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   John Burns (johnjburnsiii@kzoo.to)'s status on Tuesday, 27-Aug-2024 11:16:39 JST John Burns

   Imagine if the oil companies realized that they were in the energy business and not just the single fuel (oil-based) business.

   They had the money to invest in steady amounts to ramp up wind, solar, and hydro... along with their oil business.

   Society would be further along in alternate energy sources. So many research & development years lost.

   🤔

   • Embed this notice
     Fish of Rage (sun@shitposter.world)'s status on Tuesday, 27-Aug-2024 11:16:34 JST Fish of Rage

     in reply to

     • feld
     @feld @JohnJBurnsIII there is no point in r&d-ing tech that won't be profitable until after your forward-thinking patent expires. capitalism isn't a good model for long term thinking imo
   • Embed this notice
     feld (feld@friedcheese.us)'s status on Tuesday, 27-Aug-2024 11:16:35 JST feld

     in reply to
     @JohnJBurnsIII that's exactly what happened AFAIK
   • Embed this notice
     John Burns (johnjburnsiii@kzoo.to)'s status on Tuesday, 27-Aug-2024 11:16:36 JST John Burns

     in reply to

     • feld

     @feld

     Sure... some start up. And probably some of those engineers saw that funding dry up in company - so maybe they left and continued R&D themselves.

     --
     I was really just what-if thinking...

   • Embed this notice
     feld (feld@friedcheese.us)'s status on Tuesday, 27-Aug-2024 11:16:37 JST feld

     in reply to
     @JohnJBurnsIII I think you're overlooking that they actually did this work, but there wasn't much point in throwing so much money at it with such low returns. That's what they closed their research corps. Exxon had Solar Power Corp and they closed it in 84
     
     https://www.npr.org/2019/09/30/763844598/how-big-oil-of-the-past-helped-launch-the-solar-industry-of-today
   • Embed this notice
     feld (feld@friedcheese.us)'s status on Tuesday, 27-Aug-2024 11:16:37 JST feld

     in reply to

     • feld
     @JohnJBurnsIII you can definitely argue that all our modern solar tech wouldn't have happened without the initial oil company research into solar
   • Embed this notice
     John Burns (johnjburnsiii@kzoo.to)'s status on Tuesday, 27-Aug-2024 11:16:38 JST John Burns

     in reply to

     • feld

     @feld

     It's a long game investment in control of energy sources.

     Yes. Early years would be low return. Hence why the long game...

   • Embed this notice
     feld (feld@friedcheese.us)'s status on Tuesday, 27-Aug-2024 11:16:39 JST feld

     in reply to
     @JohnJBurnsIII They did the math and the oil and gas is almost free to take out and the other things you suggested have much lower profit margins, right? Did this change?