Come Shell or high water… Soaring energy prices: bad for consumers, great for oil companies. How great? Yesterday, London-based Shell reported a record $9.1B quarterly profit — 3X last year’s — despite $4B+ in losses related to its leaving Russia. It’s something of a trend.
Big buybacks, big blowback… US and UK lawmakers have started calling for a “windfall tax” on energy giants, a one-time tax on their excess profits. The idea is to use the cash to help consumers with rising prices at the pump. Critics say the money would be better spent investing in renewable energy.
Windfalls come in many forms… Russia’s invasion of Ukraine gave oil giants a financial windfall in booming profits. It also gave them a strategic windfall: it illustrated how dependent the global economy still is on fossil fuels, whether we like it or not. Earlier this week, VW said it planned to keep using coal because of a proposed EU ban on Russian oil. Then Shell’s CEO told investors the war proves the need for big oil producers, despite the pressure to act on the climate crisis.