Rick Perry Has Strong Words for Oil & Gas Critics

Former U.S. Secretary of Energy and Texas Governor Rick Perry didn't mince words when he spoke last week at the Gulf Coast Industry Forum in Pasadena, Texas.

Among other things, he took swipes at critics of the Oil & Gas Industry and took special aim at former Obama administration Secretary of State John Kerry, now the special presidential envoy for climate.

Speaking to a receptive audience, Perry said the U.S. Oil & Gas Industry is "sitting in a sweet spot," but still faces headwinds.

"You think about all this 'woke' stuff that is going on, the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) movement; I consider those to be headwinds for the industry," he said.

Perry, who served as secretary of energy under the Trump administration, maintained that "those who pray at the altar" of climate change are saying "the fossil fuel industry is at the end of its road..."

"No it's not," he continued.

Earlier this year, Kerry, in an interview with Bloomberg Television, put the natural gas industry "on notice," saying it had 10 years at most to come up with effective carbon capture practices, according to news media reports. He later appeared to scale back his comments, telling?The Wall Street Journal?that natural gas was needed for "a smart and achievable policy to cut greenhouse-gas emissions today," meaning it should be paired with renewables to produce electricity, at least in the near term.

More recently, Kerry was criticized on Fox News for comments regarding fossil fuel-energy development in Africa, in which he told Reuters, "We're not saying no to gas as long as it is used to replace oil or coal" as a fuel source, but also said African nations "do not have to rush to go backward" in developing their oil and gas resources.

Perry told the forum audience that oil and gas advocates "need to stand up strongly and push back on this. The idea that fossil fuels need to be discarded for a political movement is nuts."

The U.S. should be proud of what it has done with fossil fuels, he said, urging the audience to "be passionate about this" and "just get out there and tell it like it is."

Perry also predicted corporate boards "are going to face a reckoning" over their promotion of ESG practices at the urging of social activists on their boards.

"I'm not going to name names today, but there are a lot of folks that get up and pronounce this is where they are going to go with their ESG. My projection is in the next 12, 18 to 24 months max, a lot of those individuals will make an about-face and are going to be investing in oil and gas interests, because the shareholders are going to basically say this is the future, and I think reality is going to set in."

In Europe, countries have turned off their nuclear plants and moved away from coal, only to find themselves vulnerable to gas shutoffs from Russia, Perry said.

"It's going to get cold and dark in Europe this winter," Perry continued. "I hate that, but sometimes you have to see the evidence of your actions first hand before you understand your actions weren't particularly in your best interests."

The Gulf Coast Industry Forum was sponsored by the?Economic Alliance Houston Port Region.

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