The propane industry is engaging much more directly in the conversation about how to address climate change, in part to ensure it doesn’t become obsolete in a zero-carbon world.

The title of the first session of the industry’s annual meeting in Washington this year put it perhaps most bluntly: “Innovate or die.” The daylong conference gave a glimpse of a fossil fuel industry that’s looking to shift its business fundamentally to ensure its product keeps a spot in and even helps the world transition to a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions future. Democrats in Congress and in the race for the White House are presenting aggressive plans to slash emissions consistent with that trajectory.