Backflip: BP “disappointed” in renewables — flags a shift back to oil and gas and “making profits”

By Jo Nova

The environmental fashion parade suddenly has a smell…

This is a notable shift:  Twenty years ago BP called itself “Beyond Petroleum”, and only one year ago the CEO said BP was “accelerating” its green investments. But now the CEO is reassuring investors that BP is not going to be distracted by environmental goals, and are focused on maximizing profits. Furthermore those profits would be found where it has a competitive advantage, including  it’s “legacy oil and gas operations”.

Just like that: it’s OK to talk about profits and energy security. Key words here are “dialing back”, “disappointed”, “narrower” and “less emphasis” and they are all used in relation to environmental investments.

After years of sunshine and unicorns on the forced transition to unreliable energy, the mood appears to be changing.

h/t Paul Homewood at Notalotofpeopleknowthat

BP logo, sign. Fuel. Petrol.BP’s CEO Plays Down Renewables Push as Returns Lag

Bernard Looney seeks to sharpen strategic focus, with less emphasis on environmental goals

Jenny Strasberg, Wall Street Journal

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. He has told some people close to the company that BP needs to do more to convince shareholders of its strategy to maximize profits in areas where it has a competitive advantage, including its legacy oil-and-gas operations.

In some of the conversations, Mr. Looney has said he plans to place less emphasis on so-called ESG goals—a catchall term for environmental, social and governance—to help clarify that those aren’t distracting the company from its ability to deliver profits, the people said.

One BP investor said shareholders were carefully watching the performance of renewable investments.

They said: “Societally, people are now more focused on the question of energy security – we’ve got to be mindful that as we run up the new system of renewables, you can’t run down the old system too aggressively; it’s a transition, it’s not a step change.”

This appears to be a company wide shift. Only three days ago the chief economist at BP said that we’d need oil and gas for decades yet.

Oil and gas investment needed for another 30 years, BP warns

By Rachel Millard, The Telegraph

Fossil fuels only way to combat energy shortages, oil giant claims

Investment in oil and gas production will be needed for the next three decades if the world is to avoid more shortages and price swings, BP has warned. The oil giant said in its annual energy outlook published on Monday that fossil fuels are still likely to account for about 20pc of primary energy in 2050 even under a significant tightening of climate policies.

“This would be the first time in modern history that there has been a sustained fall in the demand for any fossil fuel.”

Media spin runs as strong as ever

The New York Times and Reuters readers though, are seeing headlines like this generated from the same BP report.

“The Shift to Renewables is speeding up. Here’s how.”

The head of the world’s leading energy organization called the war in Ukraine an “accelerator” of the transition.

“Ukraine War to accelerate shift to clean energy BP says”

“The increased focus on energy security as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war has the potential to accelerate the energy transition as countries seek to increase access to domestically produced energy, much of which is likely to come from renewables and other non-fossil fuels,” BP Chief Economist Spencer Dale said in the report.

It’s like we live in two different worlds. Some investors may be in for a nasty surprise.

To be fair though, BP are generating the kind of reports that “appeal both ways”. But what’s different is that a few years ago they wouldn’t have dared pouring cold water on the environmental message or talking about energy security and the need for fossil fuels.

But make no mistake there is still a lot of conflict in the companies core mission

Are these plans still current?

BP has said it plans by 2030 to slash its fossil-fuel production by 40% from 2019 levels. Mr. Looney has set a target of increasing investments in what it calls “transition growth businesses” including renewable energy and convenience-store operations to around 50% of total capital spending by 2030, up from more than 40% by 2025. Mr. Looney and his lieutenants have said the company is balancing its deeper push into low-emission projects while still nurturing legacy cash cows like oil-and-gas production and trading. — WallStreetJournal

According to the Wall Street Journal, earnings from oil and gas were projected to be $30 to $35b annually by 2030, while the renewables earning target was $10b.

For perspective, BP abandoned solar and biofuels between 2011-2015:

In 2011–2015, BP cut down its alternative energy business. The company announced its departure from the solar energy market in December 2011 by closing its solar power business, BP Solar.[136] In 2012, BP shut down the BP Biofuels Highlands project which was developed since 2008 to make cellulosic ethanol from emerging energy crops like switchgrass and from biomass.[137][138] In 2015, BP decided to exit from other lignocellulosic ethanol businesses.[139] It sold its stake in Vivergo to Associated British Foods.[140] BP and DuPont also mothballed their joint biobutanol pilot plant in Saltend.[141] — Wikipedia

If there were easy profits to be made in solar or biofuels, presumably BP wouldn’t have axed them.

