If you think writing is difficult, you should try having to do it all day, every day.
That's one reason journalists appreciate snappy quotations that expose the heart of the issue, expressing in 9 words what we have trouble explaining in 90.
Just being interesting or amusing doesn't automatically earn a quotation a place in the stories I write about Washington, DC, energy events. But unused remarks can be saved and melded into an occasional column-like this one-that could be headlined: "I wish I'd said that."
For instance, John Brooks, director of offshore leasing for the UK Department of Trade and Industry, told an Independent Petroleum Association of America meeting that wildcatters always should think "outside the box." He added firmly, "I don't think any engineer of any sort should be allowed anywhere near exploration."
Peter Bijur, the chairman and chief executive of Texaco Inc., gave an overview of the oil industry last year. He declared, "The energy business is as much about political risk management as it is about drilling rigs, pipelines, and refineries."
A new light
It helps to have a sense of humor when you lead an energy trade group.
Skip Horvath is president of the Natural Gas Supply Association. His predecessor was fired, prosecuted, and jailed for embezzlement.
When reporters asked Horvath how NGSA has changed under his administration, he grinned and said, "Well for starters, the checks we write are this big (gesturing expansively with both arms) because there has to be room for everyone on the staff to sign them."
Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, literally was in the spotlight of an industry meeting last year.
About 30 min into the program, as sweat was dribbling off his forehead, he was asked how the world could conserve energy. Yergin replied, "For starters, they could take out a couple of those light bulbs."
Current events
You don't normally think of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as a topic for jokes.
James Schlesinger, the first US energy secretary, observed to a Senate committee, "OPEC has been compared to a tea bag: It only works well when it is in hot water."
Because of OPEC, current US Energy Sec. Bill Richardson has been getting a lot of media attention. Just before a recent press conference, Richardson suddenly broke into a large grin at the expectant reporters crowded before him.
"As I look at all of you who cover me, I just wonder what some of you would do without me," he said.
The statement was uncharacteristic, because Richardson's style is usually self-deprecating. More typical of the embattled energy secretary was this observation: "As a congressman, I could say anything I wanted. Now I have to be more careful."
