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| Does Big Oil Care About Investing in Alternative Energy? |
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| Written by Miranda Marquit | |
| Monday, 04 June 2007 | |
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Big Oil's alternative energy track record doesn't look good. Monumental efforts have been made by many Big Oil companies (Exxon - XOM - is not one of them) to project themselves as "green." Big Oil even goes so far as to "buy" favorable research at respected universities in order to support the idea that they are environmentally conscious. Companies ranging from BP (BP) to Chevron (CVX) to Shell (RDS-B) tout their environmentally friendly policies. But are they really environmetnally friendly? Well, they do invest in alternative energy. According to the American Petroleum Institute, Big Oil (consisting of the largest five oil companies) invested $1.2 billion in alternative energy from 2000 to 2005. It is true that some may be investing more, but this investment should be compared to the nearly $120 billion Big Oil reaped last year alone. Big Oil is certainly interested in appearing "green": it helps them along with environmentally-minded investors. However, they aren't interested in investing major amounts into alternative energy. Instead, a great deal of the profits Big Oil is reaping come from investing in themselves -- buying back their own stock. If you are interested in investing in companies that are environmentally ethical, carefully look at their alternative energy track record. Unfortunately, with Big Oil, that track record isn't very good. Disclosure: The only Big Oil stock I am investing in is BP. Site disclaimer. BP 
Big Oil 
CVX 
XOM 
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written by Caroline Miniscule , August 22, 2008 Tag it:           | |
| Last Updated ( Monday, 04 June 2007 ) | |
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Oil companies make a lot of money. Yes. The U.S. is not the only customer of oil companies. THe whole world is. Therefore, it is not surprising that they make a lot of money. (And despite what you're told about tax breaks, they also pay quite a lot of money in taxes in the various countries in which they operate.)
China has a billion people. They refuse to sign the Kyoto treaty. Beijing is the most polluted city in the world. China is altering its environment faster than the US, as is Dubai, as are the countries in the Amazon destroying their rain forests so that their people can plant crops... yet it is the US that gets all the blame.