By Katie Mehnert, Wife, Mom, and Energy CEO @katiemehnert
Originally published on TXOGA Texas Oil & Gas Association
My daughter and I had a conversation about energy. Yeah, I know. She’s six and I’m well, you know…old enough to be her mother. I talk with Ally about energy because no one did with me when I was her age. In the 1980s, we just got into our cars and took off. We took trips on airplanes and we went along our merry way and consumed energy. No one even gave it a second thought, unless of course we went to war or there was a chemical spill. The news media didn’t care unless there was something sensational to report.
Fast forward to 2017, it wasn’t until recently that the energy conversation really started so openly. I’d like to think social media helped us to get to this place. It’s why I started Pink Petro and a community online dedicated to sharing in on the energy conversation. With women over 50% of the workforce, we need to have these conversations and encourage more education and awareness about the opportunities the industry provides to communities and the workforce at large.
My daughter Ally needs to understand the world of work and life around her, all made possible by energy. And while the IEA estimates 80% of the world’s consumption and demand will continue to be fossil fuel based technologies in oil and now natural gas and LNG, the transition has arrived and new technologies are a part of our energy reality. It’s up to me and to all of us to have these conversations with our children. It’s their future. The more we do to understand today’s reality, we can plan for a reliable and affordable energy future for generations to come.
PS – I thank the energy industry for making it possible for me to deliver a healthy baby in 2010 at Texas Children’s Hospital and to feed her now (at 6) hot meals in the evening in an air conditioned home in the heat of Houston.