges, from promoting 

energy security to fostering international collaborations in science 

and technology, from addressing market volatility to facilitating 

long-term efforts to mitigate climate change. 

We work to leverage the technical expertise of the Department 

of Energy headquarters and our national laboratories in energy 

technologies, markets, and policies. So, in that context, I am very 

pleased, at the interest of the subcommittee in energy development 

in Africa and propose to sketch some of the major contours in those 

markets and some of the Department of Energy’s activities. 

Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, as the chairman noted, 

is experiencing rapid economic development. Sub-Saharan Africa is 

the world’s second fastest growing region, in fact. The World Bank 

reports that economic growth rates in sub-Saharan Africa continue 

to rise, having been 4.7 percent growth in 2013 and forecasted at 

5.2 percent for the current year. Thus, many African nations are 

positioned to become increasingly important, both as energy consumers and as energy producers. 

The International Energy Agency, in the report that the chairman referred to, estimates that the sub-Saharan African economy 

will quadruple in size, growing by 80 percent between now and 

2040. Even with robust economic and energy development in coming years, unfortunately, sub-Saharan African countries will struggle to meet the energy needs of their people, unless they can find 

effective new policies, technologies, and investment, most importantly, to spur sustained energy development. While 950 million 

people in Africa, according to IEA, will gain access to electricity between now and 2040, over 1⁄2 billion will still lack it. 

If I turn to oil development in Africa, sub-Saharan Africa has 

long been an important player in the global oil market, and its role 

will only grow in coming years. Oil production in the region has 

doubled since 1990 and now accounts for 6 percent of global production. And, in addition, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for almost 

30 percent of oil and gas discoveries over the last 5 years. Sub-Saharan African oil production is projected to grow from 5.3 million 

barrels a day in 2013 to approximately 6.2 million barrels per day 

by 2020. At present, more than 80 percent of current production is 

exported. So with economic growth driving demand for oil and oil 

7

products in sub-Saharan Africa, we expect that the region’s oil production will shift to much greater domestic use. 

On the natural gas front, major new discoveries are generating 

excitement in global markets and will provide fuel for Africa’s 

growing economies. Among the countries with the most important 

emerging gas developments are Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, 

and Madagascar, where there have been major progress steps made 

toward commercial development of newly discovered resources in 

recent years. 

In the power sector, electrification rates in sub-Saharan Africa 

are unfortunately among the lowest in the world, as has been 

noted. North Africa, by contrast, has electrification rates of over 99 

percent, but in sub-Saharan Africa, the rates average only 32 percent, meaning that more than 620 million people lack access to 

modern energy services. And, as the chairman so rightly and appropriately noted, this translates into very concrete impacts on people’s livelihoods and indeed their lives. 

So, with this context, in 2013, when President Obama underscored the U.S. commitment to Africa’s energy development by 

launching the Power Africa initiative, he also asked for the engagement by the Department of Energy. In June of this year, Secretary 

Moniz, together with his Ethiopian counterpart, the Minister of Energy and Water, convened a U.S.-Africa Energy Ministerial. It drew 

together 500 participants, 42 African countries, all the relevant 

pieces of the U.S. Government, 20 ministers from across northern 

and sub-Saharan Africa and, importantly, both African and U.S. 

companies, along with civil society, academia, and other organizations. We focused on clean energy technologies, increased power 

generation, rural electrification, regional power pools, oil and gas 

development, policy and regulatory issues, investment opportunities, and the requirements for finance. 

In the wake of the African ministerial, the Department of Energy 

is working with Africa’s leading economies to help them meet their 

energy development goals. I would like to give a couple of quick examples of work that we are doing. In the renewable energy arena, 

our national renewable energy laboratory is working with Angola’s 

Ministry of Energy and Water to deliver ‘‘Train the Trainer’’ program, which will help to make available more instructors and technicians to install photovoltaic systems in Angola. 

In the arena of energy efficiency, DOE is working with a number 

of west African countries through the Economic Community of 

West African States to develop an efficient lighting policymakers’ 

toolbox. This will bring together information on lighting standards 

and labeling and can help raise energy efficiency across that entire 

region. 

In the natural gas arena, in addition to working with the Government of Tanzania to develop natural gas training for university 

students and government officials, my counterpart, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy, will travel to a series of subSaharan African countries in early 2015 in order to engage on the 

policy environments that are taking shape in some of these critical 

frontier countries. 

The Department of Energy has a strong interest to forge closer 

links between and among our counterpart U.S. Government agenVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:27 Jan 08, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\111414\91451 SHIRL
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cies and African governments. We also feel it absolutely essential, 

in view of the investment needs, to work very closely with U.S. 

companies. We bring to the table particular expertise in regard to 

energy technologies, markets, and policy. And we view this as a 

strategic opportunity for the United States, for our companies and 

also for our partners in Africa. 

So the bottom line is this: Energy is the cornerstone of an African strategy for poverty reduction and economic growth, where my 

colleagues on the panel are more expert to be sure. 

DOE, for its part, however, recognizes that economic growth is 

closely linked, intimately linked to the availability of energy services to meet the needs of African companies and citizens. That is 

why we are working with private sector and public sector partners, 

both in the United States and across Africa, to help Africa unleash 

its full energy potential for the benefit of African citizens and, also, 

for the benefit of the United States. 

Thank you very much for the opportunity to be with you today. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Elkind, thank you so very much. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Elkind follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Mr. Postel. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ERIC G. POSTEL, ASSISTANT 

TO THE ADMINISTRATOR, BUREAU FOR AFRICA, U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Mr. POSTEL. Thank you, Chairman Smith, Ranking Member 

Bass, members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity 

to appear before you today. 

President Obama’s Power Africa initiative and the leadership of 

Congress, including members of this subcommittee, highlight the 

extent to which we are all united in addressing one of the core obstacles to Africa’s development, the lack of access to electricity. As 

all of you have noted, without a dependable supply of electricity 

and an enabling policy environment, the private sector will not invest significantly in African economies. And without private sector 

investment, local economies, entrepreneurs, and citizens cannot 

thrive. 

Power Africa, a whole-of-government effort by a dozen U.S. Government agencies, is working to address this obstacle. To date, 

more than 80 private sector partners have committed to invest over 

$20 billion in power sector development. Power Africa has already 

helped close deals that will generate more than 3,000 megawatts 

of energy, providing power for more than 5 million African homes 

and businesses. For example, with our support, the Nigerian Government privatized 5 generation and 10 distribution companies. 

These companies, in addition to other planned investments and 

privatizations, are expected to produce 8,000 additional megawatts 

of power in the coming years. 

At the same time, another member of the Power Africa team, the 

Overseas Private Investment Corporation, OPIC, has already committed $410 million in financing and insurance to private sector 

partners’ projects. For example, its $250 million financing for the 

Lake Turkana wind farm in northern Kenya will become the continent’s largest wind project when it is complete. 

Power Africa focus countries have committed to undertake tough 

policy reforms in their energy sectors. In August, The Millennium 

Challenge Corporation, MCC, signed a compact to invest up to 

$498 million in Ghana’s electricity sector. This compact includes 

tough policy reforms needed to create a viability, sustainable energy sector in order to stimulate private investment. Power Africa 

has so far been able to catalyze commitments in excess of $4 billion 

for the development of Ghana’s energy sector. 

Power Africa’s successes extend to U.S. companies as well. For 

example, General Electric is one of the companies making commitments in that Ghana situation that I just described. As another example, during meetings in a Nigerian trade mission to the United 

States that was hosted by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, 

discussions enabled a company called Itron, a company based in 

Liberty Lake, Washington, to sell nearly $400,000 worth of electricity meters to Nigerian distribution utilities. And they are discussing right now another order worth upwards of $2.6 million. 

There is a USTDA sponsored follow-on activities planned that are 

expected to lead to even more sales by U.S. firms. 

17

Power Africa is also facilitating investment in the small-scale energy solutions that are so crucial to reaching rural communities 

with no access to the national grids. In September, the African Development Foundation and its partners chose 22 winners of Power 

Africa’s off-grid challenge, a competition that promotes innovative 

solutions for off-grid energy. 

In another small-scale project with an outside impact and an example of something that one of you mentioned, Power Africa is 

funding the procurement of generators for an Ebola treatment unit 

and other facilities in Liberia that will power water pumps, lights, 

and even the washing machines used to clean health workers’ hospital scrubs, some of these basic building blocks that we need to 

help defeat this epidemic at its source. 

At this year’s African leaders’ summit, as mentioned, President 

Obama renewed our commitment to the initiative and pledged to 

seek a new funding level of up to $300 million in annual assistance 

to expand the reach of Power Africa across the continent in pursuit 

of a new aggregate goal of 30,000 megawatts of additional capacity, 

thereby, increasing access, if we hit that goal, by up to 60 million 

households and businesses. Other donor partners also seized the 

opportunity at the summit to announce major new commitments to 

Power Africa. Today, as noted before, 600 million Africans don’t 

have access to electricity. Together with our partners in Congress, 

such as you, our partners in Africa, other donor nations and private businesses, Power Africa is working to greatly increase access 

to reliable cleaner energy. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Bass, and members 

of the subcommittee for your support and your leadership of this 

very important initiative. I look forward to your questions today. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. It is we who thank you for that leadership. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Postel follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. I would like to now yield such time as may consume 

to Dr. Ichord. 

STATEMENT OF ROBERT F. ICHORD, JR., PH.D., DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY, BUREAU OF ENERGY RESOURCES, U.S. 

DEPARTMENT OF STATE 

Mr. ICHORD. Thank you, Chairman Smith, Ranking Member 

Bass, and subcommittee members. I appreciate this opportunity to 

discuss Africa’s energy future and how we are using our foreign 

policy tools to support stability and economic development in Africa, to increasing access to electricity, and laying the groundwork 

for a stable and prosperous energy sector. 

I am here representing the Bureau for Energy Resources at the 

State Department, which focuses on our energy equities around the 

world and seeks to elevate and integrate them into our broader foreign policy. First, I would like to acknowledge and thank the House 

for its keen attention to the issue of electricity poverty in Africa, 

as demonstrated through the passage of the Electrify Africa Act. 

Clearly, Africa is going through a historic transformation, and the 

State Department’s Bureau for Energy Resources is working hard 

to help African governments responsibly develop their conventional 

and renewable energy resources and to accelerate the reform of 

their electricity systems, which will then encourage private investment, support economic growth, and increase electricity access. 

Within our interagency team—and I should say, we have a very, 

very strong interagency team, one of the strongest in my almost 40 

years in government in terms of working on these issues. Within 

that framework, the Energy bureau is focused on three main areas: 

One, promoting good governance as it relates to managing oil and 

gas resources, but this is also very important for the electricity sector as well; second, increasing access to electricity; and, third, increasing the use of renewable energy technologies. 

