Sunday, October 4, 2009

Big Oil Goes Green For Real

Summary: Oil companies in America are starting to go green and invest in alternative ways of energy. This is partially because of government regulations, China’s demand on alternative technologies, and because Russia and Venezuela are pushing them out. But the strongest reason for these companies to be investors is the profitable business that they think this alternative energy can be for them.

Comment: As we already know from the previous presentations in class, oil is not going to last very long and alternative sources of energy are needed. But are these alternatives going to be functional by the time the oil is almost gone? How is the transition going to be? When are we going to see a significant increase? I don’t see in the near future a reduction of oil demand and I think that the significant increase in these alternatives should be seen already.

1 comment:

Shikhar.Singh said...

Excuse me if this is a little "off topic" but I think when we are examining something like big oil companies suddenly "going green" there's something to be said about capitalism as a whole.

The green movement, I believe, is an attempt for gloabal capitalism to wash it's hands clean of the environmental degradation that has occurred over the past few hundred years. The fact that the big oil companies are starting now to invest in alternative energy is only evidence that the green revolution is an opiate for the masses. Whereas before, the environmentalists had "the big bad oil companies" to oppose. The recent turn to green energy seems to be a strategic concession to the left that allows the violence and destruction of capitalism to continue.

yeah, it's a little radical... but i really feel this way about the green movement. This article just makes it so evident.

If anyone is interested in the above, check out Slavoj Zizek's comentary on the green revolution.