re: Exxon Report on Climate Change Risks

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It just depends on the time frame. I don't think we're incapable of on-boarding renewable energy on a mass scale. We just have to do it over the course of a decade(s) instead of a couple of years.

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Germany provides a good case study of a massive scale attempt. There are many problems now that the subsidies are being withdrawn.

The problem with "renewables" in your plan is that "renewables"--just like O&G --have limited useful lives and have to be replaced.

Solar panels decline pretty rapidly. Their useful life is <20 years. Wind turbines require regular maintenance and replacement from part fatigue.

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I bet every single person on this board will be happy once we're off of fossil fuels.

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I won't. I imagine many won't. What will we use to replace plastic? What will we use to replace paint? What will we use to replace pesticides and fertilizer? You can't have any of those vital products without distilling petroleum. So, it begs he question if we don't use he gasoline, diesel, methane fractions for fuel, what do we do with it? Bury it? Burn it?

Not trying to be a downer here. But the problem of replacing O&G is far more complicated than simply brining on solar or wind in its current forms.

If we are going to tackle it--it has to be tackled holistically.

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Not only will the debate stop

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Doubtful. For many, the debate is about delivering a comeuppance to corporations and the first world. They will simply find another issue to bludgeon them with.

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We want clean air, globally. [...] I can't imagine that won't help our future generations.

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Indeed. But we have to be careful with absolutes. If you were alive in the 70s, following a car would make you "exhausted". Today, you can't smell a properly functioning car exhaust if you stick your nose in the tailpipe. A drastic improvement! But by the absolute definition, it doesn't count, because it's still fossil fuel.

Though mostly unseen the improvements by the coal industry are even more dramatic.

We should improve upon what we have. As always evolution works better than revolution.

Is Texas Wind Energy any cheaper? I don't hear Texans bragging about their electric cost

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Is Texas Wind Energy any cheaper? I don't hear Texans bragging about their electric cost

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Tough question that evades a simple answer. Texas energy market is deregulated and far from simple. A lot of retail variable load.

At times the grid is over producing and exporting massive amounts of power. But let he temperatures get way hot or cold, and it's stretched to the limit.

Wind, solar, etc don't fit well into that scenario.

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Exxon seems to recognize the necessity of that mixed approach. I can't say I'm hearing the same from the environmentalists, most of whom have probably never picked up an economics textbook.

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"All of the above"

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The environmentalists are arguing from an idealist approach in which the world no longer requires fossil fuels. They are not interested in steps made towards that goal; they simply want to go from Point A to Point Z with very minimal thought put into how we can actually go about getting there without derailing the entire energy-based economy on which the current world happens to be based. For instance, the switch to natural gas fired vehicles that some corporations (UPS) and municipalities are starting to make carries little value in their book, because when the only frame of reference you have is "Fossil Fuels = Bad," you leave yourself precisely zero room for measuring any incremental progress being made in the meantime

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Wow, what sweeping generalizations.

Well, this is the place for them.

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You can discern the motives of multinational conglomerate Exxon? Impressive.

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when you spend nearly double and have 5 times the research group into environmental impacts, alternative energy, etc...

You obviously think it's important. Why you ask? Because companies want to MAXIMIZE profit. it's their stated goal. research only makes sense to spend money if that's what you're eventually planning on doing.

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perhaps they also have a corporate conscience? Perhaps not. Maybe you are omniscient... Perhaps.

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Every corporation has a legally stated goal to MAXIMIZE profits.

never forget that fact.

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Perhaps they have the capacity to focus their R&D on where they think it will result in the best return on their investment?

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Is that a problem?

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perhaps they also have a corporate conscience?

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Nope. Corporations aren't people.