OIL FINALLY GETS IT?

Oil execs see growth in renewable energy
H. Josef Hebert, January 12, 2009 (AP via Yahoo News)

“Many oil and gas company executives are predicting a significant ramp-up of renewable energy use over the next five years to run cars and trucks and generate electricity, according to a new survey.

“A survey of chief financial officers of 100 U.S. oil and gas exploration and production companies found that nearly nine of 10 executives predicted renewable energy to gain a larger share of the market in the next five years with better than 1 in 5 executives expecting the share to more than double.

“The telephone survey…also found that nearly two-thirds of the executives favored controls on carbon dioxide emissions…although a third of them said they preferred state over federal regulation…"

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“Only 37 said that industry should be left to "self regulation" when it comes to greenhouse gases…A few years ago oil and gas industry executives were largely united in their opposition to mandatory controls on carbon dioxide.

“When asked what market share renewable energy…is expected to have in five years, 64 percent… said it would grow to between 8 percent and 12 percent. Twenty-two percent… said they expect the market share to grow to between 13 percent and more than 16 percent…renewable sources count for about 7 percent of U.S. energy production…

“The executives interviewed were almost evenly split on the future availability of oil and whether the rate of world oil production may soon begin to permanently decline. Forty-eight percent said they agreed that the world had either already reached or within several years will reach its maximum rate of oil production. Fifty-two percent of the executives disagreed…Three-fourths… expect global demand for oil to peak within 20 years, with 31 percent saying it could come within a decade…”