It is OK for oil companies to support renewable energy because alternative-power sources don’t stand a chance of displacing fossil fuels, a Royal Dutch Shell plc executive said Thursday in Phoenix.
With the global population projected to hit 9 billion by 2050 and rural citizens increasingly moving to energy-hungry cities, the pressure on energy, water and food resources will require every kind of energy society can muster, he added.
“We need it all,” said Curtis Frasier, general counsel for Shell’s “upstream” operations in the Americas. Upstream is a reference to oil and gas exploration, drilling and production, as opposed to fuel sales and other “downstream” operations.
Frasier, a 1977 graduate of Arizona State University, spoke to the Economic Club of Phoenix, sponsored by the ASU business school. He got his bachelor’s in education from ASU and law degree from the University of Tulsa in 1982.
He said Shell officials are interested in developing renewable energy and alternative fuels because it is in the best interests of society and the company.
Energy demands globally are expected to double by 2050, and renewable energy won’t account for more than 30 percent of the total supply, he added.
“Trust me, we can use a lot less energy and
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