{"id":44814,"date":"2019-03-27T09:36:30","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T14:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=44814"},"modified":"2019-03-27T09:36:33","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T14:36:33","slug":"oil-industry-ponders-getting-dragged-into-low-carbon-future-while-claiming-it-stepped-up-on-climate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=44814","title":{"rendered":"Oil Industry Ponders Getting \u2018Dragged into Low-Carbon Future\u2019 While Claiming it \u2018Stepped up\u2019 on Climate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Oil Industry Ponders Getting \u2018Dragged into Low-Carbon Future\u2019 While Claiming it \u2018Stepped up\u2019 on Climate<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The fossil fuel industry’s faith that the modern world economy will be powered by its products for the indefinite future is usually unwavering. But cracks in that faith recently appeared in Houston at the top annual oil industry conference, known as CERAweek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trade publication Platts S&P Global <\/a>noted that \u201ctalk of oil at CERAWeek felt a bit more lackluster this time around,\u201d according to several attendees. Various pressures \u2014 from climate-anxious investors to competition from renewables<\/a> \u2014 apparently are tempering the oil and gas industry’s usual optimism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps also contributing to the mood was Norway’s announcement, just a day before the conference began, that its sovereign wealth fund was divesting from over 100 oil and gas exploration companies around the world. This news led to headlines like \u201cWorld\u2019s largest sovereign wealth fund to scrap oil and gas stocks.\u201d<\/a> Its fund managers were clear this decision wasn\u2019t out of concern for the climate, but instead to make sure they didn\u2019t lose money on risky oil and gas investments. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only a few years ago, however, CERAweek was brimming with industry bravado, in which oil company CEOs mocked renewable energy sources <\/a>and made claims that the oil industry just wanted to lift poor people out of poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the 2014 conference, attendees even heard Gina McCarthy \u2014 the Obama-appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency at the time \u2014 promise that \u201c[c]onventional fuels like coal and natural gas are going to play a critical role in a diverse energy mix for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oil and Gas ‘Crisis of\u00a0Confidence’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n