Deborah Gordon of RMI breaks down the economic tiers and refined product yields of a standard barrel of crude oil.
Insight
Gordon: Phasing out gasoline does not eliminate the remaining oil barrel
“And so I don't think people really understand that when you poke out different products that we use that come out of the barrel, like say gasoline, it still doesn't affect the entire barrel.”
Insight
Gordon: Renewables do not directly replace oil as primary energy
“You know, renewables substitute coal and gas in the electricity sector, but basically as a direct primary energy source, renewables right now have nothing to do with oil.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Gordon: Major National Climate Pledges Barely Mention Oil and Gas
“And I looked at all of these major countries, what they call NDCs, their nationally determined contributions, how they will, how they pledge to reduce their emissions, and oil and gas were barely mentioned.”
Insight
Gordon: Meaningful oil cuts require a sum of incremental 2% solutions
“You know, between now and the day where we're wholly off this stuff,
We're going to need to start very carefully crafting the sum of these two percent solutions that add up to something meaningful, you know, like a 30% cut or a 50% cut in emissions.
But that, …”
Assertion Partly supported
Gordon: COVID-19 lockdowns caused only single-digit drop in global oil demand
“Clearly the economy was still using a lot of oil despite COVID, because if you look at the curves, yes, when COVID hit, you could see that there was, you know, a downturn of whatever, four million barrels a day or something like that. But I mean, this is out o…”
Assertion Supported
Deborah Gordon: Oil refining is the world's largest consumer of hydrogen
“The largest demand for hydrogen in the world today is oil refining.”