Providing an industry perspective on climate change and energy efficiency, the chief scientist of chemical engineering for the Shell Oil Company told a University of Wisconsin crowd Thursday the company is continuing efforts to become greener.
Chief Scientist Joseph Powell addressed the company’s efforts to compensate for the growing demand for energy, energy supply struggles and the need for reductions in CO2 levels in the atmosphere by attempting to produce cleaner coal, oil and other bio-fuel products.
Powell emphasized there is no “silver bullet” to solve the energy crisis, but reassured the audience the United States is not running out of carbons or oil, saying more than 50 percent of known hydrocarbon resources have not been used.
“People will buy green as long as it is the same price as or cheaper than regular products,” Powell said.
Niels Holck, a fourth-year exchange student from Denmark majoring in electrical engineering, said that he would never consider a career with Shell because he feels that they are lying about being environmentally conscious solely to attract customers and to promote a green image to the public.
“Whenever he came with a solution, it wasn’t the best solution,” Holck said. “It was always just a solution where Shell could make profits. For example, he mentioned hydrogen-powered cars, but they are a very inefficient form of technology. It makes much more sense to use electric cars instead — since they are much more advanced — but Shell can only make money from bio-fuels.”
Powell’s pollution and inefficiency reduction strategies included energy efficiency, CO2 capture and storage, research and development of more efficient technology, development of low CO2 sources of energy like bio-fuels, demand reduction, and responsible energy.
Another point of importance in Powell’s presentation was what he referred to as the “three C’s,” saying energy should be cheap, clean and convenient.
“Basically, I think Powell was full of shit,” Holck said. “For example, he said that Shell wants people to reduce their energy consumption, and I don’t really believe that because Shell makes money off selling energy. Why would they want customers to stop buying products they profit from?”
Although Holck was especially critical of Shell’s plans to become greener, UW freshman Zach Huempfner thought Powell did a good job of balancing the detrimental effects of using oil and coal as energy sources, while promoting the company’s efforts to become more environmentally conscious.
“When he first talked about how he worked for Shell, I thought there would be some bias in the presentation because of the stereotype that oil companies are not accepting the idea of renewable energy sources,” Huempfner said. “I was surprised when he said Shell was taking a proactive approach (in promoting clean energy). I think he showed both sides very well.”
Even though Huempfner did not specifically disagree with Powell, he acknowledged Shell could only become environmentally friendly to a certain extent without switching to a renewable source of energy.