A Free-Market Energy Blog

Shell’s “Rational Middle” Campaign: Petroganda plus Futile Appeasement

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 14, 2022

“Working together is the only way we are going to reach net zero by 2050. That’s why Shell supports Rational Middle’s latest docuseries on Net Zero. Bring your skepticism, bring your questions & join the conversation.” – Shell, Rational Middle 

Greenwashing, greenhushing, greenwishing–it’s all a mess as the anti-CO2 lobby and woke companies confront the reality of energy density and consumer requirements.

“Big Oil” companies that bought into climate alarmism/forced energy transformation have a tiger by the tail. Shell and BP most of all. And guess which two companies are on the firing line the most with the climate activists? Shell, in fact, finds itself in some legal trouble for ceding the moral high ground, rather than making a strong intellectual defense of energy density and the social good of affordable, reliable energy.…

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Fossil Future at ExxonMobil (no ‘net zero’ here)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 13, 2022

“We are investing in big, new projects…. And if you go forward into 2027, we are actually growing [oil and gas] production.” (Darren Woods, CEO, ExxonMobil)

The climate alarmists/forced energy transformationists have a real intellectual and political debate on their hands. Mugged by reality, the activists must confront the failure of “green” alternatives in meeting world demand for affordable, reliable, taxpayer-neutral, plentiful energy.

The Green Energy Crisis has upended the “energy transition” and “Net Zero” future. And bullied corporations now have Main Street and Wall Street on their side. Jamie Dimon at J. P. Morgan Chase was clear on the need for a fossil-fuel future. So are the companies (Vanguard, etc.) that are bailing on the ESG climate movement.

Consider ExxonMobil. “Exxon Knows” should replace ExxonKnew, for ExxonMobil knows that consumer demand and profits will be with the mineral energies, not dilute, intermittent, government-dependent wind and solar.…

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“THIS AGREEMENT WILL BE GOOD FOR ENRON STOCK!!” (Enron’s Kyoto memo turns 25)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 12, 2022

This week, a Hall of Shame business memo turns a quarter-century old. Dated December 12, 1997, it was written from Kyoto, Japan, by Enron lobbyist John Palmisano in the afterglow of the Kyoto Protocol agreement.

Global green planners were euphoric that, somehowsomeway, the world had embarked on an irreversible course of climate control (and thus industrial and land-use control). But Kyoto predictably failed, and the Paris climate accord of 2015 teeters, with COP27’s recent failure making COP28’s prospects look grim.

Palmisano’s memo cites the benefits for first-mover ‘green’ Enron. Enron, in fact, had no less than six profit centers tied to pricing carbon dioxide (CO2)–and seven if CO2 were capped and traded. The story of Enron as the darling of Left environmentalists has been well told elsewhere.…

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Bret Stephens’ Climate Conversion: Utterly Unconvincing

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 8, 2022
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Steven Koonin: Guilty as Charged (DeSmog’s Hall of Fame)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 7, 2022
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‘Common Ground’ on ESG? Only Bad Wins

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 6, 2022
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Energy and Environmental Review: December 5, 2022

By -- December 5, 2022
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‘Train Your Brain’ on Climate Change? (debate, don’t assume)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 2, 2022
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Energy Sense: Tucker Carlson (winter heating costs in the news)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 1, 2022
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Leave Shell Alone: Oil and Gas for the Masses!

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 30, 2022
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