BP Energy Outlook 2023  |  Photo by Keith Edkins |

9.8 out of 10 based on 69 ratings

97 comments to Backflip: BP “disappointed” in renewables — flags a shift back to oil and gas and “making profits”

  • #
    A happy little debunker

    To be ‘fair’ to BP – they have installed 9 (x2 bays) EV charging station across all of Australia, in recognition of the coming EV tsunami across Australian roads.

    As for price,
    The current cost of a ‘litre of petrols’ worth of BP electricity is $4.89 VS the cost of an actual litre of BP petrol @ about $1.80ish.

    Woe be tide the weary EV traveler – that does not tow around a generator/trailer across our 823 000 kilometres of roadway…

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    • #
      David Maddison

      So they sell electrity for around 55c per kWh vs one litre of petrol which contains about equivalent of 8.9kWh of electricity? (Octane rating doesn’t matter, it’s the same energy content.) [Calculation 489c/8.90kWh = 54.9c per kWh]

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      • #
        Robert Swan

        A kWh delivered quickly (e.g. by Ferrari) is worth more than a kWh delivered slowly (e.g. by my elderly Peugeot).

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      • #
        Ronin

        But we only get 30% (diesel) out of a $2 litre.

        20

      • #
        Lawrie

        I pay $1.80 or less per litre of petrol. Using your conversion rates that is 20.22 cents a kWh. Where did you get the $4.89 per litre figure or are you talking a per gallon price and if so you need to divide a US gallon by 4 to bring it back to litres. If that is the case then the petrol equivalent price is only 14 cents kWh.

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        • #
          Sambar

          Hey Lawrie where is diesel $1.80, best I can find is $1.99 at one place all other outlets are over $2.00 and up to $2.18 today. This is both Melbourne metro and country Victoria

          30

          • #
            Hivemind

            You can get diesel for $1.999 per litre at the 7-11 service station in Fyshwick (ACT).

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          • #
            Lawrie

            Strangely enough on a recent caravan trip to Longreach petrol was generally cheaper in the country than in the cities. Some remote locations such as Lightning Ridge were nearer $2 for ULP 91. Diesel was always $2 and up and about the same price as ULP 98.

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        • #
          David Maddison

          The OP said $4.89 was the equivalent cost of electricity per lite of petrol. He said petrol was $1.80 per litre.

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          • #
            Lawrie

            I was confused. Is this correct? A kWh of BP electricity is 55 cents. A litre of petrol costs $1.80 and contains the equivalent of 8.9 kWh of energy or approximately 20 cents per kWh. IOW electricity is over 2.5 times dearer than petrol. People who buy EVs have more money than sense.

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    • #
      Frederick Pegler

      Yes being fashionable is one thing. Costing shareholders dividends is another kettle of fish entirely.

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  • #
    Lawrie

    I have shares in BHP and it has been paying good dividends due to the boom in coal and gas prices. Methinks the board saw that their shareholders have more clout than do a few noisy interjectors at AGMs. They may have noticed that wokeness is expensive or they might have just taken a reality pill. I am sure the top executives are aware that the climate scam is just that and that the wheels are falling off despite the best efforts of the BoM and other”scientific” institutions. At what point will Chris Bowen realise he is on a fools errand as large companies expose the futility of renewables?

    450

    • #
      John Hultquist

      shares in BHP

      The post is about BP, so I was momentarily befuddled.
      DuckDuckGo is my friend.
      1885-2000 The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited
      Now:
      BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton)
      Via a mutual fund, I too own shares.

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      • #
        Lawrie

        John. As I get older I often make mistakes and you have seen one of many. I don’t have shares in BP so my post was erroneous. I do note that BHP operates a large coal mine near my hometown of Muswellbrook and that they were trying to sell it but then withdrew it from market as coal headed toward $400 per tonne. They also applied for an extension to the licence which will take operations to 2030. I did inquire why only 5 years when reserves are larger than that. Answer was that it was easier to get short extensions rather than the 10 or 15 years they wanted. By 2030 I believe the great scam will be well and truly debunked and reality will bite. There is money in coal and there will be for decades and longer if our ridiculous ban on nuclear persists.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      “At what point will Chris Bowen realise he is on a fools errand ?” I doubt he will ever wake up.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Bowen is a simpleton.