Let me turn to governance. Governance and transparency are 

key security as well economic concerns. Poorly managed resources 

can stifle development and feed corruption. With the goal of helping countries avoid these issues, our Energy Governance Capacity 

Initiative offers governments on-the-ground technical assistance 

and training, both in the region and in the United States, on some 

of the most difficult issues facing this sector, for instance, management of revenues, incorporation of best practices into laws and regulations, protecting people and environment from sector impacts. 

Under the program we are currently engaged with Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tanzania, and the Seychelles. The large offshore gas discoveries in Mozambique and Tanzania, which you are 

all aware of, have global, regional, and national significance. And 

we will be working on ways in which we can ensure their sound 

development as these resources are developed. 

Transparency is a key component of good governance, and we are 

actively involved in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI, to support transparency and accountable management of 

natural resources. Through EITI, representatives of governments, 

civil society, and industry work together to produce reports that 

disclose information about a country’s natural resource revenues, 

allowing the citizens to see how much their natural resources are 

25

worth and how they are used. Currently, there are 18 countries in 

Africa that are EITI compliant and four are EITI candidate countries. 

Clearly, we have heard about the statistics on the extent of energy poverty in Africa. And we are not only working through Power 

Africa, but we are also involved in multilateral efforts, such as the 

Sustainable Energy for All initiative of the United Nations and 

World Bank. And we are helping to track investment needed to expand electricity generation, transmission, and distribution, all key 

sectors. 

As an active participant in the Power Africa team, State is focused especially on the policy framework for investment and the reforms necessary to improve the enabling environment and reduce 

the risk for investors. Through our consistent diplomatic engagement through our Embassies and with African embassies in Washington, the State Department is working to ensure that the transactions, that have been the emphasis of Power Africa, lead to structural policy and governance changes that will encourage even more 

investment. We have positioned a senior career Foreign Service Officer in the region who is working with our Embassies to enhance 

and focus our diplomatic efforts while minimizing costs. We are 

also planning regional training sessions that will upgrade the energy knowledge and skills of our economic officers in the Embassies 

and in the region. 

We are very excited about the Beyond the Grid initiative—the 

sub-initiative that is part of Power Africa. And we are working 

globally, as well as in Africa, and looking at promising business 

and technology models that will help provide energy access to rural 

populations. And we have helped forge a link recently between 

Power Africa and the Sustainable Energy for All initiative, with its 

goal of universal electricity access for the 1.2 billion people around 

the world, half in sub-Saharan Africa, that don’t have access to 

electricity by 2030. A very ambitious goal, but one that is very consistent with the Electrify Africa and our Power Africa objectives 

and where the European Union and others are also making large 

commitments to increase electricity in Africa. 

Our power sector program provides expert advice to help 

strengthen the southern African power pool and the association of 

energy regulators that oversee this developing market. We see regional power pools as critical to creating the larger markets that 

can attract investment and tap the diverse resources in Africa. We 

have our unconventional gas technical engagement program that is 

working with countries to help them to develop and look at the potentials for their unconventional natural gas resources and do so 

in a sustainable and safe manner. We are working with many partners around the world, for instance, the International Renewable 

Energy Agency that has a strong emphasis in Africa, and our initiatives will link with many of theirs and improve the synergy with 

Power Africa. 

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, sub-Saharan Africa stands at a 

crossroad. Expansive renewable resources and an emerging oil and 

gas sector will either be an integral part of bringing light to the 

continent and lifting it out of poverty or be a catalyst for instability 

and corruption. We feel the administration and Congress have a 

26

historic opportunity to engage across the energy spectrum to address these challenges. I look forward to your questions. Thank you 

very much. 

Mr. SMITH. I thank you very much for your testimony. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Ichord follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. I would like to begin with just a few questions and 

then yield to my distinguished colleagues. 

So let me ask you, first of all, what African countries have 

prioritized electrification? If you could just go through some of 

those countries. And what are some of the obstacles and challenges 

that we and others are facing in trying to assist? Are the U.S. and 

other investments meeting the challenge, or are there gaps? Has 

enough been allocated to this endeavor to make it happen sooner 

rather than later? 

Operationally, is the emphasis on national governments or state 

governments or both or local? If you find a national government 

that is unwilling to be as transparent as we would want them to 

be, do we look to bypass and go to a state? Because, obviously, in 

the U.S., it is the States and local governments that carry the 

heavy burden of providing electricity. Is that model being replicated in Africa? 

In terms of the electrification, obviously, we have state-of-the-art 

electrification here. And I have visited virtually every electricity 

plant in my State, most of them, not all of them, over the years. 

They obviously have many environmental safeguards, scrubbers 

when it is coal, to ensure that what comes out the chimney does 

not lead to disasters, health-wise, because of pollution. Are those 

kinds of environmental, sustainable, best practices being incorporated in what we do? It seems to me there is so much on-theshelf capability and knowledge that it would be a shame if that 

was lost. If you could just spend a moment on that as well. 

Where are the African power leaders, especially the equivalent to 

the NCO corps, the people who actually run the generators? Where 

do they get their education? Are they partnering with electricity 

companies here? Is it something that they are picking up in college? Junior college? Who is training those who will run the plants 

so that they will be run safely and effectively? 

And, finally, the Beyond the Grid initiative under Power Africa 

is intended to facilitate investment in small-scale energy solutions. 

Do you think such projects could interest more African entrepreneurs to take a greater interest in creating means to supply energy to underserved communities in Africa? If you could speak to 

those questions, I would appreciate it. 

Mr. POSTEL. Thank you for your questions, Mr. Chairman, and 

thank you for your leadership on this entire topic and introducing 

the legislation. 

So each country is in a different place, but we have seen a number of countries really focus on increasing electrification. And you 

see this, for example, as witnessed in the MCC compacts in Tanzania and Ghana. Both governments have realized that the lack of 

electricity is holding back their growth. I won’t go through the 

whole list, but there are a lot of countries realizing how important 

this is to their growth, to their healthcare system, to their education system, and are looking to really do a lot more in this area. 

There are gaps. Part of the concept behind Power Africa, is to 

identify what the gaps are and work with the governments and the 

private sector investors to try to solve them. We have seen cases 

where private-sector investors from the United States and elsewhere have tried to do deals, and then they run into a roadblock. 

38

And that is where the transaction advisors step in and say, Okay, 

how do we solve that? 

Mr. SMITH. On the gaps issue, is that something you could summarize and provide to the subcommittee, so we get a sense of what 

you are truly encountering? 

Mr. POSTEL. Yes, we can. 

Mr. SMITH. And then we could try to be helpful with those governments and——

Mr. POSTEL. We can do that. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Mr. POSTEL. In terms of local and national governance, obviously, 

there are often national policies that set the energy policy and the 

tariffs for an entire country. But there are a number of local aspects that also come into play. And we work with all of them in 

this same roadblock approach to figure out what the challenges 

are, and how we deal with them. 

The question of environmental and social safeguards is very important. And you are absolutely right; we don’t need to reinvent the 

wheel. We need to make sure that, you know, we use state-of-the 

art. And so all—all the projects—for instance, if there is a component that involves the development banks, each one of those banks 

has their own policy for checking these things and working with 

the governments and making sure that the projects fit those standards and don’t introduce some really poor practices. 

In terms of the education and training, there are local institutions that offer, in some countries, training. In other cases, people 

have education from the United States or Europe. But it is an area 

where there are shortfalls. There is actually a longstanding partnership that USAID funds, which involves a lot of U.S. utilities and 

another one involving U.S. regulators. And they work in combination with people in the individual countries for this very reason so 

that they could have very technical interactions from one utility 

technical person to another and to try to increase that skill level 

because there are definitely gaps, and we need to keep working on 

that. Similarly——

Mr. SMITH. On that point, if I could. Do those technical people 

come here to learn, or do our people get deployed there? 

Mr. POSTEL. Both. 

Mr. SMITH. Oh, both. 

Mr. POSTEL. Depending on the circumstances. 

Mr. SMITH. How large of an operation is that? 

Mr. POSTEL. It is—it is a modest-sized, very economical system 

where each year we get requests from different countries. And it 

is not restricted to Africa, but Africa has been a big participant. 

And then we look at them, and we match them up with different 

utilities—I don’t know off the top of my head but there is probably 

a utility in New Jersey or some in California. But they match them 

up with utilities that have the expertise that they need and then 

they have these exchanges and interactions. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Postel, for the record, could you provide the committee a sense of what that is? 

Mr. POSTEL. Yes, we can. 

Mr. SMITH. Maybe a summary. That would be very helpful. 

Mr. POSTEL. Yes, we can. 

39

And then, lastly, before I turn to my colleagues, absolutely, on 

beyond the grid, having local organizations and entrepreneurs seeing the business opportunities is part of the objectives and that is 

sometimes where some of the credit guarantees of OPIC or USAID 

or others can help them deal with the risk and introduce them to 

interesting business opportunities, which they know very well, because some of these remote areas they might know much better 

than a large company. But I am sure, on several of these points, 

my colleagues have things to add. 

Mr. ELKIND. Thank you. 

Chairman Smith, I would add a couple of points, if I may. First 

of all, we all acknowledge the difficulty of providing broad answers 

because of the very great diversity of the different circumstances 

in different African countries and, indeed, rural versus urban settings. But acknowledging that danger, I will attempt to respond. 

In regard to the question about cutting-edge development of the 

power systems, the grid centralized systems, one of the areas that 

we felt is very, very important and that a number of our agencies 

have worked on from different vantage points, different perspectives of our respective missions, is the utilization of associated gas 

from oil development projects. The historical experience of the flaring of natural gas is understandable when infrastructure is lacking 

but when infrastructure manages to be lacking then for protracted 

periods of time into decades, then, that is really a critical lost opportunity. 

And so one of the things that we have been focusing on in our 

policy dialogues with African countries and, indeed, one of the 

things that we are focusing on at the level of identification of mutual interest between U.S. companies and opportunities in certain 

African countries is this area of gas capture for power generation. 

Together with the Trade and Development Agency this summer, 

the Department of Energy organized a reverse trade mission that 

took leaders from a couple of different African countries to the 

Houston, Texas, area for a series of meetings with companies involved in gas development, gas sector developments. So we think 

that there is an area for potential opportunity there. 

In regard to the Beyond the Grid initiative and some of the potential for growth with African entrepreneurs, from the Department of Energy perspective, one aspect of this that we have been 

focusing on is the importance of proper performance of products in 

the marketplace. It is, of course, easy to spoil the market when you 

have substandard products, be they for off-grid or for solar lanterns, another area where the Department of Energy has worked. 

