Chevron CEO John Watson Cuts Through Obama's Crap: WSJ Weekend

The interview is here.

There is a set of unarguable verities shared by The Left. As soon as someone dares suggest those verities aren't, well, true, the serious name-calling begins.

One is: Israel Bad/Hamas Good

Then there's: There really is no problem with gubbermint borrowing 41 cents of every dollar we spend. There is an endless supply, obtained either by printing or taxation. To suggest spending even a nickel less is to advocate throwing Grandma and her walker under the bus.

And one of Himself's favorites: We gonnah' shut them big-bad ohl cumpaneez down, and run the kuntry on wind power, solar power and biofuels. We don't need no ohl, 'cuz it kills them cute liddle poler bearz.

Finally, a head of an oil company willing to push back, politely, with the truth.

There is no oil shortage in America. There is a shortage of brains and common sense among our political class, which regularly leads us back to $4 and $5 gasoline and diesel. Which, oddly enough, people like Obama and Reid think is somehow wonderful.

Enter the tall, bespectacled Mr. Watson, who a little more than a year ago stepped into the shoes of longtime CEO David O'Reilly. An economist by training, soft-spoken by nature, the 53-year-old Mr. Watson is hardly some swaggering wildcatter. Yet in a year of speeches, he has emerged as one of the industry's foremost energy realists. No "Beyond Petroleum" (BP) for him. On energy, he says, America "has a lot to learn."

Starting with the argument—so popular among greens and Democrats—that we are running out of oil. "Peak oil"—the theory that global oil production will soon hit maximum levels and begin to decline—is a favorite among this crowd, and it is one basis for their call for more biofuels and solar power. Mr. Watson doesn't dismiss the idea but explains why it remains largely irrelevant.

In theory, he says, "we've been running out of oil and gas for a long time," yet technology creates new opportunities. Mr. Watson cites a Chevron field long in decline down the road in Bakersfield—to the point that for every 100 barrels of oil "in place," the company was extracting only 10 or 20. But thanks to a new technology called steam flooding, Chevron is now getting 70 to 80 barrels. "Price creates incentive, and energy will be developed if there's demand for it at the price you can develop it," Mr. Watson says. In that sense, "oil and gas are plentiful."

Don't believe it? Over the past 30 years, even as "peak oil" was a trendy theme, the world's proven reserves of oil and natural gas increased 130%, to 2.5 trillion barrels.

And that little lie about 'alternative energy'? Well, it's...a lie.

Mr. Watson has little time for the Beltway fiction that America will soon be able to do without, or nearly without, fossil fuels. Yes, "we need all forms of energy." But the world consumes 250 million barrels of energy equivalent today, only a "tiny fraction of which" is wind and solar—and even those "are not affordable at scale," he says.

As for biofuels, "we would need to consume land the size of states" to hit the country's current ethanol targets. Chevron is investigating biofuels, but Mr. Watson says the "economics aren't there" yet. Unlike many CEOs, Mr. Watson insists on products that can prosper without federal subsidies, which he believes are costly and lacking in transparency when "consumer pockets are tight, government pockets are tight."

Bottom line: "We're going to need oil and gas and coal for a long time if America wants to keep the lights on."

Then there's deep-water drilling, the BoogeyMan of The Left:

But what about the BP Gulf spill? Mr. Watson blames the "cultural aspects and behavioral aspects" of the particular drilling rig that exploded. He roundly disagrees with the finding of Mr. Obama's spill commission that the "root causes" of the spill were "systemic" to the industry.

"There is no evidence to support that. I don't know how that conclusion was reached. I know the industry has drilled 14,000 deep water wells without having this sort of problem." As for the moratorium, "I can understand taking a pause. I can't understand shutting down a whole industry for a better part of a year."

OS can--Obama and company want to kill it off, and to punish the states that didn't knuckle under and vote for him last time. That one doesn't require an MIT degree to discern. But, then again, Mr. Watson is a gentleman, and isn't obligated to share the entire contents of his mind with an interviewer.

It's a refreshing read. It needs to be shared far and wide.

Another Oil Rig Explodes In The Gulf

All workers accounted for and in process of being rescued, with only one injured, blessedly. A shallow-water rig, thankfully.

Coast Guard rescuers are en route to the scene of the fire, 90 miles south of Vermilion Bay, Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough said. Twelve of the workers are in immersion suits, designed to protect them from hypothermia. One is reported injured.

Please, please, please, let's not have a repeat performance from this spring...