      He is always smiling for a start, a characteristic of many low intelligence and mentally challenged people.

      It is almost certain he lacks the mental capacity to understand.

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      • #
        el+gordo

        Its more like a ‘smirk’.

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        • #
          Rupert Ashford

          Exactly. Remember he was the one standing next to Shorten who arrogantly said “If you don’t like our policies then don’t vote for us”, and then he was surprised when the people followed his advice. And then the idiots voted for him 3 short years later and look where we are heading now…

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      • #
        Mike Jonas

        I really hope that he lacks the mental capacity to understand. The alternative is so much worse.

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      • #
        Jim

        That is being rather harsh on simpletons, isn’t it?

        10

    • #
      John B

      Among the major shareholders of BP, Blackrock and Vanguard, the 2 companies which own major share holdings in most large mining and oil companies.
      Name Equities %
      BlackRock Invest M’ment (UK) Ltd. 872,866,479 4.81%
      BlackRock Fund Advisors 537,376,110 2.96%
      BlackRock Advisors (UK) Ltd. 255,113,000 1.41%
      The Vanguard Group, Inc. 627,557,228 3.46%
      Vanguard Global Advisers LLC 156,452,297 0.86%

      30

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        BlackRock 9.18%
        Vanguard 4.32%

        They probably have more clout if they are also a source of funds for exploration/development and could also influence banks not to lend either.

        20

        • #
          Lawrie

          19, at last count, US states have withdrawn super funds from Blackrock. Woke investments have been performing badly, the states are responsible for the pension funds of their employees and want to maximise returns.

          10

  • #
    Asp

    One needs to be flexible and adaptable.

    30

  • #
    David Maddison

    A good thing that BP is doing the responsible thing and returning to proper hydrocarbon fuels, at least partly.

    I guess, like all companies, they’re still terrified of being punished by Government and the Left if they don’t follow the official narrative, however. A fine line to tread. So they’ll still waste corporate resources on other woke activies. E.g. wind, solar and racist, sexist, heterophobic employment policies that discriminate against white, male heterosexuals.

    At least the management must partly understand:

    Get woke, go broke.

    270

  • #
    John Hultquist

    Global green energy company Siemens Gamesa reported Thursday that it had lost a staggering $967 million during the three-month period from between October to December.

    Co wants more of other people’s money.

    Fox News report.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/siemens-gamesas-q1-net-loss-widens-884-million-euros-2023-02-02/

      [..]

      The net loss in the October-December period, Siemens Gamesa’s fiscal first quarter, widened to 884 million euros ($974 million) from 403 million in the same period last year, the company said.

      The company last month flagged increased failure rates of unspecified components of its installed onshore and offshore wind turbines, triggering higher warranty provisions that have also plagued Danish rival Vestas (VWS.CO).

      [..]

      SEE LINK FOR REST

      GET WOKE, GO BROKE

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      • #
        Rupert Ashford

        Fact remains Unreliable Energy is not competitive without and despite serious government meddling in energy markets. And it never will be – consumers will be milked more and more…they might even wake up one day in the never-never.

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      • #
        another ian

        That cloud of dust you see heading for the far horizon?

        That is the cheap electricity you were going to get from wind power

        “Trouble in SWindlesville: Interesting slide from Siemens Gamesa, the 2nd world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines. It reports that onshore turbine orders dropped 46.3% y-on-y in the last quarter. And the cost of those turbines (€ per MWh) went up 25% y-on-y ”

        Links at

        http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2023/02/03/we-dont-need-no-stinking-giant-fans-68/

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  • #
    Zigmaster

    Typical of large companies they still try to have a foot in each camp. Everything really is about politics . They think that if they voluntarily take certain environmental actions they won’t have more draconian actions forced on them by governments controlled both internally and externally by Greens. What they should realise this only emboldens them so that they demand even more crazy things. Having chosen to give in to activists it’s difficult to reverse. These companies have to rip off the band aid. They have to dare governments to make them less profitable because that without them and the taxes they provide the government can’t function. Rather than operating under ridiculous rules take their bat and ball and go home. Operate only in countries that appreciate you.it’s time to stand up to activist shareholders, time to stand up to activist ministers, time to fight back and bring the whole renewables edifice crashing down. The climate lobby has used the support of major corporations in particular fossil fuel and mining companies as validation of their position. This has to change. Our economic survival depends on it.

