American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2020 - 65

pages 57-79_THIS ONE 10/13/2020 3:56 PM Page 65

Election2020: Industry Analysis
Looking specifically at climate, International Energy Agency Executive
Director Fatih Birol told the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources earlier this year that the oil and gas industry had "to
be part of the solution rather than being the problem," and called carbon
capture and storage the "most critical technology for reducing emissions."
To what extent do you think (Biden/Trump) sees carbon capture,
utilization and storage as a worthwhile part of climate policy? What do
you believe (Biden/Trump) thinks is the best way to respond to climate
change, and what actions might he recommend, particularly related to
U.S. production and consumption of crude oil and natural gas?
Words can change perceptions in Washington.
During the Obama years, "carbon pollution"
replaced "greenhouse gas emissions" and
"climate crisis" replaced "global warming." We elect
politicians to stop pollution and solve crises, and the
tone of debate shifted from academic to activist.
Biden has taken to describing methane as a "super-pollutant." That term of art used to refer to fluorinated gases with global warming potentials (GWPs)
many thousands of times greater than that of carbon
dioxide. To Clearview Energy Partners, Biden's GWP
"grade inflation" is a pretty strong tell that he would
prioritize upstream methane regulation. Fuel economy
standards and incentives for an EV transition also
look like priorities.
That said, we also think Biden would support CCS,
and the good news for industry is that majorities of
both parties on Capitol Hill appear to support it, too.
But let us offer a caution about the coming climate
debate. Industry folks tend to look at climate change
like the engineers and economists they are: Set a
CO2 concentration target and look for ways to hit it.
Their solution set includes CCS and direct air capture,
and maybe a carbon tax.
On the other side, climate activists are pushing for
prescriptive standards and phase-outs. Their solution
set is to energize society with green electrons instead
of fossil molecules, and some of them want to create
new jobs with new resources instead of saving old
jobs through backward compatibility. If Biden wins,
he is going to be in the middle of a tug-of-war from
both sides.

Before any more resources are committed to
reducing CO2 emissions, the scientific community needs to revisit the Environmental
Protection Agency's endangerment finding, which
nonsensically allows the federal government to regulate
this harmless gas in the same manner as true pollutants
that are known to cause human harm.
The best climate science points strongly to the fact
that the predictions of future catastrophe resulting
from CO2 emissions have been grossly exaggerated
and are based on flawed interpretations of subjective
data models.
As average temperatures have increased slightly
over the past centuries, resilience to the climate has
increased in America and globally, and the devastating
weather events predicted by green activists have not
come to pass (despite the mainstream media's attempt
to spin each and every natural disaster into a sign of
the apocalypse to come).
Slight warming is not likely to cause significant
harm in the future. Even so, the United States is a
world leader in reducing both harmful emissions and
CO2 emissions. This is thanks to American entrepreneurs and inventors creating new solutions powered
by the affordable, reliable energy that makes experimentation and innovation possible.
President Trump will not support a pro-China
carbon pricing scheme that yields no meaningful environmental benefit and would succeed only at exporting
American jobs, increasing Americans' cost of living,
and giving the upper hand to other nations that don't
have the American people's best interests at heart.

OCTOBER 2020 65

American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2020