Monday, February 03, 2020

The Death Knell for Fossil Fuels?


There's really not much to like in CNBC's brash investment guru, Jim Cramer. Until now.

Cramer warns that the fossil fuel industry has entered the "death knell stage."
Cramer added that "the world's turned on" the industry as they did with tobacco. 
"They're done," Cramer said of fossil fuels on the network's "Squawk Box." "We're starting to see divestment all over the world. We're starting to see ... big pension funds saying, 'We not going to own them anymore." 
"The world's changed," Cramer continued. While companies like BP still mark profits, "nobody cares," because "new money managers want to appease younger people who believe that you can't ever make a fossil fuel company sustainable." 
"You can tell that the world's turned on them, and it's actually kind of happening very quickly," said Cramer. "You're seeing divestiture by a lot of different funds. It's going to be a parade ... that says look, 'These are tobacco, and we're not going to own them.'"



It sounds as if Morneau and Trudeau need to get ahead of this and fast. Canadians may be stuck with Trudeau's multi-billion dollar pipeline but, maybe, if he's lucky they can fire sale it to someone. When we're already running deficits wouldn't it be better to cut our losses where we can?

Oh, and do pass the word to Trudeau's nemesis, Jason Kenney.  His petro-fantasies, it seems, are over. And Jason might want to start collecting the $200 billion it will take to clean up the Tar Sands tailing ponds before the fossil giants fold their tents and steal away into the night.

UPDATE:

Cramer isn't the only one thinking fossil fuel's day in the sun is over.  Young Calgarians, 20-24 year bracket, are pulling up stakes and moving elsewhere. The allure of the oil patch is fading.
It's a refrain Dr. Laura Hambley, president of Calgary Career Counselling, has heard time and time again. 
She says many young people who come to her organization in search of career advice say they would like to stay in Calgary but aren't sure it's realistic. 
"We're hearing concern and worry and fear," she said. 
"They want to choose careers that are viable and where there will be employment … and we're seeing lots of stories about young people who are bright and who have worked hard at post-secondary and yet cannot get a position."

3 comments:

Trailblazer said...

neither Trudeau or Jason Kenney will fulfill their dreams , the taxpayer will however pay the price.

TB

The Disaffected Lib said...

Yes, TB, and that tab has been running for years. It hasn't just been the energy giants who have fleeced the public. The feds and the provinces have been even more shameless in taking the public for a ride.

Government's scam has been to 'externalize' costs. Keeping those costs off the current books was necessary to create and maintain the illusion of vast wealth in these resources. That explains why Canadian governments admit to only 3 billion a year in subsidies while the IMF pegs them at 46 billion a year.

The IMF calculations include not just direct transfers but also deferrals, the unrecovered value of natural capital (water, etc.), greenhouse gas emissions, tailing ponds, orphan wells and other environmental degradation.

Once you begin to factor in those hidden costs, the paltry royalty revenues government actually collects look terrible.

There's a reason Norway sits atop the world's largest sovereign wealth fund while Alberta is regularly skint as it goes through destructive cycles of boom and bust. And Jason Kenney wouldn't have it any other way.

e.a.f. said...

large funds won't want fossil fuels in their portfolios but fossil fuel companies will continue to exist, but they may become privately owned, as they once were. We will be using oil and gas for some decades to come because not only will it be needed for fuel but all the other things its used for to make such things, as cars, fabrics, medications, etc. What we will most likely see is how the resources are extracted, moved, and used to accomodate the choices of consumers.

We will have more electric vehicles, but we will still need to have electricty and not all can come from the sun. We know China is building more coal fired plants than are being decommissioned. It will be the same with gas/oil.

oil and gas will be a reduced industry. You know what when corporations are willing to see some of their assets sold to Indigenous groups.

Jason is never going to see the light, so to speak. Some religious right wing types believe their god would never let them or the earth perish. As jobs decrease along with decent health care, people will turn on him and his party.