Hi Sun,
thx for that. Unfortunately, it's rare to be able to take anybody at their word these days when it comes to money and business, and it's always wise to consider the motivating factors. I could give you another industry as a ready example (and plenty of others, as well), but I won't go there, although you probably already know what I'm referring to.
While I agree that your chart belies what the Exxon letter declared, I will note that it actually reinforces and agrees with what the Chevron CEO said in the article I originally posted. I acknowledge your point that even though you recognize the lack of CAPEX spending, you disagree with their motivations for it.
Let me ask you this, if you were a CEO of one of these companies, and you had Obama kill the pipeline (interestingly, this happened in late 2015-about the same time the Capex spending on your chart below begins to take a dive), then Trump resurrect it, then Biden kill it again, how would you evaluate your ROI on related Capex that takes many years to build out and see a return on? I'm using this as just one example, and I'm not asking to get into right or wrong or politics in this discussion. I'm asking from a business perspective, how such policies would impact your decision-making process in an environment like this? In addition to ROI, when you factor in the PC ramifications of non-ESG investments and the direct risks to your livelihood, I guess I don't see a reason to doubt that these factors have definitely impacted the willingness to make long-term investments.
Do you contend these policies have not had an impact on the chart you posted, and that this is just the result of free market forces? If so, then we'll just have to agree to disagree. |