And so we are working with our colleagues at USAID, in particular, to look at this question of how to make sure that off-grid 

lighting systems, solar systems, and hybrid systems that are a mix 

of renewables and either diesel or natural gas, that these actually 

perform in the way that is advertised so that, then, you see a 

healthy development of that entrepreneurial opportunity going forward. 

Lastly, on the issue of the training, I would say from our perspective, this is an area that is a huge interest to U.S. companies. 

But it is also a key gap. I mean, there is lots of, shall we say, head 

room, opportunity for growth. 

40

I am sure that members of the committee have had the experience, as I and my colleagues have, for example, as a comparison, 

of traveling throughout the Gulf region. And when one is in the 

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or United Arab Emirates, or Kuwait, 

many other countries where there have been historical, very longlasting education and training and company relationships, what 

that translates into is, not only high quality energy development, 

it also translates into huge opportunity for U.S. companies because, 

in many cases, our counterparts are familiar with U.S. standards, 

U.S. approaches, U.S. vendors. So there is a huge opportunity for 

growth there. It is an area that DOE is looking to try to develop 

some ideas on. 

Thank you. 

Mr. ICHORD. May I make a few points? 

Mr. SMITH. Yes. Thank you. 

Mr. ICHORD. I have five points that I will chime in here on that 

relate to the gaps and challenges. The first is a common problem 

throughout the continent is related to the financial position of the 

utilities. So one of the challenges is how to strengthen the regulatory environment, the pricing environment and move toward 

more commercial utilities because, then, the investors will then 

know that they have a credible off-taker for the power that they 

are generating. Clearly, we have done a lot of work through Power 

Africa on power purchase agreements, developing standardized approaches. OPIC has been very active in this area, and that is very 

important. At the same time, though, you need to have a solvent, 

financially viable energy system in order to have the long-term investment that is necessary to develop the sector. 

Second is, I think, Mr. Elkind’s point about the integration of the 

gas and the upstream issues with the power sector, as a particularly important challenge. Oftentimes you have different ministries, like in Nigeria. And you have got to, in a sense, try to work 

to help them be a catalyst for them to, at least, try to do better 

planning so that you can ensure that the oil and gas that is being 

developed in the country is going to be available to meet the needs 

of the countries. Ghana is a very interesting example where they 

want to develop a lot of capacity and yet the oil and gas development has been slow in coming. 

The point about urban and subnational, I think, is a very important point in Africa, as well as in other regions because the urbanization process is creating these centers of buildings and industry. 

And the mayors and the subnational leaders of those entities are 

becoming more and more important as this process proved. And, as 

you know, we haven’t talked about urbanization, but urbanization 

is still at really an embryonic stage in sub-Saharan Africa, with 

less than 50 percent. And even by 2030, you are only going to have 

54 percent urban. So there is a lot of—but it is rapidly growing. 

Working with the cities and the urban areas is a very important 

area, particularly in areas like energy efficiency. 

Fourth area is the entrepreneurial development in local institutions. Here, I think, in many cases, it is very important to work 

with the local business community, which we are, and also to focus 

on how we can develop more capacity and receptivity in the local 

banking system so that they can lend for some of these projects. 

41

So it isn’t just dependent on international capital coming in because you know that much of the international capital, particularly 

the private and venture capital, institutional capital, sees huge 

risks and are very risk-averse in terms of coming into a lot of these 

areas. So the local banking sector becomes very important. And we 

have seen in Nigeria and some of the other countries that the local 

banking system can, if developed, play a key role. 

And then, finally, I would say that there are a lot of actors that 

are playing in this field. I think it is very important. And we, of 

course, are working very closely with the World Bank and African 

Development Bank and other donors to try to have a coordinated 

approach that addresses the range of gaps institutionally and otherwise and that we are trying to leverage our money effectively in 

that process. 

Mr. SMITH. Dr. Ichord, thank you very much. 

Ms. Bass. 

Ms. BASS. Again, thank you all for your testimony. 

As I said in my opening statement, I am a big supporter of Power 

Africa. But I want to raise a few issues that are raised by others 

with concern about Power Africa and the implementation. 

So I believe, Mr. Elkind, you were mentioning African entrepreneurs. I think you mentioned that. So I wanted to know, to the 

extent, that the African Diaspora here in the United States was 

getting involved or what type of outreach are you doing? So a couple of questions, the Africa Diaspora specifically but also just small 

businesses. You know, I constantly encounter small business people 

who want to figure out how to be connected and just can’t quite 

make the connection. 

You mentioned the reverse trade mission and you mentioned it 

to Houston. I am wondering if there is any others that are 

planned? Of course, I am going to make a pitch for southern California, because it seems like reverse trade missions don’t quite 

make it to the West or maybe I am just not aware of them. So that 

is another issue. And then I want to ask you about the development of the infrastructure on the continent. So why don’t I start 

with those couple of questions. 

Mr. POSTEL. Thank you for your questions. I will start, but I am 

sure my colleagues will add in. 

We agree with you that we need to, not only start, but continue 

with a lot of outreach to reach all different sectors of interested 

people, small U.S. businesses, Diaspora, large U.S. businesses, and 

so forth. So we are making progress, but we have more to do. 

There are some cases already where there has been Diaspora interest. I understand that there is, for instance, an Ethiopian-American business that is going to be manufacturing smart meters for 

Ethiopia’s electricity company. And I hope that there will be additional successes in the days ahead. And, as you allude to, many 

members of the Diaspora know very well the business opportunities, and they have, through their own hard work, accumulated 

capital. And so they are ideally suited to participate in different aspects of this. 

And in terms of being connected, we have created a one-stop 

shop. On the USAID Web site, there is a page. But in the worst 

case, somebody can just send an email, powerafrica@usaid.gov and 

42

then we go, use that one-stop shop to reach out to all the dozen 

U.S. Government entities involved, depending on what the circumstance is, and make the connections. Because we have the view 

that people shouldn’t have to hunt all over the U.S. Government 

to figure out who to talk to. So that is why we have created this 

one-stop shop. We will direct them and save them that trouble. It 

shouldn’t be that difficult for American taxpayers. 

Ms. BASS. Well, you know what, I really would like to help you 

with that as well. So maybe reaching out to Members of Congress, 

others might want to be involved, African Diaspora, as well African-American Diaspora, who are very interested in participating in 

Power Africa. 

Mr. POSTEL. Thank you. We will take you up on that. 

Ms. BASS. Okay. Please do. 

Another issue that has come up—and it came up, actually, when 

the bill was being heard here in committee. And that is, to the extent that as we are in Power Africa, developing—supporting the development of the infrastructure on the continent, to what extent is 

it getting into communities? So there is some concern from some 

people that most of the infrastructure is going to be built in cities 

to help businesses, which is wonderful. But considering that people 

in the rural areas or even right in the city, in neighborhoods do not 

have electricity—what always horrified me was the idea of women 

in childbirth using the light on their cell phone to deliver a baby. 

So I am wondering about that. 

Mr. ICHORD. Let me start. Clearly, the issues related to the models for rural electrification are changing a lot. I mean, it is really 

a revolution that is occurring in which the drop in prices for solar 

systems, the advances in telecommunications and cell phones—I 

just came back from Bangladesh—some of the models and commercial approaches that are being taken, I think, are going to be extremely important for Africa because you have such large rural 

populations without access. You have small—relatively small loads. 

The economics of extending the grid by utilities that don’t have the 

money to do it, you know, or don’t necessarily have the same kind 

of commitment to extend the systems because they are, in many 

cases, struggling to just meet urban requirements. 

Ms. BASS. And, in urban, I was referring to in neighborhoods——

Mr. ICHORD. In neighborhoods. Yeah. 

Ms. BASS [continuing]. In urban communities that——

Mr. ICHORD. So—but I think—I think——

Ms. BASS [continuing]. Commercial areas. 

Mr. ICHORD [continuing]. The issue is related to—you know, to 

decentralized approaches that are relevant to some of the urban 

areas as well as to the rural areas. 

Ms. BASS. Right. So so what——

Mr. ICHORD. And I think there was, also, your question about the 

entrepreneurial opportunities to work with U.S. companies——

Ms. BASS. Right. 

Mr. ICHORD [continuing]. Who are at the—at the leading edge of 

these technologies. We are working with a California company that 

has developed a nanogrid approach in Bangladesh and that is the 

kind of innovation that I see going on in the U.S.—with the U.S. 

43

companies that we can begin to try to focus on to take a closer look 

at Africa and the market opportunities there. 

Ms. BASS. So you are telling me that it is a part of the initiative? 

Mr. ICHORD. Well, I think that is why I said we are excited about 

Beyond the Grid because, in a sense, we are in the early stages 

here. But a lot of companies have come up and expressed interest 

in involvement. And I think that, if we get the right strategies, we 

can indeed help accelerate the commercialization of these kinds of 

options for Africa. 

Ms. BASS. And maybe you can, you know, at another point, give 

me the name of that company in California. 

Mr. ICHORD. Sure. Will do. 

Ms. BASS. So a couple of other areas. Another area of concern 

that gets raised a lot is to what extent is Power Africa looking at 

renewables? As you know, that is always a controversial issue, 

whether Power Africa is just going to focus on fossil fuels. So to 

what extent? From anybody. And then I have one final question 

after that. 

Mr. ELKIND. Ranking Member Bass, thank you for those questions. Just to respond to a couple of the ones that you have posed. 

First of all, in relation to the reverse trade missions, we would 

be happy to go back and talk with our colleagues at the Trade and 

Development Agency that lead in the organization of them. Our 

agency and others from across the U.S. Government typically provide technical depth and some of the relationships with the companies that can help to make them most effective. But I will be happy 

to take away yur interest in knowing what more do they have 

planned over the horizon. 

Ms. BASS. Well, good. You are going to tell them to come to Los 

Angeles, then, huh? 

Mr. ELKIND. I beg your pardon? 

Ms. BASS. Are you going to tell them to come to Los Angeles? 

Mr. ELKIND. Well, I am told that——

Ms. BASS. I’m just kidding. 

Mr. ELKIND [continuing]. In fact, there is a TDA representative 

in Los Angeles that is working on an effort called Making Global 

Local to get reverse trade missions to cities across the United 

States. So some of that may, in fact, be happening and we will provide you more——

Ms. BASS. And I am sorry. Tell me the name of it again. What 

did you say? 

Mr. ELKIND. Making Global Local. 

Ms. BASS. Oh, okay. 

Mr. ELKIND. So, indeed, some of this may be happening, and we 

will get the details back to you for the record. 

Concerning the role of renewables in Power Africa, I mean, the 

first point—the approach that we, as an administration, are taking 

is very nonspecific as to technologies. There are going to be different answers that work in different contexts. 

Ms. BASS. Great. 

Mr. ELKIND. Beyond the Grid is all about figuring out where 

there are opportunities, be it for renewable systems with storage, 

hybrid systems that involve a mix of renewables and fossil fuelgenerating capacity for when there is not wind or sunlight. 

