HOUSTON– The oil and gas industry often gets a bad rap when it comes to climate change. However, Steve Goreham, executive director of the Climate Science Coalition, encouraged the industry to push back against its climate change persona at the Summer NAPE expo on Aug. 16.

One leading indicator that the oil and gas industry is not destroying the environment, he said, is the Renewable Energy Industrial Index, which tracks the stocks for the 30 largest renewable energy companies. The index sits far below the original value back in 2002.

Also, investments in renewable energy are flattening because renewable energy companies are no longer investing where there is only a 0.7% annual growth compared to 29.1% annual growth from 2004 to 2011, Goreham said. He also said the global carbon trading markets have also “crashed 30% in value from where they were between 2005 and 2015.”

President Donald Trump recently withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord and cut additional climate change funding. According to Goreham, the removal of these roadblocks will expose climate change’s natural occurrence.

“Industries only contribute about 1% to 2% of earth’s greenhouse effect. There is no carbon tax that any nation can put into place that will stop the oceans from rising [or] regulation the EPA can put into effect that will make the hurricanes and storms less severe,” Goreham said.

A small part of the earth’s climate system includes the atmospheric consumption of greenhouse gases (GHG) like carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane and other gases. Some climate scientists argue these particular gases and human involvement are significant causes of global warming.

Goreham argues climate change is a continuous process dominated by natural factors not man-made influences, essentially challenging the role of resources like oil and gas in the global crisis.

The misconception surrounding oil and gas’ involvement, or lack thereof, in climate change is connected to the presumption that carbon dioxide is the most harmful of GHG, Goreham said.

“Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant–it is an odorless, harmless and invisible gas,” Goreham said. “It does not cause smoke or smog [it] makes plants grow.”

Moreover, his plan to reduce environmental damage is to actually boost the income of nations since pollution is lower in countries that use the most energy. By not restricting energy, he argued, those developing nations can move towards having cleaner environments.

“What we need to do to get global forest growth everywhere is to get natural gas, propane and other fuels to these nations and they’ll stop cutting down their forests," he said.

Looking forward Goreham suggests the oil and gas sector to continue to comply with environmental regulations, meet key stakeholders expectations, conserve capital and reduce emissions of real pollutants all while respectfully protesting climate change blame.

Mary Holcomb can be reached at mholcomb@hartenergy.com