Let me start with the oil and gas. There are a lot of various outlooks—whether or when it's going to peak, etc.—but I think the important thing to realize is that oil and gas are depletable resources. If we do nothing, if the world does nothing, depending on...for gas it may be a 5%-per-year decline, and for oil it may be a 7%-per-year natural decline. Just to continue at today's demand levels requires ongoing investment.
The question for me is this: Where will that investment be made? If the demand is there, I believe that, whether we, as a country, choose to produce one less barrel, the world won't necessarily consume fewer barrels. I think it's an opportunity to look at where Canada competes in the oil and gas sector. My belief is that, with the efforts that we're undertaking—I mentioned Pathways Alliance, blending renewable fuels, etc.—we can continue to compete in that sector.
I think the oil and gas sector has a long life ahead of it. It's how we do it that will make it more socially acceptable and more socially acceptable within Canada.
Now, with regard to renewables, I think that renewables have a huge role and a growing role in the energy equation. Global energy demand continues to increase. I don't think that there's any one energy source that will meet that. I don't think it's an either-or. It's an “and” equation, whether that's renewables, continued oil and gas or hydrocarbon investments, etc.
Suncor plans to be around a long time. We've been around a long time. We're a big company, a prominent company in the country, and we plan to continue that. We plan not only to continue to extract value from our existing businesses but to grow new businesses.
What are we good at? You mentioned solar. If you look at it over time, we were a pioneer. We got into wind and solar about 20 years ago. At almost exactly the same time, we built a $250-million renewable-fuels ethanol plant, which is Canada's largest ethanol plant today. It provides renewable fuels for our coast-to-coast network of Petro-Canada sites.
A year ago, before I arrived, the decision was made to sell the wind and solar business to parties that we, the company, thought could operate it better than we were. However, at the same time, we're investing in our renewable facility sites because we think those are what we're good at.
It's a question of picking those things that you're best at as you participate in the transition.