What is it with these oil companies? A few years ago they were jumping on the green bandwagon, rebranding themselves as energy companies, investing heavily in renewable energy and now.. it’s oil, oil, oil. Shell, BP and now Exxon Mobil.

According to Bloomberg, Exxon Mobil Corp. believes the transition away from oil-derived fuels is probably 100 years away because (they say) there are no viable alternatives.

It’s only taken us a hundred years to do untold environmental damage through fossil fuel use that the planet will be reeling from for hundreds of years from now. Add another hundred years, or even a few decades of increasing fossil fuel use? Ouch.

As for no alternatives, they are there; they just need to be developed further. Solar power, wind energy, geothermal energy, wave energy – clean energy abounds. They need investment, investment that these companies are diverting elsewhere.

What happened to Shell’s CEO’s acceptance of peak oil and Shell’s investments in renewable energy? They are turning their back on new clean energy investment and pouring cash into tar sands instead.

What about BP’s renewable energy interests? They appear to be distancing themselves from solar power to a degree, but going full on into tar sands too.

Do Exxon Mobil also have tar sands interests? You betcha – over 7 billion dollars worth; and surprise, surprise; their recent comments came only a couple of days after the launch of that project.

Tar sands oil extraction is filthy – it wrecks landscapes, chews through water like there’s no tomorrow and provides far less energy output vs. inputs. It’s extraction is a carbon dioxide emission nightmare.

But I guess that works in well with the oil companies – the sooner the Arctic melts, the sooner they can extract oil from there too.