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    • #
      Geoff Sherrington

      Zigmaster,
      Your Honour, I object.
      My colle4agues and I built a medium sized company, then Peko-Wallsend, into one of Australia’s largest in 1990, then named North Limited. We did this by discovering more new wealth in the form of new mines.
      I object most strenuously to your depiction of “large companies they still try to have a foot in each camp”. Not guilty, Your Honour. We had clearly defined objectives. They included legal opposition to other camps. Several times we contested aboriginal affairs in the Federal and High Courts. I was centrally involved in a big challenge to the Fed Minister of Environment in 1987 over unjust terms in acquisition of land. That ended up before the full bench of the High Court. We at Peko under Charles Copeman AO dismissed over 1,000 union workers at Robe River iron mine and offered them non-union jobs back. Most came back and it all worked better. There are many more examples where the foot was firmly in one camp only.
      I do admit that in recent times some CEOs have lost their ba11s and have lost their governance principles, which I consider to be deplorable and inexcusible weakness. One should not pay money to blackmailers. One should not yield corporate leadership to nameless unelected bureaucrats or faceless NGOs.
      Geoff S

      241

    • #
      Paul Siebert

      “Our economic survival…”
      Our very survival!!

      00

  • #
    Robber

    As a young engineer back in the 1970’s I was told that oil would start to run out by the mid 80’s. The Opec oil embargo forced prices up to $50/bbl. And then, fuelled by the Iran/Iraq war, oil rose to $100/bbl, only to drop back to $30/bbl by 1985. Today’s price is around $75.
    But the reality is that if companies stop exploration, production will gradually decline. That is happening in Australia as some States make it very difficult to get exploration permits (and in Victoria’s case even ban exploration, especially fracking).
    We keep getting told by renewable “experts” like Minister Bowen that Australia can become a renewable energy powerhouse, but with high construction costs please “tell ‘im he’s dreaming.”
    Witness the increasing prices of gas and electricity. Where’s my $275 reduction in my power bill Albo?

    420

  • #
    Neville

    So what’s so attractive about TOXIC RUINABLEs like dirty S & W?
    Every 15 to 20 years these vile monstrosities have to be torn down and buried in the ground and then more of these loony environmental disasters have to replace them.
    These environmental disasters are very attractive to China and Russia because they fully understand that the clueless OECD countries are putting a noose around their own necks. Then they just have to sit back and wait for the best and earliest opportunity to strike.
    How have we accepted this lunacy and why do big Unions and big Business etc strive to encourage and promote this OECD suicide agenda?

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  • #
    TdeF

    Backflip? I think it is about this news from the Telegraph, news which has suddenly disappeared from the front page..

    Shell had by far the highest annual revenue of all companies based in the United Kingdom in 2022, at approximately 261.76 billion U.S. dollars. BP had the second highest annual revenue at 158.01 billion U.S. dollars

    So Oil companies Shell and BP have the highest incomes in UK history. That’s not Green energy. And taxes on oil, gas and coal are propping up the Woke governments in the UK and Australia. So shooting yourself in the foot has become less popular and self evidently nuts.

    The media have hushed this up. Stop Oil Now has not commented. And the Greens expect the subsidies from taxes on oil, gas and coal to keep propping them up.

    300

    • #
      TdeF

      And how much longer can the Australian governments keep crucifying their biggest income source, coal?

      While we are forced by law to subsidize windmills and solar panels through inflated electricity bills from which money is forcibly and silently stolen, the massive theft orchestrated by the absurdly named Clean Energy Regulator when will reality bite that legitimate taxes are entirely dependent on Coal?

      And I had no idea that CO2 made the air dirty, so I object to the deceit in the name of the department for daylight robbery. All Australians should hold their breaths for a minute a day to improve our dirty air. And spare a thought for all those people working hard to reduce CO2 in the air. How’s that going by the way?

      190

      • #
        Simon Thompson M.B. B.S. (Hons)

        If CO2 is “Dirty”, then why do I enjoy carbonated water (Esp the Tonic variety) over tap water?

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        • #
          TdeF

          Water ‘acidification’ is deadly, apparently. It is supposed to kill everything. Moving from a ph of 8.2 to say 7.8 is called ‘acidification’ when it is nothing of the sort. If you buy a coffee are you ‘bankrupting’?