44

This is one of the areas where the Department of Energy is able 

to make a specific contribution to Power Africa’s capability by providing some of the expertise of our laboratories in these arenas. 

I think it is worth calling out that the pledges from private-sector partners to the Beyond the Grid initiative are pretty considerable. It is more than $1 billion over the coming 5 years. 

So while we don’t have today specific, long lists of things that 

have gotten done, we think that this is a very promising area for 

the growth of Power Africa and in certain settings, there will be 

a lot of relevance. 

Last comment: It is not just the village setting in rural Africa 

where off-grid and micro-grid systems are relevant, and that is 

equally true in remote settings in the United States, in Alaska, for 

example, and even in very nonrural settings, such as the microgrids with separable grid systems, for example, that we are looking 

at in very, very highly urbanized parts of our country where, in 

times of grid instability, another commonality with some of the African grid systems, you can island off a particular part of the grid 

in order to protect critical load, hospitals, transport systems, et 

cetera. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you. 

I am sorry. Go ahead. 

Mr. ICHORD. If I might, obviously, we know Africais blessed with 

world-class renewable energy resources. The U.S. is a member of 

the International Renewable Energy Agency, and what IRENA has 

been doing is to try to develop more extensive maps of the resource—renewable resource potential throughout Africa. 

This is clearly showing that, in a sense, there is a range of resources, whether it is geothermal in Ethiopia, whether it is wind 

in Kenya, or hydro resources which are still very important for the 

continent and, in some cases, even solar power for larger grid-connected applications. 

I was struck at the Africa ministerial in Addis about how consistent the ministers were in stressing the important role that they 

saw renewables playing in a diversified energy mix. 

I don’t know if you were, John. 

And so I think that many countries have moved—they have 

moved to develop the incentive frameworks for interconnection of 

renewable energy. I think, in some cases, it—clearly they are looking at a mix of both renewables and natural gas to have cleaner 

fuel systems, and I think that varies widely, depending on whether 

you are talking about north or south or central. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you. 

Mr. WEBER [presiding]. Thank you. 

You said in your opening remarks that you went to a meeting 

where there was about 500 participants, and I was just coming in 

and trying to get situated. 

Where was that? 

Mr. ELKIND. Thank you for the question. 

This was the U.S.-Africa Energy Ministerial, which took place in 

early June in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was hosted by the Government of Ethiopia, co-chaired by the Secretary of Energy, Dr. Moniz, 

and the Ethiopian Minister of Water, Irrigation, and Energy. 

45

Mr. WEBER. Okay. And then Mr. Postel, you said that Nigeria recently had privatized five generation companies and ten distribution companies. Is that correct? 

Mr. POSTEL. Correct. 

Mr. WEBER. How long ago was that? 

Mr. POSTEL. Over the course of the last 12 months. 

Mr. WEBER. Over the course of the last 12 months. 

So the Government itself had been running on their generation 

and distribution facilities? 

Mr. POSTEL. Yes, they had. 

Mr. WEBER. What percentage does that equate to in Nigeria? 

When you say they privatized five and ten, is that half of the facilities? A third? 

Mr. POSTEL. I can get you the precise answer. Off the top of my 

head, I believe it was at least half, if not a bit more. 

Mr. WEBER. Okay. So in 12 months, has that been a viable function? Are they functioning properly with a little—I mean, I own a 

business. So it is impossible to do it without any problems. So he 

is grinning like a possum eating yellow jackets. So what does that 

mean? Are they operating without problems? 

Mr. POSTEL. My colleague, Dr. Ichord, has some more recent information that he will add. 

But my understanding is that each company is in a different situation in the sense that some are operating very well, some a few 

hiccups. But I would characterize them as growing pains. But, in 

general, a lot of the operations went forward, but——

Mr. WEBER. Okay. And, by the way, I do want to add for our 

ranking member that Texas has its own grid. So you come to 

Texas, 85 percent of the State is covered by ERCOT. You are probably aware of that. If you want to know how to get that grid in 

Africa, come see us. 

Next question—you are stuck on the possum eating the yellow 

jackets, huh? 

Mr. Postel, from my notebook—notes about you, you said you had 

developed a plan to—first, international securitization of future receivables without a corporate guarantee. 

Mr. POSTEL. Yes, sir. 

Mr. WEBER. Explain that. 

Mr. POSTEL. This was a financing for the Government of Jamaica 

in 1988. It was the first new funding that they had obtained from 

the private sector in something like 13 years because there had 

been re-schedulings. 

And, basically, every year they were receiving payments from 

AT&T for telephone calls that the Diaspora was making to Jamaica, and we felt that that was predictable enough to give them 

the money up front, in essence. And so we raised money in Japan 

and we did that financing, and it was all repaid. 

Mr. WEBER. And can you do the same thing with electrification 

in Africa? 

Mr. POSTEL. I will have to think about that. I don’t know. 

Mr. WEBER. Okay. That is what I thought it was. 

Dr. Ichord, I think you also said in your remarks governance and 

transparency were key security concerns, protection of the people 

and the environment from sector impacts. It should be—I think I 

46

was writing fast and furiously, although that is a bad term now, 

isn’t it? I was writing quickly. 

What does that mean, ‘‘sector impacts’’? 

Mr. ICHORD. Well, I think, obviously, the—as we know from our 

experience here, the environmental impact of offshore and upstream oil and gas is a very important area to develop the capacity 

of these countries, and that is really what it was in that context. 

Maybe the ‘‘sector impacts’’ is a little too vague, but that is what 

we were talking about, increasing the capacities in the environmental management area. 

Mr. WEBER. That is what I was wondering. 

And then you also said something about EITI, the extractive——

Mr. ICHORD. Yeah. It is an international initiative, the Extractive 

Industries Transparency Initiative. Actually, the U.S. is participating. We are a candidate now. The Interior Department in the 

U.S. has the lead on it, and it is basically to enhance accountability 

in terms of this important sector and the revenues. 

Mr. WEBER. Okay. That is going to be important. 

You said, also, that—and I don’t remember if you said Africa or 

a particular country was at a crossroads—I think Africa—they had 

expansive renewable resources and emerging oil and gas market—

or, I guess, resources. 

Mr. ICHORD. Right. 

Mr. WEBER. Quantify that for us percentage-wise. Fifty-fifty? 

Sixty-forty? 

Mr. ICHORD. Well, I think that clearly there are a dozen or more 

countries where oil and gas is developing. Some are more developed, like Angola and Nigeria. Others, where exploration is just beginning and in the early stages. I think it is a little bit too early 

to say exactly what that mix will be. 

You have—certainly have countries like Tanzania and Mozambique where you have world-scale gas resources that are being developed, and that will then open up lots of opportunities for them 

to have a significant gas role in their economics. 

At the same time, for the electric power sector, the economics of 

many of these renewable energy resources look very attractive, especially compared to oil, which many of the countries are still—you 

know, are having to use oil to generate and have a cost of, you 

know, 30 cents a kilowatt hour for power, like in Ghana, which has 

to use oil because they are not able to get gas from Nigeria in the 

pipeline. 

Mr. WEBER. So I looked at a map of Africa, doing a search for 

pipeline infrastructure, and it looks like what limited pipeline infrastructure they have is primarily in the north. I don’t know if you 

are familiar with that map or not. 

Mr. ICHORD. Well, you have the west Africa pipeline, and that 

is——

Mr. WEBER. Runs from Algeria to Nigeria? 

Mr. ICHORD. The pipeline is only in west Africa and does not 

reach Algeria. 

Mr. WEBER. Okay. 

Mr. ICHORD. So the problem has been that Nigeria has a severe 

gas shortage because the internal policies haven’t given the incentives for the development of their gas resources. And, therefore, 

47

countries like Ghana and others on the pipeline route have not 

been able to get the gas supplies through that pipeline. 

Mr. WEBER. Is there a robust pipeline industry and/or association 

in Africa that is pushing for the installation of pipelines? And do 

we have property rights? And how does that play if there is? 

Mr. ELKIND. Thank you, Congressman Weber. 

There is, I think, a natural unavoidable tension that will have 

to play out here and that, frankly, was one of the really core elements of our discussion in June at the ministerial meeting that I 

just referred to in response to your question. 

And that is, as one sees development of the oil and gas resources, 

particularly in some of the frontier provinces, east Africa in particular, how much of that is for domestic consumption versus export? 

And, I mean, the international oil companies want to meet demand in the countries where they operate because that has a multiplier effect that is very, very beneficial for many of those companies, but they also need predictability in terms of off-take arrangements. 

So, to your question of if there is a robust existing vision, I would 

say no. There is a great deal of interest and some fairly elaborated, 

some fairly ambitious ideas, goals, in terms of development of east 

African gas pipelines, for example, to take gas to power generation 

in South Africa from Mozambique, as one—and Tanzania—one big 

example. 

But the open issue, which still has not yet played out, is whether 

the steps can be put in place, the right policies, the right laws, that 

give the investors enough predictability so that they will put down, 

tens and tens of billions of dollars for really multi-decade investment——

Mr. WEBER. Well, and that brings me to—well, I have got a question about ranking of the most favorable countries, because clearly 

some countries are going to be better candidates than others on investing into infrastructure. 

But before I go there, Mr. Elkind, you also said that you all had 

a focus on performance of products in the marketplace, making 

sure off-grid systems actually perform. 

Now, when you say an ‘‘off-grid system,’’ describe one of those to 

us. 

Mr. ELKIND. Yes, sir. 

So a small household or village-level system that might include 

one or more solar panels, perhaps paired with either storage capacity, battery systems or a fossil fuel—a diesel or other fossil fuelgenerating system to use when the sun is not up, the wind is not 

blowing. That through to highly efficient lamps, refrigeration for 

food and medicine. Those kind of applications. 

Mr. WEBER. So is that to say that, if someone has a house out 

there with solar panels, there is going to be an effort to have regulatory rules in place that they have to meet certain efficiency requirements? 

Mr. ELKIND. No, sir. The point here is that there are lots of examples that one can see, for example, in solar lanterns where are 

products that are being sold into a number of marketplaces, including a number of the African countries, where the claims for the 

48

performance of the product simply don’t match what the product 

actually does. You know, in our context, we call that false advertising. 

And so, when the countries are saying, ‘‘How do we think about 

the technical challenge of knowing what product actually does what 

it says?,’’ that is an area where we have experience in the United 

States and can help to make that experience available. Again, it is 

at their request and the point is not to allow fraudulent claims in 

the marketplace. 

Mr. WEBER. Well, the last thing—and I don’t mean to speak for 

you. But, apparently, one of the things you could say is the last 

thing you want to happen is, as they are developing these markets, 

they get burned with bad products and they just say, ‘‘They don’t 

work. Forget it. Never mind.’’

