HOUSTON — Amid the perennial topics of geopolitics, production challenges and supply and demand, the world's energy leaders have descended on this oil town for a weeklong conference with a surprising new focus: using less oil.
Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Rex Tillerson acknowledged the dangers of global warming but sounded skeptical about alternative fuels. Chevron Corp. CEO David O'Reilly took on the subject in a keynote speech, noting that renewable fuels "have the potential to alter the energy portfolio over the long term." And lunch Tuesday included a recounting of Brazil's success with fuel ethanol.
The influential annual conference, sponsored by Cambridge Energy Research Associates, this year is devoting an unprecedented share of the program to unorthodox topics such as alternative power sources, carbon dioxide policy and the future of ethanol and other biofuels.
"It really reflects how the times change," said Daniel Yergin, chairman of the Cambridge, Mass.-based research group. "It's even striking how much has changed in a year on the climate-change front and in renewables."
Tillerson started Tuesday's events by reiterating some of the Irving, Texas-based company's -- and oil industry's -- favorite themes: the need to tap more of this country's oil reserves, the importance of oil to the world economy and the damage new oil taxes could have on the industry's long-term investments to find and produce more petroleum.
But he also offered a cautious view on biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. Such renewable fuels are being touted in many circles as the best near-term hope for reducing carbon emissions from gasoline and diesel.
"I'm not an expert on biofuels. I don't know much about farming, and I don't have a lot of technology I can add to moonshine," Tillerson told his audience with a laugh.
"I'm not at all trivializing the important role that biofuels will play. But it's going to be limited in terms of the scale of the capabilities, absent some significant technology breakthroughs."
For that reason, he added, "the important thing is that the public and policymakers be realistic about the role that biofuels will play and not get ourselves into wishful thinking."
O'Reilly of Chevron was a little more upbeat, noting that the San Ramon, Calif., company had invested in a biofuels plant in Texas and funded related research at several universities aimed at lowering the cost of making ethanol from plant matter other than corn.
