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MONTREAL – People need to get their heads round the idea that non-renewable fuels are “probably dead,” the CEO of Canadian Pacific Railway said Wednesday.
“I’m not maybe as green when i should be but I occur to think the weather is changing (and) they’re not going to fool me anymore,” Hunter Harrison told a J.P. Morgan transportation conference in Ny.
The veteran rail executive said the transition to alternative fuels is going to be long, but new investments in traditional powers will dry out because of environmental hurdles.
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The country’s second-largest railway has seen shipments of crude drop because of declining demand brought on by the dramatic fall in oil prices. Thermal coal shipments have also waned.
Harrison said the rail industry will need to adjust to a shift to alternative energy sources, just as it did in the 1990s when the U.S. Clean Air Act wiped away 29 per cent from the business at Illinois Central Railway that he ran at the time.
“I think that it’s a challenge going forward, but rails have historically dealt with those changes really well over time and continued to outlive and make it,” he said.
Company spokesman Jeremy Berry said later that Harrison was talking about the “overwhelming trend” towards sustainable energy and the need for all segments from the economy to acknowledge the ever-changing energy landscape.
Greenpeace welcomed Harrison’s view, saying it marks a reversal from the 1990s when railroads denied climatic change because they relied a lot on coal.
“I think he’s just recognizing the brand new realities and looking to visit where the puck is going rather than where it has been,” said Keith Stewart, environmentally friendly group’s head of climate and campaign.
“And our political leaders would prosper to recognize that alternative energy may be the method of the future and we have to be taking a look at how we can get ready for a global that’s going beyond non-renewable fuels.”
Under the new Liberal government, Canada was among countries late this past year that helped push for a goal of limiting climatic change to around 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The Calgary-based railway also said hello filed a resolution with U.S. securities regulators it plans to introduce to Norfolk Southern shareholders at its next annual meeting included in its effort to acquire the Virginia-based railway.
The motion calls for shareholders to request Norfolk’s board to take part in discussions with CP Rail that wouldn’t preclude discussions with other parties.
“This is type of our last effort, the last thing we all know to do and we hope it’ll work,” Harrison said. “And when not, we will go back in and run our railroad.”