All right. Now, is there any—and I don’t know—I guess all three 

of you all. This is my last question that I alluded to earlier. 

A ranking of the most favorable countries. I mean, I am going 

to have to believe—and you all have done a lot of thought on this. 

I haven’t. But just at a glance, there is going to be a lot of factors 

that are going to influence whether they are a good candidate: Population, topography, gas/oil pipeline availability, educational resources. Do you have that work for us that you can come in there 

and you can train how to do this? 

And then, of course, I mentioned earlier property ownership. Can 

you own property? Is there a system in place to take over, to condemn property, if you will, for pipeline, a right-of-way? The timing. 

Is it right for the country? Stability. Is it a stable system of government? 

So those are just seven things I came up with. Do you rank countries, which would be the best candidates for investment in their 

infrastructure? 

Mr. POSTEL. Congressman, thank you for your question. And it 

sounds like you were at some of these meetings where these kinds 

of things were discussed by listing all of those criteria——

Mr. WEBER. No. The NSA was there. I just got the tapes. I am 

sorry. 

Mr. POSTEL. So we don’t have a public listing, per se. But in the 

first phase of Power Africa, we did very carefully, through a rigorous interagency process, discuss which would be the six focus 

countries. And the factors that you describe are indeed many of the 

things that we looked at to try to assess who would be the good 

partners, and we will go through a similar process as we think 

about the expansion. 

There is plenty to say on all of them. But one of the ones that 

I will just spend a moment on is the host country’s commitment. 

Because as some of the other testimony alluded to, if you are trying 

to have viable electric utilities, if you are trying to solve some of 

problems that our private-sector investors have encountered in trying to do viable deals, you have got to have a commitment to do 

things differently. 

And so that was one of the many components, but that was one 

of the most important components, to make sure that we really had 

committed partners who would do this in partnership with us and 

the private sector. 

49

Mr. ICHORD. Well, Congressman, I can’t give you a ranking. But, 

obviously, I mentioned a number of the countries that we are working with on the oil and gas side that at different stages in their 

development. Some are more gas-prone. Others look like they, you 

know, have good oil potential, like Angola, et cetera. 

I think the companies are—you know, we have a range of companies, and U.S. included, that are working in these areas and that 

they are assessing the risk and they are assessing the commercial 

viability of these resources. There is a lot of exploratory drilling 

that is planned in some of these countries. 

So we will have—I think—a lot of activity in this area. So I think 

it is going to be a couple years before this sort of shakes out in 

terms of where are the biggest opportunities. 

But clearly Mozambique and Tanzania, in terms of the worldscale gas resources, are ones that everyone is looking at, both for 

export as well as for looking at the potential for east Africa and the 

whole—and including, in South Africa, the potential for that gas to 

have and develop the infrastructure. 

There was recently a seminar that we had as part of the ministerial that looked at the east Africa gas infrastructure opportunities. 

That was done by the Columbia Energy Center that there is a report on that I would be happy to send you on that issue. 

I think, on terms of the issue of the investment climate, the 

question of whether countries are, whether investors are willing to 

come in without sovereign guarantees is a key factor. 

And in some countries, I think, you know, investors are saying, 

‘‘Well, in Kenya, we can do that. We are willing to come in without 

a sovereign guarantee.’’ In other countries, you won’t. 

So you then have to look to: Are there partial risk guarantees 

and other mechanisms that the World Bank or others can put in 

place that will mitigate some of the risk of the investment? 

Mr. WEBER. Okay. Thank you. That answers my questions. 

I recognize Mr. Stockman. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. I thank you for the panel to come out today, on 

a Friday. 

And, Dr. Ichord, according to your testimony, you have been in 

government for 40 years and you mentioned you were in Bangladesh. So was that a good 40 years or so ago. 

My question is: When I was over there in Nigeria, they were 

mentioning some policies. And I am wondering—you had standards—are there any standards which prevent interaction by the 

State Department which is predicated on the Government’s social 

policies or is it a strictly benign interpretation of their capabilities? 

In other words, when I was in Nigeria, they were trying to free 

the girls that were kidnapped, and the U.S. military said, ‘‘We need 

to get permission from our Government to give them and facilitate 

information,’’ and it was denied because of the interpretation of the 

present leadership in Nigeria. 

I am wondering: Do you have similar restrictions on governments 

such as Uganda and Nigeria and saying, ‘‘We don’t get involved because of their social policies’’ or is that a separate issue? 

Mr. ICHORD. Well, I think, as we look at our overall engagement 

in the countries, we will work very closely with the Ambassador 

and the Embassy in assessing the political situation, the severity 

50

of the issues, if there are social or human rights issues, and make 

a decision on a case-by-case basis. 

I think it is hard to generalize other than to say that, in a sense, 

we are not just sort of pursuing energy for energy’s sake. I mean, 

it is part of our broader foreign policy interest in that it takes into 

account a lot of these questions. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. Could you get me—or maybe you know off the 

top of your head, is Nigeria or Uganda—are there restrictions that 

you have in terms of working with them on energy? 

Mr. ICHORD. I think right now—we started in Uganda early on 

in terms of the Energy Governance and Capacity Initiative, and we 

have done a lot of work on the geophysical side, environmental, 

land use planning, et cetera. I think the situation now, to the best 

of my understanding, is that we have put on hold any further work 

in Uganda. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. And that is because of the social policies? 

Mr. ICHORD. So I was informed that we have scaled back our activities. We are looking at whether we can proceed now. So it is——

Mr. STOCKMAN. But I was asking: Is that because of social policies that you scaled back? 

Mr. ICHORD. I think it was a combination of things, but I would 

have to get back to you on the specifics. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. I was going to say I would appreciate that. I 

think that would be very helpful. I think, actually, Congressman 

Smith would be interested in that and so I think would Congressman Weber. I think we would all be interested in that. 

I have to tell you, on a personal level, when I was in Nigeria—

and I think it actually was from—I think Mr. Postel’s department 

who advocated that we not involve our military intelligence in helping Nigeria because of some of the interpretations of the current 

Government’s positions. 

To me, that was a little bit alarming because I now found out 

today that the Chinese have given Nigeria some of the equipment 

that they have been requesting from the United States, and my 

fear is, because of our policies, that we may be driving—as you 

know, the continent is really being recolonized not by the British, 

not by the Americans, but by the Chinese. 

I mean, in the Republic of Congo and the DRC, there is a whole 

mountain of copper, as you know, that was sold for pennies on the 

dollar and the Chinese have their workers there and there is no 

kind of interplay or development with the host country. 

It is very much—in fact, I would argue worse than what the colonial governments ever did and, yet, the Chinese are continually expanding their breadth of involvement. And my concern is that we 

are putting restrictions on ourselves to the degree that now we 

have become less important to those host countries. 

So as you go forward, I would hope that you would see that the 

Chinese are a serious player and that in terms of competing with 

the United States, could be very problematic down the line. 

Mr. Postel, you are shaking your head yes. So I hope you can tell 

me. 

Mr. POSTEL. Thank you, Congressman. 

I will definitely take note of your comments, and I will investigate further in discussion with the head of our office there. I am 

51

not familiar with all the circumstances of this, but certainly fully 

recognize the point you are making about the very active presence 

of China in Africa. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. Yes. And I just say I think sometimes we should 

do more pragmatic analysis and not involve so much the—I mean, 

we need to balance it, I guess, in order to compete with our Chinese competitors. And it is—almost every country, whether it is 

Chad or Egypt or sub-Saharan Africa, I keep seeing the Chinese in 

a heavy, heavy way. 

And, privately, I think it was the Republic of Congo. Some of the 

administrators said they prefer Americans, but the hurdles—well, 

and for reasons in past history, they have—some of those countries 

have embezzled and taken a lot of money from their own people. 

So, in some way, it is justified. But my more concern is the interpreting of internal social policies, I think, are beyond the scope of 

what I think the United States should be doing. And I just want 

to express that. 

And, also, I think, in terms of the oil development, and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, there are companies in my district, 

Baker Hughes and Halliburton. So I guess Halliburton now technically is in Abu Dhabi, but—or Dubai. It kind of moved. 

They would like to be in there, but there is, as you know, the 

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and there can be some misinterpretation of that law being applied to our own companies. And to 

that extent, I think there is a great deal of frustration on our side 

in Houston where we would like to see more cooperation. 

And I think, in deference to our own corporations, if you could 

give them guidance and what they can do to facilitate more of involvement in those countries would be a great boon—well, Texas is 

already booming. We have no problem with fracking in our state. 

But I am still saying I think it would be beneficial to the United 

States, and maintaining that would keep our influence there. 

But I am just alarmed at the rise—and you guys know I am 

right—about the rise of China in there. And it is obvious they have 

almost no restrictions whatsoever and they have no compunction 

about paying leaders large sums of money in order to facilitate 

their advantages. 

And, with that, I yield back to my chairman now. 

Mr. SMITH [presiding]. Thank you very much. 

Before we go to the second panel, I would just like to ask one 

final question, and it has to do with—you know, obviously, the terrorist threats to many countries and people in Africa from Boko 

Haram to al-Shabaab are very significant. 

And I am wondering how Power Africa integrates protecting the 

infrastructure and, of course, the people, the personnel, against terrorist attack, including cyber attacks, which we know could be devastating to an electrical power-generating grid or any other that is 

out there. So if you could perhaps speak to that issue, protecting 

and hardening it to terrorism. 

Mr. ELKIND. Thank you for the question, Chairman Smith. 

I will defer to my colleagues specifically in relation to Power Africa and those engagements there. 

I can tell you that the recognition that we encounter from energy 

companies and energy agencies, ministries, in our international enVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:27 Jan 08, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00055 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\111414\91451 SHIRL
52

gagements to an ever-increasing degree recognize the importance of 

protecting infrastructure. 

One of the things that the Department of Energy does is to enter 

into cooperative engagements with key international partners, and 

we do this at their expense, at the expense of the host country, to 

help them identify vulnerabilities, plan their systems, so that they 

are resilient to any threat. 

It is an all-hazard approach, whether one is talking about severe 

weather, cyber attack, or physical attack and we have found that 

this is an area where the United States is in a position to add a 

tremendous amount of value from our experience. 

I will have to defer to my colleagues as to whether that is being 

done in the Power Africa case. I simply don’t know the answer myself. 

Mr. POSTEL. Thank you for the question, Mr. Chairman. 

I will double-check, but I believe that some of these exchanges, 

depending on the topics that are of interest to the energy regulators, the power pool operators or the utilities, I believe some of 

these exchanges that I will be sending you details of have included 

those kinds of topics. 

The other important thing is just the involvement of the private 

sector because a lot of the private-sector investors have a lot of experience in thinking through these risks and, when they are investing from offshore, I think, they are looking at all risk. 

