Oil, gas industry leads in multiple opinions

Oil and gas are two industries people both resist and rely upon every day.

When oil producers are pleased with high prices per barrel, consumers are upset by what is being paid at the pump. The opposite occurs when crude costs are down.

Natural gas has proven to be a clean burning alternative to coal for electric generation plants and chemical manufacturing companies. When the natural gas price is low consumers love it, but producers cannot afford to extract it.

Many oil and gas opponents contend they would prefer no use of fossil fuels, while at the same time relying on products made at least in part from a petroleum base.

Some alternative power proponents prefer promotions offered by the solar and wind businesses alone, and discredit oil and gas initiatives to add resources to their consumer offerings.

Oil and gas companies generate profits even in hard economic times, but consumers, often while complaining, continue to use what is produced and demand more.

Louisiana Oil and Gas Association President Don Briggs said the petroleum and natural gas industries are cleaner and safer today than they have ever been.

He also admitted oil and gas is an easy target.

“I would love to think [industry and the environment] can co-exist,” he said. “The people we have to convince are not the environmentalists, but the general public. That’s a major task.”

Briggs said numbers, calculations and claims posted on the Internet and reported by news agencies often add confusion as various backers of traditional and alternative energy strive to promote their own interests over the competition.

“We have to be educating people so they can make a decision based on science rather than the more radical claims that have proven to be lies,” he said.

Financial analyst John Thomas wrote on the Online Traders Forum that while he gets frustrated with profits made by major oil and gas producers, and realizes the petroleum industry has the strongest lobbyists in Washington, it is still a steady, reliable and proven energy source – which makes him love the business again.

“It’s the industry everyone loves to hate,” Thomas said. “Cut off the gasoline supply to an environmentalist, and he will be the one who screams the loudest.”

“Like any relationship, [oil and gas] has its past and it definitely has its future,” Restore of Retreat Executive Director Simone Theriot Maloz said. “A lot of times oil and gas companies get a bad rap for things that happened in the past. The oil and gas companies I know are great stewards of their land [and] give back to the community, but they have pushed the envelope a lot of times when they don’t have to.”

Maloz said that either for or against oil and gas there are hardliners who will always be set in their ways.

Louisiana Bucket Brigade Program Manager Anna Hrybyk admits to holding a firm opinion.

“I’m happy that regulatory agencies have consolidated and I see that there are more stringent regulations that can only help,” Hrybyk said. “I think the state has a lot to do with the issue. They are the ones permitting [abandoned wells] in the Gulf.”

As for if she sees oil and gas companies and environmentalists working together, Hrybyk said, “no.”

“I think it is unrealistic for us to consider not having some degree of oil and gas in our future,” Sierra Club New Orleans Chapter Senior Field Manager Jill Mastrotaro said. “The fact that we get a significant part of our electricity from natural gas reflects a need to be more creative in how we develop renewable energy sources.”

Mastrotaro said Louisiana is a primary candidate for the development of both solar and wind generated energy. She recommended retro-fitting power plants using natural gas. “So, when we don’t want to use natural gas and the sun is shining, we can put it on solar. Or when the wind is blowing we can put it on wind. We need to look at all areas of the spectrum.”

Briggs argued that wind and solar energy cannot produce the same level of energy as oil and gas, thus are insufficient when it comes to cost.

“There is a movement on the international level to create hybrid power plants,” Mastrotaro said as an example where oil and gas could live together with wind and solar power. “The technology is there. We just need retro-fitting and reducing energy demand from the industry level all the way down to the consumer.”

Maloz said it would not surprise her if oil and gas businesses were the first to make alternative energy work. “The oil and gas industry has always been known as innovators,” she said. “They are some of the first to come out with technology. We need to lean on those resources to help us develop new technologies.”

All sides represented did agree on one thing – that one-size will not fit all situations and there will probably never be complete harmony between oil and gas and loyalists to renewable energies alone.

Either way, for now at least Louisiana’s $70 billion oil and gas industry remains the energy king. Creating 320,000 direct and indirect jobs, oil and gas, it can be said, is loved by a lot of people.

“If you are stuck in the past you never realize the present,” Maloz said. “As long as there is a willingness to move forward [oil and gas and alternative fuels] can live together.”

“True environmentalists hate [oil and gas],” Briggs said. “I do not think we will ever convince the environmentalists that we should have anything other than wind.”

Each side of the energy argument contends if the other would take their research seriously the opposing side would come around. Until then, they speculate their common resistance and mutual dependence will continue.