While the chief of Exxon Mobil believes the U.S. demand for gasoline has peaked, he thinks the global demand for gasoline will continue to grow. And Rex Tillerson thinks that alternative fuels will help meet that growing demand.
This story in the Dallas Morning News says Tillerson made the pitch for investing more in renewable energy during the company’s annual shareholder meeting this week in Dallas:
“Half a billion people have moved out of abject poverty to a minimum acceptable standard of existence, and that’s due to energy,” Tillerson said to the crowd of investors gathered at the Meyerson Symphony Center, adding that the world will continue to rely on fossil fuels for decades to come.
“Our approach to alternative energy in the near term is alternative ways to consume fossil fuels” more efficiently, he said.
The Irving oil giant projects that demand for gasoline in the U.S. will decline, as it has in Europe. Demand in China, on the other hand, is likely to triple by 2030, according to Exxon. Tillerson said demand in India and the rest of Asia will also grow.
“That’s where the real rapid growth in fuels is,” he said.
A shareholder proposal to invest in renewable energy failed to win this time, but it does show that some in the oil business are starting to see the end of burning hydrocarbons and want to make sure they’re on the train for the next energy development… and indicators point to that being in renewable fuels.