And that is another avenue in on this topic, which is they stand 

to lose a lot of money if they don’t pay attention to these topics. 

And so we also count on them to be very involved, working with 

local folks, to look at that. 

Mr. SMITH. But just to be certain, it is not an afterthought. It 

is integrated into planning, development, and the like, and as well 

as implementation? 

Mr. POSTEL. I want to double-check on that, sir, because I don’t 

know if it has been always demand-driven or whether it is integrated to, also. I will come back to you with specifics. 

Mr. SMITH. I appreciate that. Thank you. 

Mr. ICHORD. I would just say that we are in the early stage of 

really developing the electricity grid systems in Africa. We have the 

three power pools—east, west, and south—at their different stages. 

I think that, in that process and working with the international 

financial institutions like the World Bank and African Development Bank, I mean, there is a lot of consideration about the security and reliability issues that are going into the development of 

the loan programs and specifications for what kind of systems they 

can put in place. 

But clearly it is going to be an issue that is going to be with us, 

especially as they begin to invest more and more in developing 

high-voltage transmissions systems. 

Mr. SMITH. Now, would the expertise of Homeland Security, the 

Pentagon, or State Department’s Diplomatic Security be incorporated? 

I say that because, after we got hit in Dar es Salaam and in 

Nairobi, I chaired the hearings for the Accountability Review Board 

after the 1998 terrorist attack, and I will never forget when Assistant Secretary Carpenter said that they will look for any vulnerVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:27 Jan 08, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00056 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\111414\91451 SHIRL
53

ability, that nothing is off limits. I am paraphrasing, of course. But 

he sat right where you sat in 1999 when I chaired the hearings. 

And out of that I wrote the Embassy Security Act, which became 

law, and it added much, the setbacks that Bobby Inman had talked 

about were all finally implemented because they had not been implemented for years. And they are still in the process, of course, in 

some of our missions abroad. 

But it was a lesson I learned, you know, that people just thought 

it wouldn’t happen here and, you know, let the guard down. And, 

of course, you know, those who wish us ill, these nefarious networks, will look for any vulnerability, to use your word, which I 

think is the right word. 

If you could get back to us, if you would, how that whole process 

of protecting—and I am glad you elaborated as well that it is not 

just against terrorism, but it is against earthquakes and natural 

disasters as well, if the subcommittee in any way could be helpful, 

even in promoting more of that. 

Because I think, going forward, they will be increasingly at risk. 

I mean, the terrorists are not foolish. They will look for anything 

which will do maximum damage. So if you could get back. But I 

thank you for your answers as well. 

Ms. Bass, anything? 

Ms. BASS. No. 

Mr. SMITH. Anything you would like to say before we conclude? 

Mr. POSTEL. Well, I think I could speak on behalf of my colleagues both at the table and in our agencies that we just reiterate 

our thanks to all of you for your leadership and your interest. We 

are not going to collectively solve this challenge without your help, 

and we very much appreciate it. 

Mr. SMITH. Well, thank you. It is a partnership. Thank you for 

taking the lead and doing it so effectively. The subcommittee, I 

know members on both sides of the aisle, are greatly appreciative 

of what you have accomplished and will accomplish going forward. 

Thank you. 

I’d like to now welcome our second panel, beginning first with 

Mr. Walker Williams, who is president and CEO of Leadership Africa USA and Alternative Marketing Access. 

Mr. Williams is a management consultant with more than 3 decades of experience working with governments, corporations, NGOs, 

and multilateral institutions. His areas of expertise and strategic 

advice include energy, infrastructure development, finance management, and communications. He has worked with the U.S. Department of Energy on the first U.S.-Africa Energy Ministerial in Morocco and another this past year in Ethiopia. 

I just would note as well Mr. Williams was also instrumental in 

bringing the House and Senate together with the African Diplomatic Corps for an historic and now ongoing set of meetings that 

we have had to meet with the African Ambassadors and DCMs and 

others from all of the African countries. 

And I want to thank you for your leadership in making that happen. 

We then will hear from Ms. Dianne Sutherland, who has been 

working within Africa for the past 17 years, 13 of those years as 

a resident of Egypt. 

54

Ms. Sutherland entered the oil and gas publishing business in 

2001 and, by late 2002, launched what is known as Petroleum Africa magazine. In January 2008, she also launched Alternative Energy Africa magazine. Additionally, Ms. Sutherland offers her services as consultant to Resource Development Financial Consultants 

of Ghana. 

We will be hooking up with her by way of video. 

But, if you would, Mr. Williams, begin with your testimony. 

STATEMENT OF MR. WALKER A. WILLIAMS, PRESIDENT AND 

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, LEADERSHIP AFRICA USA 

Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Chairman Smith, Ranking Member 

Bass, Member Stockman. I appreciate greatly this opportunity to 

come before you this afternoon to talk about energy. 

It is something that is of critical importance not only to Africa, 

it is important to the U.S. economy. And I have got some prepared 

remarks I am going to refer to, and I have also submitted testimony. 

I am going to take a different take than our first panel because 

I am coming from the civil society side of the ledger. And I wanted 

to take a few moments and talk about Leadership Africa. 

We do programs throughout Africa and, before that, I was very 

instrumental in working in the Caribbean on the Caribbean Basin 

Initiative and we worked on AGOA. And I want to say to you any 

NGO or civil society organization working in Africa can only implement programs if there is energy and power and electricity. 

I mean, we are kidding ourselves. My emphasis has always been 

on education and, if we don’t have electricity in the schools or we 

don’t have computers, the kids aren’t getting an education. So, by 

necessity, we have adopted and started to work and move into the 

energy sector in order to ensure that the programs that we put together can be leveraged and can be sustainable. 

Now, Chairman Smith referred to some meetings that we did 

several years ago, but the little background on that was the African 

Ambassadors group and they meet regularly, once a month, but 

they were not involved in the deliberations around AGOA. 

So 2, 3 years ago we took it upon ourselves to start meeting with 

them informally. And we wanted to hear from the African Ambassadors, we wanted to hear from the beneficiaries of these programs 

that we talked about earlier this morning, what their take was, 

what thoughts they had about solutions to some of the challenges 

that are affecting them and that they are confronting. And with 

that in mind, we spent some time working on AGOA. 

Now, AGOA is up for reauthorization between now and September 15th, and it is a very important initiative. But I am going 

to say here this afternoon that we, as the NGO community, we, as 

civil society—we link AGOA to energy. 

If you don’t have energy, you are not going to make the kinds 

of changes and have the kind of productivity that you want 

through AGOA because you can’t industrialize. You don’t have the 

energy and the power to meet the metrics and solve the solution. 

So I am saying to you we link, like the African Ambassadors link 

and like the heads did at the leaders’ summit—they link AGOA 

and they link energy. They are two key, key priorities for them. 

55

I want to suggest that, when I mention in my prepared remarks 

references to AGOA, it is because they see AGOA linked to energy. 

We don’t do it quite that way, but that is how the African Ambassadors and that is how the African heads look at those two issues. 

There was reference earlier this morning to the U.S.-Africa Energy Ministerial. Well, Leadership Africa had the privilege of coordinating that meeting in Ethiopia on behalf of U.S. Department 

of Energy. So I was happy to hear that the U.S. Department of Energy and those who attended thought it was successful. 

And, yes, we did have 500 participants. We had about 120 corporations, both U.S. and African companies, participate, and it was 

successful enough that, when I came back, and what I had heard 

in Ethiopia, I have been pushing—and this is the point I want to 

make—that we need follow-up. 

We need consistent, intentional follow-up. We didn’t get into it 

to coordinate with the U.S. Department of Energy—and we had 13 

U.S. agencies participating—without there being follow-up. The 

focus of that was Power Africa. They announced Beyond the Grid 

at that session in Ethiopia, and it is going forward. 

But I am going to suggest and pick up on what Ranking Member 

Bass said earlier, that we also need to bring additional players to 

the table. And in my prepared remarks, I talk about small, minority, and women-owned businesses, and I talk about that in linking 

them with their counterparts in Africa. 

Now, why do I say that? If you look at what is going on in the 

continent, there is a policy which the African governments call ‘‘localization.’’ They are saying to our U.S. companies that, ‘‘If you 

really want to work in our country and if you are looking for business opportunities in our country, you need to find a way to train 

our local citizens. You need to find a way to participate.’’

So it is in our self-interest, and I think there is a nice marriage 

between our small business community and the African business 

community to share, to twin, to work together around and under 

Power Africa and, of course, MCC’s program because there is a—

what we would refer to in the private sector, a money sock. And 

where there is money, you know you are going to get paid. 

Then we just need to make sure that these programs encourage 

those companies, our U.S. companies and others, reaching out to 

their smaller business communities to make sure there are opportunities for them to participate. 

I also in my prepared remarks talk about something that I think 

needs to be more focused on, and that is what I called regionalization. I believe and I have put forward and made suggestions that 

the way to really deal effectively with energy, electricity, and power 

is on a regional strategy, working with the regional groupings that 

are already in place in Africa. Because, in some sense, you might 

find it is easier to take electricity from Ghana and ship it into a 

neighboring country than it is to use it internally. 

So I have urged—I have been in conversations with DOE, and I 

think that is a strategy that, if they can find a way to do that, it 

starts to lead to some other things which we call trade facilitation. 

See, electricity is so powerful that, if you came to me and said that, 

‘‘We are going to have a regional approach on electricity,’’ it starts 

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thing that they all share a need for. You just get them talking and 

you start to break down some of the barriers around working 

across borders and—in terms of these priorities. 

I didn’t, as you notice, repeat the statistics. We know that over 

600 million people in Africa are without electricity. We know that 

Africa needs resources. But the other thing that Africa does need, 

it needs training in capacity development, and that is something 

that the U.S. Government and our agencies are very capable of providing and doing. 

We just need to make sure that they continue to work together 

like they are doing with the Power Africa working group, which is 

an excellent program. I am pushing very hard for the EAA program, the Electrify Africa program, because it sort of stabilizes and 

puts in place a long-term solution. 

And I am also saying that we need to encourage and listen to our 

African partners. We need to hear from them and we need to look 

at more partnering relationships to maintain our competitive advantage. 

You know, when the agencies talk—and I am a little bit involved 

in the industry—the agencies don’t control any energy. You know, 

they don’t control any oil. And so you really do need to find a way 

to create public-private partnerships and be supportive of those entities in the U.S. that do have access to these resources and hear 

from them like I am listening to the African Ambassadors and the 

African heads on what they think will help them do a better job 

and create employment opportunities not only here in the U.S., but 

in Africa. 

And I think, with that, I will defer to my other counterpart, if 

she is here. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Williams follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Mr. Williams, thank you very much for your testimony. Without objection, your full statement will be made a part 

of the record. 

