January 18 – Environmental groups across the country reacted today to Royal Dutch Shell’s announcement that company earnings for the quarter would decline 48% compared to the previous year. This is the third straight quarter of what the New York Times described as “disappointing” earnings results. Forbes described the report today as “disastrous” and “dreadful.”
“Shell’s been betting heavily on dirtier and harder to get oil for the last decade, and it’s clear now that it’s been a bad bet. The new frontier for energy is not dirty oil in the arctic, it’s clean energy,” said Steve Kretzmann, Executive Director of Oil Change International in Washington D.C.
“Given Shell’s appalling profit warning, how we can we expect to trust Shell with the fragile Arctic environment? They can barely make money in the most profitable business the world has ever known,” said Gustavo Ampugnani, a Greenpeace Arctic Campaigner in Washington D.C.
“Shell’s announcement today is just one example of the mounting body of evidence that fossil fuel investments are not only bad for the planet, but bad for bottom lines,” said Jay Carmona, National Divestment Campaign Manager of 350.org in Oakland, CA. “Pension funds, university endowments and future retirees should take note.”
Today’s news is only the most recent development in the uncertain financial picture for fossil fuel companies. Just last week, Goldman Sachs completely divested from their previously significant financial support for the expansion of dirty coal exports to China through the Pacific Northwest. Goldman Sachs’s divestment move is the first sign that they are following their own report last year arguing that the “window is closing” for profitable investment in dirty coal.