Enron & BP: Global Warming as the Great Distraction

by Marlo Lewis on July 6, 2010

in Blog

In a threepart post over at MasterResource.Org, my colleague Robert L. Bradley, Jr. shows that BP  has much in common with Enron. Both companies aggressively sought rents (politically-contrived profits) via global warming policies. Both aggressively marketed themselves as green. Both were highly regarded as progressive corporations within the environmental community. Both became disasters.

For both companies, global warming advocacy and greenwashing became a fatal distraction, Bradley argues:

Just imagine if John Browne had used the time and resources BP spent on climate alarmism and ‘beyond petroleum’ on real safety and environmental issues.

BP might still have a capitalization of $150 billion and not face a potential worst-case scenario of bankruptcy and ruin. And more importantly, the U.S. Gulf would not be in an environmental crisis.

Just imagine if Enron’s Ken Lay had used the time and resources spent on climate alarmism and forced energy transformation on accounting, risk control, and the real things that promote business sustainability.

Enron might still be with us today.

Diverted management attention has an opportunity cost. Left environmentalists lobbied and praised BP and Enron for putting form over substance. A few shouted ‘greenwashing’, but most applauded their coveted split within the fossil-fuel industry on climate and energy.

Enron is no longer around. Instead it has become the poster child of political capitalism run amuck. And the Deepwater Horizon accident–for which, in an effort to save about $5 million, BP will pay tens of billions of dollars–may sink BP as an independent company.

What an irony: fake environmentalism driving out real environmentalism.

BobRGeologist July 6, 2010 at 11:24 pm

It just goes to prove out shysters will never learn crime doesn’t pay. The problem is that this elaborate attempt to bamboozle the public has cost our Government over 30 billion $$ in research grants in the vain attempt to prove carbon dioxide is our enemy. Fortunately, the inside information turned up in the ‘climategate’ scandal put the brakes on that waste of taxpayer funds. There seems no limit to this folly by our politicos wishing to perpetuate the problem with this energy bill (cap and trade) drastically raising costs of all energy thereby picking our taxpayer’s pockets in an act of “double whammy.” What we need is a wholesale house cleaning of our political ranks, our should I say rank politics.”

Bill July 8, 2010 at 8:08 pm

Like your site. Would like to trade links. My site is
http://global-warming-hoax-blog.blogspot.com/
Thanks

علام عبده محمد July 13, 2010 at 6:56 pm

لقد طالت ازمة خلييج المكسيك فقد ارسلت بأنى على استعداد تام لمنع التسرب كلياً فى خليج المكسيك وفى أقل من شهر وارسلت ايضاً بأنى صممت صناديق لجمع النفط المتسرب فى المياه والان اوافيكم بثالث ابتكار وهو تصميم حاجز لحماية الشواطىء وجمع النفط وعدم وصولة الى الشواطىء وتوفير عدد العمالة وما أظن بأن تقدم أحد بحل متكامل مثل ما تقدمة به
علام عبده محمد
جمهورية مصر العربية /الاسكندرية
ت/ 0187049378 / 0146057421 /الرمز البريدى /21923

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