{"id":338957,"date":"2024-08-09T14:15:34","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T12:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=338957"},"modified":"2024-08-09T14:15:36","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T12:15:36","slug":"houston-oil-and-gas-capital-energy-transition-hyperbole-falls-flat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=338957","title":{"rendered":"Houston: Oil and Gas Capital (\u2018energy transition\u2019 hyperbole falls flat)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Master Resource<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robert Bradley Jr.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cCity leaders should stop pretending Houston will, or should, transition away from oil and gas anytime soon\u2026. Houston should embrace its role in sustaining and improving the lives of literally billions of people globally each day. It\u2019s a legacy worth standing up for\u2026 and even celebrating.\u201d (Doug Sheridan, below)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hyperbole and government subsidies (bribes, to critics) is the lifeline for inferior energies (think dilute, intermittent, resource-intensive wind and solar). Such as been the case since the 1990s in Houston, Texas when Ken Lay of Enron Corp. empowered executive Robert Kelly to create a new renewables business, a story told here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And shame-on-shame that some Houston business leaders that should know better have embraced low-density, political energies. I am thinking of Bobby Tutor, chair of the Houston Energy Transition Initiative<\/a>, and Steve Kean of the Greater Houston Partnership<\/a>. [1]<\/strong> There are others to be sure, but these two certainly head the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomlinson Hate<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the media front, there is the business editorialist Chris Tomlinson, who is a climate alarmist through-and-through who refuses to consider the weaknesses in his position from the science, economics, and public policy sides. Terribly conflicted, his wife, Shalini Ramanathan<\/a>, is a multi-millionaire renewable energy rainmaker<\/a>. Tomlinson himself snidely denounced<\/a> Chevron\u2019s decision this week in the Houston Chronicle<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOil giant\u2019s relocation to Houston skirts climate accountability,\u201d conflicted Chris wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yippee, another world-class polluter is moving its global headquarters to Houston, bringing a few hundred employees and a fossil fuel business plan unable to adapt to climate change\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every serious scientist and government recognizes we must reduce carbon emissions<\/a> to slow global warming and protect life as we know it. Consumers will need to stop burning so much oil and natural gas to produce energy, which means we will need a lot less of them. The oil and gas industry must shrink to prevent the worst of climate change.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What?<\/em> Climategate to climate models, the climate alarm has a half-century of bad optics and bad predictions. To say that \u201cevery serious scientist\u201d knows that reducing CO2 emissions is necessary to \u201cprotect life as we know it\u201d is dead-on-arrival argumentation. Little wonder why \u201cclimate change\u201d is bad politics in the current election cycle. [2]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Energy Exceptionalism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of oil and gas in Houston\u2019s development and growth is both fascinating and compelling. \u201cThe wildcatters showed their gratitude to their city through their philanthropy,\u201d University of Houston history professor Joseph Pratt wrote<\/a>. \u201cThey were not the only ones who supported good causes in our region, but many of the foundations in Houston had their beginning in the oil and gas industries.\u201d A century later, with much more oil and gas today that existed a century ago (the story of resourceship<\/a>), the story is the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheridan on Chevron<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Chevron relocating its headquarters to Houston, escaping the termite aspirations of Governor Gavin Newson and state agencies in California, Doug Sheridan<\/a> of EnergyPoint Research<\/a> wrote<\/a> this comment that is worth amplifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 2021, when virtually everyone became an overnight expert on energy and simply \u201cknew\u201d oil was going to be replaced by renewables, the great minds at the City of Houston, Greater Houston Partnership and other civic organizations got behind the slogan, \u201cHouston\u2014The Energy Transition Capital of the World.\u201d

Of course, there was no factual basis for the claim. It was just easy to say, so they said it. In reality, nothing could have been farther from the truth\u2014no city in the world had more to lose from a transition away from oil and gas than Houston. Anyone who stopped to think had to have known this. But stopping and thinking wasn\u2019t in vogue in 2021.

