Danielle Jensen spent two years working on Mars — not the planet, the offshore oil rig.
Times are changing, though, and Jensen wants to be part of the future. When Shell posted a job for planning an offshore wind farm off Massachusetts, she leapt at the opportunity. She now lives in Boston and works for Mayflower Wind, a joint venture of Shell and two European utilities., whose five daily publications cover energy and the environment.
Oil companies are far from the only players in the burgeoning U.S. market; in fact, they’re not even the most significant ones.There’s an active debate about the role fossil fuel companies should play in the renewable energy transition. Several big European oil companies have pledged to overhaul their businesses by midcentury. Shell and BP, for instance, say they will slowly reduce their oil production, ratchet up investments in renewable energy and offset or trap any remaining emissions. The Norwegian oil giant Equinor has pledged to increase its spending on renewables from 4% of its budget last year to 50% in 2030.
“I think the companies right now are putting toes into offshore wind. I don't think we see massive shifts in capital yet. But you can see that potentially, if that becomes profitable, being a big part of their future business,” says David Victor, a professor at the University of California, San Diego.
Mahdavi and three other researchers recently published a paper looking at whether the largest privately-held oil and gas companies were making good on their promises to go green. They found zero companies transitioning away from fossil fuels in any meaningful way. Several U.S.-based companies — like ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips — have actually resisted change and doubled down on fossil fuels.
Of course, a few billion dollars is nothing to sneeze at, and these investments have helped the companies position themselves as significant players in the global offshore wind market. “There's a real risk that, because of the market power of these companies, they may actually crowd out competitors and ultimately make renewable energy more expensive for consumers,” says Brad Campbell, president of the Conservation Law Foundation.
“It's a lot of logistics. It's a lot of vessel movement,” he says. “It's got a similar feel [even though] your business case is really above the water, not below the seabed.” The MPI Resolution, a self-elevating turbine installation vessel, carries out repairs to the Burbo Bank wind farm in the United Kingdom.
He says it would have been like relying on Blockbuster to lead the world into the video streaming age.
Gee, what do you guys think? When has the fossil fuel industry _ever_ done anything that wasn’t fundamentally destructive unless it was forced to via lawsuit?