A warning
Climate change crusader says energy sector must embrace alternative fuels
In a visit to Houston, Al Gore says the oil and gas sector must brace for change.
The oil and gas sector is headed for much more “turbulent times” beyond the ongoing oil bust because the world is poised to transform into a low-carbon, renewable energy economy, former Vice President Al Gore said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle.
Gore, perhaps the world’s most prominent climate change evangelist, was in Houston last week for grass-roots training with the advocacy group he founded, the Climate Reality Project. He said the oil and gas industry will go through the same pains the coal sector is suffering unless it adopts more renewable and sustainable sources of power a nd fuel.
As in coal country, Houston and other local economies that depend on oil and gas production face widespread layoff sandlots of job retraining for affected employees unless the industry adjusts to the changing political, social and legal environment surrounding energy.
“I’m certainly well aware of the economic stakes involved, especially for the employees of these companies,” Gore said. “I believe that this transition is one of the biggest in the history of the world, andit’s not going to be completely easy to navigate.”
Thealternative is more frequent flooding, violent storms, wildfires, droughts, famines and other extreme conditions that will threaten the human race’s survival, Gore said. Action must be taken to dramatically slow the warming of the planet, which the overwhelming scientific consensus says is accelerated by burning fossils, he said.
Fossil fuels release carbon dioxide, which traps heat in the atmosphere in the phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect.
Gore praised the Paris climate agreement reached in December that is intended to dramatically lower global carbon emissions and move quickly towards renewable energy sources such as wind ands olar.
“Mother Nature is going to make it increasingly difficult to rely on fossil fuels,” Gore said, arguing that this past week’ s Louisiana floods were exacerbated by climate change inpart because warmer air holds much more water vapor.
Despite growing recognition of its risks — even by energy companies—climate change remains a contentious political and legal issue. Several states are investigating whether the oil and gas industry misled investors and the public by down playing the threat of climate change years ago even though internal research may have suggested otherwise. Companies vehemently deny such claims.
It is also a key issue in the presidential campaign, crystallized bythe debate over the expansion of the Keystone pipeline that transports heavy crude from Canada’ s oil sands region. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton opposes the expansion, which was blocked by the O ba ma administration. Donald Trump, her Republican opponent, say she would allow the expansion to proceed.
Oil and gas companies, power generator sand other businesses say the world will need to rely on fossil fuels for many more decades because of the technical limitations of renewable sources like wind and solar, which provide power intermittent ly and can only grow so quickly. Meanwhile, growing populations and rising standards of living in developing countries will demand more power.
Gore, however, said a low-carbon world is coming quickly; energy companies eventually won’t be able to exploit oil and gas reserves because of newlaws, treaties and social pressures. He added that oil and gas companies can still survive or even thrive by speeding up their own transitions to renewables.
Go real so criticized the widely held industry view that natural gas will be a so-called bridge fuel until renewable sources are able to provide most to the world’s power.
“Mother Nature is going to make it increasingly difficult to rely on fossil fuels.” Al Gore