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Taking oil companies to task

oil DOE.jpgwindfarm DOE.jpgThose big oil companies, they’re just not doing enough to cut carbon emissions. But don’t take my word for it.

The Rockefeller family have a bone to pick with Exxon Mobil, the company that grew out of their ancestor’s oil giant Standard Oil, over its failure to give greater backing to alternative energy. “They are fighting the last war and they’re not seeing they’re facing a new war,” says Peter O’Neill, great-great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller (Chicago Tribune).

Although the Rockefellers don’t own a huge amount of Exxon, their attack is likely to cause some embarrassment to the company, given the weight that still attaches to their name. Again though, don’t take my word for it.

“Clearly this has more impact than coming from a corporate activist who owns five shares,” says Buie Seawell, chairman of the department of business ethics and legal studies at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business (Denver Post). “The name gives a lot of credibility to what they’re doing, and it’s significant that the family has a historic equity stake.”


Slate has a thoughtful piece on the Rockefellers’ stance, noting:

…the Rockefellers, of all families, should know that Exxon Mobil is unlikely to have much success ushering in a new energy paradigm that will change the world for the better. Virtually all the good works conducted by John D. Rockefeller, and by his descendants, have been done by the nonprofit foundations and philanthropic institutions he created, not by the efficiency-seeking, for-profit machine he built. What’s more, a company that depends on an established technology rarely has the incentives or ability to lead a shift to the technology that will upend the old way.

rockefeller john d.jpgPerhaps the best part of this story is the revisionism that paints John D. as a pioneer of alternative energy. Neva Rockefeller Goodwin says “Kerosene was the alternative energy of that day, when my great grandfather realised it could replace whale oil. Part of his genius was in recognising early on the need and opportunity for a transition to a better, cheaper, cleaner fuel” (6:20 in on this audio clip).

Also in the news today: unhappiness with another big oil company. Shell has pulled out of the London Array, ‘the world’s largest offshore wind farm’, which it was supposed to be building off the British coast along with fellow energy companies E.ON and Dong Energy.

“I believe that at the very least, some delay to the project is now inevitable,” says Paul Golby, the chief executive of E.ON UK (Times, Guardian, Daily Mail). “While we remain committed to the scheme, Shell has introduced a new element of risk into the project which will need to be assessed.”

Shell is trying to sell its one third stake in the London Array. It is currently unclear who might be willing to buy it.

Image top: oil well and wind farm / US DoE

Image lower: John D.Rockefeller aged 18 / via Wikimedia

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  2. Follow the Money said:

    The Bildebergers, er, um, I mean Rockefellers are no saints: https://www.counterpunch.org/estulin05272005.html

    This is just another part of enforcing their globalist agenda.

    The planet is cooling, despite what Al Gore’s “computer models” assured us. https://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/03/24/lorne-gunter-perhaps-the-climate-change-models-are-wrong.aspx

    Climate Change is perfectly natural and normal. We are spending billions and billions chasing a ghost.

    FACT: We are currently enjoying the end of a warm interval (interglaciation) between ice ages. Our interglaciation is called the Holocene. The last interglacial (before the last ice age) was called the Eemian. The Eemian Interglacial was WAAY HOTTER THAN TODAY AND CO2 WAS SKYROCKETING AS WELL!!! Modern Man was not here yet during the Eemian but if we were some Al Gore type would have been blowing hot air and blaming “human activity.”

    Most people are poorly informed regarding Earth’s natural climate cycles and people like Gore and Rockefeller prey on that.

  3. Ray Pairan Jr said:

    The ‘free market’ is an illusion a very effective propaganda spewed across the globe extolling the precepts from the gospel of the “The Free Market” preached by the Economic ministers of the faith.

    No more interpreting of illusion is necessary. It’s now time for action!

    Review my articles:

    A Green Future for Our Nation

    Benefits of Nationalized Oil Industry

    Nationalize the Oil Companies

    Economic Society

    At—> https://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com

    For a better understanding of what where facing.

    It is now time to make certain that everyone understands the truth, solutions, and what will happen if we fail to act now.

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