On today’s People Planet Prosperity Podcast, Cody and Lynn explore the polarizing question: ‘Are oil and gas dead?’ The fact is that the demand for oil and gas is growing, continuing to approach pre-pandemic levels and expected to continue past that, remaining a critical component of our lives for years to come. So we need to have a balanced, honest discussion about energy demand and how to ensure that global consumers can make responsible choices about the source of the natural gas and oil they’re using.

Cody and Lynn start their conversation by looking at the continued, rising demand for oil and gas, pointing out that the world will need access to all forms of energy for years to come. They discuss peak oil and what it’ll look like when the global market reaches that point, with Cody pointing out that technology has opened up new resources and pushed back the predictions for peak oil to between 2030 and 2050. He also asserts that when demand does peak, trillions of dollars of investment will be required to avoid shortages and a series of crises would emerge in their wake. Moving on, they talk about political policies and the complexity of the decisions that need to be made surrounding decisions on energy. They wrap things up by looking at Canada’s know-how and high standards in reducing emissions and how the country should be a leader in terms of investment and expertise in balanced forms of energy production in the future.

To learn more about supporting Canada's vital natural resource sector, please visit CanadaAction.ca.

Episode Highlights:

·   The UN has just issued a report which gives a code red that the world needs to get off oil and gas as soon as possible.

·   Even with the continued development of clean and renewable sources of energy, all forms of energy, including oil and gas, will be needed for years to come.

·   Even if transportation demand does drop off, petrochemical demand is expected to increase due to our reliance on oil and gas to make plastics, even for seemingly gasoline-free products like electric cars.

·   It is possible to continue to use oil and gas while still working towards net zero by utilizing technology to reduce our impact – an area Canada is leading in.

·   The predictions for peak oil have been pushed back by ten to thirty years via the use of technology to open up new resources and new production.

·   A massive amount of investment is required annually just to keep oil and gas supply flat – if new production isn’t continually added, supply will decline dramatically, leading to crises such as the Colonial Pipeline outage.

·   Population growth, which is predicted to reach nine or even ten billion by 2040-50, means energy demand will continue to grow even if people make changes to their lifestyles.

·   It’s important for Canada to invest in infrastructure and support for energy production, including clean energy, in order to avoid shortages and to end reliance on unreliable imported energy.

·   Canada can reduce emissions, save money and increase its energy security by investing in energy production and allowing its citizens to make responsible choices about where they get their energy from.

·   The world is going to require potentially fifteen to twenty trillion dollars of investment in oil and gas in the next thirty years.

Quotes:

“We know that climate action is important, but there is no technological substitute for the vast uses and power density and energy density that is stored in a barrel of oil or in natural gas today.”

“There was a report a couple years ago that said, in 2040, if all new vehicles sold were electric, you would still have oil demand around 85 million barrels a day, due to the plastics required to make those electric vehicles and the many, many, many other uses that, you know, we don't often know about or think about, from what oil and natural gas allows us to make.”

“What we have to recognize is that every year, you know, the world needs about $500 billion of investment into new oil and gas production to keep supply flat. Why? Because the existing production, it does deplete and it runs out.”

“So if we were to stop investing in oil and gas today, as many are calling for, we would have a major crisis, in addition to the most expensive energy we've ever witnessed, we would have a major, a major shortage, you would be waiting in massive lines for gasoline, there would be a shortage of everything. Because everything is made possible or made with oil and gas.”

“I mean, for Canada, if we were to displace all foreign oil supplied into the country, we would reduce emissions and save money and increase our energy security as a country, as the world's second largest country, one of the top producers of oil, gas, energy resources in the world.”

“So let's take Canadian know-how, Canadian expertise, let's apply it globally, let's take our standards, apply it globally, on methane and flaring alone, we apply that globally to all oil and gas production, we take about 100 million cars off the road. There's a lot of great examples where we can reconcile an immediate reduction in emissions with still supporting the most responsible supply to meet that consumer demand, of course.”

“I think we can balance, I think we are balancing in Canada, energy and the environment and energy resources and the economy. That's why I believe the world needs more clean energy.”

“We can start by, you know, sort of having that balanced conversation, reducing the polarization by simply raising everyone's education about how the world works and where that energy and those resources should come from, should come from Canada.”

This episode was recorded on November 19th, 2021.

Links:

Canada Action: CanadaAction.ca