Letter to the Editor
In response to Don't Blame Climate Activists for the Global Energy Crisis
By David Fickling
Published on October 11, 2021
The author's premise is that the European energy crisis is due to markets – specifically market fluctuations caused by COVID in conjunction with the all-powerful OPEC+ organization – not climate activists. To use the author's words, this is "given to magical thinking.”
The inconvenient truth is that there are actual energy experts out there who have shouted public warnings into the metaphorical abyss that this global energy crisis was coming – and we were shouting those warnings pre-COVID.
As I wrote on December 23, 2019, to the harsh skepticism of industry at the time, the world will see "$150 oil by 2025 as the world realizes lack of tight oil CAPEX coupled with more severe declines than projected and ever-growing [global] energy demand. Also, $4 gas by 2025 as the world accelerates the coal-to-gas switch and climate change activists are forced to listen to experts like [Dr. Ernest] Moniz." On November 24, 2020 I posted an entire twitter thread of my reasoning behind those predictions, including ESG pressures.
One of those predictions has already proven true, while the other is quickly headed that way. To again use the author's words, "it's almost embarrassing to have to spell it out."