Environmentalist and oilman don't seem to go together, but that's the hat I wear. In an era of global warming and anti-fossil fuel rhetoric, you might think that's impossible, but let's look at the facts.
I have two degrees in geology from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and have worked as an oil and gas exploration geologist from the time I graduated to the present. I was with Exxon in south Texas and Libya for six years, followed by employment in a small independent oil and gas exploration company for a year, then formed Gibraltar Energy Company.
My recent exploration work has been focused on the Black Warrior Basin, an oil and gas providence in north Mississippi and western Alabama, where I have participated in the discovery of 25 oil and gas fields.
We owe improvements in our standard of living to the Industrial Revolution, which has been driven by fossil fuel energy. Abundant energy is key to a quality life. The non-polluting energy wave is 25-plus years away, so instead of seeing the use of fossil fuels decrease in the next 10 years, worldwide demand will actually increase.
Today, according to several professional analysts, we are entering a super-cycle event in the oil and gas end of the energy equation, and predictions of $100-barrel oil and $5-gallon gasoline are common.
Those high prices will make the switch from fossil fuels to non-polluting renewable energy happen quicker, but with a number of countries still building coal-fired electric generating plants, it's not going to take place anytime soon. Keep that in mind when you think of Arkansas' coal-fired generating plants, and join the war against coal. Demand those plants switch to clean-burning natural gas.
We must keep fossil fuel exploration and production in this country active. If we don't, we will have to depend on OPEC and Russia to supply the world with oil and set the price. If you think that bunch is going to keep the price of a barrel of oil under $100, you're dreaming. That's one of the reasons I'm still working. It's my profession, and I'm good at it.
However, we all have other interests, and one of mine has always been protecting and enhancing our environment. Growing up in south Arkansas and spending untold hours in the woods and on lakes and streams instilled in me the love and appreciation for our environment.
Early in my career when we were living in Corpus Christi, Texas, I joined with a group to prevent a large company from discharging polluting chemicals into Corpus Christi Bay. We were successful.
When I moved back to El Dorado, I was one of the leaders who organized a large protest against a local company that proposed to incinerate cancer-causing PCBs. The protest was so vocal and supported by so many in the community that Gov. Bill Clinton appointed me to fill the environmental chair on what is now the Commission of the state Division of Environmental Quality.
Environmentalists in Arkansas were outraged. An oilman appointed to fill the environment seat on the commission? Admittedly it did look like a fox guarding the henhouse.
I met with several environmental leaders, and after some tense discussions, I asked them to give me a chance. I really couldn't blame them, as I wasn't a member of any environmental group.
When I attended my first commission meeting, the director announced a landfill on the Buffalo River watershed would be on a forthcoming agenda. I love that river, and don't think I have ever worked as hard to defeat something as I did that permit. Governor Clinton also had a hand in killing the pending permit; that was the opening shot of numerous environmental fights that came before the commission.
After that rugged first year, I had convinced the environmental community I was one of them, and later was named Conservationist of the Year by the Arkansas Wildlife Federation, received a Woody award from the Sierra Club, and two years later was asked to become president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation. I was such a pain in the rear to some business interests in the state that they made sure I wasn't re-appointed.
Awards and membership in an environment organization are good, but what it takes is a day-after-day commitment. I haven't used straws in a long time, and it has been at least a couple of years since I used a plastic bag.
It's not just straws and plastic bags. Think of all the things we buy that are already boxed and later put in bags. I bought two bags of koi fish food and self-checked at Walmart. The two sturdy bags weighed around three pounds apiece, and when I carried them out waving the self-checkout ticket, I got some funny looks, but carrying six pounds in two sturdy bags isn't a big deal.
When you order a burger it's wrapped up, put it in a box, then into a plastic sack, along with straws, and you go merrily on your way without even thinking about it. Having an environmental attitude means being ready to turn down over sacking, straws, and boxes.
While it is important to cut back emissions which contribute to global warming, it is equally important to clean up the environmental mess in our backyard. Roadside trash is a daily reminder of how far we have to go to in Arkansas to reach our potential.
Clean roads will lead to discontinuing the use of plastic bags, the push to renewable energy, restoration of apex predators, planting downtown trees, and having highway medians with trees.
It won't be government regulations that will make our state improve its environment. It will be the attitude of its people. When you have that attitude and practice it on a day-to-day basis, you will be an environmentally friendly individual, and that will give us a truly Natural State.
I have the credentials to wear the oilman's hat as well as an environmental hat. It's more a gasman's hat, since I do all my work in the Black Warrior Basin, where natural gas makes up 90 percent of the hydrocarbons produced. If my clean-burning natural gas replaces coal in an electrical generating plant, I am part of the solution.
And Vertis says she will be buying an electric car when she trades hers in.
Email Richard Mason at richard@gibraltarenergy.com.