          The fact is all the world’s oceans are alkali and until all the calcium carbonate is dissolved will be so for all time. No more Great Barrier Reef, coral atolls, Nullarbor plains, White cliffs of Dover. So much of the surface world is built on, with limestone and marble. Beautiful Odessa is built from limestone and like Paris, the caves under the city go forever. Our Limestone coast, the caves of Rheims. Much of the coastlines of the world, all made from sea shells of dead animals who built their bodies with calcium and CO2.

          But we are told that the ocean is ‘acidifying’. Only after all this limestone is gone, eaten by CO2. Absurd! Only 1% of dissolved CO2 even turns into dissociated carbonic acid. The rest is just gas or deeper, liquid CO2.

          At what point will the promoters of the ecopolypse stop telling lies? There is no science in any claims of the anti carbon crew.

          Greenpeace at one point banned Chlorine, as in NaCL, the world’s oceans, our own nervous systems, PVC. It was laughable and failed. Now with the support of the UN/EU/WEF they have banned Carbon and taxed and stolen money with it. Carbon theft is very successful, currently running at $1,500 Billion a year. And the big oil companies are treated as mass m*rderers. Worse, their own management agree. Why does Woke management mean asleep at the wheel? And how much has CO2 gone down? Not a sausage.

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        • #
          Sambar

          “If CO2 is “Dirty”, then why do I enjoy carbonated water (Esp the Tonic variety) over tap water?”
          May be its the gin that you mix with it that makes it so enjoyable. Like my parents mixing sugar with the castor oil that “you have to take for good health”.
          Just tasted like castor oil and sugar ( and that taste has just come flooding back into my mouth after 70 plus years of last application). Its to early for a G & T to fix the problem, so staight tonic water it is then.

          70

      • #
        TdeF

        And I have written so many times, the RET act is illegal. Since Magna Carta it has been forbidden for governments to take money from the people to benefit third parties. Governments have taxation income and fine income. They cannot arbitrarily give your money to their friends through fake compulsory Energy certificates administered by the anti carbon ‘Clean Energy Regulator’.

        The only time the word carbon is used is “collectively address the entity’s purpose — accelerating carbon abatement for Australia — through the activities identified in the corporate plan”. So it’s a government department’s private war on deadly carbon, the sixth element of the Periodic table!

        Not only is being anti carbon dioxide absolutely nuts as if we humans control CO2 levels, the law itself is illegal and making third parties rich while we get nothing, successive governments in Australia and the UK have had a platform of no carbon taxes.. That is a total lie, even though the Act, the Renewable Energy(Electricity) Act of 2001 does not use the words ‘carbon’ or ‘tax’. The words carbon and tax do not appear anywhere. Which means it was intentionally deceitful all along. Again, daylight robbery not daylight savings.

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        • #
          TdeF

          From the Australian today, former ACCC Chairman Rod Simms.

          “We cannot expect companies to do what is not in their self-interest” which certainly applies to coal and oil companies like BP.

          and policies such as a carbon tax “would do wonders for harnessing capitalism to tackle climate change”.

          Which shows how far an expert like this is removed from the reality of fake green electricity certificates which have to be paid in cash by energy retailers. You do not get anything for this money. We have a massive carbon tax which has reached $6Billion a year and has paid for thousands of windmills which churn out cash, not electricity.

          Even the City of Canberra privately makes many millions a year from their windmills built entirely with public money. The last time it was reported they had $37million in certificates, their cash, not ratepayers money, not taxation money but raw income. It is criminal how many people are being paid twice for electrical power and then depreciate the publicly funded windmills so they pay no tax on their literal windfall profits.

          As BP know, you say one thing and you keep on churning out the cash because everyone knows man made Global Warming is a crock.

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  • #
    Greg in NZ

    I’m not sure how electric battery fire-trucks & ambulances would’ve coped in Auckland’s (in-fill housing and failed-drainage) floods last week… and now that SNOW is falling on your Snowy Mountains (started snowing yesterday on Mt Baw Baw and today webcams are showing snow-covered slopes from Hotham & Buller to Thredbo & Perisher) emergency vehicles & snow-cats – and even chairlifts! – would be struggling without fossil fuels hydrocarbons.

