Big Oil gets a hand in Big Green

Alex Sayre

10:00 am

2.25.09

AS THE GLOBAL MARKET turns towards using efficient and healthy fuels to help sustain our world many of the big oil companies have decided to chip in. Five of the world’s largest oil companies that have made researching and developing different venues for fuels include BP, PLC, Chevron Corp., ConocoPhilips co., Royal Dutch Shell, and Total SA. In total these companies have given little more than over half a billion dollars in funding to other organizations in the past two years. Compared to what these companies take in, 100 to 200 billion dollars a year, this barely tickles the hair on their chinny chin chins.

Universities are the recipient of these funds and are even becoming somewhat reliant upon the cash flow from these corporations. The universities are focusing on ways to convert biomass into gasoline, using technology to delve into geothermal and nuclear power as well as finding a way to possibly convert algae into fuel.

The money coming from these companies is providing much better help than money coming from grants from the federal government. Also instead of scientists doing the research themselves and helping large scale businesses take in the knowledge and act on it, the companies are coming to the scientists and are engaged by them directly. Much of the funding is going towards the big problems of the day like finding alternate fuels, carbon sequestration and nuclear waste disposal.

One company standing out from the rest is BP with an outstanding reputation being the second largest photovoltaic company as well as supporting wind. The best part is that funding the colleges it does it does not poke and prod at its research trying to direct science their way; the engineers from BP and the scientists from colleges work together on both sides of the table focusing their brain power on what each respectively know best.

Exxon mobile isn’t doing any of this, though. Jerks. I think the oil companies helping out research and development is pretty sweet though. And I’m damn proud of BP, mostly because I like their logos, but they are obviously headed by some very clear thinking people who are preparing for the future. Hats off to BP.