The world needs to more than double oil production, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Thursday, while criticising the European Union and the U.S. state of California for wasting money on what he described as inefficient green energy.
In recent years, the World Economic Forum’s discussions on energy have centred on ways to boost lower-carbon policies. But during Wright’s discussion with energy company Occidental’s CEO Vicki Hollub in Davos, they emphasised that the world will depend on oil for decades to come.
Wright said corporate environmental regulations in the European Union posed risks to energy cooperation with the United States and warned they could affect U.S. gas imports into Europe.
“These regulations could threaten you (U.S. producers) liability-wise to send gas to Europe,” Wright said. “We’re working with our colleagues here in Europe to remove those barriers.”
The EU requires importers of oil and gas into Europe to monitor and report methane emissions associated with those imports, in a bid to curb emissions of the potent planet-warming gas.
After months of pressure from companies and governments, the European Union agreed last month to sharply scale back two flagship laws, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.
(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly, Shadia Nasralla, Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Mark Potter and Joe Bavier)