    UAH for January has gone negative, with Australia the winner on half-a-degree COLDER, ouch. Yet all I hear from Folly Filosophers [sic] is, “In a warming world…”

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    • #
      Simon Thompson M.B. B.S. (Hons)

      Yahoo! Climate change is reversed and the world has ceased to warm. The invisible Dragon monster is appeased

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    • #
      Dave in the States

      A certain parcel delivery company was touting replacing their delivery vans with EVs. But they didn’t plan on a good, old fashioned, winter. The EV’s can’t cut it in the cold, and the ice and the snow (Niether the other extreme as well). So they are quietly using a fleet of gasoline powered, large, SUVs to keep up.

      A certain pizza deliver outfit is also touting going EV. Boycott them all as much as you can.

      100

      • #
        Gob

        Chemical reaction rates are affected by temperature with doubling for a ten degree C rise; each ten degree drop in temperature halves the rate at which batteries operate. The arithmetic’s not hard. A battery will have capacity benchmarked to a temperature range; descend forty degrees below that range and there’ll be a sixteenth of the benchmarked capacity or none depending on how the mood takes you.

        50

  • #
    Neville

    Francis Menton has written more about the disastrous S & W RUINABLEs and is helping to promote Benny Peiser’s latest data and evidence. Here’s a part of his latest article and the link.

    “But first, can somebody please let President Biden in on this news, or at least some of it? Even as the impossible dream of a wind/solar-powered economy collapses everywhere it is tried, the U.S. federal government blindly pushes forward with hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer funds to subsidize wind and solar generation and battery storage. It would be bad enough if those huge sums were merely wasted. But in fact, they will not just be wasted, but will also contribute to vast destruction of our functioning and inexpensive energy infrastructure, and they threaten to leave people impoverished and freezing in the dark. A government-wide crusade throughout the federal bureaucracy uses every regulatory trick in the book to hinder, hamper, and suppress the fossil fuel energy that actually keeps the heat running and the lights on. The world has gone completely mad”.

    https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2023-1-30-lets-face-it-net-zero-is-dead-in-the-water

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  • #

    What is really sad is that EV can be a good thing for us but government trying to shove it down our throats and force us to buy incomplete EV technology was stupid idea which makes many of us think it will never work when the real problem was not enough time and the lack of unfettered investment in it would have eventually succeeded in making it work in maybe 25 or more years from now while it never had a viable marketing change today because the technology was not mature enough for it to be an asset today.

    Hybrids should have been the obvious trend to them allow EV to develop over time for at least some applications such as in cities only where limited range isn’t a factor.

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    • #
      Dennis

      Capitalism, free enterprise, free market system, let consumers decide winners and losers on merit.

      As they did in the US when Henry’s Model T Ford became the clear market favourite over electric vehicles and for very good consumer reasons and purposes.

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      • #

        Exactly. Every Economic/Technological Transition in History has been Consumer driven. That is why the Guv’ment mandated so called ‘Energy Transition’ will not work. The Consumer is not really in on it as it wont work. The WEF really stands for World Economic Fallout and Blackout Bowen is about to fall on his ars* when Liddell ceases operations in April 2023.

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        • #
          Gob

          Sixty days away; I wonder how cold it’ll be by then given already we’ve snow on all the ski webcams.

          50

          • #
            Dennis

            You do know that there will never again be snow on the Snowy Mountains and the ski resorts will become ghost towns in winter.

            sarc.

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  • #
    Neville

    So why do these liars and con merchants continue to promote TOXIC S & W RUINABLEs?
    AGAIN here Mark Mills easily explains in 5 minutes why these TOXIC disasters can never supply enough reliable energy for a modern economy.
    China, Russia, India and all of the developing countries understand the DATA, yet the OECD countries are prepared to risk their and our futures for a guaranteed ZERO return from TOXIC S & W ?

    https://www.prageru.com/video/whats-wrong-with-wind-and-solar

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  • #
    Neville

    AGAIN here’s the latest co2 emissions per country etc 1970 to 2021.
    Note the recent big increase in Chinese emissions and also note that combined USA + EU co2 emissions haven’t increased since 1970 or the last 50 years. THINK and WAKE UP because you’ve been lied to since Dr Hansen’s deceptive DC speech in 1988.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/World_fossil_carbon_dioxide_emissions_six_top_countries_and_confederations.png

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  • #
    Neville

    BTW Mauna Loa co2 levels have increased from DEC 2021 to DEC 2022 by another 2.24 ppm.
    And in DEC 2022 co2 levels were nearly 419 ppm.
    So can anyone tell us how our OECD sacrifice is helping to save their planet? Or why a co2 level of 419 ppm is a problem or even a disaster?

    https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/mlo.html

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  • #
    Geoffrey Williams

    It would appear that BP are using the war in Ukraine to justify their investments in oil and gas and coal . .

