Green Wombat

photo originally uploaded by tjean314

Nobody will accuse ExxonMobil (XOM) of greenwashing. The world’s largest oil company released its energy forecast for the year 2030 yesterday and, in contrast to the sunflowers-and-bears imagery promoted by competitors BP (BP) and Chevron (CVX), ExxonMobil predicted a fossil-fuel future marked by skyrocketing oil and gas consumption and soaring greenhouse gases emissions. Dependence on Middle East oil will grow. Not that there’s anything wrong with that: "The progress of people around the world is driving demand for more
energy," the report states. "We are a world on the move and liquid fuels are essential to meet those demands….By 2030, energy demand will increase by about 60 percent, compared to 2000. The global energy mix will look very similar 25 years from now. Oil, gas and coal will be predominant." ExxonMobil argues that solar, wind and other renewable energy sources will only provide 1 percent of the word’s needs by 2030 – about the same as today – despite the hundreds of millions of dollars being pumped into renewable energy companies and projects as well as state and national mandates to sharply increase the
use of alternative energies. While the oil giant correctly points out that China and India’s growing middle classes will lead to an explosion of demand for cars, it assumes the vast majority of them will run on gasoline. (Meanwhile, the United Nations  warned today that deaths from air pollution are likely to spiral as car ownership increases in Asia. Some 600,000 people in Asia die prematurely each year from air pollution, according to the UN report.)  ExxonMobil’s forecast report predicts that technological fixes – like capturing emissions from coal-fired power plants and higher efficiency vehicles – will reduce the impact on global warming. But it’s curious that in an increasingly carbon constrained world, with efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions snowballing, that ExxonMobil would so baldly stake its future on the status quo. Will it be a matter of time before Wall Street decides that such a strategy is just too risky and punish companies accordingly? Not just yet, apparently. ExxonMobil’s stock is up 1.46 percent today.