“Specifically, I’m proposing that the SPE join the frontline in debunking anti-Oil & Gas bias and climate alarmism by providing educational materials, bringing in distinguished lecturers on the subject, holding related symposiums and discussion panels, and more; perhaps develop a Monograph on Energy, Progress, and Climate. As you should know, the facts support the Oil & Gas industry.
In a letter dated July 28, 2023, William “Rod” Guice, a petroleum engineer in California, called upon the Society of Petroleum Engineers to morally defend the industry and thus praise the livelihood of its members. His letter, which deserves to be read in its entirely, follows:
…A manager whom I admire for a California Oil & Gas Operator made this interesting statement not long ago: “The Oil & Gas business used to be an honorable profession.”
“‘People are willing to pay a premium for environmental goods,’ Mr. Dables said. “It’s one thing to buy a box of soap and pay 20 percent more; I don’t know anyone who wants to pay 20 percent more for a car.”
It has taken a basket of mandates and subsidies to get battery-driven vehicles (EVs) on the road in the last decade. Start with a $7,500 per vehicle tax credit. Continue with automobile dealers having to get credits from electrics to meet their corporate average fuel economy standards (CAFE) obligations. Add-in never-ending taxpayer-financed R&D from the US Department of Energy and a lot of jawboning by the Presidents from Clinton to Obama to Biden.
Think back to the 1990s, when natural gas vehicles and methanol-powered vehicles were in play. Electric vehicles had interest too.…
“In business and economic terms, what is physically ‘worse’ [with climate] today is actually better [than in the past]. Thus I would argue that social justice demands affordable A/C for many more or all rather than mitigation policies that make A/C less affordable or unaffordable.”
This exchange was with Susan Krumdieck, “Professor, Author and Leader in Energy Transition Engineering.” While I have criticized her approach to “transition engineering” as uneconomic in a true marketplace and thus government-driven, I appreciate her polite engagement toward mutual learning.
Our latest exchange began with her post comment:
Thanks everyone for sharing the news about the extreme weather. But I feel like we are on a run-away train. Here is a metaphor story. Maybe it will help.
Her article, “We Are All on Board a Speeding Train,” (August 17, 2020) followed.…