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    • #
      TdeF

      Many people are using the war in Ukraine to make profits, dispose of obsolete weapons, build defence budgets, dump old tanks and justify the most amazing things. It is a war of convenience, a proxy war in Europe’s second poorest country. And no one asks why it is the second poorest country? (After neighbour Moldova)

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      • #
        TdeF

        And if anyone questions the hypocrisy of the world’s biggest arms manufacturers, France and the US aiding and abeting war against Russia, it is only matched by the oil companies making historical record profits while taking a knee to climate change. Even oil rich Iran is making profits on the Russian side. Oh, what a lovely war.

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  • #

    Less focus should be on profit, and more focus should be on the community.
    /sarc

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  • #
    Ross

    I thought Jo had used another Babylon Bee spoof for this article. The story is about an oil and gas company who think their best strategy is to, well, make money from oil and gas. Then the BP exec’s name was Looney. But, then again BB is more likely to be true these days anyway.

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    TdeF

    What I find also unbelievable is that if the CO2 level was a world problem , we would be worrying about the CO2 level. And after 35 years of taxation, theft, bans, blowing up power stations, stopping exploration, how much has CO2 gone down?

    So we in Australia now are waging a devastating war on our ’emissions’, because we can reduce ’emissions’. But how much will this do for CO2 levels other than cripple Australia? Nothing at all. So why are we doing it? Cui Bono?

    And both Shell and BP are saying the right things but selling more and more and making bank busting profits. But they mean well?

    Surely the real objective would be to stop the climb in CO2, but it isn’t. China now has more CO2 output than all other countries combined, but no one actually cares as we resume our massive coal exports. At home we are planning to cut our emissions no matter what the cost! Why? I have never heard an explanation.

    The sense of the unreal permeates the whole business of the war on Carbon. Perhaps if we make windmills from carbon fibre? Now there’s a use for BP’s oil.

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    Neville

    AGAIN more proof that we’re not suffering from a global climate disaster today and certainly ZERO risk for Humans since 1988. In 1988 Human life expectancy was 63.7 years and today is over 73 years. See Macrotrends for UN data.

    But the Human population since 1988 ( 5.1 billion) has increased by another 2.9 billion to over 8 billion today. So can anyone point out silly Biden’s so called EXISTENTIAL THREAT since Dr Hansen’s speech in 1988 or since 1950 or 1970 or whenever? See UN data link.

    https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/WLD/world/population

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  • #

    Yes, and they are cutting back on ‘bee pee’ as well…………..

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    Rick

    If that photo of the BP station is a recent one, I want to know where it was taken – I’ll be first in line to buy regular unleaded at $1.10/ltr! Like I’d ever get to the front of that queue.
    On a serious note, BP have built, in the last year at least three brand new service stations within a couple of kms of my home in Perth’s western suburbs. This is not the behaviour of any company that is expecting the sale of gasoline to dry up in the next few years.
    The reality, once again, fails to conform with the narrative.

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      Those days are gone. The photo was taken in 2008 in the UK. I use copyright free images and usually credit the authors with a link, in the caption or at the bottom of the post.

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    Strop

    Maybe we should hear it directly from the BP CEO rather than from people “close to the company”. But it sounds like a sensible step in the right direction and hopefully indicative of a valid shift toward energy reliability and security.

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    Geoff Sherrington

    For general interest, did you know that British Petroleum history began with a character names James Knox D’Arcy who made a fortune from gold mining investment at Mount Morgan, near Rockhampton, Australia, in the 1920s? Some history here:

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/04/19/listen-to-hard-science-reject-pop-science-to-lessen-global-catastrophe-risk/

    He took his fortune to the deserts of Arabia and drilled many barren holes before the bonanza oil strike that became BP.
    ……………………..

