Oil and gas company exec has your best interests at heart!

UPDATE 1-Total CEO argues merits of high energy prices | Industries | Energy | Reuters

GENEVA, Sept 13 (Reuters) - High energy prices are helpful to discourage planet-polluting waste, and make extraction from varied sources such as northern Canada possible, Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Christophe De Margerie said on Saturday.

Speaking to a global security conference, de Margerie said the recent slide in the price of oil may have negative effects if people stop treating energy as a scarce resource.

"I am not defending high-level prices as such," he told the conference at a hotel in Geneva, the Swiss city that plays host to the United Nations' European offices as well as many large energy and commodity trading houses.

"Maybe we have been for too many years, including the companies, used to the price maybe too cheap," he said, noting this spurred investments and activities "which are probably not in line and acceptable due to this global warming concern".

"The only way to change the way people are behaving is to have the energy price to a certain extent high," he said in a speech about climate change.

If fuel prices fall sharply, De Margerie said consumers may become less concerned about efficiency measures to reduce carbon emissions that scientists have linked to global warming.

"This message will be totally lost and that will be a pity," he said.

Total SA (TOTF.PA) Company Profile | Stocks | Reuters.com

TOTAL S.A. (TOTAL), together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is an integrated international oil and gas company. With operations in more than 130 countries, TOTAL engages in all aspects of the petroleum industry, including Upstream operations (oil and gas exploration, development and production, liquefied natural gas (LNG)) and Downstream operations (refining, marketing and the trading and shipping of crude oil and petroleum products)