Terry Etam, author of The End of the Fossil Fuel Insanity: Clearing the Air Before Cleaning the Air'; columnist for the BOE Report and blogger for Public Energy Number One; gives an update from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Etam talks about how natural gas continues to be a wild card, yet foundational energy source for Canada. He explains how politics and policies have creates issues for almost all energies north of the border.
The author also discusses the emerging carbon management industry in Canada. Companies are vying for tax subsidies and carbon credits in order to create new revenues for their respective shareholders.
The discussion also veers into similarities and differences between doing business in the United States and Canada when it comes to energy services.
Everyone knows that fossil fuels won't last forever. Something needs to change at some point, regardless of whether the issue is climate change or because we need a practical replacement for petroleum as cheap supplies run out.
But while headlines suggest that a green-energy paradise is around the corner, not many are aware of the immense technical challenges that stand in its way. To turn our backs on fossil fuels, a staggering amount of work will be required to refit a global energy sector that has grown systematically for over a century. News of the latest green advancements can make it seem like plug-and-play technology, and simply a matter of switching from one source to another. In reality, the challenge is far greater, and infinitely more complicated.
To make matters worse, environmentalists and fossil-fuel defenders wage continuous but fruitless war, and the growing gap makes it impossible to have any sort of constructive dialogue. Each camp becomes more locked in their position with every exchange, and the most revolutionary ideas never see the light of day. Instead of building, time and money are wasted sparring.
Sparing no sacred cows, Terry Etam cuts through the media rhetoric, government propaganda, and widespread ignorance of the energy sector to get to the heart of what needs to change-and what needs to stay the same-if the challenges of moving away from fossil fuels are to be met, while maintaining the quality of life we have come to expect and rely on.
Terry Etam is a twenty-five-year veteran of Canada’s energy business. He has worked at a number of occupations spanning the finance, accounting, communications, and trading aspects of energy, and has written for several years on his own website Public Energy Number One and the widely-read industry site the BOE Report.
His goal is to kickstart new energy dialogues in a constructive manner as the world faces, and begins to understand, the real challenges of moving away from fossil fuels. In today's welcome but hyper-vigilant state of environmental scrutiny, where natural ecosystems are treasured and measured far more than ever before, any large-scale changes to energy infrastructure will face huge challenges, as any project manager can attest. It will be far, far harder than many imagine to move away from fossil fuels rapidly.
Etam has been called an industry thought leader and the most influential voice in the oil patch. He lives in Calgary, Alberta with his family and, for some reason, a little dog.
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International Update on Natural Gas, Carbon Management and Working with American Energy Policy