A Free-Market Energy Blog

“BP’s CEO Plays Down Renewables Push as Returns Lag” (‘beyond petroleum’ imaging wearing thin)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 2, 2023

“[CEO Bernard Looney] and other BP executives have suggested that the company could play down future investment in areas including solar energy and offshore wind, according to some of the people. Discussions about the company’s direction have caused rifts inside BP over the past year, people close to the company say.”

The Wall Street Journal published a very revealing piece yesterday. “Bernard Looney seeks to sharpen strategic focus, with less emphasis on environmental goals,” reported Jenny Stasburg (February 1, 2023).

She begins:

Chief Executive Bernard Looney plans to dial back elements of the oil giant’s high-profile push into renewable energy, according to people familiar with recent discussions.

Mr. Looney has said he is disappointed in the returns from some of the oil giant’s renewable investments and plans to pursue a narrower green-energy strategy, the people said.

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Houston Chronicle: Unpublished ‘Letters to the Editor’ (cancelling me)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 1, 2023

“The Houston Chronicle editorialists can cancel me, but they cannot cancel energy density and the perils of dilute, intermittent substitutes for real, stock energies. Reality bats last, and climate alarm and the ‘energy transition’ are doing very poorly outside of getting government favor to keep the mirage going. It is sad that political cronies are the only winners in the futile crusade, and real challenges, opportunity, and need are foregone.”

My longtime hometown paper, The Houston Chronicle, always left-of-center, has gone fully climate alarmist and glowingly reports about the “energy transition”. The paper reports as a PR department with some real energy news (the booming fossil fuel industries) thrown in. Nothing bad about wind and solar except that there is not enough subsidy to make it go faster against the entrenched fossil fuel interests.…

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Breaking Business Windows Okay? The Climate Cult Finds a Climate Judge

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 31, 2023

“The Judge deemed that carefully cracking some glass to try to sound the alarm in the financial world, and demand Barclays and others like them stop financing the BAU death project, was sufficiently serious an ‘offence’ to pass the ‘custodial threshold’.” (Zoe Cohen, defendant)

Climate Activists Guilty of Smashing Barclays HQ Windows Spared Jail, The Guardian headline last Friday read. “Women were found guilty of causing £100,000 damage to building in Canary Wharf, London.”

Reported a jubilant defendant Zoe Cohen:

Well, I’m a #free #woman… Relieved and happy to be home with my family, and full of #gratitude for the incredible support I and the #Barclays7 have received from so many people

Here’s a short video from the Press Association (2 mins) just after we left Southwark Crown Court after 5pm on Friday.

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Energy and Environmental Review: January 30, 2023

By -- January 30, 2023
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What Has Been the Role of Petroleum in Human Progress? (Part IV)

By Julián Salazar Velásquez -- January 27, 2023
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Have Fossil Fuels Progressed Humanity? (Part III)

By Julián Salazar Velásquez -- January 26, 2023
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Should Nations Stop Using Fossil Fuels? (Part II)

By Julián Salazar Velásquez -- January 25, 2023
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Does the Oil Industry Have a Future? (Part I)

By Julián Salazar Velásquez -- January 24, 2023
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Mineral Privatization for the Masses: Remembering Guillermo Yeatts (1937–2018)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 23, 2023
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Ark2030: No Pleasure Cruise Ships Please (elitism in action)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 19, 2023
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