John Hofmeister: A Visionary Who Called For A More Inclusive, Less Insular Energy Industry

John Hofmeister: A Visionary Who Called For A More Inclusive, Less Insular Energy Industry

WASHINGTON - JUNE 18: Shell Oil President John Hofmeister speaks during a taping of "Meet the ... [+] Press" at the NBC studios June 18, 2006 in Washington, DC. Hofmeister discussed the current situation of the high gasoline price. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images for Meet the Press) I was talking with John Hofmeister in late January about the fledgling Biden administration's decision to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, which Hofmeister applauded as a powerful symbol that put 194 nations on the path toward a shared goal. OK, I said, but let's be honest. That powerful symbol could cost a lot of jobs in the oil business. Is it worth it? "If the alternative is extinction, yeah," he said, before launching into a five-minute discourse of the history of pollution. Pre-COVID, we had seven and a half billion people on the planet burning 100 million barrels of oil a day, he added, and that would likely rise to 9 billion people burning as much as 125 million barrels per day of oil by 2040. "And then you say, my God, that's not counting coal," he said. "How does the Earth catch its breath?" Hofmeister used to run U. S. operations