What Future?

Exxon Mobil's management, leading the pecuniary portion of its shareholders' interests, defeated proposals that would have forced it to do more to combat climate change and prepare for a post-oil world.

Humm.  That's like trying to get McDonald's to stop selling hamburgers, or Philip Morris to start manufacturing vitamins, isn't it? 

I mean, come on now.  Exxon Mobil made more money in a year (2007) than did any other company in any year in the history of the planet.  Ever. And its leadership doesn't see nonfossil fuels impacting world energy demand for another 40 years or so.

So it's supposed to stop doing what's working most excellently?  Talk about fixing something that ain't broke.

This latest event is either an affirmation of sound business strategy against the exigencies of political correctness, or it's a destructive, utter failure of leadership.

Or both.

The oil companies have been playing a coy game with the environmental lobby and their green-tinged consumers.  Most have run branding campaigns touting supposedly real interest in alternative energy, or in conducting some ongoing conversation about how consumers feel about the future of energy use, the earth, blah, blah, blah.

The truth is that they're not really interested at all.  And they shouldn’t be, at least not based on business reality.  There's no money in it.  Exxon Mobil has no responsibility to do anything other than what its customers would pay for, or its regulators might demand.  Or its shareholders would allow. 

It renders moot all of the politically correct marketing nonsense that the special interests have demanded...all of the cursory gestures toward green issues, with the soaring visual and soundtracks to accompany minor gestures to plant trees, recycle, or make infinitesimally small investments in green technologies.  and I’m sure that marketing research has identified green as a useful tool for branding. 

Surprise, surprise: green marketing is marketing, not a business issue.  So it's the operational corollary of calling an audible on the playing field.  Doing good is an option of type, degree, and cost. 

Why would Exxon Mobil ever willingly choose to spend more money on doing something real when they’ve been so successful throwing smaller amounts of money against green marketing?  The business case would have to argue for it and, in the case of these recent shareholder issues, there weren't cases much at all.

Don't get me wrong: I believe we need to do things about the climate, and shame on Exxon Mobil for not only tolerating climate change and alternative energy as throw-away nice-nice marketing issues but, in doing so,  helping feed the confusion. 

But expecting it to do good things for bad reasons is just dumb.

Think about management's rationale for ducking a greater investment in alternative energy or emission reduction goals: it's too far in the future, and in the meantime people will still demand oil...even at ever greater prices, and to the ongoing detriment of everything else we hold dear. 

So the company is going to keep doing things, whether short-term smart and/or long-term dumb, until a substantive, non-ideological business argument can be made to do things differently. 

Those incentives for action are going to come from consumers, regulators, politicians, and scientists.  Drivers are going to need to push for these possible futures.

There was little that a set of well-intentioned shareholder proposals could do.  They were all about what’s presently politically correct.  Too bad we've all gotten so good at, and comfortable with, green marketing.

It's hilarious that the company has just launched another one of those "look at our people talking about the importance of recognizing climate change" spots.  High production values.  Low on content.

Even lower on honesty.

Comments

[Chris Wilson]

Great points.

I get tired of everyone taking aim at oil companies as if they are the cause of all our gas price frustrations.

Sure, they are no saints, but it makes no sense for a company to lower prices (as some are suggesting) just to ease customers the pain. Even if they did lower prices (yeah right) it would only be a temporary solution, since the supply and demand factors are unlikely to change any time soon.

We're all to blame for the situation we're in.