Angel Gonzalez speaks about the future of big oil after the spill
Angel Gonzalez speaks about the complications with the oil and energy industry
Angel Gonzalez, Houston bureau chief for Dow Jones Newswires, is a longtime energy reporter who has covered the oil industry for years. He has made two trips to the Gulf Coast since the explosion of a BP deepwater drill in April 2010. He has seen the crisis unfold from economic and environmental standpoints and talked to reporters about the problems and possible outcomes from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
When Gonzalez first saw the oil spill, it wasn’t what he expected.
“It looked like an island of oil, the size of Puerto Rico,” he said.
The spill happened at the worst possible time for the energy industry, Gonzalez said. Not only did the spill bring to a halt any cooperation the industry had gained from the government for offshore drilling, it also shut down the fishing and tourist industries. And with the quickly approaching hurricane season, the spill is at nearly worst-case-scenario.
With all the devastation it has caused, Gonzalez said this spill has the potential to make some change in the industry. It’s possible that the spill will push companies toward renewable energies, particularly natural gas, cellulosic ethanol or algae. The difficulty is that it’s really hard to know what will work, Gonzalez said. In addition, the United States’ demand for oil is gargantuan and renewable energies right now are not on the same scale.
Gonzalez gave a few websites which can be valuable resources for reporters:
