T. Boone Pickens, the oilman turned renewable energy apostle, has shelved plans to develop the world’s largest wind farm in North Texas to instead push for massive adoption of natural gas for transportation. Read More »
The ranks of lobbyists from cleantech, green energy and investment firms have swelled in recent years but are still heavily outgunned by manufacturing and power company lobbyists, according to a report from The Center for Public Integrity. Read More »
Today Exxon Mobil announced this year’s largest energy deal with its acquisition of XTO Energy, a domestic developer of natural gas, in an all-stock deal valued at $31 billion.
Wit the acquisition Exxon bolsters its natural gas reserves and it also confirms the company’s belief that fossil fuels are set to dominate over the long-term.
Exxon (CEO Rex Tillerson is #5 in our November Top Ten Players in Green Energy ranking) and its competitors have invested in clean energy. However, they’ve also maintained that a carbon-free world is not likely. Read More »
Exxon Mobil’s “Energy Outlook” is out today. Better read it quick, because all of the projections could be wrong by the end of the Copenhagen climate summit. The press release is here.
The company estimates that 40 percent of the world’s electricity will be generated by nuclear and renewable fuels by 2030, a figure that seems distressingly low.
The big winners when it comes to electricity generation, according to Exxon’s projections, will be natural gas, wind and nuclear, while coal and solar will be too expensive, even if carbon dioxide is priced at $60 per ton.
The company doesn’t have much use for carbon capture and storage, noting Read More »
BP CEO Tony Hayward told attendees of the Oil & Money conference that’s being held this week in London that the goal of a carbon-free economy is not likely to happen anytime soon, if at all.
Instead, in his speech Hayward soberly promoted a “lower carbon” economy rather than a carbon-free economy; An energy “evolution” and not an energy “revolution”; And the pricing of carbon through a cap-and-trade system.
Hayward said:
The sheer scale of the energy industry makes this impossible. To give you an example, it takes more than 30 years to turn over the capital stock in the power sector and 15 years for cars. Such long lead times mean that like it or not, fossil fuels will continue to play a very significant part in the future energy mix.
While Hayward’s predecessor, the charismatic Lord John Browne, was all about “beyond petroleum” and creating a pan-energy company that delivered oil and gas as well as sun or wind power. Hayward, who before taking over the top slot in May of 2007, headed BP’s exploration and production unit, has worked hard to refocus BP’s capital to grow its core business: the exploration, production, and distribution of fossil fuels. Hayward believes that oil and gas will deliver shareholder value now and for the foreseeable future. Read More »
