Fossil Fuel Companies Need to Become Renewable Energy Companies

April 18, 2016

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by Steven Cohen (Huffington Post/Columbia University's Earth Institute) ... It remains unfortunate that many fossil fuel companies have not redefined themselves as energy companies that lead the effort to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. If I had money to invest, I’d certainly look for companies that take a longer-term view than some of these companies have taken. But when I plug in my laptop, recharge my iPhone or fill up my car’s gas tank, no one from Exxon Mobil is standing there forcing me to consume energy. I do that of my own free will. These folks are just my suppliers: I am the consumer. We are all consumers, and we are all addicts.

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The time and effort devoted to vilifying fossil fuel companies would be more constructively spent trying to figure out how to make our economy more energy efficient and working on the technology and institutional arrangements needed to switch from fossil fuels to alternative forms of energy.

I am a little confused about the absence of vision in some fossil fuel companies. I know they have billions of dollars invested in fuel reserves and in the infrastructure to extract it from the earth and distribute it to consumers. But they must know that they are in a doomed industry. It will take a while before we stop burning fossil fuels, but we will eventually stop using them.

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The transition to renewable energy would be easier to accomplish if the fossil fuel companies played a leadership role. They have the organizational capacity, marketing skills, research labs, distribution networks and global reach required.

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Fossil fuel companies will need to become renewable energy companies if they hope to survive in the energy business. READ MORE