Accusations of 'greenwashing' by big oil companies are well-founded
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Re: Accusations of 'greenwashing' by big oil companies are well-founded
#2I'm no apologist for the oil companies but: Why is this surprising?
Demand for energy is rising; demand for premium-priced energy covering the reduced efficiency and new capital costs of greener technology is not rising as quickly. In the markets where genuinely massive shifts are both politically necessary and possible (Hi, China!), the state will be the driving force.
At the oil companies themselves, management has a singular duty to shareholders -- anything else is just PR blah-blah. We can debate whether that's a feature or bug of capitalism, but pearl-clutching news reports that ignore that basic fact aren't helpful in the public debate.
Re: Accusations of 'greenwashing' by big oil companies are well-founded
#3We should pay attention to timing: what are they promising to do? What are they doing now? What have they already done?
Often people don't make distinctions. Very often, companies will use present tense rather than future tense because it sounds better. Or they might be "transforming" when not much has been accomplished yet.
I've only skimmed a bit, but it looks like the report itself [1] is a good summary.
[1] https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
Re: Accusations of 'greenwashing' by big oil companies are well-founded
#4I'm no apologist for the oil companies but: Why is this surprising? Demand for energy is rising; demand for premium-priced energy covering the reduced efficiency and new capital costs of greener technology is not rising as quickly. In the markets where genuinely massive shifts are both politically necessary and possible (Hi, China!), the state will be the driving force. At the oil companies themselves, management has…
Laws/regulations are a function of, in part, public opinion. Public opinion is a function of, in part, greenwashing.
Re: Accusations of 'greenwashing' by big oil companies are well-founded
#5I'm no apologist for the oil companies but: Why is this surprising? Demand for energy is rising; demand for premium-priced energy covering the reduced efficiency and new capital costs of greener technology is not rising as quickly. In the markets where genuinely massive shifts are both politically necessary and possible (Hi, China!), the state will be the driving force. At the oil companies themselves, management has…
> We can debate whether that's a feature or bug of capitalism
I wonder how different things were before Jack Welch became chair of General Electric and the deregulation of the ‘80s.
Re: Accusations of 'greenwashing' by big oil companies are well-founded
#6I think this article is missing the point, and is not providing a full picture.
First of all, the supersized national oil companies are far worse than the multinationals
Exxon, for example, is now controlled to an extent by activist investor hedge funds that want energy giants to pursue greener energy, and to think more about the future [1]
However, for right now, green energy is not self-sustaining, and cannot provide the energy we need [2]. The question then is, how do we transition in a meaningful manner? How do we curtail methane emissions, and others, which are among some of the worst problems stemming from oil/gas production? Are the energy giants making the right investments now into potential future energy sources that could lead to a greener future? Do we have the right options, or are we missing big ones, that, properly funded, could result in potentially quadrillions and quintillions of BTUs? [3]
Please keep in mind that producing energy on the massive scale required for geo-level requirements is a decades to centuries, and trillions to tens of trillions type of engineering problem set.
What many people consider green energy such as mega-dams and hydro have had horrible impacts on flora & fauna. Technology is both the problem, and, potentially, a set of solutions [4]
Caveat: I am investor in Exxon, and a number of other companies in both green and transitioning to green areas.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/09/business/exxon-mobil-engi...
[2] https://greeninnovationindex.org/2021-edition/energy-efficie...
Re: Accusations of 'greenwashing' by big oil companies are well-founded
#7I'm no apologist for the oil companies but: Why is this surprising? Demand for energy is rising; demand for premium-priced energy covering the reduced efficiency and new capital costs of greener technology is not rising as quickly. In the markets where genuinely massive shifts are both politically necessary and possible (Hi, China!), the state will be the driving force. At the oil companies themselves, management has…
> At the oil companies themselves, management has a singular duty to shareholders -- anything else is just PR blah-blah. We can debate whether that's a feature or bug of capitalism, but pearl-clutching news reports that ignore that basic fact aren't helpful in the public debate.
I agree with this, however, we know that energy harvesting potentially has negative side effects, often from byproducts such as methane production. Which can then lead to methane off-gassing.
From an investment perspective this really ticks me off, because I want that methane captured, brought to market, and sold. We should fight the idea that energy companies should be in the business of bad practices. Now, that raises a new set of questions around incidental methane capture, and the technologies needed for capture, to prevent off-gassing.
The key to this is trending - are we heading in the right directions, or not? What major and minor course corrections do we need to correctly steer the behemoth that is the energy industry?
Re: Accusations of 'greenwashing' by big oil companies are well-founded
#8I'm no apologist for the oil companies but: Why is this surprising? Demand for energy is rising; demand for premium-priced energy covering the reduced efficiency and new capital costs of greener technology is not rising as quickly. In the markets where genuinely massive shifts are both politically necessary and possible (Hi, China!), the state will be the driving force. At the oil companies themselves, management has…
> We can debate whether that's a feature or bug of capitalism I wonder how different things were before Jack Welch became chair of General Electric and the deregulation of the ‘80s.
> I wonder how different things were before . . .
Do you mean after Justice Brandeis? After one of the Presidents Roosevelt? Do you mean the previous gilded age? Do you mean some other time entirely? It's not as though greed over time grew monotonically with a particular inflection point on Neutron Jack.
Re: Accusations of 'greenwashing' by big oil companies are well-founded
#9I'm no apologist for the oil companies but: Why is this surprising? Demand for energy is rising; demand for premium-priced energy covering the reduced efficiency and new capital costs of greener technology is not rising as quickly. In the markets where genuinely massive shifts are both politically necessary and possible (Hi, China!), the state will be the driving force. At the oil companies themselves, management has…
> demand for premium-priced energy covering the reduced efficiency and new capital costs of greener technology
"Greener technology" does not have "reduced efficiency and new capital costs." Solar and wind cost a fraction of any hydrocarbon-based energy sources and solar in particular has been plunging in cost. Coal plants for example, are being shut down left and right while solar and wind deployment is skyrocketing.
Re: Accusations of 'greenwashing' by big oil companies are well-founded
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We can debate whether that's a feature or bug of capitalism I wonder how different things were before Jack Welch became chair of General Electric and the deregulation of the ‘80s.
> I wonder how different things were before . . . Do you mean after Justice Brandeis? After one of the Presidents Roosevelt? Do you mean the previous gilded age? Do you mean some other time entirely? It's not as though greed over time grew monotonically with a particular inflection point on Neutron Jack.
Sure, but the ‘80s is within living memory and so is more easily comparable.