Energy Oil & Gas Magazine EOG 214 | Page 13

__________________________________________________________________________________________ Main interview
Pull quotes Montserrat 16pt Medium having to allocate more of their wallet to basic necessities , spending becomes less prevalent , which is reflected in other areas of the economy . This also plays into inflation , interest rates , and disruption to trade .”
Collaborative approach
To Craig ’ s mind , the first step to tackling this issue is telling the truth . “ You can see it now with Shell and BP . In the last quarter or two , these vast organizations have finally been admitting that while they bought into the renewables story , they are now changing tactic . ExxonMobil and Chevron took a lot of flack from institutional investors because , at the time , they were unwilling to toe the line .
“ The government has picked oil , gas , and coal as its losers , and is intervening in the market in ways that are fundamentally not sensible . I ’ m not sure how you overcome the inherent problem we have that certain industries are wholly dependent on subsidies . It may be the case that there will be tough times before our political systems are able to sort this out and have more rational perspectives .
“ In my experience the most interesting and valuable conversations I have had are with environmentalists , working through how to actually solve the climate issue . When you have a conversation with people , you may not agree , but , at least , you are working together . I really think the path forward is collaborative . Framing the issue as a binary problem actually makes it worse . Rather than simplifying the standpoint to being in one camp or the other , in reality , we are all in the same camp , and each solution is unique to a specific place . “ To move beyond this , to something broader , to a more reasonable conversation that considers the issue with more complexity , is a better approach . Carbon capture is just one more piece of the puzzle . If it makes sense to build solar panels , then let ’ s build them , but let ’ s also remember that those solar panels use coal as part of their production process , and have a relatively short useful life . The solutions are neither good nor bad , but simply part of the overall mix ,” Craig concludes . ■
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