I would like to now welcome from Houston, Texas, Dianne Sutherland. 

And you are recognized. Please proceed. 

STATEMENT OF MS. DIANNE R. SUTHERLAND, OWNER AND 

PUBLISHER, PETROLEUM AFRICA MAGAZINE 

Ms. SUTHERLAND. I would like to extend my appreciation to the 

subcommittee for the invitation to testify at this hearing today on 

Africa’s energy future. 

Since entering the African energy industry over 14 years ago, I 

have witnessed a vast transformation in both the continent’s fossil 

fuel and alternative energy sectors and, in parallel, significant 

growth in international investments. 

Although Africa holds an abundance of fossil fuels and renewable 

energy resources, the continent is sorely underpowered in access to 

clean, affordable energy. It is a luxury to most of its over 1 billion 

population. 

And despite the continent possessing 6 percent of global oil reserves and being responsible for about 10 percent of global production, the majority of Africans do not reap the benefits of their resources. Many of these underpowered countries earn incredible 

sums of revenue from their hydrocarbon, agricultural, and mining 

sectors, but very little is, in turn, invested into power infrastructure. 

The companies opening up Africa’s oil and gas potential are predominantly small- to mid-size independent firms with limited capital. They secure the exploration licenses, conduct the geophysical 

work, and then market their findings to larger multinational firms 

to secure funding and minimize their risk when it comes time to 

drilling. 

This trend has been chiefly responsible for the major discoveries 

over the past 2 decades and the opening up of new frontier basins. 

In the past 10 years, significant oil and gas discoveries have been 

discovered in countries such as Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and others. 

Improved technology deployment has also played a large role in 

enabling these discoveries, with some of Africa’s developments in 

the deep offshore rivaling that of those in the Gulf of Mexico. 

And while natural gas was not too long ago considered a nuisance byproduct in sub-Saharan Africa, the resource is increasingly 

utilized in large-scale operations, such as LNG, power generation, 

trans-border pipelines, and also in smaller gas applications, such 

as LPG and CNG. 

With the known natural gas reserves across north Africa and 

new discoveries in sub-Sahara, the continent is a natural gas player to be reckoned with in the future. In Mozambique and Tanzania 

alone, there is reasonable confidence that the two areas together 

hold a resource of at least 190 trillion cubic feet with expectations 

that proven reserves could more than double with future exploration. 

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And the shale boom is not exclusive to North America. Africa, 

too, has her share of unconventional resources. Shale oil, shale gas, 

and coal bed methane are all now receiving attention from both 

governments and the private sector, and a number of projects are 

afoot. 

As for alternative energy, there are literally hundreds of smallscale projects established and in the works, not to mention the dozens of larger scale projects on the drawing board. These translate 

into billions of dollars of investment for the continent. The sector 

is making progress with new renewable-specific legislation emerging in many countries, facilitating development of the industry. 

In addition to the major wind farm and solar projects online or 

under construction in Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, and South 

Africa, the continent’s hydropower resource is enormous, with some 

estimates having it accounting for 12 percent of the world’s potential. 

The Chinese are already heavily invested in Africa’s hydropower 

and they are funding $500 million toward Cote d’Ivoire’s Soubre 

Dam. Ethiopia is looking to develop 6 gigawatts of power with its 

Grand Renaissance Dam, and the Grand Inga scheme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be the world’s largest if plans are 

implemented as envisioned. 

Not to be left out is geothermal. Kenya is said to construct new 

geothermal power plants by December 2015, and, in fact, its strategy would make it the number one geothermal producer by the 

year 2033 if executed accordingly. 

And having a near-term tangible impact on improving the lives 

of Africans are the many small-scale off-grid rural projects. These 

projects are varied and include household solar products, community waste, energy, rooftop solar and wind, and biofuel and biogas 

applications. 

And perhaps the greatest achievement over the decade has been 

seen in the manufacturing sector with solar factories emerging to 

meet growing regional demand. This trend has lead to a technology 

transfer with Africans learning to provide services to their communities. 

In addition, other small projects have allowed typical low-income 

villagers to become small business owners and, in turn, pass on 

technology to their communities. This development is certainly a 

success story for the continent by any measure. 

And, in closing, the hydrocarbon and renewable initiatives set 

forth by African governments, as well as by their global partners, 

are paying huge dividends. While much progress has been made, 

there is a long road ahead to bring Africans up to a first world 

standard of living, and American know-how and investment can 

play a major role in making that happen. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Sutherland follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Ms. Sutherland, thank you very much for your testimony and for your insights and your expertise. 

I would like to now yield to Ms. Bass. 

Ms. BASS. And thank you. I appreciate you going out of sequence 

for a minute. I really just wanted to ask a couple of questions. 

But I first want to address my colleague, Representative Stockman, you know, your concerns that you were raising about China. 

And I think one of the first things that we can do, hopefully before lame duck is over, is take care of two things, the Power Africa 

that is over in the Senate and then also AGOA. 

You know, I mean, because to the extent that we can increase 

our participation—because I know I have heard from many, many 

African countries how much they do want to do business with us, 

but, you know, sometimes we put our own roadblocks up. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. Exactly. 

Ms. BASS. Exactly. 

So, Mr. Williams, I just wanted to ask—I was asking the first 

panel about Power Africa and its reach into urban areas, in the 

residential areas, not the commercial, and, also, in the rural areas. 

And you, you know, representing civil society, I just wanted to 

know your take on the same question I had asked the first panel. 

Mr. WILLIAMS. Well, I believe—and it is anecdotal, to some extent—but I do believe, having come out of the U.S.-Africa ministerial and looking at the effective role and the amount of discussion 

that we talked about with grids, mini grids, and getting electricity 

into rural areas. 

And then, at the leaders’ summit, I attended a session that GE 

put on called Africa Rising, and there were many, many entrepreneurial-type things. By ‘‘entrepreneurial,’’ I mean they are sustainable. 

In other words, they were going into rural communities and creating opportunities for young people to supply electricity and make 

a little bit of money to keep it going and keep their incentives up. 

So it is happening and it—and it could be expedited, but it is 

happening and it is part of—when you get to Beyond the Grid, part 

of the Power Africa agenda to expand this. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you. 

And maybe, Ms. Sutherland, you would like to respond to that 

as well. 

Ms. SUTHERLAND. I am sorry. I thought the question was addressed to my colleague. Can you repeat that again, please. 

Ms. BASS. Oh, yeah. It was, but it was to you, too. 

I was just wondering your opinions on how Power Africa and our 

efforts of reaching beyond commercial areas and going into urban 

residential and rural areas. 

Ms. SUTHERLAND. I am not that familiarized with that aspect of 

the industry, as my focus is on the petroleum industry. 

However, I do know that the African communities do appreciate 

American investment. There is absolutely other investment available to them from the likes of China, but they do like dealing with 

the Americans better. 

And I know that there are several small-scale projects emanating 

from the United States supplying off-grid solutions such as, you 

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know, the solar lanterns, replacing the kerosene, the clean cooking 

stoves, and they are really quite receptive. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. I will go out of order and I will recognize Mr. Stockman. Then I will go third. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. Yeah. I am glad you are from Houston. I represent Houston, and, as you know, fracking was a critical part of 

George Mitchell’s portfolio, and I think that he really changed and 

revolutionized the world when he developed the advanced fracking. 

And I think we lost her. That’s okay. 

I would like to ask, Mr. Williams, on our side, you are free market. Can you be blunt enough to tell me how is it that we are impeding, in what ways we can undo something to make it more beneficial for both sides. 

I mean, how is the Government—you know, a lot of times we 

have passed laws here that had very well-intended meaning, but, 

ultimately, it ends up impacting your industry or other industries, 

quite frankly, in a negative way. And I would like to know what 

laws we passed that were meant to be for good that are not. 

Mr. WILLIAMS. Well, in response and to be undiplomatic, I mean, 

I don’t think anyone ever passes a law that they don’t think it is 

not going to work the way they intend it to work. So we will start 

with that premise. 

The thing that I feel that we miss out on is that we don’t really 

listen to the beneficiaries. I am talking about in the U.S. The U.S. 

has great reach. If I was to ask an African energy minister, to pick 

up your conversation about China, who they would like to work 

with, unanimously it would be with the United States. 

But we do put in place not the law, but then it is the policy, how 

the law is going to be implemented, that creates obstacles. And the 

obstacles, in a global economy—now, remember, oil is a global economy, supply and demand. And so no one country really can control 

that whole industry. 

But if—so if we put up—if we put obstacles up, it goes to where 

there are less obstacles or they can get what they consider to be 

a fairer shot, but the preference—for instance, if an energy minister comes here and they want to work on something and they 

would prefer to work with the U.S. Department of Energy, oftentimes they have to go the State Department. And then that means 

they have to involve their Minister of Foreign Affairs, and they 

would prefer to keep it in the house—the energy house. 

So some of the things that we do create obstacles for us going 

forward. And then there are issues within some of our agencies 

where we can’t be as supportive as the private sector would like 

because of regulations that are in place and the agencies themselves don’t want to necessarily show favoritism to Company A over 

Company B. And so, in some respects, the playing field is not level 

and our industries don’t get the benefit of what we could do. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. Yeah, we can just look at—and no offense to the 

State Department, the previous panel, but you can look at the time 

and length it has taken just to discuss a pipeline here in the 

United States. 

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yeah. 

73

Mr. STOCKMAN. And it is unfortunate that the State Department 

is interceding in free commerce, but I see it repeatedly. As you 

know, this is years ago, I met with the DRC’s energy minister, and 

that was a complaint back 15, 18 years ago, and it hasn’t been resolved. And I am not going to be here in January. I want to work 

as an intern for Congressman Smith, but my hope is that we can 

do some kind of legislation to where we step back and allow companies to work together. 

And it is absolutely true, by the way, they do want to work with 

American companies. They feel like we get a fair shake from Americans. They also, Americans do something that the Chinese don’t; 

the Americans will employee local labor and train them in the technologies and the skills, and they even invest in infrastructure. 

They love that. But the Chinese are more parochial. They will 

bring in their own labor, as you know, and their own labor is almost, in itself, they are locked up, and they don’t even get to intermingle. 

So I would request, if you have time or you can administratively 

get us back some of the policies you think—and you don’t have to 

be diplomatic. It is just you, me, and Connie Chung, we will keep 

it secret. If you can get us some of the things that Congressman 

Smith down the road could facilitate where we are doing a better 

job of trying to help our industries, I would appreciate that. I think 

some frankness would be in order here. 

Mr. WILLIAMS. Well, you know, take Power Africa, again. I mean, 

you just don’t say I want to turn on that switch. I mean, it takes 

years to develop some of these infrastructure projects. But the 

country needs the electricity now. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. Yes. 

