Most of the major oil companies have spent the last few years trying to convince us that they’re going green. BP, Exxon, Shell and others started running advertisements proclaiming that they were investing in renewable energy technology – hell, Exxon went so far as to leave a comment here on EarthFirst about the company’s supposed efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, claiming frustration at their bad reputation among environmentalists.
But, all of the greenwashed facades are coming crashing down. The world’s oil giants aren’t exactly lining up to follow President Obama’s green lead, and some of them are even breaking commitments they’ve already made.
From The New York Times:
Royal Dutch Shell said last month that it would freeze its research and investments in wind, solar and hydrogen power, and focus its alternative energy efforts on biofuels. The company had already sold much of its solar business and pulled out of a project last year to build the largest offshore wind farm, near London.
BP, a company that has spent nine years saying it was moving “beyond petroleum,” has been getting back to petroleum since 2007, paring back its renewable program. And American oil companies, which all along have been more skeptical of alternative energy than their European counterparts, are studiously ignoring the new messages coming from Washington.
“In my view, nothing has really changed,” Rex W. Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, said after the election of President Obama.
“We don’t oppose alternative energy sources and the development of those. But to hang the future of the country’s energy on those alternatives alone belies reality of their size and scale.”
The New York Times reports that Exxon is counting on oil, gas and coal to be just as prevalent in 2050 as they are today. Perhaps that would be true if we were counting on oil giants alone to fund the renewable energy industry – but thankfully, we’re not. They’re dragging their feet for a reason. Hydrocarbons are a huge source of revenue for them and they’re not prepared to let go of them.
The fact is, the world is ready to start moving beyond fossil fuels. Oil companies need to shape up and get serious about renewable energy if they want to survive. It’s possible to adapt instead of keeping a death grip on the ways of the 20th century. Actually following through on their own green claims would be a start.
Link [The New York Times]
Photo credit: London Rising Tide
