Big Oil shuns alternative energy sources: NY Times:

[amborin]

"The Obama administration wants to reduce oil consumption, increase renewable energy supplies and cut carbon dioxide emissions in the most ambitious transformation of energy policy in a generation.

But the world’s oil giants are not convinced that it will work. Even as Washington goes into a frenzy over energy, many of the oil companies are staying on the sidelines, balking at investing in new technologies favored by the president, or even straying from commitments they had already made.

Royal Dutch Shell said last month that it would freeze its research and investments in wind, solar and hydrogen power...

Most of the investments by oil companies go to traditional fossil-fuel resources, including carbon- intensive energy sources like tar sands, above, and natural gas from shale."

snip

"....The administration wants to spend $150 billion over the next decade to create what it calls “a clean energy future.” Its plan would aim to diversify the nation’s energy sources by encouraging more renewables, and it would reduce oil consumption and cut carbon emissions from fossil fuels.

The oil companies have frequently run advertisements expressing their interest in new forms of energy, but their actual investments have belied the marketing claims. The great bulk of their investments goes to traditional petroleum resources, including carbon-intensive energy sources like tar sands and natural gas from shale, while alternative investments account for a tiny fraction of their spending. So far, that has changed little under the Obama administration.

“The scale of their alternative investments is so mind-numbingly small that it’s hard to find them,” said Nathanael Greene, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “These companies don’t feel they have to be on the leading edge of this stuff.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, most investments in alternative sources of energy are coming from pockets other than those of the oil companies."

snip

“Big Oil does not consider renewable energy to be a mainstream business,” Mr. Eckhart said. “It’s a side business for them.”

snip

"They say that while renewable fuels are needed, they are still at an early stage of development, and petroleum will remain the dominant source of energy for decades.

In its long-term forecast, Exxon says that by 2050, hydrocarbons — including oil, gas, and coal — will account for 80 percent of the world’s energy supplies, about the same as today."

snip

<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/business/energy-environment/08greenoil.html?_r=1&ref=energy-environment>

[closeupready]

1. Of course. They have no interest in weaning the world of its dependence on oil.

Why would they buy into that? They are going to thwart EVERY EFFORT at investing in and researching alternatives.

[The Wielding Truth]

2. First, they have to suck Mother Earth dry. Time for all of them to

grow up and help their mother.

[gratuitous]

3. Does that mean the Times won't take their lying ads anymore?

Or that the Times won't run their astroturf op-ed pieces? Or will the Times keep pocketing their ad revenues knowing all the time that the big display ads from ExxonMobil and Chevron are lying to the Times' readers?

[amborin]

5. NYTimes takes their ad $$ but publishes neg articles on them, so NYTimes is not swayed by ad $

can you look at it that way?

[drm604]

4. In other news...

The sky is blue.