Oil conference again focuses on emissions rules
BY JOHN COX, Californian staff writer jcox@bakersfield.com
It was as if nothing changed over the past two years.
Just like in 2008, Thursday's 2010 Oil & Gas Conference focused on worries about regulation -- particularly state and federal efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and encourage the use of renewable energy.
Once again, government officials showed up at the Bakersfield Marriott at the Convention Center to explain what the industry can expect from various enforcement measures, including (like last time) California's controversial plan to institute a cap-and-trade system that would create financial incentives for businesses to reduce pollution.
And once again, industry representatives complained of unrealistic and unnecessary policies aimed at gradually weaning the nation of its dependence on oil and natural gas.
The event's keynote speaker, John Felmy, chief economist at the American Petroleum Institute, drove this point home by calling on attendees to spread the message that the Obama administration's push for greater use of renewable energy, as well as its attempts to reduce subsidies to the industry, are disingenuous, delusional and dangerous.
Felmy criticized the push for greater use of biofuels and took issue with claims that electric vehicles represent a viable option to internal combustion engines.
"For the lifetimes of everybody in this room, we're going to be using oil. No doubt about it," he said.
Another main speaker, Joe Sparano, executive advisor to the chairman of the Western States Petroleum Association, warned attendees about a pair of California mandates that would force businesses to reduce pollution emissions substantially. If carried out as proposed, he said, the regulations would essentially eliminate the use of petroleum in California.
He and certain state regulators who spoke Thursday were not as dismissive as Felmy, in that they pointed to hopeful advances in cellulosic biodiesel technology and carbon capture and sequestration, both of which may have some potential to reduce the industry's costs of complying with the proposed emissions rules.
Just before leaving at the end of the conference, veteran Taft oilman Fred Holmes expressed doubts that California's greenhouse gas regulations would succeed as lawmakers hope.
"The technology is not here yet," he said. "There's some goals we can't reach."
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