BP Backsliding

Dear Editor,

The best tactic to major polluters that want to sweep their egregious environmental harms under the rug? Name and shame. To that end, I give you BP, the oil major formerly known as British Petroleum.

Don't be fooled by their green sunburst logo and supposed environmental credentials; BP is backsliding majorly. In 2020, BP announced plans to cut oil and gas production by 40% by 2030; in 2023, they revised that to a cut of 25%; and now the target has been scrapped entirely. Separately, BP had announced plans to grow renewable energy capacity by 20-fold between 2020-2030, up to 50 gigawatts of renewable power; this target has been scrapped as well.

As usual, the major culprit is money; shareholder returns have been lagging due to a multiplicity of factors the world over, and leadership has decided the best path forward is to focus again on oil and gas - and profits. This flies in the face of the world's need to wean off fossil fuels, but it fits the narrative: as solar generation becomes cheaper and cheaper, only propping up the old status quo will yield the profits these companies are hooked on.

Name and shame, and in the case of BP - there is plenty of shame to go around.

Sincerely,

Nathan Dombeck

Janesville, WI