Climate action in Texas will require some compromise
Combusting oil and natural gas is ruining the planet, and we should minimize their use to maintain a healthy climate. But the world will always need these products and new pipelines to transport them.
Fossil fuel advocates and environmentalists have a tough time squaring this circle based on the responses to my recent columns on energy. But pragmatism must overcome extremism, and both sides must learn to compromise.
Companies have invested trillions of dollars in oil and gas wells, transport systems, refining operations, chemical plants and retailing. The industry is huge, both in capital and personnel, and executives are under pressure to deliver profits on those investments. And they deserve to profit.
Oil and natural gas make modern life possible.
Petroleum is the building block for billions of products ranging from pharmaceuticals to building materials. The oil and gas industry will undoubtedly shrink as we move away from burning oil and gas, but it will never go away.
People who make their living along the industry’s supply chains will fight to protect their livelihoods. They tout how much energy each molecule can release while pooh-poohing competing technologies. Some even deny that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas.
I get it, they do not want to admit that their life’s work is ruining the planet. But I am getting tired of hearing them talk about how science proves hydraulic fracturing does not pollute groundwater — which is
true — but they think climate science is a hoax. Time to show some intellectual honesty.
Leaders at major oil and gas producers understand that unmitigated climate change is a greater threat to their industry than climate regulations. Most support the Paris Climate Accords, and all of them are trying to clean up their operations and diversify into clean energy.
The Greater Houston Partnership, the state’s largest economic development group, wants to make Houston not just the oil and gas capital of the world, but the global headquarters for the energy transition. This is a smart, forwardlooking strategy that will keep Houston from becoming the next Detroit.
If you work in the fossil fuel industry, and you are not figuring out how to survive the transition, your career will soon end. The public is searching for alternative forms of energy, and they will buy it as soon as it becomes available, which is sooner than you think.
The clean energy industry, however, is nowhere close to meeting public demand. Most new electricity generation is solar or wind, but renewables make up only 11 percent of our energy consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Over the next 15 years, the world can build enough renewable energy projects and storage devices to generate 100 percent of our electricity from clean energy. But we will need nuclear power plants and better, cheaper batteries to get there.
Any environmentalist who drives their decade-old Subaru to a climate protest needs to recognize they are part of the problem. People hold on to their old cars, which are more polluting, and at the current pace the world will need at least 40 years to replace them with electric vehicles, according to most forecasts.
Meeting that goal will also require new solid-state batteries that perform as well as fossil fuel-powered cars at the same price.
Activists who pore over every new climate science report need to spend just as much time studying energy economics. We are not going to make the transition to 100 percent renewable energy in the next 15 years, let alone a decade.
As long as we need fossil fuels, we will need pipelines to safely and economically transport them.
Court injunctions against the Dakota Access and the Keystone XL pipelines are not victories. They will not reduce oil and gas consumption, only change where it is sourced and how it is transported, making dirtier oil moved on dangerous rail cars the most likely alternative.
We also need Texas’ Permian Highway Pipeline to deliver natural gas to the coast so foreign countries can shut down their coal plants. Environmentalists must accept these lesser evils. The climate is better protected with smart, modern pipelines.
In my columns, I promote a clean-energy future because I understand the risk of a climate catastrophe. But I also recognize climate activists are not always realistic and often alienate people rather than build alliances.
Oil and natural gas have done a lot of good in the world, but they can no longer dominate energy consumption. I want Texas to lead the way in transitioning to clean energy for the good of the economy and the planet.
The absolutists in both camps attract the most attention, but compromise and cooperation are the answer, not vitriol.