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Tell me if you think I have it wrong, please.
by Steven D on Fri May 19th, 2006 at 10:33:42 AM EST
My uninformed guess is that you have it right.

These investors have a major influence if they decide to switch their investments to other oil companies and still make the same indecent profits

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri May 19th, 2006 at 12:03:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Thanks
by Steven D on Fri May 19th, 2006 at 01:14:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
A much better way of attracting the attention of company boards is consumer power.

A couple of million people not tanking their cars at Exxon or Esso for a week would really make them sit up. For the consumer it is easy, as there are so many alternatives at the same price. The question is: how to organize such a protest. This medium is ideal, but no-one has cracked it yet.

But I think we will see, over the next few years, the development of these kinds of actions. I am awaiting a further move by Shell (for instance) to shift their 'passive - we think green' campaigns into higher gear. It's crap of course - they are not really very green, but it would open the floodgates.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri May 19th, 2006 at 02:15:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Chevron has been running ads for "awareness" in some sense... What exactly, except for the liability issue, could the oil company expect in returns for those moves ? Look like "right guys" ? Stabilize demand and prices for the best of everyone ? Dunno. It certainly is better if oilcos testify about energy scarcity / climate change issues.

Pierre
by Pierre on Fri May 19th, 2006 at 03:45:49 PM EST
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It's about changing perceptions.

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Fri May 19th, 2006 at 06:03:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
And it's about market share. If an oil/petrol company can attract more people to tank at their stations. of course they win.

But I suspect a perceptual cartel. No company wants to make the first move because such a move would be an admittance of responsibility. But it will happen...

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri May 19th, 2006 at 06:07:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Right

I need a shower

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

by kcurie on Sat May 20th, 2006 at 08:52:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
just thinking, wouldn't some of those institutional investors have some level of investment in Insurance companies?

and wouldn't that give them cause to worry about very large scale losses, with the flooding and storm damage that may come from global warming?

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Sat May 20th, 2006 at 11:09:16 AM EST
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