Marvin Odum is a fool if he thinks that the enviros will leave his company alone after they’ve destroyed the coal industry.
Tom Friedman writes in the New York Times:
Marvin Odum, the president of the Shell Oil Company, told me in an interview that phasing out coal for cleaner natural gas — and shifting more transport, such as big trucks and ships, to natural gas instead of diesel — “is a no-brainer, no-lose, net-win that you can’t fight with a straight face.”
But, remember, natural gas is a fine gift to our country if, and only if, we extract it in a way that does not leak methane into the atmosphere (methane being worse than carbon dioxide when it comes to global warming) and if, and only if, we extract it in ways that don’t despoil land, air or water. The Environmental Defense Fund is working with big oil companies, like Shell, to ensure both.
Not too long ago, we got a lot of other things from coal besides heat and soot. Everything from drugs to dyes to cosmetics. I wonder if anyone’s thought about how to replace all that.