Shell's stance on wind power reveals a profound truth of capitalism

[kristopher]

1. This is a good article, but it misses an important point

One of the important aspects that affects whether a "market" can exist and work properly to serve society is how difficult it is for companies to enter and exit the businesses involved. In today's world it is nearly inconceivable that a new entrant into the petroleum market could be less than the size of a nationstate. The corporations who dominate this field, such as Shell, are almost inconceivably large and are able to extract the profits they do because they get a very large slice of the entire pie.

Wind, even offshore wind, is not an endeavor that requires that scale of resources to enter the market and bring the product to market. Investment isn't small but neither is it megalithic. This enables the development of the market whether companies like Shell want to participate or not.

In fact, in the bigger picture the development of wind is counter to the interests of petroleum companies since part of the "plan" involving renewable energy development is the replacement of fossil fuels as "energy carriers" with a greatly expanded use of electricity as an energy carrier, especially for personal transportation.

It benefits petroleum companies to obstruct development of this system, not to participate and facilitate such development.