Of course they care and understand the costs. They use accrual accounting and allow each year for the unlikely but not impossible thought of a disaster. That's also called insurance. The left wanted Exxon to go bankrupt after Exxon Valdez. They didn't, because they had used accrual accounting with wise consultation with actuarialists. There is a discipline called "Probabilistic Risk Assessment." I know it from the nuclear industry, but I suspect it's used in other industries. It's surprisingly accurate. Given its results, one could have expected something like TMI, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. The discipline is depressingly accurate. I'd be surprised if the oil and gas industry industries hadn't adopted it, although I have no knowledge at all that they have.
This was a great article. One thing you didn't mention is that Western companies -- Chevron, ExxonMobil, Total, BP, etc. -- clean up their messes after they've made them and generally try not to screw up the environment. The Exxon Valdez shipwreck was terrible for the environment, but it was an accident. The company considered it a disaster. It was not Exxon's typical way of doing business.
I'm an electrical engineer and have worked on a few gas and oil projects in the field. Chevron is very particular about safety and environmental issues, no matter what country they're working in. I worked on a gas project for Pemex (the national Mexican oil and gas company) once. We were just outside Ciudad del Carmen, a city at the very bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. We were at a natural gas processing plant. Natural gas out of the ground has hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and vaporized "tars" in it. It's called "sour gas." The H2S and tars are removed early in the process, and it's then called "sweet gas." We had started work early one day and noticed smoke from somewhere over the trees. I had to go on the roof later in the morning and saw where it was coming from. There was a huge field, massive, where these formerly vaporized tars, once extracted and condensed, were just dumped and occasionally burned. The field was filling up, so they had lit some fires before dawn to burn off the tars. When the Pemex guys explained to me what I was seeing, I was dumbstruck. This was just run-of-the-mill activity for them. They just shrugged their shoulders at what the poor people downwind of those fires might be breathing in.
The Western companies like Chevron and the other companies from civilized countries bring an element of respect for the environment, worker safety, and the health and safety of the public totally lacking from the likes of the Mexican and Russian state firms. Investing in Western oil and gas companies is ESG of the highest order, even though it's not what the lefties want to hear.
The slavers of the Global New World Order are very creative at hiding their methods of enslavement. Now they call it "nudging". I guess we are all being nudged toward enslavement now. But worry not! Bidenflation and fake world war are here to save us!
I want to be clear though, businesses should care about the environment etc, but they need to understand the costs and be VERY clear to the market how they arrived at that decision. The flimsy mind just thinks if you stamp organic on it then it must be good for you. It might not be for a large variety of reasons.
So what's the solution? Is it possible to work for a big corporation that doesn't focus its energy on an ESG score? What are they going to do when they receive a low score and suddenly there's no $$$ coming in from their stakeholders?
So it's now socially responsible for energy companies to produce energy that poor people can't afford, that is not always available causing blackouts. Somehow I don't think the people that make these decisions will be sitting in the dark, wondering what to do about an electric bill that's 70% higher or wondering if there's enough cash to cover the gas to get to the job site until the next payday.
I misread your first sentence due to a recent eureka experience after the past two, three years. In my mind I read "When all the elites and smart people get on board with something, you know in your gut it's wrong".
Of course they care and understand the costs. They use accrual accounting and allow each year for the unlikely but not impossible thought of a disaster. That's also called insurance. The left wanted Exxon to go bankrupt after Exxon Valdez. They didn't, because they had used accrual accounting with wise consultation with actuarialists. There is a discipline called "Probabilistic Risk Assessment." I know it from the nuclear industry, but I suspect it's used in other industries. It's surprisingly accurate. Given its results, one could have expected something like TMI, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. The discipline is depressingly accurate. I'd be surprised if the oil and gas industry industries hadn't adopted it, although I have no knowledge at all that they have.
This was a great article. One thing you didn't mention is that Western companies -- Chevron, ExxonMobil, Total, BP, etc. -- clean up their messes after they've made them and generally try not to screw up the environment. The Exxon Valdez shipwreck was terrible for the environment, but it was an accident. The company considered it a disaster. It was not Exxon's typical way of doing business.
I'm an electrical engineer and have worked on a few gas and oil projects in the field. Chevron is very particular about safety and environmental issues, no matter what country they're working in. I worked on a gas project for Pemex (the national Mexican oil and gas company) once. We were just outside Ciudad del Carmen, a city at the very bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. We were at a natural gas processing plant. Natural gas out of the ground has hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and vaporized "tars" in it. It's called "sour gas." The H2S and tars are removed early in the process, and it's then called "sweet gas." We had started work early one day and noticed smoke from somewhere over the trees. I had to go on the roof later in the morning and saw where it was coming from. There was a huge field, massive, where these formerly vaporized tars, once extracted and condensed, were just dumped and occasionally burned. The field was filling up, so they had lit some fires before dawn to burn off the tars. When the Pemex guys explained to me what I was seeing, I was dumbstruck. This was just run-of-the-mill activity for them. They just shrugged their shoulders at what the poor people downwind of those fires might be breathing in.
The Western companies like Chevron and the other companies from civilized countries bring an element of respect for the environment, worker safety, and the health and safety of the public totally lacking from the likes of the Mexican and Russian state firms. Investing in Western oil and gas companies is ESG of the highest order, even though it's not what the lefties want to hear.
The slavers of the Global New World Order are very creative at hiding their methods of enslavement. Now they call it "nudging". I guess we are all being nudged toward enslavement now. But worry not! Bidenflation and fake world war are here to save us!
I want to be clear though, businesses should care about the environment etc, but they need to understand the costs and be VERY clear to the market how they arrived at that decision. The flimsy mind just thinks if you stamp organic on it then it must be good for you. It might not be for a large variety of reasons.
So what's the solution? Is it possible to work for a big corporation that doesn't focus its energy on an ESG score? What are they going to do when they receive a low score and suddenly there's no $$$ coming in from their stakeholders?
So it's now socially responsible for energy companies to produce energy that poor people can't afford, that is not always available causing blackouts. Somehow I don't think the people that make these decisions will be sitting in the dark, wondering what to do about an electric bill that's 70% higher or wondering if there's enough cash to cover the gas to get to the job site until the next payday.
I misread your first sentence due to a recent eureka experience after the past two, three years. In my mind I read "When all the elites and smart people get on board with something, you know in your gut it's wrong".