To be honest, mainly because we don’t own stock in BP (we do in Exxon, Chevron and ConocoPhillips), we at NLPC had kind of lost track of where the former “British Petroleum” had concentrated its revenue generation efforts.
That didn’t used to be “back in the day” when NLPC routinely blasted the company for downplaying its hydrocarbons extraction operations in favor of allegedly “green” and “renewable” energy development, in the heyday of the Obama stimulus slush fund giveaways. This was an especially bad environmental look when BP’s Deepwater Horizon platform explosion (pictured above) and subsequent oil leak disaster happened in 2010, as our Chairman Peter Flaherty wrote at the time in a post he titled “Beyond Pathetic:”
It’s revealing that the “greenest” of the big international oil companies is now responsible for one of the worst ecological disasters in history. Maybe BP should have concentrated on its core mission of efficiently and safely producing oil instead of trying to make us believe that BP stands for “Beyond Petroleum.”
Most big companies zealously guard their brand names. British Petroleum seems embarrassed by theirs. Even as the Deepwater Horizon gushes into its 42nd day, the BP website proclaims:
Our brand is summed up by the phrase ‘beyond petroleum’. BP recognises that meeting the energy challenges of today and tomorrow requires both traditional hydrocarbons and a growing range of alternatives. We are at the forefront of delivering diverse, material and real solutions to meet the world’s needs for more and secure, cleaner and affordable energy.
The ubiquitous and annoying Beyond Petroleum TV ads always feature windmills, a tiny corner of BP’s business that shouldn’t even exist.
Wind energy is not economically viable, only existing because of government subsidies and tax credits. Moreover, new studies suggest that the supposed benefits of wind — reduced carbon emissions — are exaggerated or nonexistent because of the intermittency problem. Because the wind does not always blow, coal and natural gas plants must ratchet up or cut back production, creating new inefficiencies.
NLPC subsequently reported in 2011 that after BP received a $7.5 million Department of Energy grant for solar four years earlier, that it still couldn’t make the “alternative energy” source profitably, so it exited the business. Then in 2013 the company dumped another useless “renewable” power source, announcing, “BP has decided to market for sale our U.S. wind energy business as part of a continuing effort to become a more focused oil and gas company and re-position the company for sustainable growth into the future.”
We had thought it ended there after BP had seemingly come to its senses, but apparently not, as more government subsidies must have come along that the company couldn’t resist. According to the Wall Street Journal today:
BP said it would boost oil-and-gas production and sharply cut investments in clean energy, pivoting back to fossil fuels in a bid to revive its flagging share price.
The struggling British energy company announced the moves Wednesday as part of a much-anticipated strategy update aimed at winning over investors…
“It’s a radical shift,” Chief Executive Murray Auchincloss said in an interview. BP would focus on pumping more oil in the U.S., where the company is a big offshore producer, and in Middle Eastern countries including Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq, he said….
Since taking the helm in the fall of 2023, Auchincloss has dialed back BP’s hydrogen and biofuel plans, put its onshore-wind business in the U.S. up for sale and launched a cost-cutting drive. He has also greenlighted several big oil-and-gas investments and secured quick-and-easy access to barrels in Iraq and elsewhere.
Companies in sectors from oil to autos have struggled to calibrate the pace of the energy transition as governments have wavered in efforts to curb climate change. President Trump began dismantling the Biden administration’s climate-focused initiatives soon after taking office in January.
BP could have learned but it didn’t, and therefore was doomed to repeat history. Call us not shocked.