Even today, there\u2019s an effort to position Houston as some clean energy innovation mecca. We doubt the claim would stand up to scrutiny. For one, we\u2019d wager half the investments labeled \u201cclean energy\u201d are just typical energy technology investments, the kind companies in Houston have been making for decades. Of the other half, we\u2019d guess a material proportion won\u2019t be commercially viable in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Contrast that with what\u2019s going on with oil and gas in the city. By 2025, both of America\u2019s two largest oil and gas companies, ExxonMobil<\/a> and Chevron, will have moved their headquarters to Houston. And virtually every other petroleum entity in the world of any consequence has a presence in the city, including supermajors Shell<\/a>, BP, and TotalEnergies<\/a>, as well as leading NOCs like aramco<\/a>. Houston today is as much an oil town as ever.

No doubt city leaders, many of them liberal, will attempt to pitch the presence of these oil and gas majors as just more money and expertise to invest in what they habitually like to claim is some big shift to clean and green energy. But that\u2019s not true either. None other than the International Energy Agency (IEA)<\/a> recently posted a chart showing just how little oil and gas firms are investing in clean energy. For once, the IEA hits on the truth.

So why aren\u2019t oil and gas companies investing in clean energy? The official line is green energy and innovation isn\u2019t a core competency. And that\u2019s true, in so far as firms like to stick to their knitting. But the real reason, and don\u2019t say it out loud, is that these companies understand green forms of energy, especially renewables, are for the most part so inferior they can\u2019t cover their cost of capital. And for real managers, investments that can\u2019t cover their cost of capital are to be avoided\u2014not pursued.

