A recent article in the New York Times, “Not So Green After All: Alternative Fuel Still a Dalliance for Oil Giants,” chronicled the move away from politically correct (but economically incorrect) wind and solar energy by the oil majors.

Royal Dutch Shell and BP, in particular, recognize wind and solar as what they are: dilute, intermittent energies that are not consumer friendly or economic. And their investment returns in the same have been lackluster. Shell and BP have found out what Exxon Mobil learned in the 1970s.

“Oil giants worldwide are skeptical that President Barack Obama’s plans to move the economy away from petroleum will be successful,” Jad Mouawad wrote in the Times. “Many of the oil companies are sticking to their hydrocarbon business model and some are backing away from commitments to renewable power.”…

Noel Cass, Research Fellow at University of Leeds, views himself as the purveyor of truth and goodness and his critics (me, in particular) as conflicted, wrong, and “evil.” His bio reads in part:

I am a researcher focussing on the social and political aspects of energy systems and everyday life. I have researched areas including environmental audits of organisations, tourism and travel, everyday life and travel practices, public engagement with renewable energy technologies, the ethical implications of nuclear power and options for radioactive waste management, the social exclusion implications of transport policies on congestion and climate change, climate change policy in local authorities in the UK, the energy demands of the built environment, later focussing on office building designs, and the implications of changing office work practices.

A recent exchange between Cass and me is worth memorializing as a data point in the intellectual battle between critics and supporters of the climate narrative of doom-and-gloom and the magical thinking of an “energy transformation” from fossil fuels to wind, solar, and batteries.…

A solar bankruptcy list has been compiled by Data Register, “Data from Solar Company Bankruptcy Register: US Home Solar Bankruptcies and Closures Since 2022.” Their summary of the current state of the industry speaks for itself (reproduced verbatim below). I then offer a final comment, followed by Appendice A on (long-term) contract transfers from busted companies and Appendix B on previous posts on the rooftop solar bust.

DATA REGISTER

Since 2022, more than 90 solar companies that sold, financed, serviced, or supplied U.S. homes have gone bankrupt, entered a court-supervised wind-down, or liquidated. The yearly count is 29 in 2022; 29 in 2024; 24 in 2025, and 11 in 2026 (to date). Seventy-seven (85 percent) went through a bankruptcy court or similar proceeding, 51 (56 percent) are Chapter 7 liquidations once conversions are counted, 79 (87 percent) are installers.…

Ed. Note: Today’s post concludes a three-part lookback at Lee R. Raymond (1938–2026), the no-nonsense value-creator at Exxon Mobil (also see Part I and Part II).

The large, ever-growing list of climate “deniers” at DeSmog Blog documents a growing consensus against climate exaggeration and “green” energy inferiority. MasterResource has long documented this “backfire” at this Progressive Left, anti-fossil-fuel UK website.

The energy and climate views of Lee R. Raymond are presented by DeSmog below. Read and decide for yourself; was Exxon/Exxon-Mobil’s leader (1993–2005) correct in his time and today? Many scientific, economic, and political trends, in fact, are moving in the direction that his thinking would support.

Credentials

• Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Minnesota (May 16, 2011).¹
• PhD, chemical engineering, University of Minnesota (1963).²
• BSc, chemical engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison (1960).