In a warming world, clean energy stocks fall while oil prospers
economictimes.indiatimes.comclimate change is all around us.
If the planet is to avoid even more severe consequences from global warming, the International Energy Agency, the world’s leading energy authority, says, consumption of oil, coal and natural gas needs to be reduced much more rapidly, and clean energy sources like wind and solar power need to expand at a far faster pace.
But the stock market doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo.
Instead, the shares of a broad range of clean energy companies have been crushed lately, in a rout that encompasses just about every alternative energy sector, including solar, wind and geothermal power.
At the same time, rather than weaning themselves off oil, Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the two biggest U.S. oil companies, are doubling down.
They have announced acquisitions that will vastly increase their oil reserves. Exxon intends to buy Pioneer Natural Resources, a major shale drilling company, for $59.5 billion.
Chevron plans a $53 billion purchase of Hess, a big integrated oil company. These are enormous bets on oil for years to come.
It’s a perplexing state of affairs.
The evidence that carbon emissions are warming the planet is persuasive. Yet the stock market, which is supposed to be forward-looking, is treating alternative energy companies with disdain and big oil companies with respect.
There’s something wrong here, obviously.