Houstonians should welcome with open arms the arrival of ExxonMobil, Chevron<\/a> and other oil and gas companies. And city leaders should stop pretending Houston will, or should, transition away from oil and gas anytime soon. As Alex Epstein stresses, oil and gas are essential to human flourishing. Houston should embrace its role in sustaining and improving the lives of literally billions of people globally each day. It\u2019s a legacy worth standing up for\u2026 and even celebrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/strong> Bobby Tutor<\/strong> was a principal of Goldman Sachs global energy practice and founding head of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., a major energy investment banker. Steve Kean<\/a><\/strong>, former CEO of Kinder-Morgan, one of the nation\u2019s leading energy infrastructure companies, heads the Greater Houston Partnership<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Tutor and Kean know energy very well, well enough to not buy into climate alarmism and forced energy transformation. Their shift to political energy can only be described as pragmatic and amoral. Go with the political flow, get your share of kudos and government favor for personal and professional gain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/strong> For my long-standing criticisms of the fossil-fuel-misanthropist Tomlinson, see here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hyperbole and government subsidies (bribes, to critics) is the lifeline for inferior energies (think dilute, intermittent, resource-intensive wind and solar). Such as been the case since the 1990s in Houston, Texas when Ken Lay of Enron Corp. empowered executive Robert Kelly to create a new renewables business, a story told here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":338961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691818618,691818087,691830051,691830052,691823085,691818299],"class_list":{"0":"post-338957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-energy-transition","10":"tag-global-warming","11":"tag-greater-houston-partnership","12":"tag-houston-energy-transition-initiative","13":"tag-hyperbole","14":"tag-subsidies","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/01276220.jpg?fit=3840%2C2400&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1qb3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":439962,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=439962","url_meta":{"origin":338957,"position":0},"title":"\u201cWorld Should be Optim\u00adistic About Our Fossil Fuel Future\u201d (Bradley op-ed in Houston Chronicle)","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/16\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"For decades, doomsayers have warned of catastrophic climate outcomes, resource collapse, and the need to rapidly abandon fossil fuels. Those predictions have repeatedly failed to materialize. Instead, climate activism is retreating, the \u201cenergy transition\u201d is stumbling, and fossil fuels remain abundant, reliable, and economically superior.","rel":"","context":"In \"\u201cenergy trans\u00adition\u201d\"","block_context":{"text":"\u201cenergy trans\u00adition\u201d","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=energy-transition-8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-World-Should-be-Optim%C2%ADistic-About-Our-Fossil-Fuel-Future-Bradley-op-ed-in-Houston-Chronicle.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-World-Should-be-Optim%C2%ADistic-About-Our-Fossil-Fuel-Future-Bradley-op-ed-in-Houston-Chronicle.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-World-Should-be-Optim%C2%ADistic-About-Our-Fossil-Fuel-Future-Bradley-op-ed-in-Houston-Chronicle.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-World-Should-be-Optim%C2%ADistic-About-Our-Fossil-Fuel-Future-Bradley-op-ed-in-Houston-Chronicle.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":242676,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=242676","url_meta":{"origin":338957,"position":1},"title":"Houston Chronicle: Unpublished \u2018Letters to the Editor\u2019 (cancelling me)","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/01\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cThe\u00a0Houston Chronicle\u00a0editorialists can cancel me, but they cannot cancel energy density and the perils of dilute, intermittent substitutes for real, stock energies. Reality bats last, and climate alarm and the \u2018energy transition\u2019 are doing very poorly outside of getting government favor to keep the mirage going. It is sad that\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-24.png?fit=1000%2C657&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-24.png?fit=1000%2C657&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-24.png?fit=1000%2C657&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-24.png?fit=1000%2C657&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":277660,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=277660","url_meta":{"origin":338957,"position":2},"title":"Wounded Texas from Wind and Solar (backdoor recognition at the Houston Chronicle)","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/07\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Don\u2019t expect the\u00a0Houston Chronicle\u00a0editorial team, much less the\u00a0conflicted,\u00a0climate-religionist\u00a0business editorialist Chris Tomlinson, to forthrightly explain how a once reliable grid in the Lone Start State became wounded. They will blame it on the weather (too cold, too hot). But the real story is wind and solar reliance at the expense of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Chris Tomlinson\"","block_context":{"text":"Chris Tomlinson","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=chris-tomlinson"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0texas-wind-solar-coal1.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0texas-wind-solar-coal1.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0texas-wind-solar-coal1.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0texas-wind-solar-coal1.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0texas-wind-solar-coal1.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":313064,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=313064","url_meta":{"origin":338957,"position":3},"title":"Houston\u2019s Robust Fossil Future (Chronicle\u2019s CERAWeek op-ed misdirects)","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/26\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cDo we need a clean energy industry that depends on government handouts forever?\u00a0Yes, if you ascribe to the climate disaster mantra\u2026. Does anyone consider letting market forces drive technology development?\u201d","rel":"","context":"In \"Coal Question\"","block_context":{"text":"Coal Question","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=coal-question"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/0fossil-fuel-hero.jpg?fit=1200%2C468&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/0fossil-fuel-hero.jpg?fit=1200%2C468&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/0fossil-fuel-hero.jpg?fit=1200%2C468&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/0fossil-fuel-hero.jpg?fit=1200%2C468&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/0fossil-fuel-hero.jpg?fit=1200%2C468&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":204263,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=204263","url_meta":{"origin":338957,"position":4},"title":"\u2018Libertarian Seeks Burial of \u2018Dead Hand\u2019 DOE (Natural Gas Week, February 6, 1995)","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/14\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Robert Bradley Jr. \u201cToday, the libertarian Cato Institute releases its \u201cPolicy Handbook for the 104th\u00a0Congress,\u201d a 39-essay proposal to dismantle the federal government\u2026. The essay on energy was written by Cato camp follower Robert L. Bradley Jr. of Houston \u2026 president of his own energy think tank \u2013 well,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0decarbonization-removal-of-carbon-from-flue-gases-.jpg?fit=900%2C506&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0decarbonization-removal-of-carbon-from-flue-gases-.jpg?fit=900%2C506&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0decarbonization-removal-of-carbon-from-flue-gases-.jpg?fit=900%2C506&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0decarbonization-removal-of-carbon-from-flue-gases-.jpg?fit=900%2C506&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":349511,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=349511","url_meta":{"origin":338957,"position":5},"title":"Resolving the Dissonance Regarding Fossil Fuels","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/30\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Fossil fuels are destroying our planet. Big oil is evil. Coal is an addiction. These are hyperbolic statements uttered without basis in the public square as we continue with lifestyles dependent on hydrocarbons and their derivatives.","rel":"","context":"In \"Atmospheric CO2\"","block_context":{"text":"Atmospheric CO2","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=atmospheric-co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/04k-dolly-shot-of-oil-rig_sg1nggy5_1080__D.00_00_18_18.Still002-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/04k-dolly-shot-of-oil-rig_sg1nggy5_1080__D.00_00_18_18.Still002-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/04k-dolly-shot-of-oil-rig_sg1nggy5_1080__D.00_00_18_18.Still002-1024x576.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/04k-dolly-shot-of-oil-rig_sg1nggy5_1080__D.00_00_18_18.Still002-1024x576.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=338957"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338962,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338957\/revisions\/338962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/338961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=338957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=338957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=338957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}