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The chairman and CEO of energy company Chevron warned the global energy crisis had been exacerbated by Western governments "doubling down" on green energy policies that will only cause "more volatility, more unpredictability, and more chaos."
“If people want to stop driving, stop flying... that’s a choice for society,” he said.
“I don’t think most people want to move backwards in terms of their quality of their life... our products enable that.”
CEO Mike Wirth told Financial Times in an interview this week that the premature transition from fossil fuels to green energy, a move to decarbonize the economy, has sparked "unintended consequences," such as energy supply issues that are already widespread in Europe and emerging in California.
Wirth continued that even though renewables, such as wind and solar, have been invested heavily by Western governments over the last two decades to decarbonize grids, fossil fuels still are a large percentage of power generation, adding politicians really need to hold an "honest conversation" about the energy crunch before things worsen.
"The conversation [about energy] in the developed world for sure has skewed towards climate, taking affordability and security for granted.
"The reality is, [fossil fuel] is what runs the world today. It's going to run the world tomorrow and five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now."
Wirth outlined years of underinvestment caused the global energy crunch and predated Russia's invasion. This has given way to limited spare capacity by oil-producing countries.
He said the investments in alternatives versus fossil fuel were "woefully short, trillions of dollars short," and has caused the mismatch "illustrates the risk in moving from a system that keeps the world functioning today aggressively to another system, and shutting down nuclear, shutting down coal, discouraging oil and gas."
Wirth's comments squarely blamed Western governments for the energy crunch and should also include Wall Street banks (cough cough BlackRock's Fink), big tech companies, corporate elites, and other progressive organizations, such as The World Economic Forum, that have worked together to push a green energy agenda.
This was a dilemma for an administration that had entered office with a “very clear agenda . . . to make it more difficult for our industry to deliver energy to our customers”.
What's become evident following the war in Ukraine and disruptions to global energy markets -- is that countries that quickly increased investments in green energy and decommissioned fossil fuel power plants suffer the most (Germany is a prime example). The people who pushed green energy now say the world needs more and take no responsibility for the decarbonization movement backfiring (which has led to energy hyperinflation).
Wirth's latest comments come as he warned US households to brace for soaring natural gas prices this winter. He has combated (read: here & here) the mindless folks at the White House who have blamed the oil and gas industry for the energy crunch.
The unintended consequence of decarbonizing economies too fast is energy hyperinflation.