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Permalink Reply by David on July 8, 2021 at 4:46

Skip, I agree oil will play a lesser role in the future with gas increasingly more important, if for no other reason than as a backup for renewable energy and as a bridge fuel to a potential renewable energy dominance in the coming decades.

The problem with too many people is the knee-jerk reaction they have to fossil fuels: it is either the absolute worst energy source or the greatest possible source ever.

Just as at one point the world used primarily wood as a fuel source, then coal, and then oil, even so, we are now, going to be switching more and more to natural gas and to renewables as the technology improves.

When things such as this get politicized, which seems to be happening to everything nowadays, rational thinking, alas, goes out the window.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on July 8, 2021 at 5:03

Thanks, David.  I don't disagree with your opinions but for some time now I have been attempting to stimulate a Louisiana focused discussion of how we wind down state oil and protect/harden natural gas production and utilization.  What is needed is a debate and policies for mitigating oil related environmental issues while supporting the shrinking  number of jobs. The drastically lower state revenue is beyond help at this point.  The decades of natural gas demand will be determined by how successful we are on lowering fugitive emissions across the entire supply chain and increasing demand.  My letter is an attempt to disconnect the debate over national energy policy, which we have little to no control over and is highly politicized, from the more urgent situation with state oil and gas that we do have the ability to manage.

With the increasing technological ability to monitor and identify GHG emissions, it becomes obvious that methane emissions have been considerably greater than previously calculated.  One way to combat those knee jerk objections to fossil fuels is to take fugitive emissions seriously, pass legislation and create regulatory programs to drastically reduce them.  At the end of all discussions should be the admission that the climate threat is considerably greater than any, and indeed all, objections against taking substantive actions.

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