Anyone else hate it when an article asks a question and thenDoes not answer it? The green transition whackadoos at Oilprice.com (who predominate the contributing authors) provided this gem a few mins ago, which naturally made me wince:
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/How-Sustainable-Are-Big-Oil-Dividends.html
The author's own bias is reflected in the final paragraph (and everywhere else, of course):
"The future of this industry and its influence on society will depend much on this New Energy Trilemma. Handing out generous dividends to investors in order to stay invested in the O&G industry may not be sustainable in the long term. Also, reduced investment in renewables signals that O&G companies remain skeptical about long and short-term profitability. Perhaps more worrisome is that without the strong involvement of this industry, the ambitious aspirations to curb climate change and decarbonise society are still a long way off. Until the industry considers clean energy investment a profitable investment, they will continue to pay big dividends and continue traditional investment in O&G."
Nowhere in the article is any explanation given on why the decision to pay dividends and do share buybacks "may not be sustainable." Nor is a reason given why the producers of O&G should be the ones to shoulder the costs for "transition" sources of energy.
I am personally hoping the election goes to Trump here in the US and to Pollievre in Canada (not familiar enough with the politics to know when elections even happen up there, though).