Charlie Rose talks with Chevron CEO John Watson

Chevron’s CEO discusses oil’s wild ride, fossil fuels’ future, and his company’s $19 billion legal battle in Ecuador

How do you answer when someone asks about the prospects for fossil fuels? If you think about the last 150 years, all the advancements in living standards, everything that we enjoy—light, heat, transportation by land, sea, and air—everything we value is coincident with fossil fuels. New York would be dark without them. Fossil fuels are important now and will be for many, many years to come. It’s going to take nuclear. It’s going to take coal. It’s going to take renewables. Remember, the developing world needs all this energy to raise living standards, because they aspire to the things that we have.

“I would say the power has shifted toward regulators in this country. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’re seeing subpar economic growth”