Norsk Olje og Gass synes ikke vi skal redusere produksjonen

[Sakset fra min engelskspråklige blogg Utopian Realism:]

In a letter to the editor in the Norwegian daily Aftenposten, Norway's biggest daily, Tore Killingland, Director for strategy and environment in the Norwegian Oil & Gas Association, indirectly refers to my letter to the editor "Oljekutt og regneferdigheter" [Oil cut and numeracy skills], published June 27th, given that he refers to (my translation) the fact that "Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance Kjetil Lund has had several replies to his letter to the editor in Aftenposten June 25th about Statistics Norway's work paper/discussion memo on oil cut as a climate measure". Killingland's letter to the editor is entitled "Oljekutt og virkeligheten [Oil cut and reality]", and focuses on arguing for the climate benefits of burning natural gas.

Statoil sponser naturgassdebatt i The Economist

På nettsidene til The Economist foregår det i disse dager en debatt om naturgassens rolle i forhold til global oppvarming.

Economist debates: Natural gas

Debatten er "supported by Statoil", som de siste par ukene har annonsert tungt i The Economist (i hvert fall på nett) med slagord som presenterer naturgass fra Norge som et klimatiltak.

Statoil's perspective

I sitt forsvar for naturgass på The Economists sponsor-side argumenterer Statoil som sedvanlig for at naturgass blir en viktig del av en energisektor i klima-omstilling.

We believe that Europe can meet its climate ambition in a cost-efficient way if natural gas plays a key part in the energy mix in the coming decades.

I et inkludert intervju går Helge Lund langt i å nedtone CCS, til fordel for det allmenne klimaargumentet for bruk av naturgass (som Statoil TILFELDIGVIS er i ferd med å få mer av en olje - hyklerne).

Q. Can CO₂ emissions from gas be reduced?

A. The extensive emissions from coal-fired power plants mean that changing from coal to gas in the power sector alone will have a significant effect in reducing CO₂ emissions, even without CO₂ capture (in the power sector in Europe coal accounts for close to 70% of CO₂ emissions). If it is possible to use the heat produced from gas-fired power plants as well, efficiency will be further improved, which is also important from a CO₂ emissions perspective.

Work is being done on developing technologies for capturing CO₂ from power plants, but so far these technologies are immature and relatively expensive.

The Economists debatter er vanligvis ikke sponsede - vet ikke hvordan det skal slå ut her, at Statoil kjøper seg plass for å fremme sitt syn (som later til å være fullt og helt utslag av forretningsstrategi; forkledd som politisk debatt...).