Chevron, Sierra Club Square Off, and Sometimes Agree

In a debate on America’s energy future, Chevron’s CEO Dave O’Reilly and Sierra Club’s executive director Carl Pope traded a few jabs and — perhaps to the surprise of some — found some common ground.

Bringing together two powerful individuals with opposing views is always an interesting exercise in forensics especially when an alliance of sorts - albeit a tentative one — is established for all the world to see. In this case (and as shown in the clip at the bottom), O’Reilly and Pope agree to go to Washington D.C. to fight a common enemy: the coal industry.

Here’s where they agree:

• Climate change is real
• Limiting carbon emissions should include a levy or cost of some kind imposed by the government
• America needs to be weaned off of coal 
• Encouraging more use of renewable energy
• Coal and utilities are given far too much under the Commerce Committee bill

Where they disagreed:

• The timeline for reducing greenhouse gases. Pope is far more aggressive, saying emissions level could be cut 90 percent by 2050. O’Reilly called it unrealistic and the country would be lucky to reach 20 or 25 percent by 2050.
• The use of natural gas. Pope pushed for natural gas to be used as a transportation fuel while O’Reilly said it’s best to be used for electricity generation.
• Environmental responsibility. Pope questioned O’Reilly about the energy company’s environmental record, citing a pollution lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador. Pope also called for the oil industry to voluntarily establish a global trust, funded with 10 percent of profits for a decade.

Pope has a reaction piece to the debate in the Huffington Post.

Unfortunately, I don’t have video of the entire Climate One at The Commonwealth Club debate. Justin Higgs, Chevron’s spokesman and new media adviser, said the company plans to have clips of the event early next week.

Higgs said the Sierra Club invited O’Reilly to the debate. When asked why he participated, Higgs said via Twitter “Chevron feels it’s important to have constructive conversations on this subject.”

Climate One at The Commonwealth posted a video clip on their blog.

Other posts about Chevron:

• Is Chevron, Shell’s Twittering an Innovation Indicator?
• Exxon, Chevron Win in a Loser Year for Top 500 Companies