One hesitates to agree with the CEO of a major oil company, but … I can’t really figure where Jeroen van der Veer, head of Royal Dutch Shell, is wrong in all this. He says:

  • Energy demand is growing, and is likely to double by 2050.
  • Oil and gas are going to become more difficult to reach.
  • Coal will kill us.
  • Even optimistic estimates for renewables — say, growing from 1% to 30% in the world energy balance — still leaves a hell of a lot of fossil fuels being used.

His conclusion? There’s no substitute for energy efficiency.

Maybe he could head up to D.C. and persuade our legislators to hop on the clue train.