Energy & Science
The New Math for Investors in a World of Cheap Energy
With costs sinking for both oil and renewables, only one of them is still offering investors a healthy return on equity.
Wind turbines overlook a pumpjack operating on an oil well in the Permian Basin near Crane, Texas on March 2, 2018.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
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As oil prices swooned last month but before the West Texas Intermediate benchmark closed negative for the first time ever, I wrote that Big Oil’s belt-tightening would be bad news for clean energy. Reduced capital expenditures from major investors would be detrimental across the sector, and falling production would mean fewer renewables contracts signed in the oil patch.