Oil and gas industry want protection from carbon trading - excuse me?

One of the biggest complaints about carbon trading is that it’s complex and difficult to manage, that a tax would be more effective, and a fairer approach to managing emissions. The benefit to emissions trading is the associated cap on emissions, as by definition such a system demands an overall drop in emissions. This argument looks set to run and run but during this process, the industry body Oil and Gas UK has set a new level for effrontery – arguing that the oil and gas industry should be exempt from the next phase of the European Union’s emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) because it’s effectively a tax on the industry. Clearly not a fan of emissions trading or taxation!

The argument goes that because green fuels can’t power oil platforms or drilling equipment, for practical purposes inclusion in the EU ETS is a tax. Somehow you can’t help but feel they’re missing the point – the whole idea behind the imposition of an emissions trading scheme was to encourage an economy wide transition to a low carbon basis. Oil and Gas UK might be right about the EU ETS making things difficult for the oil and gas industry – but surely that was the point?

We need to find alternatives to fossil fuel consumption, especially if supplies of fossil fuel are set to dwindle. Oil and Gas UK is arguing that energy security requires protection of the oil and gas industry. In the short term, this may be a valid point. In the medium to long
term, energy security can only be assured by the development of alternatives to fossil fuel sources. If Peak Oil is truly on its way (and some argue it’s a point that we’ve already reached), then it’ imperative that we address energy issues in such a way that we become independent of imports of any form of fuel. That means an increase in distributed generation, improved transmission systems, and the use of every sensible resource available to generate power.

Many arguments regarding the use of renewable power, or fossil fuel power, seem to swirl around the idea that there is one perfect solution. The reality is that there are a number of technologie available today that should be in wider use, and many more in development. It’s not a question of offshore wind providing the solution, or the need for nuclear power or CCS, or even the need for protecting the oil and gas industry. We need to start taking a holistic approach to our energy environment and starting using the resources we have where appropriate – that means that we use a combination of different power sources from geothermal, to wind, to waste – and that we start looking at energy management as a key way to cut emissions.

Unfortunately, that leaves out the option of protecting the oil and gas industry with funds needed to help develop those alternatives.