    More trivia, in the 1980s there was a lot of BP advertising involving “The quiet achiever.” I wored in a joint venture with BP and met a senior BP man named Frank (*) on whom that commercial was modelled. Did the advertising succeed? Does anyone still remembner the Quiet Achiever?
    Geoff S

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    Neville

    AGAIN more proof about Human thriving since the UK switched on the Industrial Revolution over 200 years ago.
    Even Wiki uses the proper data for the existence of modern fully evolved Humans and that’s about 200,000 + years.
    So for 99.9% of that 200 K years of Human life it was BRUTAL and SHORT and below 40 years.
    But the last 0.1% of our Human existence has seen a remarkable change and today the 8 billion Humans live to 73 years and the UN predicts that life exp will continue to increase to the end of the 21 st century.
    The UN also predicts that even if we do NOTHING to mitigate their so called Climate change we will still be 3.5 times richer than we are today. Again by 2100.
    And the UN also predicts that by 2100 the Human population will be over 10 billion.
    But please can anyone look up the data and prove me wrong?

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    TdeF

    Of course if Albanese wanted to drop the cost of electricity massively, he would only have to repeal the Renewable Energy(Electricity) Act 2001 and it would happen overnight. And windmill and solar people would have to invest their own money, not ours. And compete with their much cheaper electricity. Except none of it is true.

    And then people could drive electric cars because electricity would be cheaper. Better to tax BP though as carbon villains. It’s all about the money as always with the unearned incomes of governments. It keeps people off the streets.

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    Ronin

    Wait until the fools who invested in green hydrogen realise it’s a dead end and have done their loot cold.

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      Dennis

      It reminds me of the 1980-1990s business fads, like In Search Of Excellence, like buying companies to create a larger group of companies for a holding company ignoring the compatibility of business activities and therefore board of directors ability to add value for shareholders.

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    TdeF

    Around the world there are carbon taxes, obvious and hidden. Emissions reduction schemes. Laws stopping fracking and exploration and mining. We have better light globes, lower petrol consumption, streamlining, electric cars, stickers on our white goods about energy efficiency. Even a world wide shutdown of cars and aircraft and factories and thousands of cities across the planet including China.

    So what effect has this had on relentlessly growing CO2 levels. Not detectable in any way. In fact no human activity even with 8 billion people on the planet from 1 billion at the start of the last century.

    Its as if we and BP and Shell and coal mines and Iran and Venezuela and Russia and Saudi Arabia and 8 billion humans and bushfires and volcanoes have no observable effect on CO2 levels. So why do we do it? Cui Bono.

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    TdeF

    As a note for BP, each 1 kg of fuel and 3.4kg of oxygen produces about 3.1kg of CO2 and 1.3kg of water.
    Now we consider that the CO2 overloads the tiny ‘biosphere’. But what about all that water? Surely we are all going to drown. And run out of oxygen.

    But that’s silly because there is so much water already. Except that is true for CO2 as well, 98% of it being in the ocean.

    So there isn’t a problem. BP know it as well.

    As for drowning, I fail to see how a tiny 1.5C in the atmosphere which has 1/1400th of the oceans mass and heat capacity will actually heat the oceans more than 0.001C and that will take tens of thousands of years.

    If you want to panic, fine. Buying shares in BP would make more immediate returns.

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    BrianTheEngineer

    Meanwhile, there are artic conditions in North America and it’s also snowing in the Australian Alps in the 1st week of February.

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    • #
      John Hultquist

      artic conditions in North America

      Only as far south as IOWA! 🤣

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      • #
        BrianTheEngineer

        We’ll all owe

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        another ian

        Maybe you need a wider screen TV?

        “Texas winter driving” from a truckie Tuesday night US time

        “Took an hour to get 15 miles out of Oklahoma, and I haven’t made it 4 miles into Texas in 2 hours. Might be a long 450 more miles tonight. Grrrrrr and it’s not the cars that are causing the problems. “

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    TdeF

    It shows Nett zero works! Global Cooling is accelerating.

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      TdeF

      In Melbourne at 37South, 5 weeks after the Summer Solstice (late August equivalent) we should usually be around 90-100F (30-38C) but it is a freezing 14C (58F). Rug up. Beach is cancelled. My airconditioner has switched to heating. Winter is coming. And still people want to cool the planet and punish the oil companies?

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    Ketil Mortensen

    The fact that new service/petrol stations are being built all over Australia should tell us what the reality is.

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      another ian

      KM

      Probably someone will quote the Dutch tulip bubble to dispute you. Or that ostrich bubble here later?

      (Any sarcasm directed at any such response and not at you!)

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    Brett

    There’s no way BP will be cutting back fossil fuels by 40% by 2030, it’s just virtue signalling. As soon as they realise their losing money ithey will be back pedaling flat out:)

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