Posts Tagged by oil companies
From Guest-Blogger Iannick Gagnon — Oil: The First Shocks (1859-1900)
| December 11, 2011 | Posted by iangagn under Fossil Fuels |
This article, I hope, will set the tone for a series of others that will follow by revealing the origins of the petroleum industry in the United States. The main objective of these pieces is to provide the reader with a historical notion of shocks in the oil business in order to better understand the background of fluctuations in petroleum prices. Later on, other writings will cover more recent material on the subject and a final piece will offer the reader my predictions of what the future of oil prices might look like in the short, medium and long term.
The task at hand is ambitious, but its significance is enormous. Everyone feels a pinch when the prices at the pump crawl higher and higher with no end in sight. History has repeatedly proven to be the best thing we have to go on and in doing so, we will establish a solid foundation from which we will make an educated guess about the future of the oil industry as a whole and what it means for civilization.
THE FULL ARTICLE WILL BE AVAILABLE ON: December-19-2011
The Electric Vehicle Adoption Curve – Two Opposing Views
| November 29, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
In response to my recent piece on electric vehicles, a few readers sent me John Peterson’s position on the subject. Thanks, but I’m already quite familiar with it. John’s a brilliant, honest, and levelheaded guy; in fact, I plan to visit him in Switzerland when I’m in Europe next spring. Having said this, I disagree with him here.
For starters, the concept that EVs are overhyped and destined to failure because “Cheap Beats Cool” does not ring true of the auto market generally. Since the dawn of the automobile, and certainly since World War II, cars may be about sex, or about the wish to appear affluent, but they certainly aren’t about getting around as inexpensively as possible; “cheap” really isn’t the motivating force here. Read More
New Video from The Story of Stuff Nails the Truth About Oil and Clean Energy As Well As Jobs and the Economy
| November 21, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
Here’s another must-see video from Annie Leonard at The Story of Stuff, this one called “The Story of Broke.”
I hope everyone will invest five minutes and check this out. Note how much of what she’s saying sounds like what we have here at 2GreenEnergy, e.g., factoids like this: the senators who voted to continue subsidies to the oil companies received five times as much in campaign contributions from Big Oil as those who voted to end those subsidies.
While you’re watching, think of what this world would be like if a few major countries were run by people with this level of honesty and enlightenment. When your finished, you may want to send it to as many people as you can who are concerned about the direction in which we’re headed.
Daniel Yergin’s Talk on Energy Policy
| October 14, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels |
To make good on my promise to write something about Daniel Yergin’s talk the other night at UCSB, he’s obviously a very bright guy whose travels and studies are quite impressive, and the talk was interesting to a point. But what I found shockingly absent was a single word on any of the controversial issues that surround our world energy policy. Can’t we at least mention the idea that Big Money and politics are conspiring to preserve the status quo and make the migration to renewables extremely difficult and slow? How about an update on those 7000 lobbyists who work for the oil industry?
I say I was shocked, but let’s not be too dramatic here. His clients are oil companies. Wouldn’t it have been even more surprising had the reverse been true?
Some Dubious Advice from the AltCarExpo
| October 1, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
I always look forward to the AltCarExpo in Santa Monica each year. It’s rather like one of the major auto shows, but without all the flashing lights, loud noises, “booth-babes” – and, more to the point, all the gas- and diesel-powered cars and trucks. Though generally dominated by electric vehicles, the Expo contemplates all the alternative fuels: hydrogen, CNG, propane, and half a dozen others; it’s more than worth a visit if you’re in the area.
A local radio station, Pasadena’s NPR affiliate KPPC, did a live remote from the Expo, on which a few of my friends in this space were interviewed, taking calls from folks all over Southern California. Here was one that I found most interesting:
Caller: I notice that there are a dozen-or-so alternative fuels. Isn’t it unrealistic to replace one fuel type with dozens? Won’t there eventually be a winner?
Answer Summary: I hope not. We need to have all these – and more – represented in the mix.
No offense, but this is totally misguided. Read More
Government Subsidies to the Oil Companies
| May 19, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
All Americans should be aware of what’s happening in Washington in this critically important area that affects every one of us. Earlier this week, 48 Senators, including three Democrats and all but two Senate Republicans voted to defeat a bill that would have ended tax breaks for the five biggest oil companies.
