Outgoing Shell President John Hofmeister
March 19, 2008, 6:50 pm
Posted by Keith Johnson
Why is one of Big Oil’s biggest cheerleaders still so optimistic when his industry is increasingly under fire thanks to high oil and gasoline prices, even higher oil profits, and rabid consumers?
John Hofmeister, who will step down as head of Shell Oil U.S. in June after three years at the helm, thinks there may eventually be a silver lining to the current pain at the pump and the black eyes the industry’s received in recent years.
“Aggravation leads to education, and education leads to pragmatic public policy,” the 60-year old Mr. Hofmeister said in an interview. That, in oil-speak, would mean recognition from Washington that fossil fuels aren’t going away anytime soon, and would translate into greater access for U.S. oil and gas production.
Mr. Hofmeister says that’s what he learned after criss-crossing the country as part of Shell’s two-year roadshow to take the energy pulse of the American public.The outreach idea was apparently prompted by hate mail depicting oil executives strung up in a tree after the 2005 hurricane season wrecked summer driving season. “We lost the plot decades ago” in communicating with the public, he says.
His key takeaways from the tour? U.S. energy policy ultimately depends on buy-in from the public—and people have to be interested to buy in. Gasoline above $3 “piques a lot of interest,” he says. The final Shell report on the roadshow describes one pony-tailed townhall atendee who came around to “hard energy realities.”
Mr. Hofmeister’s “fundamental belief in the pragmatism of American policy-makers” makes him hopeful that big oil companies like Shell will eventually get access to more domestic production, easing — albeit slightly — U.S. reliance on imported oil. He’ll keep pushing that belief in his new incarnation as an advocate for “a sound energy policy” with the consulting company he just started with his wife, JKH Group LLC. “I’ll present my knowledge, my voice, and my pen” to fight to shape U.S. energy policy, he says.
But isn’t much of Big Oil slowly turning bearish on future supply prospects and inching toward the “peak-oil” crowd? Not everybody. Despite recent peakish noises from Shell headquarters, Mr. Hofmeister says “there are very good reasons to be bullish about sustained production,” citing new leases in Alaska, deep-water drilling, enhanced recovery of wells, and the economic viability of unconventional reserves. “America has the resources that deserve to be developed.”
Shell, and Mr. Hofmeister, are even finding a way to defend the future of Big Oil while cheering more action on climate change. Both think a cap on carbon emissions—like that proposed in pending legislation—is a good idea; just not for the transport sector. Power companies, the biggest target of climate legislation, have alternative fuels. The transport sector doesn’t, yet. Without real mass-transit alternatives, “taxing fuel won’t reduce CO2, it will just mean higher prices” for those that can least afford it, he says.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
