Oil companies begin to face reality

Climate change is going to be expensive

The earth on fire.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

The prospects for serious climate policy coming out of the Biden administration are not good. Not only is his infrastructure plan far, far short of what is needed — as Adam Tooze points out, Biden would dedicate less to green energy research over eight years than Americans spend on pet food annually — even that much passing Congress seems increasingly unlikely.

However, there is a somewhat hopeful sign coming from oil companies, of all places. Three major firms — Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, and Chevron — have all taken serious hits to their business models of late. Fossil fuel companies still make money today, but their future business prospects are dim, and that is starting to sink in even among top managers and investors.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.