Thread regarding Shell Oil layoffs

Lost on All Bets

BVB tried to transform Shell into something virtuous. If you believe that burning fossil fuels results in climate change, and that the global ecosystem is unable to absorb the rising CO2 levels with devastating results, then something had to change. Oil cos need to make deals with governments around the world that violate human rights. Their activities cause environmental damage everywhere they are conducted. Of course, selling Shell's "dirty" assets to someone else who will do the same things, perhaps even less ethically, improves nothing in the short term. But if that money is taken and used to chart a different path, in the long term, maybe Shell could make a difference ... even if that path necessarily leads to Shell's own extinction because green energy will become less and less profitable as it scales.
So where did BVB go wrong? First, green energy is unprofitable even in the short without subsidies. That means Shell's business must must align with political priorities that swing wildly. But Shell needed to be able to bullsh-t its investors that it had a path to profitability so it took the money. Second, green energy has technological hurdles that must be overcome or it will fail. Think batteries, wind and solar variability, and the grid collapse in Iberia. Third, Shell's chosen green energies will NEVER meet its net zero goals. They generate way more carbon, and environmental damage, than they save. Shell should have directed its efforts into other technologies that have hurdles that are likely to be solved and then would be closer to carbon neutral. Fourth, the green energy movement that Shell tried to lead, was a scam that US voters revolted against, with the EU soon to follow as their citizenry tires of their inflated energy prices and the effect on their economies. Think ESG scores and greenwashing by claiming credits for trees that you have cut down yet, and net zero promises with lots of fine print, and buying Russian oil but we're sorry you caught us, and Davos elites flying in on their private jets and then proposing things like good citizen scorekeeping (hey, the CCP is doing it, why shouldn't everyone else) and limits on meat consumption and dozens of other ways for the elite to maintain their wealth and power over the miserable plebians.
Shell aligned itself with the left, the only ones who opened their arms (not including the "stakeholders" who sued Shell in Dutch court and chased it out of the country), but the left went too far. The left that gained control (and still has control in places like GB) wanted to tear down the colonizing racist power structure and replace it with a society based on intersectionality, DEI, gender fluidity and all that entails, open borders, politically motivated extended economic shutdown (except for the politicians at their own parties), and so on. There was social backlash that resulted in political reversals and Shell lost on all of its big bets.


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Post ID: @OP+1kacnyjcg

5 replies (most recent on top)

I like Arby’s.

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Post ID: @eb+1kacnyjcg

“How dare you!” is how I feel when asked where’s my GHG numbers for a new oil project.

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Post ID: @c5+1kacnyjcg

Sir, this is an Arby's.

Good post though.

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Post ID: @ae+1kacnyjcg

Climate change is a canard and green energy was a complementary grift. Now it is kaput.

The world ain’t ending.

Relax. Be happy.

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Post ID: @a8+1kacnyjcg

“Although climate change will have serious consequences — particularly for people in the poorest countries — it will not lead to humanity’s demise. People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.” - Bill Gates

He also argued that the metric we should focus on is improving lives rather than exclusively fixation on temperature/emission targets.

If Bill Gates of all people is walking back how severe climate change was claimed to be, then you should probably take a hint and quit doing crazy unprofitable stuff in the name of saving the planet.

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Post ID: @a7+1kacnyjcg

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