For John Arnold, the billionaire philanthropist who made his fortune betting against natural gas prices, the fossil-fuel industry seems finally ready to move on.
A year ago, talk in Houston’s energy hub was mostly about defending oil and gas and denouncing renewables, Arnold said Monday on his Twitter account. Now, much of the discussion has shifted to clean-energy topics including wind, solar and batteries.
There’s been seismic shift in the Houston energy industry of late. A year ago, there was a lot of defending the oil & gas sector and denouncing renewables. Anecdotally, about 75% of the talk was O&G and 25% clean energy. It feels like those numbers have reversed.(1/4)
—John Arnold (@JohnArnoldFndtn) April 19, 2021
“Even those who are not ideological believers are taking the cues from the financial markets, which have no interest in oil production growth anymore,” Arnold said. The former trader also said capital available to oil and gas has dried up while “every” private equity firm in Houston is raising money for clean energy. “The markets are rewarding those in a growth industry (zero carbon energy) vs one in secular decline.”
Arnold, who closed his hedge fund in 2012 at age 38 to pursue philanthropy, said the shift has made him more optimistic about the speed of decarbonization, which requires the scale and financial resources that large companies possess. “The fossil fuel industry has that expertise and is now focusing on a low carbon future.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.