, Columnist
Bashing Big Oil Won't Save the Planet
As long as we depend on CO2-emitting cars, ships and heating, lots of companies will be willing to keep pumping crude wherever it is.
Anti-oil protestors demonstrate outside OPEC
Photographer: Julian Lee/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Forcing the world's big publicly-traded oil companies to go green won't save the planet from the impact of the climate crisis.
Sure, they’re perfect targets for anger. They’re huge companies and household names. Their logos are on filling stations around the world. They pump millions of barrels of crude out of the ground every day, shipping it in vast tankers and processing it in sprawling complexes of pipes and tanks emitting clouds of who-knows-what into the atmosphere.