"We don't need no stinkin' giant fans..."
Royal Dutch Shell provoked a furious backlash from campaigners yesterday when it announced plans to scale back its renewable energy business and focus purely on oil, gas and biofuels.
Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive, said that Shell, the world's second-largest non-state-controlled oil company, was planning to drop all new investment in wind, solar and hydrogen energy.
“I don't expect them to grow much at Shell from here, due to portfolio fit and the returns outlook compared to other opportunities,” he said, speaking at the Anglo-Dutch group's annual strategy briefing.
He said that instead Shell would focus its remaining renewable energy investments on biofuels, where it is conducting research into “second generation” fuels, so far with little commercial success.
Linda Cook, who heads Shell's gas and power business, said that wind and solar power “struggle to compete with the other investment opportunities we have in our portfolio”.
Green groups are furious! Furious! How dare Shell place economic viability ahead of the promise of complete and utter pointlessness? Related - Sales slump for gas-electric hybrids and other unicorns.
More at Legal Insurrection.
good idea no more stinkin fans!
The major issue in the presidential election campaign should have been domestic drilling; not the economy. The GOP blew a great vote-gaining issue.
Glad to see an energy company finally re-focus its efforts on actual, proven and cheap sources of energy.
The winners:
- Shell workers and management
- Shell shareholders
- Joe & Jane Sixpack
The losers:
- Eco-fascists (looks good on 'em)
- "Fat" Albert Gore
- Fruit Fly Suzuki
The above calculus puts a broad smile on my face.
I'm also very much looking forward to my second annual anti-Earth Day on March 28th. Cars idling, lights shining, furnace burning, oven self-cleaning..........it's going to be glorious!
Why are the eco-facisists so upset?They have the greatest wind power that was ever elected.The big zero actually makes the Lieberals look good.
All the more pretext for 'em to keep hatin' those big oil companies...
With all that money spent on AIG life support, the Carbon market reinsurance/derivatives will still take them down. PLL also got tired of the hoola hoop
Nancy & Boxer are sooo… f***'d
Colin: laugh out loud! I love the oven cleaning idea: our 30 year old oven died recently and our new one self-cleans. We'll add that to our energy consumption on the 28th. Thanks for the idea!
Im with Colin from mission B.C. can't wait for Earthday and Earth hour. My only concern is for my poor electrical panel. Will fire up the XS11 special
reminiscent of Kate's action's last year.
Colin . . . don't forget to fire up the BBQ as well.
Domestic drilling was a huge issue for the GOP....... especially Palin "Drill Baby Drill"
The market always always wins.
biofuels have already gone the way of the dodo. input costs too high and competing with cheap crude.
This is OT. But in case anyone is interested in what Obama cannot do without check out this.
http://www.ihatethemedia.com/obama-thanks-obama-teleprompter-screw-up
Hmmm, if even the Dutch have stopped "tilting at windmills" then you know something is up!!
Colin:
Among the losers: all the Canadians working at, and investing in, Timminco, a major producer of silicon for use in solar panels. Why don't you take a trip east, and sneer at them, too?
Solar should be able to hang on. There are a lot of people living where it is cost efficient, way off the grid. The rest of it unless you have specific use is kinda irrelevant.
The capital power plant in washington DC (coal)provides steam and whatnot for all the Govt buildings including the whitehouse.
After all the talk about going green, there is still no solution to replace it. The jerks demonize coal and oil till it all makes us puke, but there is no viable solution to even this one puny power project. I think it could be used to bury the dems.
Can anyone explain why McGinty hasn't imposed the Kyoto targets on the province of Ontario?
"all the Canadians working at, and investing in, Timminco"
. . . are people hoping and praying that the subsidies from other taxpayers keep rolling in because they work in an industry that is neither effective nor efficient.
Solar produced electricity currently costs about 4x the cost of hydro or nuke or coal generated electricity.
