How Much Control Does Big Oil Really Have?

I had a discussion the other day with a fellow who studies energy closely, during which he told me, “Clean energy will happen when Big Oil decides it’s time.”  I was quite surprised to hear this.  Yes, the bad guys have a stranglehold on the U.S. legislative process; there’s not much doubt about that.  But there are other factors involved that are quite important, e.g.,

• What’s happening elsewhere in the world, as countries like Spain, Italy, Denmark and Germany are rapidly transforming the grid in Europe, and China continues to invest tons of money into renewables.

• The 200,000 groups whose purpose is social and environmental justice continue to grind away at the sensibilities of the world’s people.

• More people every day realize that global temperatures (and sea levels) continue to rise.

I really can’t imagine that the oil companies will be able to pump the last molecule of crude out of the ground while the whole world watches the environment go to hell in a hand-basket.

We also need to keep in mind (and this is the point of my current book project) that the cost of renewable energy is falling so fast that soon the continued exploitation of fossil fuels will come at a higher cost than their clean counterparts, at which point the shareholders of ExxonMobil and the others will run like scared rabbits.