What could cause such outrageous behavior? How about the $39.5 million that the oil and gas companies spent lobbying Congress in the first quarter of this year alone? Or might it be the fact that the industry donated nearly $18 million directly to the political campaigns of Senators who voted against ending these subsidies — five times more than to Senators who supported ending them?
Yet the measure to end these handouts to the oil industry came fairly close to passing (we needed 60 votes, and got 52). The message: if you care about things like this (and I have to think that most readers here do indeed), I urge you to exercise your rights as a citizen and let your elected leaders know where you stand on this.
Environmental Law Institute Reports on Subsidies for Energy Companies
| April 20, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels |
During a slow period at the Electric Drive Transportation Association conference this afternoon, I walked a couple of miles across town to interview spokespeople for the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) – Senior Attorneys Jay Pendergrass and Lisa Goldman. We talked largely about the subsidies that our US federal government provides to energy companies, insofar as ELI recently completed a comprehensive, independent study on the subject. “This is by far the most widely distributed report we’ve ever created,” Jay told me. “It’s been downloaded over 18,000 times.”
ELI painstakingly pulled together information on every form of expenditures or forbearance (e.g., a tax break) that is given to fossil fuels, carbon capture and sequestration, corn ethanol, and what it calls “traditional renewables” like solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal.
The results are in the report linked above: fossil fuels get about $5.50 for every $1 going to renewables.
My main question, of course, is why our government is doing this. The role of subsidies is to promote things that are in the public interest. All the $70.2 billion that is going to traditional fossil fuels is accomplishing is creating “a transfer of wealth from the public to the shareholders of oil, coal, and gas companies,” as Jay explained. Here’s $70 billion that could (should??) be going to promote things that actually are in the public interest: an end to our addiction to oil, to our empowering our enemies, to our poisoning our planet and everything living on it.
Interesting discussion, to be sure.
Now I’m off to the welcome party. I’ll try to turn down my cynicism and enjoy myself.
'Tis the Season … for Bashing Electric Vehicles
| December 16, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
I have to say that I’m befuddled by all the electric vehicle bashing. Here’s an article from the Washington Post that really lays it on with a trowel. While author Charles Lane admits “the administration’s objectives – reducing carbon emissions and U.S. dependence on foreign oil – are legitimate,” he quickly goes back to the main theme: “But $5 billion wasted on electrics is $5 billion that cannot be used to meet these goals.”
The article quotes experts who agree, but (what a surprise) scrupulously avoids those that don’t.
Every time I see something like this, I think: Well, this most certainly could be more propaganda from the extremely powerful interests, i.e., the traditional energy world, who want to see electrics fail – make that “who desperately need to see electrics fail.” But the part of me that is not so cynical honestly tries to make sense of this. Read More
Oil Companies and Renewable Energy
| November 21, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
When my father left this Earth a couple of months ago, he left me some stock in ExxonMobil. I posted my musings on the subject here, on my blog at Renewable Energy World.
Oil Companies’ Participation in Clean Energy
| October 1, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
In the Renewable Energy Finance Forum session in which presenters from Citibank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and JP Morgan, offered their observations on the industry, several pointed to the strategies that multinational oil companies (BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, etc.) have vis-à-vis renewables. From the content of these talks, it became obvious that such participation is divisive – even within their own ranks — for a number of reasons.
While clean energy may be the way of the future, if you’re an oil company, it’s certainly the enemy of the present. Even the most aggressive repositioning of the oil companies as “energy companies” (BP as “beyond petroleum,” Chevron as “part of the solution” etc.) is such obvious PR fluff that it leaves most people with a very bad taste in their mouths about these entities’ sincerity and their status as corporate citizens.
On another line, from the standpoint of internal capital allocation, the return on asset stats associated with oil exploration beats the pants off the development of renewables. Thus prudent and responsible managers, who themselves are managed according to the short-term profits they drive, have only disincentive to push investments in renewables.
At the end of the day, we see a great ebb and flow, as internal arguments play themselves out.