Follies like this is why shell has chronically underperformed relative to exxon. BP/chevron has made an even bigger committment to the green window-dressing. When they pull back from it then you will know that gaia is in trouble.
It is worth remembering that these companies are energy companies specializing in portable power. None of the green stuff save for biofuels is portable - thus shells return to it's core strength.
That shell did not spin off these assets speaks to that crappy economics of them.
What happens when we run out of wind?
Eventually the environuts will clue-in, the clean fuel answer to our domestic power needs is nuclear. Build adequate generation capacity and our fossil fuel consumption will be greatly decreased. Money saved, less pollution and reliable power whats not to like.
Perhaps the Canadian government should get of its duff and promote its design, construction, operation and viable spent fuel regeneration, if its looking for economic activity. The French seem to be able to do it with very few problems. There are even designs out there that use spent fuel and can power small communites that are presently off-grid and burning diesel like its going out of style to generate electricity.
This could be the next great economic driver of the Canadian economy.
Ahem. Lest we forget, we HAVE TO destroy our economy and lifestyles because of this here odorless, invisible, essential gas gas called Carbon Dioxide.
No matter if it is an insignificant green house gas and plants (food) grow better with more of it in the atmosphere. The Kyoto Kult says we MUST repent. The Intellectuals know what is best for us.
Note to Media: Circulation down ? The ultimate Hoax lead to the ultimate reader backlash ? A new meaning to 'don't believe everything you read'? Should have read your own reader comments.
That shell did not spin off these assets speaks to that crappy economics of them.
Posted by: Gord Tulk at March 18, 2009 11:40 AM
Exactly. Only government subsidies are fueling (pun intended) these enterprises. Until there's a quantum leap in technology that will radically reduce the costs of non-fossil fuel energy sources, there will be no place for them in any kind of mainstream way.
KevinB at March 18, 2009 10:02 AM: Well KevinB, I hope that company is diversified beyond solar panel production. It's not a company I would invest in personally, and the workers for that company should be under no illusion that their product is little more than a niche power source, demand for which is largely fueled by the current green fad. Despite this, as a free-marketer I wish the company the best of success, contrary to your belief I would sneer at them.
Socialists would like to nationalize private enterprize. They know that this is not going to happen soon, so their current strategy is to - through regulation and rhetoric - have companies assume more "social responsibility".
The idea that a company's main responsibility is to generate wealth, and that turning it into a tool of "social justice" likely does more damage than good, is utterly bewildering to such people. They believe that wealth comes from government, and that big companies are primarily parasitic. Thus their outrage when a big company refuses to kow-tow to their demands.
To MJH @ 11:15 McGive-me hasn't imposed the useless and ridiculous Kyoto targets on Ontario because most of the electricity used there is coal generated. Adopting the clean coal technology used in Alberta for power generation would help with the obvious air polution. Also after spending hundreds and hundreds of MILLIONS of tax dollars on a new nuclear power generator at Chalk River it will be dismantled before even going on line because they cannot get it to work. So in order to impose the Kyoto Accord signed by the pretender Cretin, there would be no electricity avaiable. The Hydro electicity from Quebec is sold under contract to the states,so is not avaiable to Ontario, yes even the power stolen from Newfounland's Churchill River.
KevinB: It doesn't appear Shell's presence in the green game was helping Timminco much anyways:
Timminco shares pounded by financial report, production slowdown
at 11:36 on March 18, 2009, EDT.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO - Shares in Timminco Ltd. (TSX:TIM) plunged Wednesday after the company posted a fourth-quarter loss of $1.3 million, and said it was temporarily curtailing production of silicon due to weaker orders.
The company's stock hit an early low of $1.60, a decline of 75 cents or 32 per cent from Tuesday's close, early in the session before rallying. The shares were at $2.10, down 25 cents or 11 per cent, with nearly 1.9 million traded later in the morning.
After close on Tuesday, the specialty metals producer announced the changes to its silicon operations, but declined to say how many workers would be affected by the temporary job cuts.
