Donald Raikes arrived at 2019’s DUG East conference, a major shale gas industry gathering in Pittsburgh, with a mixed set of messages for his fellow fossil energy officials.
“We are faced with a lot of challenges in this industry,” Raikes, senior vice president of gas infrastructure at Dominion Energy, said. “And this morning what I plan to do is use my time to carve out a call for action for all of us. We need to be very aware of the forces that are out there and how they are coming against us.”
What sorts of forces? Raikes warned specifically about opposition from environmental groups.
But Raikes also warned that the oil and gas industry was doing itself no favors by denying that it affects the environment, and he even dipped his toes into the issue of climate science denial.
“Regardless of how we feel about the term 'climate change,' the one thing I hope we all agree on is that each of us individually, as companies, impact the environment,” he said. “And it is our responsibility to do everything we can to make sure that we can be respectful in terms of that impact.”
“The second thing I'll tell you that I think is very critical when we look at these issues and communication is this: We can't sit on the sidelines and be climate deniers. We can't, because we disagree with what they're saying, we can't stick our head in the sand,” he added. “We have to be a player at the table or this policy will be set without us.”
Read the story from Desmog Blog by Sharon Kelly - “‘We Can't Sit on the Sidelines and Be Climate Deniers,’ Dominion VP Warns Natural Gas Industry.”
