“After advertising its efforts to produce environmentally friendly fuels from algae for over a decade, Exxon Mobil Corp. is now quietly walking away from its most heavily publicized climate solution.” (below)

Biofuel is out, leaving carbon capture and storage (CCS) as the leave-us-alone, we-are-doing-our-part “greenwashing” strategy at ExxonMobil (see tomorrow’s post). The end of algae as a substitute for crude oil comes after $350 million and 14 years of commitment. This expenditure was joined by a “green” advertising campaign around the project of at least $60 million, mostly spent between 2017 and 2019.

It was predictable. Shell, BP, and Chevron had previously thrown in the biofuels towel. And it is reminiscent of Exxon’s failed ventures in the 1970s: Office equipment. Real estate. Synthetic fuels. Shale oil. Electric motors.…

“Equatorial Guyana and Suriname have combined oil reserves estimated to be 17 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The biggest hurdle to the extraction of these reserves could come from lack of capital … if the international climate-industrial complex takes a strong stand against their extraction plans and their own governments acquiesce.”

The poverty-stricken Caribbean countries of Guyana and Suriname have hit the jackpot with the discovery of huge offshore oil reserves that are on track to produce revenue for decades.

Opposition from the United Nations and other anti-hydrocarbon entities might hamper the pace of production but won’t stop it. The global need for more crude is too great, and the economic situation of the two South American nations is too dire.

Suriname has been experiencing double-digit inflation for a while now (35 percent in 2020).…

“When people driving Teslas tell Africa to turn away from hydrocarbons — it’s immoral, it’s wrong,” [Erik] Prince said. “We have real energy poverty across the continent.” (quoted in Bloomberg Green, 11/11/2021)

Oil, gas, and coal are energies for the masses; wind, (on-grid) solar, and batteries/EVs are for the elite. This theme, while old, is more pertinent than ever with the failures of “green” energy policy in a fossil fuel world. Paul Driessen emphasized it in his neglected book, Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death (Merril Press, 2010). Vijay Jayaraj emphasizes it today in “Climate Colonialists Disrupt African Pipeline, Perpetuate Poverty.”

Such is completely lost at Hot Take, where Mary Heglar titled a recent piece, “It’s Not Climate Denial, It’s White Supremacy.” But maybe Africa does not count to her.…

“Amy Meyers Jaffe, Chris Tomlinson, Jeffrey Sachs–so confident, so angry, so wrong about energy. In psychological terms, they are in denial about climate exaggeration and the verdict from energy density for consumer wants and necessities.”

“Other (pre-Jaffe) ‘Kodak Moments’ dissing fossil fuels have been published in 2015 here; 2016 here; 2018 here; 2019 here and here; and 2021 here. Idea plagiarism?”

CERAWeek 2022 was a rude comeuppance for the hyper-critics [haters?] of oil and gas, who found themselves marginalized not only by world events but also by the Biden Administration itself. Drill, baby, drill was the word from DOE’s First Lady. [1] But Houston Chronicle business editorialist Chris Tomlinson had to get his punches in, embarrassingly so given his strong emotions and elephantine conflict of interest.…