Mr. WILLIAMS. And we have a lot of technology we can come in 

and drop, almost instant generators and tie it right into the grid 

and start to feed it while we are building out the more permanent, 

sustainable power supply. So I mean, there are a lot of things, and 

I am happy to respond to you with some of those kind of shortcut 

thoughts that I have about how we can be more effective. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. I am so on your side. I go nuts when I go visit 

there because I really want to help them. I have great compassion 

for them and they want what the rest of the world wants, and yet 

I see time and time our Government is interceding in a way that 

is disruptive and harmful for the very people we claim to want to 

help. And I just am thrilled that you have dedicated your life to 

this, and I really appreciate the sacrifices you have made. And I 

apologize for the bureaucracy and the inconsistency from our side. 

Mr. WILLIAMS. Well, I appreciate that, but I also want to say, I 

got a lot of help from the U.S. side. Don’t get me wrong. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. Well, I know that, but——

Mr. WILLIAMS. And I have come and I have knocked on the door 

and I have received some help. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. But we can do better. 

Mr. WILLIAMS. Okay. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. When I go there and I hear privately some of the 

conversations I hear from their side, their government officials, it 

is—excuse my expression—but I am really—I used profanity there, 

74

consider it used—I am really upset that we are, time and time 

again, shooting ourselves in the foot. 

With that, I yield back to the chairman. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Stockman, thank you very much. 

Just a few final questions and, Mr. Williams, thank you very 

much for your testimony and again for your leadership. 

Can you tell us, do you have any insight as to how the participants, especially nongovernment actors were selected for the ministerial? You made a very good point about the importance of 

Power Africa, having Diaspora and women-owned businesses involved. And I am wondering, who does the selection? Is it self-selection, people know that it is coming and they get themselves onto 

a list and then have access, or is it by invitation only? 

Secondly, the issue—and I will ask this of Ms. Sutherland when 

she gets back on, but you might want to speak to it as well—for 

most of my career in Congress, I have been in Congress for 34 

years now. I have been an ardent proponent of waste-to-energy initiatives, believing that it obviously takes care of municipal garbage 

while it also produces clean energy, and with modern technology 

being what it is, what it comes out of, that smokestack at the end 

of the day is as pristine as it possibly can be. It is not always perfect, obviously, but with the right controls and the right environmental safeguards, it is cleaner. 

And we know that, you know, as a continent and the countries 

matriculate to being an industrialized continent or nation, people 

want to cut corners. There is going to be much waste. Industrial 

waste is one thing but municipal waste will grow in number. And 

what do you do with it? 

And I am wondering how well you think Power Africa is incorporating the waste-to-energy initiatives as a way of powering up 

Africa as part of a mix. 

And let me also ask you, you know, I did ask the earlier panel, 

and I think they will get back with some insights, but I am very 

worried about cybersecurity issues and about terrorism. It doesn’t 

take much if improper safeguards are not followed, whereby a 

whole infrastructure can be demolished very, very quickly. 

And Ms. Sutherland, I guess she’s still not on, but she had spoken about China, and we all know that China demands a great 

deal of repayment, usually. I mean, in Ghana they get the oil and 

have access to that oil. We know that countries like Sudan and others, very often weapons are in the mix in exchange for their raw 

materials, especially oil there. 

And I am wondering, you know, if you feel we have competed 

well enough with the People’s Republic of China to say, as both my 

good friend, Mr. Stockman, and others have said, the Africans and 

you as well want to deal with the United States of America and 

with our private sector as well. But if we are not in the game, who 

do they turn to? They turn to the Chinese. Have we turned to corner, or are the Chinese still outcompeting us on the continent? 

Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For your first question 

on the U.S.-Africa Energy Ministerial, Leadership Africa was responsible for the outreach in the marketing of that event that took 

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ernment agency participation, those agencies who did come to Ethiopia to participate. 

Now, I can tell you, intentionally, we reached out to everybody. 

We went to Commerce Department. We got lists from all of the 

agencies, and small businesses, large businesses, so we made it inclusive, and then we made it easy for even the African businessmen to attend, and we had different price referential so that they 

had to pay something, but it was a pittance, so that we made sure 

that it was a meeting that had both African and U.S. businesses 

participating and benefiting. So it was on us, if there is complaints 

about who could not come, who couldn’t get there, it is on Leadership Africa USA. 

Your second question was waste-to-energy. We have seen, over 

the years, because we are an NGO, a number of waste-to-energy 

projects that work in rural communities, where there is the collection now of waste and it is the co-generation of waste to turning 

it into energy. They are very effective, particularly with plastic. 

You will find it in Egypt. There is a huge project going on. 

In fact, we were working with another NGO and they had a competition on an annualized basis. And a lot of the people who won 

those competitions were dealing with energy but they were dealing 

with removing waste, and it was at the university level. So, I 

mean, it is attractive to young people but it is attractive for young 

people in rural communities, if they can clean up their communities and also have some money coming from that and it generates 

electricity. It is a win-win for everybody. 

Mr. SMITH. Just a couple of final questions, and then, Mr. Stockman, do you have anything to conclude? 

Dr. Ichord, in response to my question about gaps, listed five. 

One of them was the urban subnational part and I asked whether 

or not we are reaching out to state and local governments, and he 

said that is becoming more and more important. And I wonder if 

you might want to speak to that, obviously we should work with 

the central government but we shouldn’t be capital-centric. Look to 

those other key players. You might want to expand upon that. 

And the competition with China, if you could touch on that one. 

And finally, how do we measure success? You know, will we 

know it when we see it, or are there metrics that can be employed 

to say, okay, we have now seen such and such number of municipalities and people gain access to electricity? Does anybody have a 

backdrop in mind to determine whether or not we are succeeding 

in this effort? 

Mr. WILLIAMS. Okay. Picking up on the China question. 

Mr. SMITH. Yes. 

Mr. WILLIAMS. It is the glass is half-full/half-empty kind of a 

thing. China has a totally different system than we have. They go 

at it differently. I mean, when you are talking to a company that 

says we are a Chinese company, you don’t know if it is a Chinese 

company or if the company is partially owned by the government 

or representing the government. So when you put our companies 

into that mix, it is hard to compete. 

And then there was reference earlier to the Foreign Corrupt 

Practices Act and clarification and clarity on what, when you are 

working within the bounds, everyone wants to work within the 

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bounds so that you are very clear that the activities that you are 

undertaking are not going to put you afoul of that law would be 

very helpful. We can overcome what I think is China’s vast amount 

of financing that they have available because we really make better 

partners. We are there for the long run. And I think that the African governments understand that. 

And we need to work—to pick up on your second question—we 

need to move it out of the leadership in the heads of the ministries 

and the government officials and move it into a level where we are 

talking to the business people who, like business people here, can 

go talk to the government but they need the support and the help 

and assistance that we could provide them. 

Mr. SMITH. I see Ms. Sutherland is back so I just would ask her: 

You mentioned the Cote d’Ivoire issue in China. So a more general 

question would be, how well or poorly are we competing, in your 

opinion, with Chinese initiatives? 

And you had also mentioned the waste-to-energy, which is something that I just asked Mr. Williams before you came back on. How 

widespread are those projects, which obviously do two great things 

at one time, produce energy but also take care of a municipal waste 

problem? Landfills, as we all know, are ticking time bombs because 

of what they do to aquifers and to water systems as they leach. 

So if you could respond to those two, I would appreciate it. 

Ms. SUTHERLAND. Okay. As far as how are we competing with 

China, we are competing pretty well with China; however, as others have mentioned, the transparency issue is very big in Africa, 

but there are only, I believe, 17 or 18 countries who have signed 

up to the EITI. So for those who have not yet signed up to it or 

who have not met the requirements to be approved, Chinese money 

is very attractive and it comes with very little strings attached to 

it. And that is just a fact. It is very attractive to some African governments. 

On the other hand, Chinese technology, while it has vastly improved over the last decade, is still lagging behind American technology. And many of the savvier national oil companies in Africa 

would much rather prefer to work with American services firms 

and oil and gas exploration companies. 

As regards to waste-to-energy, projects are popping up all over 

the continent. They are small-scale and medium-scale. I know of 

one project, it is waste-to-energy that comes from a prison facility 

and that waste-to-energy powers that facility. There is also animalwaste-to-energy as well as municipal-waste-to-energy. So municipal-waste-to-energy has very high potential in the continent, and 

I believe you will see many more projects cropping up as investment comes along and the technology transfer is made to these 

countries. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you so very much for coming back online 

and——

Ms. SUTHERLAND. Sorry about that. Technology fails us sometimes. 

Mr. SMITH. Let me just ask you, hydropower is still a major factor in African energy planning but major projects such as Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam have regional implications that 

make it politically difficult. How do countries such as Ethiopia and 

77

Egypt deal with conflicts over such major power and water 

projects? First, give me your background in Egypt. 

Ms. SUTHERLAND. It is basically a governmental power play. I 

don’t think that the Ethiopia project would have made it as far as 

it has if it weren’t for the Arab Spring and, you know, the resulting 

multiple governments and disarray in Egypt. Generally, I think 

that you would have seen that project not advance as far as it has. 

Had Egypt not had its difficulties, it would probably still be a debate amongst the countries, I would say, for several years to come. 

And that being said, you may find Egypt in the not-too-distant future trying to go in and circumvent the progress that has been 

made. 

Mr. SMITH. And one final question to both of you: 10 years from 

now, can you make any kind of guesstimate or projection as to how 

many people on the continent will have access to electricity? 

Ms. SUTHERLAND. In the next decade? 

Mr. SMITH. Yes. 

Ms. SUTHERLAND. I don’t see a huge increase. I would say maybe 

a 15 percent increase in the next decade if the major alternative 

energy projects come to fruition, such as the geothermal and the 

hydropower. 

Mr. SMITH. Okay. Mr. Williams? 

Mr. WILLIAMS. Well, the statistics that I—I have to share her assessment——

Mr. SMITH. Right. 

Mr. WILLIAMS [continuing]. That there is not going to be a substantial number of people who will have access to electricity in Africa if we stay on the current level that we are on right now. It 

is estimated by 2040 you still may have 500 million people on the 

continent without electricity. 

Mr. SMITH. And it is 590 million right now, right? 

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yeah. 

Mr. SMITH. Approximately. Thank you. That means we need to 

accelerate and beef up our efforts, and I think we end on that 

point. 

Anything you would like to add, Mr. Williams, before we end? 

Mr. WILLIAMS. No, I just want to thank you for the opportunity 

and the privilege to be here and to testify. I am hopeful that some 

of the things that I said and I will be back to you and hope to—

and applaud your leadership, both you and Congressman Stockman. Thank you so much. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Mr. STOCKMAN. Thank you very much. 

Mr. SMITH. The hearing is adjourned, and thank you very much. 

Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you. 

[Whereupon, at 3:14 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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