Oil company investment in renewables reached $30 billion in 2023, but that’s pocket change; it amounts to only four percent of their overall capital investment, while their fossil investments continue to skyrocket. And it turns out, some companies have outright lied about their expenditures on renewable energy; others spent a while touting fancy ventures like algae-based fuels before just folding the projects outright, presumably happy with the PR return on investment that kept real pressure off their backs for another critical decade.

That’s all it is, really: Big Oil will say whatever needs saying at any given moment in order to continue doing exactly what they have done for a century. In 2020, that meant acknowledging the need for an energy transition, contritely pointing to their pandemic-induced losses, and floating the idea of some major pivot to wind and solar power. In 2024, that means saying, more or less, “fuck you, let’s drill.”