Chairman and chief executive Heinz Schimmelbusch told analysts in a conference call late Tuesday that the decision to reduce production was because of a "significant slowdown" in the solar energy industry due to the weaker economy.
The company also reported that its quarterly loss was worth a penny per share for the period ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of $8.8 million or eight cents per share a year ago.
Colin, you are hilarious. I will join the event and include all the appliances, the lights - we use those rediculous screw in fluroescents, but there's a lot of them - and we'll fire up all three large and beautiful domestic vehicles with their large and beautiful V8s in the driveway, not to forget the large and beautiful V-twin Victory. It is still truly a great country.
While I would never buy one having been spoiled by pushrod V8s, Corvettes and Cadillacs for too many years, GM needs to get that Volt into prodution. If it is just cool enough, all you brain-dead prius owners might switch.
Furthermore, I nearly blew chunks in my beloved SRX last week after seeing an incredibly repugnant smart on my stretch of I-80. Those cars look stupid in Europe. No words can describe how inappropriate they are on a U. S. interstate. A friend says her mini cooper is unsafe in the winter and hair-raising any time when near commercial trucks. How then would a smart stack up?
I wonder why Nader hasn't railed about the stupid "Smart" cars. The Corvair was eminently safer.......
When the most popular bumper sticker is:
DON'T BLAME ME I VOTED FOR THE TELEPROMPTER...
you can just feel that the gig is up....
"Until there's a quantum leap in technology that will radically reduce the costs of non-fossil fuel energy sources, there will be no place for them in any kind of mainstream way."
The greenbots will settle for a quantum leap in government subsidies. Oh, and carbon taxes too.
To uuess @ 12:23: "McGive-me hasn't imposed the useless and ridiculous Kyoto targets on Ontario because most of the electricity used there is coal generated."
Wrong. Ontario's electricity supply: Nuclear 51%, Hydro 21%, Coal 18%, Oil and Gas 8%, other 2%.
"Also after spending hundreds and hundreds of MILLIONS of tax dollars on a new nuclear power generator at Chalk River it will be dismantled before even going on line because they cannot get it to work."
Wrong. It's an isotope production reactor, and it's two of them, not a power reactor. The reactors work fine, it's the processing facility that doesn't work.
Next time, get the facts straight before you open your yap. If you make obvious factual errors it simply makes it too easy for the green slime to ignore you and dismiss legitimate criticisms of the Kyoto hoax.
Royal Dutch Shell is "non-state-controlled"?
In what sense? The Netherlands doesn't have a Queen?
That'll come as a shock to Beatrix.
[quote] Until there's a quantum leap in technology that will radically reduce the costs of non-fossil fuel energy sources, there will be no place for them in any kind of mainstream way.[/quote] Colin in BC
That is well said Colin. At the Obama Science committee meeting a real scientist (lady Dr. from MIT) was asked her opinion of what areas of research needed the most money (bang for the buck) and would have positive results. Her answer was "basic" research. That in my book means they need "new" ideas and that nothing now exists in the pipeline has any potential.
The lead time from basic research to a quantum leap in technology may be >100 years
for fun the other day I counted lights in the shack here. There are 107 separate bulbs. 20 outside, about 20 coilies, 6 florescents , and the rest of the inside traditional illegal bulbs.
hope there is never a power surge.
this place could never go off the grid
I applaud Shell. It's time that the Enviro-tranzies should be told to stuff it. They are not the government. They can only be the government by getting elected. They do not control the world.
I applaud Shell. It's time that the Enviro-tranzies should be told to stuff it. They are not the government. They can only be the government by getting elected. They do not control the world.
I applaud Shell. It's time that the Enviro-tranzies should be told to stuff it. They are not the government. They can only be the government by getting elected. They do not control the world.
iowavette , why should GM get that Volt into production? It's a lemon; a clunker.
No one will buy it.