The overwhelming news these days is focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and what the fallout from it will be like. It has moved the subject of energy even more to the fore, as the price of oil has again topped $100/bbl, and the likely interruption of natural gas supplies to Europe has put the health of its nations’ economies even more at risk. It has to cause people to question what they have been hearing from the media about the impending death of the fossil fuel industry. Maybe it isn’t so urgent after all that we all pivot our careers away from oil and gas exploration to that of lithium and cobalt. Meanwhile as our current administration in Washington tries to figure what sanctions to put on Russia, it has already sanctioned the oil and gas industry by removing more public lands from leasing by US drillers.
At Houston Geological Society we are and will carry on as usual, with only minor tweaks to our finances (we had to raise the dues a bit and are always discussing new ways to cut costs). Also we constantly explore ways to increase services to our members and stakeholders. We remain ever enthusiastic about our community outreach efforts, as we tackle a primary mission of HGS- to educate and inspire all members, groups, and factions of society as to the amazing beauty of our science, and how fascinating is its study. Not to mention the practical benefit in studying the earth in detail, since nearly everything in our lives comes from it.
Steve Johansen, Chair of our Educational Outreach Committee, has submitted an article in the Bulletin this month detailing the many activities the group is engaged in. Read this article if you want to see how we are reaching out to the public, and consider joining the committee to be a part of the outreach. It really is amazing the scope of our outreach and we could cover a lot more of our city-wide schools if we had additional volunteers. Steve and his crew have many irons in many fires, as the article relates.
HGS has recently completed its annual judging of the Science and Engineering Fair of Houston, held in late February every year. HGS encourages its members to represent HGS as individual judges through the Science Fair website and we get a lot of takers. Other members choose to join the HGS Special Agency judging team, in which we locate and pick a Junior and Senior Division winner in the earth sciences-related projects. Also we pick and fund ($1,000 each) three winning earth-science project entrants to be “our” summer interns at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. See this month’s Bulletin article by Dorene West, Chair of the HGS Science Fair Committee to learn more.
There has been a great deal of discussion within HGS concerning the proposed merger of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). Since it is likely most HGS members are also AAPG members, it seems important that we have some kind of discussion about it within HGS. Fortunately, we have been given some breathing room for additional discussion, as the independent AAPG and SPE member voting scheduled to begin on March 4 has been suspended. Passions are running high on both sides of the issue, particularly with those who are opposed to the merger. Their view is that there has not been enough time to flesh the issues out, that there has somehow been a rush to get the voting conducted. I don’t think I can present a viewpoint that speaks officially for HGS, but I strongly suggest AAPG members read the two submissions to the “Letters to the Editor” section in this issue of the Bulletin. I believe these add to the transparency and clarity of the discussion.
These are definitely interesting times we are living in, and I believe it will become increasingly evident to all parties how critical hydrocarbons are to our future. As geologists we should keep our skills sharp.
Mike Erpenbeck
President, HGS