US Energy Chief Warns Big Oil To Go Green Or Go Bankrupt

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th April, 2021) Big oil firms need to get behind the Biden administration's goal to halve US emissions by 2030 and diversify into greener alternatives if they do not wish to face bankruptcy, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Monday.

"The auto industry went bankrupt, the suppliers went bankrupt and it was a shake-up," Granholm said in a live-streamed interview with the Politico website, referring to the 2008-2009 financial crisis era, where the US car industry shrunk after a period of high oil prices. "So before any oil companies start to go bankrupt, [they] have got to diversify. They need to move to clean energy solutions."

Granholm said electrification of the auto industry was definitely coming in a big way.

"The proof will be in the pudding but the bottom line is, you have got to move and you can't hang on and be, you know, be the Kodak or the Blockbuster video of the energy world," she said, referring to the legendary camera-film and US video rental labels. "With internal combustion engines, we saw the threat from Imports that had much better fuel-economy. You've got to diversify now."

Once resistant to carbon reduction initiatives, the world's biggest oil companies have started playing ball with the global move toward cleaner energies.

Exxon Mobil, for instance, unveiled a plan to build one of the world's largest projects for carbon capture and storage along the Houston Ship Channel in Texas that would cost $100 billion and process 100 million metric tons of CO2 per year.

Shell, meanwhile, has announced plans to ramp up its use of nature-based carbon offsets, which include forestation projects, to 120 million tonnes a year by 2030.

In the technology and environment section of his American Jobs Plan unveiled last month, Biden proposed an allotment of $174 billion for setting up charging stations and to providing consumer rebates for American-made electric vehicles, with a pledge to electrify the government's entire transportation fleet.

Granholm was non-committal when asked if there will be a bigger tax credit than $7,500 a year for Americans to switch from gasoline- and diesel-powered cars. "We'll see what is negotiated," she said, referring to the barter process expected between Biden's Democratic Party and its Republican rival in Congress.