US Still Needs Fossil Fuels, White House Climate Adviser Says

(Bloomberg) -- White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said the US will still need oil and gas to meet near-term energy demand, even as nearly 200 nations signed on to a pact at COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels.

To satisfy demand in the short term, the US needs to “accept the reality of the stock we have, whether it’s in buildings, transportation, or the power sector,” Zaidi said in an interview Thursday on Bloomberg Television. “But we’re rapidly turning that stock over to clean energy.”

The US is the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter. But drillers are still opening new oil fields, exporters are sending more natural gas overseas and the government is approving fossil-fuel ventures, despite hundreds of billions of dollars in spending on climate and clean energy initiatives in last year’s sweeping Inflation Reduction Act.

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