The era of “global boiling” has arrived, with many blaming big oil companies such as Chevron, Shell and BP as major culprits of climate disaster while displaying grotesque greed. However, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth disagrees.
In fact, Voss believes the $300 billion U.S. oil and gas company is “selling a product that changes the quality of life on this planet. For the better.”
The 63-year-old industry veteran even described the company he has led since 2018 as “founded on integrity and a belief in doing the right thing” in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Financial Times, Then dismisses the criticism and makes a “real world” case for fossil fuels.
“We’re not selling evil products,” Voss added. “We sell a quality product.”
Chevron did not immediately respond of wealth Request for comment.
Big Oil’s Biggest Critic
Voss, who has worked at Chevron for 41 years, five of them as CEO, is unsurprisingly defensive of his employer. However, growing evidence Showing that the burning of fossil fuels is the main cause of climate change and the largest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions.
The world has warmed by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (or 1.1 degrees Celsius) since the early 1900s, the United Nations declared this year. The whole world is boiling has arrived” as the world goes through its hottest summer Since recording began.
That’s why environmental activist groups like Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion go to great lengths to block highways to protest against energy companies prioritizing profits at the expense of the planet.
Even US President Joe Biden has complained about energy companies “Make more money than God”— at the expense of consumers after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned “ridiculous greed” Oil and gas companies, meanwhile, are urging governments to impose windfall profits taxes to help those most in need.
Worth pushing back
While Voss agreed that as one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers, Chevron needs to work with its critics to “be part of the solution,” he quickly added: “But that doesn’t stop what we’re doing matter.”
While rivals such as BP and Shell are pushing for a more aggressive transition to a low-carbon future, Voss’s message is clear: lowering emissions is important, but not at the expense of maintaining affordable and reliable energy supplies.
As a result, he said he doesn’t see demand for fossil fuels going away anytime soon. “You can build scenarios, but we live in the real world and capital has to be allocated to meet real-world needs,” he added.
On this basis, and given that energy security, energy affordability and lowering emissions are “in tension with each other,” Chevron will spend just $2 billion of its $14 billion capital expenditure budget on low-carbon investments this year , because such bets offer lower returns. return.
Who is Mike Voss?
Voss was born in Los Alamos—the site of the Manhattan Project and where the atomic bomb was developed—and his father worked at the national laboratory. The family later moved to Golden, Colorado, where his father worked as an executive at Coors, an American brewing and beer company.
Like many executives, Voss grew up playing sports and credits his school football and basketball coaches with instilling in him the values of hard work, discipline and teamwork.
His first step into the working world was a summer job at a brewery. Voss, whose duties included making ashtrays, reconnected with his father who inspired loyalty through contact with workers on the production line. He told the Financial Times that’s why he’s now making a point of talking to Chevron’s “operators, machinists, people who work by hand.”
Voss took over Chevron at the end of a decade-long investment boom in U.S. shale oil and was forced to count every penny. The pandemic hit and oil prices plummeted after abandoning a battle with rival Occidental Petroleum Corp. to acquire Anadarko Petroleum Corp. worth more than $50 billion.
While the veteran boss has successfully turned the company around, it has not been without controversy.
Chevron’s return on capital employed more than doubled from 2018 and annual revenue grew 52%, propelling the oil giant to the top of the Fortune 500 for the first time since 2015. Meanwhile, the company just acquired Hess for $53 billion, marking the latest major acquisition for the U.S. oil industry as it bets on a lasting future for fossil fuels.
At the same time, it was sued by California for downplaying fossil fuel risks.
Svlook
