Quote Originally Posted by Pat Germain View Post
The quote you posted ended with "fossil fuel policies". That's the very definition of corporate greed. I get it. The whole planet has a petroleum based economy. Everyone depends on petroleum. But it's a reality that the people who produce petroleum are motivated by corporate greed. On the one hand, that motivates companies to produce said petroleum. On the other hand, it motivates companies to keep the prices as high as possible. The only reason prices aren't higher than they are now is because petroleum companies know the higher the prices go, the more motivation there is to switch to alternative energy sources. And that would get in the way of their corporate greed.
My take-away from the quoted article is that "policies" are not dictated by corporations, but rather by... uhm... well... ... by policy makers. I'll leave it at that. We mustn't anger Mr. Moderator.

On supply and demand side of things, please keep in mind that for every major O&G company there are dozens, if not hundreds, of small independent producers. If a given 'major' wants to cut production to drive prices up, there are 50 companies who will gleefully crank a well or 20 open, or drill a new well, to make up the difference - in a commodity market where no one 'controls' their own prices. (Take a look at who controls the price of a Tesla or iPhone.) And let's not forget the impact on world energy markets of that little survival dance in Ukraine.

Also curious what defines "Corporate Greed"? IMO the media largely lives and dies on click-bait reports of the oil & gas 'major's' profits. But O&G industry net profit margins are reportedly ~2.8% (via investopedia). Other large companies: GOOG=24.01%; AAPL=26.16%; AMZN=5.29%; Ford=2.47% (via macrotrends). Mentioned here: Costco=2.43%. Or maybe some cereal(?): General Mills=12.06% (macrotrends again). If O&G industry gets down to 2.5% are they still greedy?

Would XOM or Chevron be less greedy is they produced lithium? What if they were already providing carbon capture & sequestration services? Or CO2 direct air capture R&D? Maybe.

A little research goes a long way. And improves GOOG profit margins!