Comments on: Shell CEO: Energy efficiency, not clean power, is key

By: FD

FD — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 00:47:38 +0000

Here’s another take on the Shell Q&A http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2012/03/22/why-does-shell-support-californias-climate-change-legislation/

By: alf

alf — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:42:54 +0000

In this case, putting cynicism aside is just being blind.
1) This article concerns the ramblings of a CEO of a company in the fossil fuel industry talking about energy “innovation”.
2) The fossil fuel industry has more money, power and influence than any entity that has ever existed. They literally “own” some large percentage of our government, and governments around the world, and they support “think-tanks” that churn out massive amounts of propaganda to influence public opinion.
3) One of the main goals of the fossil fuel industry is to slow down or stop the progress of Renewable Energy at all costs. (This only makes them evil in the way that “the terminator” was evil in the movies. They are doing what they are programmed to do).
4) The article you reference is about the ramblings of bill gates on energy innovation. One of the things that bill gates has been saying frequently is that “the government needs to at least double its funding of energy research”.
5) Ok. So what do you suppose is the main barrier that is preventing the government from “doubling it’s funding of energy research”? Well, I claim its the large percentage of politicians that are owned by the fossil fuel industry (not cheap).
So this CEO is talking up energy innovation, while at the same time, his industry is contributing massive amounts of money and influence to limit energy innovation.
Why don’t you write an article about that?

By: Ucilia Wang

Ucilia Wang — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 17:15:13 +0000

Ok, cynicism aside, is he really that wrong about a lack of big innovations in renewable energy? Katie just posted a story about Bill Gates calling for innovations that will lead to “energy miracles.” There isn’t enough of that now:http://gigaom.com/cleantech/bill-gates-we-need-crazy-energy-entrepreneurs/

By: Baker Kawesa

Baker Kawesa — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:55:40 +0000

Ofcourse he’d say that, now wouldn’t he?

By: alf

alf — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:33:16 +0000

Wow, a fossil fuel CEO being totally disingenuous about renewable energy potential. I’m shocked!
These guys are constantly talking about “innovation” because they know in reality its all about the “economics of scale”. The more solar and wind that we manufacture and install, the more the cost goes down, which encourages more solar and wind to be installed, which makes the cost go down, etc. If you try to get the cost down with just “innovation” you will never get there, which is exactly what the fossil fuel industry would prefer.
They also like to take multiple good ideas and pit them against each other, such as Energy efficiency vs. Renewable energy. We obviously need both, but lots of people can not hold more than one concept in their brain at the same time.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:12:34 +0000

Of course a big oil CEO isn’t going to be bullish on alternative energy…he wants us to keep using as much oil as possible for as long as possible.